Thread: Rodriguez: Mexican and Indian always ...

http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096410985



Rodriguez: Mexican and Indian always ...

Posted: May 26, 2005
by: Roberto Rodriguez
As has been universally acknowledged, Antonio Villaraigoza's recent victory as mayor of Los Angeles is of historic proportions. Coupled with two other major developments, his election takes on an even greater national, and historic, significance.

Last weekend, some 40 anti-Mexican bigots were chased out of nearby Baldwin Park as they went from protesting immigration to protesting the Mexican-Indian heritage of the region and continent.

What drew their ire were several inscriptions on a monument. One reads: ''This land was Mexican once, was Indian always and is, and will be again.'' Another one reads: ''It was better before they came.'' Artist Judy Baca said that the latter quote refers to a statement by a white civic leader who was lamenting the influx of Mexican immigrants into the area - not an anti-white statement, as the detractors were claiming.

The protest revealed that the anti-immigrant movement is indeed anti-Mexican and anti-Central American, and that these communities are not docile and dormant. In response to the protest, some 500 counter-protesters sent the small group of extremists scurrying home, reminding the world that accepting insults belongs to another era. These hatemongers had been emboldened by the armed Minuteman militia project (encouraged by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and egged on by Lou Dobbs at CNN) that patrolled the Arizona border last month.

Another equally important development is this week's inauguration of the Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies at UCLA. It's been a long 36-year wait, and the symbolism is stark.

Villaraigoza attended UCLA during the early years of Chicano Studies (early '70s), when students of color were scarce and not welcome and Chicano Studies was viewed as an illegitimate discipline. This was also the early years of MEChA (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan), a student activist organization that was also viewed in a similar light. (Some high schools and universities across the nation continue to view MEChA negatively.)

Despite the efforts of the extreme right wing to demonize MEChA (along with Chicana/Chicano and Ethnic Studies), Villaraigoza's victory is not so much a vindication of the era's politics of decolonization as it is an affirmation of the larger and current global struggle for equality, human rights and human dignity.

Villaraigoza's victory comes at a time when the anti-immigrant movement has been invigorated by the passage of the REAL ID Act - an apartheid-type law that restricts undocumented immigrants from entering federal buildings, boarding planes and getting a driver's license. Aren't we all comforted by the knowledge that the next terrorist who plows a truck bomb into a federal building, airport, hotel or shopping center will be

fully licensed?

The reality is that it is a fear-driven, anti-Mexican measure, not unlike many other Department of Homeland Security initiatives. While DHS anti-terrorism operations at airports and other facilities have snagged some 1,100 undocumented workers in the past two years, they have netted zero terrorists.

This is why Villaraigoza's victory is historic: because it affirms the politics he has been a part of since the 1960s. Normally this would be irrelevant, but his are the politics that the extreme right has been vilifying for years. It is these same extremists that have been haranguing Villaraigoza and other elected officials over their involvement in the human rights struggles of that earlier era.

This is also why the inauguration of the Chicana and Chicano Studies department is of equal importance and linked to his victory as well as to the situation in Baldwin Park. Ethnic Studies is about memory - and this is precisely why it is in the crosshairs nationwide of those same forces. Without that memory, the extremists get to invent their own history and challenge not just the humanity and indigenousness of the people, but of the land itself.

The anti-immigrants are deluded by their own biases, convincing themselves that they are not anti-Mexican nor anti-immigrant - just anti-illegal alien. Here's a news flash by way of every major religion and great world philosophy: Ningun ser humano es ilegal - no human being is illegal.

Humanity's challenge is not to create more illegal categories or larger hunted populations, but to chart a course for the day when there will no longer be any more legal or illegal citizenship or human categories.

That may take 100 years, but that course can be charted now. Villaraigoza has to run the city of the future, but if he so chooses, he can also join in that other leadership role. Either way, he deserves a historic congratulations.

This is a first-person column by Roberto Rodriguez. Along with Patrisia Gonzales, Rodriguez has been writing the syndicated Column of the Americas since 1994. Rodriguez is pursuing an advanced degree on the topic of origins and migrations, and co-teaches, with Gonzales, a class on Indigenous Geography at UW-Madison. He can be reached at XColumn@aol.com. ﾩ Column of the Americas, 2005.

Biased? Look who wrote the article. Quit referring to people who are against illegal immigration, as biased or racist. Mexico is the most racist nation of all. Not one Mexican will be happy until he carries the whole damn hellhole into our nation. Your 'migration' is nothing less than a damn STAMPEDE! Your criminal escapade is going to be over soon. TROOPS ON THE BORDER!

There is that word "bigot". Did I miss it, or have they down-sized the "race card" from racists to bigots? Now they think we're all Archie Bunkers.



Let them roll.......

No Human Being Is Ilegal??

Now that's a novel thought. How about criminal alien? Like that better? How about "Future Deportee"? Like that better? How about "Mexican Invader" Like that better?

Oh.....I know.....how about:

ECONOMIC TERRORIST!! yeah....that works for me!

I like "Future Deportee" myself. I needed a good laugh Thanks Judy!

I like FUTURE DEPORTEE myself, virgniamama!!

That's about as politically and legally correct as it gets!!

Originally Posted by Judy

I like FUTURE DEPORTEE myself, virgniamama!!

That's about as politically and legally correct as it gets!!

I LIKE IT!

Rodriguez is pursuing an advanced degree on the topic of origins and migrations, and co-teaches, with Gonzales, a class on Indigenous Geography at UW-Madison. He can be reached at XColumn@aol.com. ﾩ Column of the Americas,

Originally Posted by 2ndamendsis

Rodriguez is pursuing an advanced degree on the topic of origins and migrations, and co-teaches, with Gonzales, a class on Indigenous Geography at UW-Madison. He can be reached at XColumn@aol.com. ﾩ Column of the Americas,

Thats why I post it. We have to let them how we like their article.

What a "victory of historic proportions." Latinos make up, what, 90% of the population of Los Angeles, and they've finally, and just barely been able to elect one of their own. Talk about a backwards and disorganized people. And I can tell you, after they've run Los ANgeles into the dirt (if it isn't already), they'll be appealing to US to get them out of the messes THEY'VE made of their world. Isn't that why they're HERE, as opposed to their own backwards and disorganized country of Mexico, in the first place?