Thread: Students draw on Chicano heritage for school murals

Students draw on Chicano heritage for school murals
May 23rd, 2008 @ 5:49am
by Associated Press

In a dimly lit garage across the street from the Cesar Chavez Learning Community, 20 students painted panels that seemingly came to life with images of American Indian mythology.

Others painted a scene of the U.S.-Mexico border. Behind them stood a finished painting of their new school building, relocated in January.
The murals, two of them are 15 feet by 6 feet, and the other 10 feet by 6 feet, will hang in the school. Students took turns earlier this month painting the mural and talking enthusiastically as they worked.

``Every mural has its own story,'' said Alex Guzman, 16, a junior.

The students attending the Cesar Chavez middle and Aztlan Academy high schools, which make up the Cesar Chavez Learning Community charter school are dedicated to preserving ``Chicano'' heritage.
They were guided by David Tineo, one of the founding members of the Chicano mural movement in Tucson in the 1960s.

``They themselves are bringing to vision their school and their culture,'' Tineo said.

In addition to teaching them about their culture, the scale and composition of painting helps students with other academic subjects, Tineo said.

The murals link students with current Chicano issues, such as border problems shown in the painting.

``People are trying to get over here and we are just blocking them out,'' said Stephanie Hortado, 16, a junior.
Tineo suffers from macular degeneration, a disease of the eye that causes loss of vision.

To protect his eyes, the garage door is pulled halfway down to shut out direct sunlight.

Tineo has worked with children since the 1960s but his eye condition won't allow him to paint for many more years. He plans to devote that time to his own projects.

However, he decided to work on this project because he has taught several classes at Cesar Chavez and agrees with the founding purpose of the school.

``The goal was to create possibilities for Chicano kids to know that they are as good as everybody else,'' said Sister Judy Bisignano, a Catholic nun who founded the 150-student public charter school in 1999.

Most of the students come from low-income families and many dropped out of other schools before coming to Cesar Chavez, she said.

Bisignano lamented that the state government was planning to cut funding for Chicano studies.

``Connecting students with their Chicano heritage helps them find education worthwhile. Even though the school year is ending, they still want to be here,'' Bisignano said.

The faculty also stresses this concept.

``Learning about my culture gave me the drive to do better,'' said Veronica Galaz-Antonio, a middle school English and Chicano studies teacher.

Tineo and Bisignano view Chicano as something beyond ethnicity.

``Anyone who seeks the truth of history is Chicano,'' Tineo said.

The Cesar Chavez Learning Community is linking itself with other schools around the world. Bisignano is trying to arrange a student exchange program with the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa.

And you and me are paying for this .


http://ktar.com/?nid=6&sid=845608

The students attending the Cesar Chavez middle and Aztlan Academy high schools, which make up the Cesar Chavez Learning Community charter school are dedicated to preserving ``Chicano'' heritage.

If these are private schools, they can do what they want. If they are funded with our tax dollars, how can they justify excluding ANY student who might want to attend? This is discriminatory to the max. We should not be funding "separist" schools.

Tineo and Bisignano view Chicano as something beyond ethnicity.

``Anyone who seeks the truth of history is Chicano,'' Tineo said.

HAHAHA what BS! Chicano is something created in the US and has nothing to do with "culture" OR history, it's a racist movement.

WHAT IS CHICANO/CHICANA?



Chicano is an identity that comes out of our people's political and militant actions that were born in the 1960's. We referred to ourselves as Chicano as a form of defiance, as a way of rejecting Mexican-American, as a way of embracing our core Nican Tlaca (Indigenous) identity.

Chicano came from the phrase "La Mechicanada". Originally "La Mechicanada" was a racist way of labeling some of our people as inferior, because they were Full-blood and because they spoke the Nahuatl language (Mechicano).

"La Mechicanada" referred to our people who had come into California and "the Southwest" in the early 20th century before, during, and after the Mexican revolution as refugees. They came here speaking the Nahuatl language.

When our people were caught speaking Nahuatl they were asked what language they were speaking. Our people responded that they were speaking in "Mechicano". From Mechicano you get "La Mechicanada" as an insult.

