Aztlan-Network-News Blog

Friday, March 29, 2013

The use of the term "wetback" is racist no matter the source

Criticism of the Political Right must also be applied to the seemingly Political Left

The righteously correct criticism of GOP Congressman Don Young for his use of the term "wetback" must also be applied to seemingly left journalists and their newspapers, such as the case of Gustavo "Gus" Arellano and the OC WEEKLY in reference to his continued use of the "I" word in his columns ("illegal immigrants"), his constant reference of WAB to the "unassimilated Mexicans (as he defines them)," and the oldest racist stereotype graphic of the Mexican with the sombrero, which highlights his column, "Ask a Mexican." It is racism clear and simple no matter the source. Arellano passes off such denigrating language and racist stereotypes as politically incorrect journalistic irreverence, however, the main readership of OC WEEKLY is white and the owners of the weekly newspaper are white. All this is done at our expense while Arellano makes a pretty penny for his self-hate racism. He doesn’t even speak Spanish fluently. You get the picture. Enough is enough!

Patricio Gomez, One pissed off Mexican – Patricio.gomez93@yahoo.com. Become a friend on Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr.

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Guest-worker/Bracero Programs are the Fancy of the 1% and the Political Elite

Guest-worker/Bracero Programs are the Fancy of the 1% and the Political Elite

Professor Gil Gonzalez is absolutely correct in his observation regarding the legislation proposed in 2007 (not 2006) by Congressman Luis Gutierrez. The research and authorship he has completed on the subject is highly respected and states the obvious. The abuses have been thoroughly documented from the very beginning of the first programs in the 1920s, then again in the 1940s (during WWII) until the demise of the program in 1964 (the conclusion of which initiated a period of very successful farmworker organizing by Cesar Chavez and the UFW, and others), and the transition compromise (with organized labor, i.e., AFL-CIO) the H-2 agricultural visa program. In other words, a relatively small bracero/guest-worker program exist to this very day, and yes, the Southern Poverty Law Center has documented continued abuses of farmwokers under this program. Obama and the "gang of 8" senators are proposing a new guest-worker program, not just for agriculture though, although the president does not highlight this aspect of his proposals in his laudatory rhetoric about immigrants and the need for comprehensive immigration reform (CIR). It's not a very selling item, and only speaks to the needs of agricultural capital. The liberal apologists of Obama will ignore this aspect of the proposals because it overstates the obvious, that not everything is rosy and right with the CIR he is proposing. The CIR that they (the political elite) constantly refer to is not the demands of the people for LEGALIZATION FOR ALL and STOP THE DEPORTATIONS OF OUR FAMILIES. By the end of this year 2013 the Obama administration will have deported 2,000,000 people since he assumed the presidency, and close to 2,500 deaths on the border, an average of 500 yearly. Don't be fooled by the rhetoric. patricio.gomez93@yahoo.com. Become a friend on Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr, and receive more information on the type of Immigration Reform that immigrant workers and families are proposing, not the political elite. Adelante!

Patricio Gomez (Mexican American Political Association, MAPA)

patricio.gomez93@yahoo.com

Friday, March 15, 2013

FYI: Celebrate Cesar Chavez

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 Venceremos! We Will Win! Educate to Liberate!
 Peter S. Lopez AKA @Peta_de_Aztlan
 Sacramento, California
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----- Forwarded Message -----
From: United Farm Workers (UFW) <ufw@ufw.org>
To: Peter Lopez <peter.lopez51@yahoo.com>
Sent: Friday, March 15, 2013 10:45 AM
Subject: Celebrate Cesar Chavez

UFW Cesar Chavez Marches

The United Farm Workers, Radio Campesina, The UFW Foundation and other community organizations, invite you and your family to march with us. We will join together on:

Saturday, March 23rd, 2013 in:

Coachella, CA:
Coachella Plaza Shopping Center, Coachella, CA (in front of Pizza Hut & KFC) @1:30 pm.
FLYER

Yakima, WA:
St. Paul Cathedral, 102 S. 12th Ave., @ 11 am; Information: (541) 564-2717 FLYER - English FLYER- Spanish

Sunday, March 24th, 2013 in:

SALINAS, CA:
Cesar Chavez Park, 268 North Madeira Ave., @ 11:00 am; Information: 831-757-6700 FLYER

SANTA ROSA, CA:
665 Sebastopol Rd., @ 1:30 pm Information: 707-528-3039 FLYER

OXNARD, CA:
Cooper Rd. and Roosevelt Ave., @ 10:00 am; Information: 805-486-9674 FLYER

FRESNO, CA:
San Antonio Maria Claret Church, 2494 S. Chestnut Ave., @ 2:00 pm; Information: 559-674-4525 FLYER- English FLYER- Spanish

BAKERSFIELD, CA:
Jastro Park, 2900 Truxtun Ave., @10 am; Information: Pedro Ramirez (661) 324-2500 FLYER- English FLYER- Spanish

Don't miss it! There will be music groups & family entertainment

¡Si Se Puede®!

