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  1. #21
    Senior Member jp_48504's Avatar
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    Who's who in the pictures?
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  2. #22

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    SOS' executive director, Joseph Turner (the only one wearing a tie), Lora McLaughlin, KCBS' blonde reporter, the KCBS camera crew (sorry, I don't know their names) and two elderly Baldwin Park residents, one of whom was also interviewed.

  3. #23
    Administrator ALIPAC's Avatar
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    5/14/2005
    Baldwin Park Monument Protest
    Metrolink Station
    3875 Downing Ave
    Baldwin Park, CA 91706

    Saturday, May 14th
    Noon - 2 PM
    SaveOurState.org
    More Info at
    http://saveourstate.org/
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  4. #24

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    Artist's Statement - Judith Baca's response to Baldwin Park

    I wrote to all the community leaders of Baldwin Park about his monument, but have not received a response from anyone. That's hardly surprising.

    In the meantime, the artist has posted a rebuttal of our concerns about the "Reconquista" overtones of the monument:



    ARTIST STATEMENT
    By Judith F. Baca
    May 12, 2005


    An “anti-illegal immigrant� group, Save Our State, of Ventura County, emboldened by their recent victory at the removal of a billboard referring to “Los Angeles, Mexico� is now demanding the removal of the wording on a twelve-year old monument in Baldwin Park, California, entitled Danzas Indigenas. I was commissioned to produce this work in 1993 by MTA and the City of Baldwin Park in collaboration with the Kate Diamond Architectural Group.

    The monument consists of a 20 ft arch, 100 ft plaza and 400 ft train platform. Produced with extensive public input, the monument includes five languages: English, Spanish, Gabrielino, Chumash, Luiseño and is a layering of indigenous, Spanish and mestizo history, which is associated with the site.

    Included also are the contemporary voices and diversity that is indicative of contemporary Baldwin Park. Asked to produce a work that was “mission in theme� that reflected the majority population of Latinos in the City of Baldwin Park, and in keeping with my practice as an artist for inclusion of community members in my design process, I designed this work to include the “past� and “present� of the region and the voices of local residents. Of particular interest to me was the sites proximity to the mission of San Gabriel. The arch in the Plaza is conceived of as a fragment of a mission arch. Its intention was to become a site of public memory for the people of Baldwin Park; to make visible their invisible history.


    Local residents sentiments were included in the “present� side of the monument, with verbatim quotes sandblasted into the surface of the arch. Local residents of all ages and ethnic groups were recommended by the arts committee and the city council and interviewed. They were asked about their hopes for the future of Baldwin Park.

    Additional statements from community members on the arch – which are not included in the discussion of the monument by the Save Our State group – include “Use your brain before you make up your mind�, “not just adults leading but youth leading too", “a small town feeling�, "when the Indians died the villages ended� and “the kind of community that people dream of rich and poor, white, brown, yellow all living together�. These statements all represent the community’s desires, and are featured prominently in the work of art.


    The work is not a work of a lone artist working without relationship to the community, but rather a representation of community sensibilities and sentiment of the time. While this group has cast the artwork as part of a “Reconquista movement�, it is in fact neither advocating for the return of California to Mexico, nor wishing that Anglos had never come to this land. This statement “it was better before they came�, was deliberately ambiguous. About which “they� is the anonymous voice speaking? The statement was made by an Anglo local resident who was speaking about Mexicans. The ambiguity of the statement was the point, and is designed to say more about the reader than the speaker – and so it has.



    The quote “this land was Mexican once, was Indian always, and is, and will be again� is by a critically acclaimed Chicana author, Gloria Anzaldua. On the Save Our State website, she is referred to as a “dead Chicana lesbian.� I chose this quote because the mission is one mile from the Mission San Gabriel, and descendants of the Gabrielinos still live in the region, making Anzaldua’s text particularly relevant to the increasing indigenous population. A correct reading of the quote makes it clear that this is not about Mexican “reconquista�, but about the land returning to its origins.

    This is not a question only of my rights as an artist to not have my copyright violated, but also a question of “revisionist history� carved out twelve years after an extensive democratic public process produced this work. It is the collective vision of the people of Baldwin Park that is under attack by this Ventura group. What is most deserving of respect are the voices that are represented in the monument. Also deserving of respect, are the voices of the ancient indigenous who say in the first person “memory and will power� is how we retain the knowledge of our culture.

    Our capacity as a democracy to disagree and to coexist is precisely the point of this work. No single statement can be seen without the whole, nor can it be removed without destroying the diversity of Baldwin Park’s voices. Silencing every voice with which we disagree, especially while taking quotes out of context, either through ignorance or malice, is profoundly un-American.

    --Judith Baca

    Baldwin Park Press Release
    HE!D! A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing he cares about more than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by men better than himself. ~J.S. Mills

  5. #25
    JaneQPublic's Avatar
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    Letter to Baldwin Park Officials

    Heidi-

    I liked your letter alot and sent my own modified version to the email addresses you provided.

    Thanks,
    Jane

  6. #26
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    So I gather that from the "artist's" explanation, with the knowledge that some statements on the monument are benign, I should get a warm and fuzzy feeling about those statements which are patently divisive and racist?

    A monument patterned off of the ruins of a spanish mission, with a statement like "It was better before they came" needs very little interpretation to me. It seems to me to be saying that the good old days were the ones in which the mission was not in ruins... which would mean before the anglos came.

    While the "artwork" may be the whole of the rail station, it is telling that this monument portion with these statements is a prominent centerpiece.

