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"A Pretext
to Do Nothing"
By
Rodolfo Acuña
Dwelling on personality or organizations is the easiest way to
avoid doing anything on an issue. On that score, over the years, people
have asked me why I went to Cuba with Armando Navarro or marched with
him to the border to see him humiliate me by pumping off a hundred push
ups. My answer is simple: Armando has a history and he is generally
more right on the issues than he is wrong. Moreover, he is doing
something.
Not going with him to Cuba or
marching on the border would only
be abandoning important political space. Right now he is the only voice
from California who is saying something about the thugs on the Arizona
border.
In making that statement, I am not
discarding the work of
Chicano and human rights activists on the Arizona border and Tucson, who are
in the trenches of the war against poor people coming to the United
States because of our country's machinations. I am just saying that we in
California also have a stake in this war.
The issues are simple. The so-called
Minute Men Project, a
group of vigilante civilian border watchers, are running around the Arizona
border, resembling Klansmen with hoods, reporting sightings to the
Border Patrol. This “brave” band of brothers lacks the courage to join the
military, preferring to harass desperate immigrants from coming to a
land that the vigilante's ancestors stole.
They are cheered on by respected
journalists such as CNN’s Lou
Dobbs of CNN who regularly mentions “these brave citizens.” Much as in
the case of the so-called drug war, these commentators spit out
anti-immigrant statistics churned out by right-wing think tanks, the Office of
Homeland Security and the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
How many times has the description
“illegal alien” been used
during the past thirty years? Repeat a lie often enough and it will be
believed.
Dobbs reported on March 29th,
“Sources within the Department of
Homeland Security say the number of border patrol agents here in
Arizona will be boosted by about 500. About 150 of those agents will be
coming in from elsewhere in the country. About 350 will be new hires, people
who are being put in existing vacancies within the border patrol. This
will boost the total number of border patrol agents here in Arizona to
about 3,000. Officials announced the first phase of the Arizona border
patrol initiative a year ago, and they say it is purely coincidental
that they are announcing this second phase just days before the Minutemen
begin an action (on April 1st) along the border.”
While these so-called patriots run
around in their gangs, the
politicos are jumping on the bandwagon. On April 5, Governor Mark Warner
signed a bill that would deny public benefits to illegal aliens,
joining Arizona in its war against the poor. This has pressured federal
officials to play upmanship.
Government is going to launch a
multi-million dollar security
initiative along a 260-mile stretch of the Arizona-Mexico border this
week in an effort to shut down the channel of entry. The Customs and
Border Protection unit of the Department of Homeland Security will increase
the number of agents. It is called "Operation Full Court Press," (How
quaint!) and the operation will deploy Black Hawk helicopters.
After all, the reasoning is, these
women and children might
have weapons of mass destruction or are terrorists.
The easiest way to wave reason is to
play on the phobias of
Americans. Make them believe that these pathetic Rough Riders or Minute
Men or what ever you want to call these bullies will protect them.
Forget about the rule of law; forget
about finding a solution
to the problem much the same as Western Europe has in integrating the
developing nations of Spain, Italy and Ireland into the European Union.
Just smash the greasers!
Well, Armand Navarro and the National
Alliance for Human Rights
are planning its own rally on “May Day,” May 1, 2005, in Douglas,
Arizona. They plan to leave California on Friday, April 29 and cross the
border at Douglas to Agua Prieta, much the same as the Magonistas did in
1906 when they tried try to topple the corrupt dictatorship of Porifirio
Diaz.
So why join the National Alliance for
Human Rights? Because I
like or do not like the organizers? That is a pretext.
If my seventy-two years have taught
me anything, it is that you
never abandon political space. If you do, someone will take it.
Because the Chicano and Latino left
has abandoned this
political space, our national organizations have been taken over by people who
don’t want to offend anyone. Y nos ven la cara de pendejos.
In this case the extremist element in
the white community has
panicked Americans into believing that terrorists are invading their
country. These are the same people who advocate war and don’t volunteer
their sons and daughters, grandsons and grand daughters. The cowardly
element in our society.
I know the leaders of this call. I
have had my differences with
most of them. However, I have always known them to be responsible,
especially since they take their families with them. If it wasn’t for my
health, I would be proud to join their ranks.
"A Tolerance
of Violence On the Border"
By
Rodolfo Acuña
6/19/2005
In trying to make sense as to why most Americans and
even a large
number of Latinos are so complacent about so-called minutemen running amok on
the border, searching for undocumented people, I recently re-read
Herbert Marcuse’s 1965 essay on “Repressive Tolerance.”
Marcuse wrote that “[t]olerance is an end in itself" and necessary for
the preservation of the status quo and the strengthening of “the tyranny
of the majority...” When tolerance is turned into a passive state it
promotes laissez-fairez, entrenching the established attitudes and ideas
of the right wing. The result is that we passively tolerate ideas and
actions that are damaging to man and nature.