Celebrate Cesar Chavez!

Cesar Chavez' March 31 birthday is soon approaching and we are receiving requests throughout the country for a list of Cesar Chavez events in your neighborhood.

We have a user-friendly calendar tool that allows our supporters to share your local Chavez events--no event is too small or too big. This interactive tool also allows to the public to search for them by zip code and the events appear on a map.

If you're planning a Cesar Chavez event, it even allows folks to RSVP to your event and allows you to recruit event volunteers.

And if you would like to attend a Cesar Chavez event, you can do a search by zip code and look for events within a 5 to 100 mile radius.

To list a Cesar Chavez event go to: http://action.ufw.org/page/m/3bed9c92/1454bfc6/470905b3/2b471e5d/896918321/VEsHAA/

To find a local Cesar Chavez event go to: http://action.ufw.org/page/m/3bed9c92/1454bfc6/470905b3/2b471e5a/896918321/VEsHAw/

Please attend one of these events and celebrate the legacy of Cesar Chavez!

Have photos/ video of your local Cesar Chavez event that you'd like to have us share?

Put your photos on a online gallery and upload the videos to YouTube and e-mail the links to ufw@ufw.org so we can feature them on our Cesar Chavez Resource Page at and the UFW Facebook page.

Sign the Petition for a National
Cesar Chavez Holiday

Cesar Chavez' March 31 birthday is just two weeks away. The United Farm Workers and the Cesar Chavez Foundation are supporting the grassroots efforts of the Cesar E. Chavez National Holiday Coalition and U.S. Rep. Joe Baca (D-Calif.) in their efforts to make Cesar's March 31 birthday a federal holiday.

Will you help us? Sign the petition today. Then help us spread the word by sharing the petition on Facebook, Twitter, e-mail it to friends, downloading the petition and sign people up at Cesar Chavez observances and other events.

Take Action at:
http://action.ufw.org/cecholiday

OUR E-MAIL ADDRESS HAS CHANGED. Please add our new email ufw@ufw.org to your safelist/address book so that our messages don't get trapped in your spam filter. If you have questions about how to do this, drop us an e-mail.

Check out our website at: www.ufw.org and keep up with the latest news.

Check out the UFW's Social Networking pages. Click to visit our Facebook, YouTube, Twitter pages. Become our "friend" and follow us.
United Farm Workers, P.O. Box 62, Keene, CA 93531, http://www.ufw.org

Monday, March 11, 2013

What’s In A Name? What You Make of It! By Rodolfo F. Acuña

http://aztlannet-news-blog.blogspot.com/2013/03/whats-in-name-what-you-make-of-it-by.html
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From: hchsc003 [mailto:hchsc003@csun.edu]
Sent: Sunday, March 10, 2013 10:12 AM
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A war on the memories of Mexican Americans and other minorities is occurring raging throughout the country, and I am interested in knowing why the right wing is so obsessed with erasing our historical memory? In places such as Arizona and Texas these zealots have used the power of government to censor books and replace the truth with fairy tales.

A major problem with these assaults is that most people fail to recognize the threat. The erasure is so slow that it goes almost unnoticed. It is similar to aging. The “maturing” process is hidden by cosmetic procedures such as hair coloring. The loss of historical memory goes is also obfuscated by immediate problems such as deportations or a presidential election.

Take the erasure of the term Chicano; it has taken place before our eyes. It is disheartening when you consider how much we have invested in the term, and how much part of our memories it is. It would seem to me that we should at least ask, why?

We cannot solely blame the government or the beer companies. Activists share the blame for the erasure of the term Chicano. We have failed to explain the legacies of the Chicana/o movement often not going beyond the East LA Walkouts or the Chicano Moratorium.

My good friend Jorge Mariscal, a professor of Chicano arts and humanities at UC San Diego, is quoted as saying that the decline in the relevance of the term Chicano and interest in studying the Mexican American community in an academic context is “maybe that term [Chicano]is not what’s appropriate for unifying a mobilization of young people in 2013.”

I disagree. Perhaps a more self-critical response would be that Chicana/o Studies has failed in its duty to memory. It has failed to document the achievements of the Chicana/o generation in concrete material terms. As a consequence, the present generation of students, faculty members and community have not benefited from an institutional memory.

