Thread: Why 'MEChA' won't conquer the Southwest

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Published: March 13, 2006 11:52 pm

Why 'MEChA' won't conquer the Southwest

By Ed Brock

I can say with some certainty that California will sink into the sea before it is re-conquered by Mexico.

After all, “The Big One” can hit at any time.

Recently I’ve been on a tear about immigration issues and I’m going to make this my last one for a while. I’m only writing this one because I said I would.

I’m not about to obsess about this issue, and by the time we’re done with this column you the reader will see why.

First, some background.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a column about racists in the anti-illegal immigration movement and I mentioned the belief by some that there is an active attempt to return the Southwest to Mexico.

It’s something called “reconquista,” or “re-conquest.” The “re” is necessary because we kind of conquered it first, or as an article sent to me by a reader puts it, “Mexico legally ceded this territory … by the Treaty of Guadalupe de Hidalgo.”

Most wars end in treaties. Doesn’t mean we didn’t initiate the war as an aspect of “manifest destiny,” exploiting a border dispute between an independent Texas and Mexico to further what we considered our right to conquer the continent.

But anyway, that same reader, as proof of the existence of this plan of re-conquest, sent me a link to a Web site featuring an article on a group called “Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan.”

The name in English is “Chicano Student Movement of Aztlan.” According to the article, “MEChA” “hopes to achieve by sheer weight of numbers what the U.S. government long ago achieved by force of arms: the re-partition of the American Southwest.”

Now, that’s ambitious.

Well, this article was on the Web site for “Free Republic,” which sounds a little right wing to me, so I started searching the Web for more information on MEChA. And here’s what I found.

According to “Wikipedia,” which as far as I can tell has no political leanings, MEChA is a loosely affiliated collection of about 400 student unions that focus on providing student services and promoting awareness of Latino culture. While they started in the radical 1960s, by the 1980s they began to moderate their position to basically say, according to Wikipedia, “all people are potential Chicanas and Chicanos” and “Chicano identity is not a nationality but a philosophy.”

While as a whole MEChA doesn’t advocate violence, some of its members have been involved in violent protests and activities. But the big thing is the motto “Por La Raza todo, Fuera de La Raza nada.”

Apparently some people interpret this as “For the Race (presumably the Latino race) everything, Outside of the Race nothing,” which would be frighteningly racist indeed. However, according to Wikipedia the slogan is more accurately translated “By the Race, everything; outside of the Race, nothing.”

Under that translation the phrase is more a call for unity.

I also found a 2003 column by Frank del Olmo, associate editor of the Los Angeles Times and former MEChA member. Del Olmo basically says that his old club was far from radical and as a member he was primarily interested in getting more Chicanos into college.

Then again, he might be lying in order to cover up the nefarious plan of “reconquista.”

So I think the most we can say about MEChA is that they are a bunch of college kids, some with radical inclinations but apparently most of whom are just exploring their roots. I just don’t think they are the vanguard of some actual invasion plan.

And here’s the thing. Until Mexico gets an Army to match the old U.S. of A.’s, or until we just crumble for some other reason, the Southwest isn’t going anywhere.

I mean, come on, all these people are coming here, legally or illegally, to get out of Mexico. I really don’t think they are part of some organized plan to conquer us. Most of them either just want a job or they want to be Americans.

And let’s look around the Southwest and think about some of the city names. El Paso, Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco.

You think maybe there have just always been a lot of Hispanic people there? Isn’t that why that part of the country is so interesting?

On the other hand, things happen and maybe someday Mexico will just have more to offer than the United States. It could happen. Lot’s of things could happen.

So what?

Oh, wow, how shocking, how traitorous! How dare I suggest that the United States as a political entity may one day no longer exist?!

Well, guess what, one day it won’t. That’s just the way it is in reality.

The important thing is to make sure that the ideals on which this country was founded do survive. These ideals, freedom and equality, existed long before the United States in one form or another, and in this big Melting Pot they have been nearly, but not completely, perfected.

And the reason I can accept this is because I do believe in “the Race” of humanity over any one nation. That doesn’t mean I believe in chaos, it means I don’t define myself according to where I happened to be born.

I have lived elsewhere. I will live elsewhere again and may never return to this particular country. It’s a nice place, but in the end it is put a passing shadow on the greater history of the world. I hope its passing will be relatively peaceful, but like the end of a marriage the destruction of a nation is usually painful and often violent.

It’s really up to us.



Ed Brock covers public safety and municipalities for the Clayton News Daily. He can be reached at (770) 478-5753 ext. 254 or at ebrock@news-daily.com.

Boy, old Ed Brock really polished off a winner with this article. He even did a little reasearch on Wikipedia!

I watched a program on KPBS that had an American English teacher (ALLAN WALL) living in New Laredo Mex. He made the following quote: ?Living in Mexico has given me a different perspective ---- there was a conference, and eh the president of Mexico, Vicente Fox, was there, and he made the comment that when the immigrants come here and continue to speak Spanish they are doing their patriotic duty to Mexico. And another speaker there was eh, Carlos Fuentes, who is the, he's probably the, the number one literary figure, living literary figure in Mexico. And he spoke very clearly he said that there is a silent reconquista, a re-conquest of the United States. He didn't even limit it to the Southwest, as many do. He just said of the United States.? What the heck is going on here? We need to keep our Country sovereign. I believe it is time to call a goose a goose. If it walks like a goose and smells like a goose it is a goose. The Country of Mexico is taking over our Country one illegal at a time. Every illegal that enters the USA is exactly what the Mexican Government wants; silent reconquista. From what I have learned on my own there was an attempt to make Escondido School District have Spanish as the language. Of course it was not successful but proves that the statements made by Vincente Fox and Carlos Fuentes, at the Spanish language congress in, in two thousand and one, ring true in America today. http://www.pbs.org/speak/transcripts/