Some of our people, who thought of themselves as "Spanish", used "Mechicano" as a way of saying "La Indiada" (the damned "Indians"). It was originally meant as an insult.

When we rejected Mexican-American we began embracing being part of "La Mechicanada", our Nican Tlaca identity. We began to call ourselves Chicano.

In the 60's and 70's we were totally ignorant of our history. What little we knew of our history we grabbed onto it as if our lives depended on it.

Sadly what we knew back then was very limited. If we had taken Mechicano a step further we would have discovered that the origin of Chicano and Mexican are both rooted in the word Mexica (Meh-shee-kah). But sadly our knowledge was very limited in those days and we had no way of accessing the whole truth.

In the 60's and 70's we had the Vietnam war to motivate us to assert our identity as a way to reject going to Vietnam and as a way to confront the racism and discrimination that we blatantly faced in those days.

We meant well with Chicano as an identity. It was the only thing we could take as an identity that seemed truly ours. But Chicano was incomplete, it wasn't at the complete or authentic root of the truth of our identity.

The way we understood the word back then was that Chicano referred to those of us born in the "U.S. Southwest". The truth is that we were talking about the colonial concept of our continent, and our occupied Anahuac nation, that is called "the United States of America". We were not conscious of the full extent of our ownership of the whole continent, only of the part claimed by the Spaniard Europeans, and so we claimed Aztlan, the so-called Southwest, as an additional part of our lands in addition to Mexico.

Sadly this too was incomplete, only partly true. The whole truth is that this whole continent is ours. Not one part belongs to Americans or any other European people.

We were ignorantly attached to the colonial lines of the Spaniards. We were still somewhat claiming Spanish heritage. Corky Gonzalez's "Yo Soy Joaquin" was a celebration of the "mix" not of the condemnation of the rape or the Genocide of our people or a celebration of our civilizations and their accomplishments. That Chicano poem proudly said, "Yo soy Chicano, Hispano, Latino, Mestizo, español....". We were still confused about our identity. The racist "Raza Cosmica" didn't help matters any better because "Raza" was also a celebration of the "Spanish Conquest" and Spanish culture. Coming out of ignorance, Chicano was the best that we could do, but we also attached "Raza" to Chicano.

Most of us who were proud of being part of the "Aztecs" (really the Mexica) embraced the part of Chicano that allowed us to celebrate that Nican Tlaca part of us.

The Chicano movement was an uprising that was political, aggressive, and proud of its Nican Tlaca heritage. The Chicano term was used by those of us of Mexican descent to separate us from those of our people who had sold out and or who were calling themselves "American" or "Mexican American".

The "Central American" descent component was not here in significant numbers in the 1960's to have been part of the Chicano movement, but we acknowledge that had they been here at that time they would have been accepted as part of our people.

Again, sadly, there is still ignorance about our Mexican and "Central American" united heritage.

To get a little more of an idea of the details of what made up the period of what is called Chicano history

we recommend that you go to the CHICANO HISTORY website click here



http://www.mexica-movement.org/timexihc ... HICANA.htm

The students attending the Cesar Chavez middle and Aztlan Academy high schools, which make up the Cesar Chavez Learning Community charter school are dedicated to preserving ``Chicano'' heritage




Now, what do we suppose would happen if schools were set up dedicated to preserving white, black, or asian heritage?

The ACLU and MALDEF would be in court having them shut down, that's what. Yet, this is permitted.

And yes, charter schools DO receive public funding. That's one of the things which make them so controversial......they operate independently of the boundaries applying to other public schools, which is what allows for these ethnocentric academies to operate, yet we get to pay for it.

In the 60's and 70's we were totally ignorant of our history. What little we knew of our history we grabbed onto it as if our lives depended on it.

Sadly what we knew back then was very limited. If we had taken Mechicano a step further we would have discovered that the origin of Chicano and Mexican are both rooted in the word Mexica (Meh-shee-kah). But sadly our knowledge was very limited in those days and we had no way of accessing the whole truth.

Now they manufacture the "truth".

That is, unless they "channeled" a 200 year old spirit who told them the story?

I'm sure the American Indians will have something to say about who the land belonged to.

A few cans of spray paint would take care of this problem! This is AMERICA, kiddies! Put your paint boxes away and start learning English and American History!