The University of California professor argued that there was a
difference between true and false tolerance and it was an abuse of
tolerance to ignore unjust attitudes and ideas because the truth may
antagonize sympathizers.
According to Marcuse, a liberating tolerance was intolerance toward
unjust ideas and movements. Marcuse was later to posit that it was the
intolerance of students on campuses that removed Dow Chemical and the
recruiters off the university campuses.
Marcuse distinguishes the Right from the Left and movements that help
people versus those that keep them in their place. These movements are
difficult to distinguish because of the historical amnesia of
Americans. They believe that the Right and the Left have contributed
equally to
social legislation that protects the average citizen.
The truth be told, as a historian, I cannot remember a single piece of
progressive social legislation sponsored by right wing senators or
representatives. Indeed, they opposed the end of slavery, the
protection of children’s rights, social security, and civil and human rights,
for
starters. Society’s lack of historical awareness of these facts and the
reluctance of liberals to call the Trent Lotts of this world liars perpetuates
this false consciousness.
In respect to undocumented workers and immigrants this repressive
tolerance has allowed racist nativist to blur reason and sanction
border violence. It has allowed the historically illiterate like California
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to praise Arizona vigilantes. "They've
done a terrific job. And they have cut down the crossing of illegal
immigrants by a huge percentage." We are conditioned to tolerate this
undemocratic behavior and forget that in another time these vigilantes
would be wearing white hoods.
Border violence is not an aberration and is as American as apple pie.
At least, 597 Mexicans were lynched near or on the border. The majority
were not bandits; they were lynched because they were Mexicans. Witness
that there has been no similar history on the Canadian border. Why?
What will be the cost of tolerating these vigilantes?
In the summer of 1976, George Hannigan, a Douglas, Arizona, rancher and
Dairy Queen owner, and his two sons, Patrick, 22, and Thomas, 17,
kidnapped three undocumented workers looking for work. They “stripped,
stabbed, burned [them] with hot pokers and dragged [them] across the
desert.” The Hannigans held a mock hanging for one of the Mexicans and
shot another with buckshot. Judge Anthony Deddens, a friend of the
Hannigans, refused to issue arrest warrants. Finally, an all-white jury
acquitted the Hannigans. Activists on both sides of the border
protested the verdict and pressured U.S. Attorney General Griffin Bell to indict
them. A federal grand jury, in 1979 indicted the Hannigans for
violating the Hobbs Act. Interference in interstate commerce. After deadlocks
and
s retrial a jury found the Hannigans guilty.
Since the Hannigan case, the hate groups have expanded. Historically,
extremist groups have preyed on the fears and xenophobia of the
American majority. Klansman David Duke organized “border patrols in the late
1970's.” In the early 1980s Louis Beam and his Texas Knights harassed
an immigrant Vietnamese fishermen in Texas.
During the 1980s, these hate groups grew as a product of the Internet
where pornography and hate became profitable enterprises.
The idea of sending organized para-military groups to the border
remained a right wing affair. The cry of “Close our Borders!" was the
creation of white supremacist groups that are integrated in the ranks
of the so-called “Minutemen” and spearhead their activities.
The agenda of many of these self described patriots goes well beyond
“the protection of the border, however. The ADL reports that Glenn
Spencer of Voices of Citizens Together and the American Patrol has
“departed sharply from that of legitimate immigration reform groups.”
Much Spencer’s rhetoric and writing “did not target immigration so much
as he targeted Hispanics, particularly those of Mexican origin,
regardless of whether they were immigrants or not.” The Anti-Defamation
League ADL cites a 1996 letter to the Los Angles Times in which he
wrote “the Mexican culture is based on deceit.”
Spencer’s pal Roger Barnett, a rancher from Cochise Country, Arizona,
attracted national attention by running around with pistols and assault
rifles capturing undocumented brown people and holding them against their will.
Meanwhile, other kooks like Jack Foote, based in Arlington, Texas, have
been inspired by Roger Barnett. He formed Ranch Rescue, like the other
hate groups, has a Web Site, spreading fear and collecting money.
In March 2003 two of Ranch Rescue’s “Minutemen” were arrested for
allegedly detaining two Salvadorans and pistol whipping one of them.
On July 23, 2003, Claudine LoMonaco of the Tucson Citizen reported that
"from the start of the fiscal year in October 2002 through Sunday, as
many as 171 people have died in Arizona -- 43 percent more than the
official Border Patrol figure of 119."
Where is this history of tolerance going end? The Anti-Defamation
League (ADL) reports that in October 2002, New Jersey white supremacist radio
talk show host Hal Turner told listeners to “kill every single one of these
invaders.”
