Mazewal Tlahtolli

Tlakatekatl's viewpoints, opinions, and research on issues affecting Nikan Tlakah in Zem-Anawak and Itzaxilatlan..

4.27.2006

Immigration, Marches, and the Ignorance of Self-Hate

Immigrants, of indigenous descent, who sympathize with the anti "illegal-alien" crowd are ignorant to the history behind what they've been told made this country “great”. Glossing over the sweat, blood and tears of all the First Nations people, African slaves, and forced cheap ‘Mexican’, Irish, and Chinese labor, we're all taught that the brilliance and courage of "the founding fathers" and their ideals are the cornerstone of this society. I beg to differ; just ask any common African descendant what they think of the Bill of Rights, or any First Nation person about Manifest Destiny, and I'm willing to bet that it isn't the same tune sung by European descendants.

In contrast, the sympathizers I'm referring to claim to have never experienced outright racism by
euro-americans, but I’m willing to bet they've been subjected to covert racism and didn’t even know it. It is because of brave Chicano/Mexicano (from this point on referred to as Me-Xikano) civil rights activists and late 19th and early 20th century freedom fighters (known to euro-america as ‘bandidos’) that they have that luxury, one shared by most recent immigrants; the luxury of living in a comfort zone created by the long years of struggles by the brown people of this continent. They are unaware of the innumerable wars of aggression that the U.S. backed and initiated in their land hungry expansionist activities against sovereign indigenous nations throughout the western hemisphere. Similarly, a vast majority of euro-americans, up until recently, were unaware of the Me-Xikano people that were here before there was a 'Texas' or a 'Southwest', who incidentally happen to belong to the same group of people who beleive that all 'Indians' are dead. History shows us that Europeans came to the shores of this once pristine continent and illegally settled on sovereign First Nations land. Slowly their lust for land, gold, and power gave rise to the genocidal notions of colonies, plantations, encomiendas, and Manifest Destiny.

It is also a historical fact that the first ‘Texians’ conspired against their Mexican hosts when the Mexican government outlawed slavery, the main reason for the Texas revolts and uprisings masked under the veil of “tax injustice”. Another fact, euro-americans were illegaly settling in Texas country while the Mexican government stood idly by. Why? To answer that, we must take into consideration that Mexico was recovering from a long war of independence from Spain, which left it weak, bankrupt, and vulnerable to the Manifest Destiny conspirators in New York and Washington. There is extensive documentation which shows that a huge majority of elected officials and industrial imperialists covertly supported the Texians, encouraged their 'independence', and funded their cause. After the taking of Texas, the U.S. imperialists set their eyes on acquiring the rest of the Mexican Northwest (Southwest U.S.), and instigated a war of aggression to appease its white supremist agenda of control over the land that
Indians and Mexicans possessed (at that time euro-americans still recognized Me-Xikanos as 'Indians', as oppossed to the modern euro-centric labels of hispanic/latino).

We, the so called hispanics/latinos of this continent, are predominantly indigenous in blood and culture, and it’s shameful that these particular self-hating sympathizers have conveniently forgotten their roots and have replaced it by some pathetic desire of wanting to be accepted by the euro-majority. Forgotten is the rape, murder, theft, and genocide that the real illegals perpetrated on our lands; the U.S., Canada, Mexico and throughout this vast ‘American’ continent. Before the illegally imposed borders on our lands by the
right to power Europeans and their descendants, our people used to migrate back and forth -North and South, East and West- without much interference, hatred and violence.

There have been countless gross, ignorant, and outright stereotypical generalizations and misrepresentations of the marches and all the marchers, and this self-hating attitude has only helped perpetuate the lies of the alarmist, bigoted, and intentionally misinforming conservative
right-wing-nuts and the media in general. Before euro-american nativists and their sympathizers are quick to jump and judge, I suggest they look in the mirror and ask themselves if they'd be content with others judging them based on their skin color, ethnicity, or national origin, because that’s precisely what will happen once these laws are enacted. The authorities will have probable cause to pull you, your brothers, or any individual over under the pretext of suspicion, or arrest and detain at will on account of a person's brown-ness, as the case has been recently with the ICE roundups. “Can I see your papers, Brownie?” Long live democracy, long live American style justice.

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