Thread: People support Baca

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People support Baca

By Memo Munoz

‘Art Confuses Racists" was the message on a posterboard sign during last weekend's demonstration at the Metrolink station in Baldwin Park. Two groups -- one small, the other large -- argued about the virtue of a monument named Danzas Indigenas designed by prominent Chicana artist Judy Baca.

According to a written statement attributed to Baca and posted on the Internet a couple of days before the opposing demonstrations, "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, Luiseqo and is a layering of indigenous, Spanish and mestizo history, which is associated with the site."

An estimated 400 people, a multicultural group of mostly Latinos, gathered at Danzas Indigenas to show support for Baca, whose work was protested by about 40 other people, also a multicultural group but of mostly Anglos.

And according to members of an organization called Save Our State, Danzas Indigenas "promotes the radical and militant belief in the reconquista of Aztlan" (reconquista means reconquest in Spanish.)

The late Frank del Olmo -- a Chicano Pulitzer Prize recipient and associate editor of the Los Angeles Times -- wrote that Aztlan "refers to an ancient legend that places an Aztec homeland somewhere in the north. A few Mexican Americans use the word to refer to the U.S. Southwest, and extremists on both ends of the political spectrum interpret that as a desire by Chicanos to reclaim that region -- somehow, someday -- for Mexico."

Save Our State's Web site says, "One passage on the monument laments the presence of whites in America by stating, ‘It was better before they came.' "

But Baca reportedly said "it's ironic that Save Our State is bothered by the statement because it was made by ‘...a white man from Arkansas, a civic leader who was lamenting the influx of Mexican immigrants after World War II.' "

Baca reportedly said that as a Chicana, the remark offended her and intrigued her. "When it went on the arch, its ambiguity became profound."

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." Baca said: "... these statements all represent the community's desires, and are featured prominently in the work of art."

About 30 of those community members were only two- or three-years-old in 1993 when Baca created Danzas Indigenas. Most of them grew up in Baldwin Park and attend Sierra Vista High School, about a mile-and-a-half from where the monument has been on public display for most of their young lives.

The students, who study English during fourth period, feel so strongly about supporting Danzas Indigenas that they sent Mayor Manny Lozano a letter to let him know that they've got his back:

"Dear Mayor Lozano:

"We know your job must be hard at times, especially now with the controversy over the monument. We know you have been sent e-mails from people complaining about the monument such as threats or other stuff you don't need to read.

"We hope you get to read our letter because it came from Baldwin Park while other letters and e-mails are from outside Baldwin Park.

"This letter has come from our hearts because we care about our city. We know that all our citizens have an obligation to do what's right for our community. Many care about the city and it's in our best interest that you be able to hear our message too.

"We know that you are doing your best at this time and we want you to know that we believe in the decisions you make for us.

"The monument is part of Baldwin Park history. So we have the right to defend it. We know that you will make good decisions for us and we want you know that we are with you."

Memo Munoz teaches English at Sierra Vista High School in Baldwin Park.

"IT was better before they came" is "reportedly" a quote from a white man from Arkansas....

Pleeeeeeeease Give Meeeeee a BREAK!!!

If this is true, then Baca should have "quoted" him. Personally, I believe the "white man from Arkansas" does not exist and she made this up to cover her tracks as an Activist Artist whose point as she admits was "ambiguity". In law, problems associated with "ambiguity" fall on the author as any attorney knows. Ambiguous means two meanings...can be intrepreted two completely different ways. Hers doesn't hold muster, IMHO.

The whole point of the art is to show that the Mexicans were there first. Either that is untrue and the White Man from Arkansas was there first, so both her inscriptions, perhaps ALL the inscriptions are fabricated.

WE DO NOT THIS....THE Aztecs...came and went. They are no more; they were no there when the White Man came; that we know for a FACT. IN FACT, Mexicans are still looking for the exact little spot where some myth or legend has it that the Aztecs squatted for a spell. Whatever they did, if they did anything inside the boundaries of the United Staes, they did it LONG before we were a Nation.

Thereafter, it is "myth water under the bridge" and is of "no moment".

The "reported" "ambiguity" of Baca is to divide Americans as an activist action of La Reconquista and Los Voz of Aztlan. These are unamerican themes to the point of being Anti-American and are no appropriate ambiguities to be funded with taxpayer monies on taxpayer owned property.

IN otherwords, it's all a bunch of bunk!!

Baldwin Park has set its destiny as an uncomfortable place; a city of questionable future; a city that takes sides and is biased without respect for constitutional rights and free speech.

IN otherwords, we've already lost Baldwin Park which has been taken by an alien force called illegal immigration.

IN otherwords, we've already lost Baldwin Park which has been taken by an alien force called illegal immigration.

Don't you mean the Economic Terrorists?