  7. #27

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    Let's start to post in Mexico! Mexico could use the color. thanks
    "Bring it on"

  8. #28

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    Judy Baca's statement

    The Los Angeles MTA (Metropolitan Transit Authority) put up something like $30,000 as a matching grant, and the Baldwin Park City Council invested another $30,000 (of taxpayer money).

    The May 14, 2005 counter-protest cost the Baldwin Park City Hall $250,000, according to a newspaper report. Hope it was worth it. Save Our State organized a PEACEFUL rally, the less than 50 members standing, holding signs and US flags for two hours and 15 minutes on a street corner.

    Individual police officers repeatedly approached SOS members, and thanked them for what they stood for, and for their behavior at the rally. Hiring a senior citizen volunteer school crossing guard would have been an overkill to keep an eye on SOS group. The expenditure can only be explained by the behavior of the counter-protesters, the various groups of Mexican nationalist thugs. We can document it with hundreds of pics, and hours of video recordings.

    As for Judy Baca's statement, regarding her slogans on the arch - let's do this:

    go to http://www.judybaca.com

    from the main page select "About Judy"

    from the following blue popup select "Biography"

    hit "next page" in the lower right corner 4 (four) times, and you will get to a page containing the following statement:

    "My land and memory pieces are my attempt to spiritually reclaim land illegally acquired from Hispanos and indigenous peoples of the Southwestern United States."
    Any doubt in anybody's mind as to what the statement on the arch stands for ("This land was Mexico once ... and will be again")?

    And, to add insult to injury, this "artist" has the nerve to call Save Our State an ANTI-AMERICAN group, on live television!

    Here is the link to the interview:

    http://www.putfile.com/media.php?n=ABC39

    By the way, if you need a good and free image / video hoster, try Putfile.

    http://www.putfile.com

  9. #29
    Administrator ALIPAC's Avatar
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    Excellent work Lobo! Simply Excellent.

    We need to get that quote from Baca around the media block ASAP!

    W
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  10. #30

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    Save Our State member at Baldwin Park City Council Meeting

    On 5/18/2005, one of our members, the Sandman, attended the Baldwin Park City Council meeting.

    Here is his account of the events:

    Tonight I attended the Baldwin Park City Council Meeting to tell Mayor Lozano what I thought of his comments on blaming the bottle attack on a 66 year old woman on SOS, while mentioning nothing of the individuals who actually commited the act.

    I was the only one on our side there. It would have been nice to have some support, but I understand that I have the luxury of living only a few minutes away from the BP City Hall

    When I had my turn to speak, first I joined the council in their earlier praise of the BPPD and surrounding agencies. I mentioned that nobody in that room benefited from their presence more than me since I was part of the greatly outnumbered and greatly threatened group who was protesting against the monument. But I made it clear I was not there to discuss the monument that night, but specifically Mayor Lozano's comments.

    As furious as his comments have made me, I was both surprised and proud of myself for the composure I maintained as I causually followed a hastily prepared speach I wrote just minutes before. I mentioned the threats, the racists comments and signs as well as the stomped on American flag that Mayor neglects to condemn. I compared his blaming of SOS for the attack on this woman to blaming the striking Memphis garbage men in 1967 for the assasination of MLK. I also gave him a chance to apologize, or at least clarify his comments.

    A few other citizens spoke about the event saying they didn't appreciate us "outsiders" coming into their city and "telling" them what to do. While in some ways I can appreciate that, I find it ironic coming from people who have no problem letting the ultimate "outsiders", illegal immigrants coming into our country and telling us what to do.

    Now I appreciated that most of those citizens who disagreed with me were big enough to condemn the actions by some on their side. One woman in her 50's said when she saw her fellow counter protester disrespecting the American Flag, she ran in and took it away from him. I was watching that guy when it happened and I don't remember seeing anyone doing that, but if she did I do appreciated it.

    Then it was the council's turn to comment. It was great, I felt like Bob Hope at a celebrity roast. Bill Van Cleave, Ricardo Pacheco, and finally Mayor Lozano each took their shots. There was the typical talking points of "I HATE RACISM" and "RACISM HAS NO PLACE IN BALDWIN PARK". Several times I nodded my head in agreement with those generic comments, although I knew damn well what their selective definition of racism was.

    Ricardo Pacheco started into a rant by saying what a racist organization the SOS is. A couple times I interjected a word here and there while Mayor Lozano hammered is gavel to shut me down. Pacheco then went into another classic cop-out arguement of how Illegal Immigration is FEDERAL issue and we have no jurisdiction trying to fight it on the local level. I then said "Maybe the Police should stop responding to Bank Robberies, since that's a FEDERAL crime".

    Lozano was ready to throw me out so I stood up on my own when Pacheco said "sit down, I'm talking. I listened to you". I said ok, if you want me to stay I'll stay. By this time my tempeture was starting to rise, yet I was able to maintain my outward composure for just a little longer......Then, it was Manual Lozano's turn to speak.

    He was very clear that he had nothing to apologize for and went on about how racist our organization is, while never once mentioning poor Dottie, or condeming the actions of the counter-protesters. The last straw finally came when Lozano PRETENDED to forget the name of our organization. Another council member fed him a whispered "SOS" to which he replied "SOS?, KKK is more like it"

    That was it! Dissent and disagreement is one thing but I didn't go there to participate is some childish name calling match.
    I then stood up and said "THAT'S BULLSHIT!". As my back was turned and my feet were already 3 steps towards the door, Lozano hammered his gavel and said "That's it, escort him out of here!" to which I replied "I'm already leaving, don't try and give yourself credit!" I thanked the Police officer who held the door for me, and that was my adventure at the Baldwin Park city Hall.
    The original can be found at the SOS website, posted here:

    http://www.saveourstate.org/forums/i...showtopic=1951

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