The Philosophical Foundation for Raza Studies

 

In Lak Ech, Panche Be & Hunab Ku: The Philosophical Foundation for Raza Studies... or What State Officials Don’t Want Arizona School Children To Know

by Roberto Dr. Cintli Rodriguez, Ph.D.

For the next few months, the world will be focusing on Arizona’s SB 1070 – the state’s new racial profiling law. However, in this insane asylum known as Arizona, where conservatives have concocted one reactionary scheme after another, another law in particular stands out for its embrace of censorship – the 2010 anti-ethnic studies HB 2281 – a law that seeks to codify the “triumph” of Western Civilization with its emphasis on Greco-Roman culture.

Unless it is blocked, HB 2281 – which creates an Inquisitorial mechanism that will determine which books and curriculums are acceptable in the state – will go into effect on Jan 1, 2011. Books such as Occupied America by Rodolfo Acuña and Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire, have already been singled out as being un-American and preaching the violent overthrow of the U.S. government.
Both laws are genocidal: one law attacks the physical presence of red-brown peoples; the other one, our minds and spirits.

Lost in the tumultuous debate regarding what can be taught in the state’s schools is the topic of what actually constitutes Ethnic/Raza Studies.

The philosophical foundation for Raza Studies are several Indigenous concepts, including: In Lak Ech, Panche Be and Hunab Ku. Over the past generation, the first two concepts have become fairly well known in the Mexican/Chicana/Chicano communities of the United States. The third concept, Hunab Ku, is relatively less well known, though it actually forms the foundation for In Lak Ech – ‘Tu eres mi otro yo – You are my other self’ and Panche Be – ‘to seek the root of the truth’ or ‘to find the truth in the roots’. As explained by Maya scholar, Domingo Martínez Paredez, Hunab Ku is the name the Maya gave in their language to the equivalence of the Supreme Being or the Grand Architect of the Universe (Hunab Ku, 1970). Such concept is an understanding of how the universe functions.

These three concepts are rooted in a philosophy based on maiz. Maiz, incidentally, is the only crop in the history of humanity that was created by humans. Also, the Indigenous peoples of this continent are the only peoples in the history of humanity to have created their/our own food – maiz – a food so special that it is what virtually unites not simply this continent, but this era. These three maiz-based concepts, in effect, constitute the essence of who we are or who we can be; human beings connected to each other, to all of life and creation. Part of creation; not outside of it. This is the definition of what it means to be human.

Despite the destruction of the many thousands of the ancient books of the Maya (along with those of the Aztecs-Mexica) by Spanish priests during the colonial era, these Maya-Nahua concepts were not destroyed, nor are they consigned to the past. Today, they continue to be preserved and conveyed via ceremony, oral traditions, poetry and song (In Xochitl – In Cuicatl) and danza. And they continue to be developed by life’s experiences.

In Raza Studies, these ideas are designed to reach those that are unfamiliar with these concepts, in particular, Mexicans/Chicanos and Central Americans and other peoples from the Americas who live in the United States and who are maiz-based peoples or gente de maiz, albeit, sometimes far-removed from the cornfield or milpa. Despite their disconnection from the fields and despite the disconnection from the planting cycles and accompanying ceremonies – and in many cases the ancestral stories – their/our daily diet consciously and unconsciously keeps us connected to this continent and to the other original peoples and cultures of this continent.

In part, this effort to understand these concepts is an attempt to reclaim a creation/resistance culture, as opposed to viewing themselves/ourselves as foreigners or merely as U.S. minorities. It is also an affirmation that de-Indigenized Mexicans/Chicana/Chicano and Central and South American peoples are not trying to revive or learn from dead cultures. Instead, as elders from throughout this continent generally affirm, these cultures have never died and neither have these concepts; peoples have simply been disconnected from them. That is one definition of colonization and/or de-Indigenization. The effort to understand these and similar concepts and to embrace and live by them, is also one definition of de-colonization. And to be sure, it is elders from Mexico primarily, that have for more than a generation reached out to these communities, imploring them/us to “return to our roots.”

Asserting the right to this knowledge that is Indigenous to this very continent is an effort to proclaim both the humanity and Indigeneity of peoples who are matter-of-factly treated as unwelcome and considered alien in this society. HB 2281 bizarrely treats this knowledge as “un-American.”