I consider proposals to change the name of Chicana/o Studies or simply tack on Latino to be inchoate. The presumption is that by dyeing Chicana/o Studies that it will be more attractive and interest more students.

In my opinion, the only reasons that it would make sense to change the name would be 1) if we could broaden our course offerings to include Latin America, and 2) the change would indeed attract more students.

If my memory informs me correctly, we tried several times to initiate an interdisciplinary Latin American Studies major, and we were shot down by the Spanish Department. What makes us think that at this juncture Spanish along with history, political science, art, music etc. will roll over and allow Chicana/o studies to offer these classes in competition with their own offerings?

As for the proposition that it would attract more Latino students: this is a specious argument when you consider the demographics. The overwhelming Latino population in the southwest is of Mexican origin. The change would perhaps make sense in Chicago and points east but not in LA, San Antonio or even Tucson.

When we changed the name of the area of study from Mexican American to Chicano I voted against the proposal. For me the problem was that we were not accepted as Mexicans, and at the time the saying was Mexicans in the West and Puerto Ricans in the East. What has changed since then is the growth and spread of the Mexican-origin population.

But, once I was outvoted I embraced the term Chicano and committed myself to it for life. You cannot continuously change your identity without developing cultural schizophrenia. Pretty soon you have to ask, who am I?

I remember when Save-on drugs changed its name to Osco. Many in the Mexican American community began calling the chain Asco, which translates to revolting, nauseating or sickening – literally that you want to throw up.
The truth be told, the term Chicano is actually much more inclusive than Mexican American or even Latino. Therefore, instead of cosmetic solutions, the answer is education.

At Cal State Northridge, we tried to bridge this dichotomy by calling the alumni group La Raza Alumni -- it hasn’t worked. A lot of the older alumni ask, what happened to Chicano?

Looking at it objectively, the Chicana/o brand is a good one. It left a legacy that has improved over the years.

Today Chicana/o students are more open to international issues and way less sexist and homophobic.

The fact is that every Mexican American and Latino student who enters higher education owes the Chicana/o Generation – it opened the doors to the middle-class heaven that many enjoy. It has also produced an impressive body of scholarship.

We are supposed to be custodians of the truth, and it is our duty to keep the memory alive. However, I concede that this is a difficult task in a country where history is rooted in colonialism and in a language and iconography that want us to forget.

On April 27th from 5 to 10 PM on the first floor of Jerome Richfield Hall a group of alumni, students and Chicana/o Studies professors are partially addressing our duty to memory and launching a campaign to take back our history. A disconnect has developed between Chicana/o Studies and the alumni and the community. Like the rest of society, we have forgotten how we got here and where we are going.

For many of us memory is a gift, and it is our duty to preserve it, and pass it on to future generations. In places like Arizona, we are witnessing the forces of reaction attempting to control or wipe out our memory, distorting the epistemological underpinnings of our history. The motive behind this erasure is to constrain us, limit us, and control us. The loss of our historical memory clouds our political vision, direction and resolve.

We want to take back our history and by doing so remember how far we have come, and how far we must go.
At California State University Northridge, we have been fortunate to have had exceptional students that have contributed to building a network of professionals that continue to contribute to the Mexican American and Latino community. Most of us owe our jobs and a treasure trove of life experiences to these memories that are unfortunately being lost or wiped out.

The program for the evening of April 27 is simple: we will be screening alumni Miguel Duran’s hour long documentary “Unrest” on the founding of the department. Mechistas Jose Reyes Garcia, Everto Ruiz, Oscar Castillo and Marta Ramirez will exhibit photos ca. 1969-1974. They will be available to answer questions.

Marta Ramirez will deliver the platica on the forming of a Chicana/o identity on campus. There were only about fifty Mexican American students at SFVSC in the fall of 1968. Marta is a renowned artist who studied with the great David Alfaro Siqueiros. She will discuss her Mecha years, the occupation of the free speech area and her journey in Teatro Aztlan and the renowned Mexican teatro, los Mascarones.

We would appreciate your support in collecting photos of deceased alumni, faculty and staff. We want to memorialize them.

This is a beginning, and we then want to take the exhibit to San Fernando, Oxnard and possibly Santa Paula in the 2013-14 calendar year. Hopefully, other alumni will make themselves available for spring 2014 when we will have another exhibit – nurturing our memories and friendships.

NOTE: We would appreciate your distributing this to alumni. Send me their email addresses. racuna@csun.edu.
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