Friday, February 27, 1998
Remembering history of oppression
RAZA: Chicanas/os must commemorate long past of subjugation,
resistance
By Elias Serna
As the state and media collaborate to manufacture consent for
the war against a criminalized Iraq, results show the public’s
growing trust in a presidency that is "allowed" to cross national
borders on missions of conquest. The president is now suddenly
supported in declaring devastating wars while his domestic critics
are spitefully commanded to "just let the president do his job."
Public opinion is actually license to carry out imperialistic
aggression globally.
Here in California, the majority of voters (most of whom are
white and aging) also support deployments and propositions – no
matter how wicked – that will maintain white privilege and
"cultural sovereignty" over "conquered lands and people." The
ethnic war here, however, targets some of the most politically
powerless people: Latino children.
This February marked the 150th anniversary of the Treaty of
Guadalupe Hidalgo, signed by the Mexican government upon defeat and
surrender of almost half its territory. Despite the murderous
arrogance of the expanding empire, Mexican diplomats litigated
fervently for the cultural and property rights of Mexicans who
would be living in what is now the United States’ Southwest, also
known as "Occupied America" or, to use an indigenous name, Aztlan.
To this day, Chicanos and other Latinos have had to fight to
protect their rights and ways of life.
As a matter of fact, this month also marks the numbering of
Proposition 227 (anti-bilingual education), the latest racist
proposition aimed at the Raza community and young people in
particular.
As some brothers from Dominguez Hills wrote not too long ago,
"The white man has not yet proven that he is not our enemy." It is
indeed difficult to disagree with this statement. You see, I have a
lot of love for my people, but when I face hate every day as I walk
the streets, pick up a newspaper or go to school, I have to fight
it for my sake as well as those who walk after me.
It is an act basic to human survival. As a matter of fact, the
battle for our very assets and distinctions continues and has been
at the heart of this 500-year-old struggle to resist the European
colonization of our minds and souls.
Reactionary Euro-Americans typically attempt to evade the fact
of colonization or attempt to claim that racism is over, and we can
now all be "colorblind" (notice the key word is "blind"). In the
blinding whiteness of mainstream media, however, Chicanos are
invisible, and stereotypes are evidence that some groups need more
assimilating and policing than others.
In the recent multi-faceted attacks on the Raza community, the
targets have tended to be children. The issue has revolved around
culture, and the solution lies in policing (the prison complex) and
assimilation (i.e. the destruction of culture). This cultural
battle boils down to subjugation in the interest of a white
capitalist culture.
As events in Chiapas, Mexico, and the criminalization of youth
of color in California have demonstrated, killing our people is a
business. Let’s face it: Terror is a business. Corporate fat men
profit and our communities endure the conditions necessary for the
new expansion of capital. Colonization has found new grounds in the
’90s.
While supporters of the misleading initiative sponsored by
millionaire Ron Unz recruit followers, students, faculty and
community members are increasingly looking to the position
Chicana/o Studies takes in this climate of fear and aggression.
Again the political battle line is drawn between who controls
culture and who is affected by these decisions. The latter are
increasingly young Raza and people of color.
Like bilingual education, Chicana/o studies was initiated during
the high point of the Chicano movement and has since been viewed as
a threat by white-run institutions (i.e. the UC Regents). UC
administrators are currently accused of distorting history,
downsizing Chicana/o studies and other ethnic studies programs, and
pursuing a rigid "follow the leader" (or benefactor) faculty
buy-off.
Two weeks ago, a turbulent meeting occurred between Chicana/o
studies students and the director of the department over the firing
of a popular counselor and the departure of two Chicana/o studies
librarians. A student stood outside holding a few tattered sheets
of paper and pointing his finger to it announced to people walking
by, "Look! It’s just another broken treaty! They’ve never signed a
treaty they didn’t keep!"
The document was the contract then-Chancellor Charles Young
signed in June 1993 with hunger strikers after they had fasted for
14 days. After 26 years of denying Chicana/o studies’ growth into
department status, the Chancellor succeeded in not relinquishing
the term "department." However, the "Center for Interdisciplinary
Instruction" has all the markings of a department (permanent staff,
faculty, hiring and firing power).
The core conflict was the survival of Chicana/o studies beyond
UCLA. Los Angeles has a tendency to set precedents. Shutting down
the Chicano studies library and dismantling the major at a flagship
university like UCLA would have sent green lights across the
Southwest to attack all those pesky ethnic studies
"liabilities."
In spite of university administration’s audacity to hold out for
14 days while Chicano students sacrificed their bodies, media
attention and political pressure forced the Chancellor to agree to
the students’ demands. The large community and labor support were
the keys to this victory.
The situation was an intense lesson in dealing with powerful
elitist organizations that attempt to maintain racial and class
privileges that have been passed down for over 500 years. The
victory also brought more responsibility and a sense of ownership
to the Chicano community in the shaping of its cultural
destiny.
In spite of – and also because of – the anti-Latino political
climate today, we must look to the historical role of our culture
and the resistance and organization we as a community have put up
in defense of our culture.
The time has perhaps come for Raza to change our attitude about
ourselves – that there is no apologizing for who we are, no turning
back on our human rights to culture and no turning back the clock.
A new sun is upon us and our culture of resistance and affirmation
must lead us forward.
Instead of losing a language, let us look to expand our culture.
Bilingual education programs should be bolstered and improved, and
perhaps it is time for all young Chicano and Raza youth – not just
those who manage to attain an increasingly elitist higher education
– to know their own history and receive more accurate and informed
lessons about their culture. Instead of losing our language, we
should offer our young people courses that speak directly to their
experiences with curriculum that is directly drawn from our
history.
Instead of eliminating bilingual education, maybe it’s time we
introduce Chicana/o studies to all people and especially to the
people who need it most: Raza youth in middle schools and high
schools.
Much like the assimilationist campaigns of the 80s (English
Only, "the Decade of the Hispanic") the current racist political
attack on Raza children is bound to produce more problems and
turmoil than solutions.
The community and those who stand by the oppressed in their
quest for liberation will and must do as much as they can, just as
their ancestors have done over centuries past: organize, resist and
fight with whatever means necessary for the lives of our youth and
those who will come after us. Instead of attacking the future of
California, why not let the indigenous cultures live, breathe and
learn freely?
Chicano culture is unique, intense and indigenous to the long
and complicated history of these lands. So the next time you
display your rich culture and someone sneers that they do not speak
Spanish, simply respond, "It’s not my problem."