Additionally, asserting the right to write modern amoxtlis or codices – is also part of an effort to proclaim that de-Indigenized peoples also have the right not simply to repeat (or recreate) things ancient, but to produce their/our own living knowledge, based on the lived reality in this country. And in the case of Arizona – with red-brown peoples continuously under siege – these concepts can help us bring about peace, dignity and justice, with the potential to create better human beings of all of us.

The above has been redacted from Amoxtli X – The X Codex, 2010, Eagle Feather Research Feather Institute (http://eaglefeather.org/index.php), by Rodriguez, an assistant professor at the University of Arizona, in collaboration with several authors. He can be reached at: XColumn@gmail.com /index.php

Leticia X is Human II: Tragedy & Waiting for Pres. Obama

 

Leticia X is Human II: Tragedy & Waiting for Pres. Obama

By Roberto Dr. Cintli Rodriguez

In October of 2009, I wrote a column about a brilliant high school DREAM student whose goal is to attend college in the fall of 2010. I referred to her as Leticia X. When she spoke to my class at the University of Arizona last fall, she had my students in tears, knowing full well that unless the immigration laws change, she will be unable to pursue her dream.

Leticia X has a special love of land (agriculture) and her dream as a new high school graduate is to become a teacher in Mexican American Studies. I saw her this past week at the annual Raza/Ethnic Studies conference in Tucson, but this time, it was she who was in tears because her father had been picked up that morning (as a passenger) on a minor traffic violation by local Sheriff’s deputies and was subsequently turned over to the border patrol.

The most dynamic of educators from across the country had come to learn about the battle against HB 2281 – the new anti ethnic studies law – and the SB 1070 law – the racial profiling law scheduled to take effect July 29. Her presence was a reminder of how Arizona has become the epicenter of dehumanization; her life, and the lives of her family are now in limbo. At the prompting of a professor who had just met Leticia X, the educators instantly sprung to her defense.

Because Congress has still not reformed the nation’s immigration system, she will not be living her dream this fall, though she is now undergoing an even greater tragedy, in this insane asylum known as the apartheid state of Arizona.

Leticia X is not afraid of using her real name. When she spoke to my class, she used her actual name and high school. It is I who chooses not to identify her publically (Recently, DREAM students staged a sit-in at McCain’s Tucson office, subjecting themselves to arrest so that they themselves can take control of their own movement. In Phoenix, other DREAM students served Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio with a community indictment, charging him with crimes against humanity.

Incidentally, Leticia X does not consider herself undocumented or an illegal alien. Neither do other DREAM students conceive of themselves in such a manner. Neither do I. To do so buys into the dehumanization that has become normalized in this society.

The notion that children, who had no choice in coming to this country can be considered illegal, stands logic and the law on its head. Minimally, it is immoral to say the least. To break the law, one has to consciously break a law. Leticia X crossed into the United States at age three… hardly an age when she could have consciously broken any law whatsoever.

She considers herself a U.S. citizen because she has no conscious memory of any other nation than this one; she is guilty of no crime, and should be treated as such. The potential deportation of her father/family puts a human face on the inhumanity that our society has descended to. Her father is not illegal either; his only “crime” was to try and make a better life for his family.

This is at a time when President Obama recently directed the Immigration and Customs Enforcement to concentrate on deporting violent criminals who are a threat to the public safety and (a canard) those who are a threat to national security. Leticia X’s father is neither. Neither is his family.

In the heat of an electoral campaign, where she is vying to become the elected governor of the state… and in the heat of defending the state’s racial profiling law, Arizona’s unelected Gov. Jan Brewer has taken the lead in the misinformation department, alleging that most migrants are carrying drugs and that drug cartels have been beheading people in the Arizona desert. Both are fiction.

Brewer should meet Leticia X. If she did, she would come face to face with a beautiful human being, guilty of no crimes and deserving to be treated as a full human being. If anything, this future teacher merits a full scholarship.

President Obama should also meet Leticia X. He should meet her father and be reminded about his recently declared immigration enforcement priorities. Upon meeting them, he would know the face of this debate; he would know that it is high time to reform the nation’s immigration laws and that it is also high time to bring millions of people, not into Arpaio’s infamous tents, but rather, into the tent of humanity.