The violence is not an aberration. It is not going to go away. It is
directed at Mexicans and by extension anyone who looks like them.
Memin Pinguin "Stupidity is
Stupidity"
By
Rodolfo Acuña
7/8/2005
The minting of the Memin Pinguin stamp in Mexico points out the
gap
between civil rights conscious Mexicans and Latinos in the
United
States and Mexican officials who defend the minting as part of
Mexico’s past.
According to them, Mexicans loved Memin Pinguin during the 1940s
and
that makes it okay. As proof a representative from the Mexican
embassy
made the ridiculous statement that “Speedy Gonzalez has never
been
interpreted in a racial manner” in Mexico. But, perhaps that’s
the problem.
Mexican officials claim that Memin Pinguin “"is a traditional
character
that reflects part of Mexico's culture." Yes, but so is the
Confederate
flag part of American culture and so are stereotypes about
Mexican
bandidos and Mexican whores.
Memin Pinguin is a cartoon boy that represents the worse
Jim-Crow-era
stereotyping and reinforces the racism that exists in Mexico
today
where caricatures of Indians are common.
Start with Mexican President Vicente Fox who is tall and white.
To this
day criollo families control Mexico’s social, economic and
political
culture and it doesn’t matter that Benito Juarez was a Zapotec
Indian.
Although they are less than 10 percent of the total population
of over
106 million people, criollos control the country. Thirty percent
of the
population are Indians and they are disenfranchised. Indians
make a
majority of the Mexican population living below the poverty
line.
Racism is embedded in Mexican culture and history. It is
internalized
through institutions and innocuous characters such as Memin
Pinguin
construct social perceptions. Jose Agustin Ortiz Pinchetti wrote
in La
Jornada, “During the last 100 years, the racism in Mexico has
shown 3
characteristics: 1) it has slowed the process of modernization;
2) it
has contributed to the dissolution of public consciousness 3) it
has
damaged the moral assets of the nation.” Racism is the product
of
colonial Mexico when people were categorized by race and
rewarded
according to how much Spanish blood ran through their veins.
Most sociological studies conclude that there is a correlation
between
income and race. Bonfil Batalla "Mexico Profundo" is one of the
rare
Mexican books looking at race issues in Mexico and the
difference
between what Mexican law says and the reality that is expressed
in the
minting of Memin Pinguin. The truth be told, Mexican officials
see
nothing wrong with Speedy Gonzalez because they are in denial.
(or
maybe they associate Speedy Gonzalez with the peon who crossed
over the border?)
Racism does psychological and cultural damage. Laughing at it is
like
laughing at a sick race joke. To say Memin Pinguin’s cartoon
funny is
simply racist. Look at Spanish-language television commercials
in
Mexico that promote racial dominance.
Since the founding of Mexico those in power have attempted to
create
the illusion that all Mexicans are equal when in fact class can
be
distinguished by just looking at who drives new cars and who
drive the
clunkers.
The lack of race consciousness allows the hegemony of criollos
and
light skinned mestizos. It is a testament to a decadent public
education
system that ignores racism. You would have thought that the
revolt
among the Mayan population of Chiapas would have been a wake up
call.
Moreover, Mexicans just don’t know their own history. Up until
1700
more Africans entered Mexico than Spaniards and in 1810, ten
percent of the
population was listed as Afro-Mestizo which means that between a
fifth
to a quarter of all Mexicans had African blood.
The stamp is not just “injurious to black people who live in the
United
States and Mexico;” it hurts Native Americans on both sides of
the
border; it hurts the poor. Unfortunately, poor Mexican
immigrants come
to the United States often lacking a race consciousness and
enroll in
public school systems equally inept in teaching people their
rights. We
live in a country where racism is accepted and to do anything
about it
is “reverse discrimination” against privileged white males.
Letters to the editors imply that the rhubarb has been stirred
up by
opportunists who want to win votes. They make personal attacks
on the
Rev. Jesse Jackson and say that Memin Pinguin is the symbol of
Mexico
like “el Chavo del Ocho, Cantinflas and Capulina.” Give me a
break!
This just tells me that we have a long way in educating people
for
whether Latinos recognize it or not, they owe a huge debt to the
civil
rights movement and the principals of the Chicano Movement and
Mexican
American organizations before them. Mexicans are no longer in
segregated schools because of a race consciousness. Latinos are
in the
universities in large numbers because of this race
consciousness. And there are
immigrant rights organizations because of race consciousness.
I remember when Mexican intellectuals looked down on Chicanos as
pochos
and believed that the violation of immigrant rights was ok
because they
had abandoned the motherland. Well, that represents stupidity.
As to Memin Pinguin, the ignorance of Mexican officials does not
make it right.
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