 

For more info re this unfolding situation: landandfreedom@gmail.com. To support Leticia X and her father, checks can be written to: Barrio Sustainability Project – TYLO. They can be sent to: Tierra Y Libertad Organization, 3649 S. 7th Ave. Tucson, AZ 85713

Rodriguez, an assistant professor at the University of Arizona, can be reached at: XColumn@gmail.com


* UPDATE... as a result of community support, Leticia X's father was bailed out and is now fighting his removal.

Arizona’s SB 1070: A crack law by any other name

By Roberto Dr. Cintli Rodriguez

By now, most of the world has learned that the Republican-dominated legislature in Arizona and its unelected governor are capable of creating laws more associated with repressive regimes – or bygone eras – than with modern states. And it also knows it has become a magnet for supremacists of every stripe and color.

That’s not a good thing, but for those thousands who are bankrolling Gov. Jan Brewer’s defense of the state’s racial profiling law SB 1070 – scheduled to go into effect July 29 – many actually believe she is putting up a valiant defense against invading and violent [brown] hordes. Seemingly unbeknownst to her supporters, contrary to her recent claims, the vast majority of migrants are not involved in the drug trade. Despite Border Patrol officials telling her otherwise, she continues with her uninformed falsehoods and fear-mongering, with the effect of continuing to associate migrants with [drug] criminality.

Also unbeknownst to these legislators, is that ironically, one of their wacko laws can actually provide the solution to ending the drug cartel violence raging across  Mexico: the state’s anti-human smuggling law. In this state, migrants can be charged and convicted of conspiring [with their coyote] to smuggle themselves into Arizona. The law was not designed that way, but leave it to Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio to interpret the law in such a manner.

After having been stripped of his 287g federal immigration powers – stemming from his penchant for media choreographed mass dragnet raids aimed at red-brown communities – he now relies on the state’s anti-human smuggling law to stage his dehumanizing productions.

 As bizarre and abused as this law is – if emulated to fight the drug war in the United States – the drug cartel wars in Mexico would come to a virtual halt overnight. If the same Arpaio logic were applied to the nation’s drug trafficking laws, then every American who uses imported illegal drugs would be complicit and guilty of conspiring to smuggle those drugs into this country. And we would need a lot more prisons.

Either that or perhaps the drug demand by Americans would drop quite precipitously… pronto. No one can seriously doubt that it is the American demand for drugs that is fueling the drug cartel wars in Mexico. The American market is extremely lucrative. Cocaine, for example, is not grown or produced in Mexico. Yet, it is funneled through Mexico to quench the voracious American appetite. As part of this demand, American noses and arms are satisfied while many thousands of Mexicans die in the crossfire.

The state legislature or Congress could charge drug users with conspiracy to smuggle the drugs they use. There is but one reason this will never happen: WE ARE AMERICANS!

Americans have rules for everyone else and rules for themselves (Invading nations without a just cause is one example). Actually, “Americans” in this case is more specific; when it comes to drugs, there are rules for White, middle and upper middle class Americans, and then there are rules for people of color.

Cocaine is the perfect example. Since 1986, there has been a 100 to 1 possession disparity between its consumption as crack (wrongly associated with poor blacks) or in its powder form (middle class whites). Historically, under federal law, 5 grams of crack is the same as 500 grams of powdered cocaine. Each trigger a 5-year prison sentence. Over the past generation, this sentencing and incarceration disparity, not coincidentally, has long been indisputably racial in nature, resulting in the filling up of this nation’s prisons with black and brown drug offenders.

But back to how Arizona’s bizarre anti-smuggling law could be used to stem the drug cartel violence. American drug users – most of whom are white – could be charged, not with simple possession, but with felony conspiracy to bring in their own drugs. If applied judiciously and uniformly, the fear of long-term prison incarceration – 10 years, for example – would invariably dry up the fuel for the drug cartel violence.

It would also deflate the conflation between drug smuggling and migrants. As most of the world already knows, that conflation has always been false.

Yet that’s par for Arizona where bizarre is normal and truth is difficult to find. Perhaps the Justice Department – which has now sued Arizona over SB 1070 on the grounds that immigration policy is the purview of the federal government, not the states – will bring a little bit of truth to the desert. Meanwhile, 153 bodies have thus far been recovered this year in that same merciless desert (http://www.derechoshumanosaz.net/).

 

Rodriguez, an assistant professor at the University of Arizona, can be reached at: XColumn@gmail.com