Special-length column
When historians examine
Arizona’s early 21st century, including the anti-immigrant SB 1070 and the
anti-Ethnic Studies HB 2281, the question they will ask of intellectuals is not
what side they were on. Instead, they will ask, what did you do?
As the pols sought to
take us into the dark ages, the historians will ask: did you observe from afar and sit
idly by or did you step forward to prevent the pols from taking us back into
the 1500s?
I am often asked this
question; they also ask me this about my colleagues.
Often, I am generous. I
usually respond, that we, that they, are all doing something. Perhaps not
enough, but we and they are doing something.
The students, youth and
community are often not quite as generous as I.
Since the
turn-of-the-century, and especially since September 11, 2001, Arizona has been
at the epicenter of a nationwide battle centered on the meaning of the U.S.
Constitution, and even more specifically, over what it means to be human. In
the name of national security, the right wing has been quick to surrender
privacy and human rights. In Arizona, this has translated into a heightened
alert status at a militarized border, and the normalization of racial profiling
directed at red-brown peoples. This has come at a time of thousands of deaths
along the border as a result of peoples fleeing their homes, desperately
attempting to make a better life for themselves and their families. These acts
of survival, many precipitated by NAFTA, have created unprecedented racial and
cultural resentment, resulting in many draconian measures, culminating with the
now infamous SB 1070, a would-be law that essentially codifies and requires law
enforcement officers to racially profile. In June, three of the four provisions
up before the court were stricken down and there are good chances that it will
all eventually be stricken down.
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| Banned Poster |
Not content with
attacking peoples whom these pols consider to be outside of the law, they have
also passed another measure, which dictates what knowledge is permissible and
what thinking is permissible; it dictates what can be taught and what can be
learned. This is HB 2281.
These "laws"
have provoked historic and monumental struggles. In Tucson, aside from law
enforcement repression relative to immigration related issues, this has also
resulted in a concerted assault against Tucson’s Mexican American Studies (MAS)
department under the Orwellian rationale that it teaches hate and resentment
and the overthrow of the U.S. government.
Specifically, its
indigenous knowledge component has been attacked, purportedly because its
philosophical foundation is derived from maiz-based knowledge, as opposed to
Greco-Roman knowledge, and thus is "outside of Western civilization."
Even the name of the
department has been under assault; it was formerly called La Raza
Studies. Due to extreme right wing pressure, which is essentially illiterate
about these matters, the department was forced to change its name. La Raza
is derived from a broader concept called La Raza Cosmica, developed by
Mexican educator, Jose Vasconcelos in 1925. The concept is the antithesis of
racial purity: it alludes to the mixture of all the peoples and cultures of the
world.
These struggles harken
back to the 1500s because the very same questions being asked and the very same
determinations being made then are the ones now in play. Europeans could not
understand or comprehend our existence. They debated whether we were human and
had souls. The side that believed that we indeed were human officially won the
debate. But they did not do so because they believed in our equality and our
full humanity; they did so for the purpose of mass conversions. They believed
that we had souls, but that they were in need of saving and they
self-righteously assigned themselves this task. This in no way entitled us to be
treated as full human beings with corresponding full human rights.
Amazingly, those were
the ones on our side. It is mind-boggling what the other side had in mind.
Actually, those that lost the intellectual and spiritual debate, in the end,
won the political debate, hence the legacy of 300 years of violent colonialism
- which included land theft, slavery and other forms of forced labor, and
codified exploitation, segregation and discrimination.
The reason they believed
that we needed our souls saved is because they also believed that we were
uncivilized. And that's being kind; they actually believed we were demonic.
That, essentially, is the same language of former state schools’
superintendent, Tom Horne. When he began his crusade against Raza Studies in
2006, it was he who invoked the idea that the department was outside of Western
civilization. Perhaps to this day, he does not comprehend the ramifications of
such a characterization. It was the very same judgment that permitted the
violent colonization of this continent.
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| Tom Horne at UA Law School |
Purportedly, we were not
human; we were not Christians, therefore those that came from the other side of
the ocean, via the so-called doctrine of discovery, were entitled ownership of
the land - and our bodies and our souls
were simply part of the spoils.
To this day, that is
what establishes their “legality,” and their “legal” claim to the land. This is
how people from across the oceans became legal and those of us from here, from
maiz-based cultures spanning many thousands of years, became sub human or at
best, foreigners and illegitimate human beings. In today's lingo, “illegal” on
our own lands. After more than 500 years, not content with owning the land,
these pols are seemingly still laying claim to our bodies, our minds and our
spirits… and apparently, also our souls.
Little wonder why MAS
teachers are not supposed to teach their own culture or history to our
students.
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| Dynamic duo: Pearce and Arpaio |
People can also get a
glimpse by keeping up with the racial profiling trial, featuring Sheriff Joe
Arpaio’s communications at: (http://www.aclu.org/blog/racial-justice/sheriff-arpaio-racial-profiling-illegal).
Both leave a long trail and also leave no doubt as to what we are up against.
Both believe that Mexican peoples are less than human.
Of course, in their
defense, they don't hate or target Mexicans and they don't hate or target
immigrants; they only hate and target the “illegals”… the ones that just happen
to look like Mexicans and Central Americans… the ones they see on street
corners looking for work, in stores, at restaurants and at the parks.
Hence, the question:
when these politicians attempted to take us back into the 1500s, what did you
do?
My colleagues,
professors at colleges and universities nationwide, and even more specifically,
professors who teach ethnic studies and Chicana/Chicano studies, what did we
do?
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| Banned Books at Revolutionary Grounds Cafe in Tucson |
Truthfully, this has not
been an attack simply on Raza Studies, but instead, it has been an attack on
the very idea of education. Restrict and prohibit classes and curricula and you
wind up with Swiss cheese education. Students are free to learn everything that
is not prohibited. Many people believe that this is about banned books. The
reality is that it is much bigger; even beyond censorship: it is about the
banning of a worldview.
This is why the question
of what we should do, has to be asked of every educator. It is not somebody
else's issue; at the very core of this struggle is the battle over what it
means to be human. Shall we permit government to pass laws reminiscent of the
1500s, when most people on this continent were considered less than human, less
than equal and less deserving of their full human rights?
One part of history that
is unknown to most people throughout the country, even in Tucson itself, is
that when the student group UNIDOS took over the school board in April of 2011
–in defense of Mexican American Studies – they invoked the 2007 United Nations
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. This was historic; it was
their answer to both Mr. Horne and his successor, Mr. John Huppenthal. Outside
of Western civilization indeed!
How did the school board
respond? How did TUSD superintendent, Dr. John Pedicone respond? Shamefully, is
the best word that can be used. The following week, the TUSD responded with a
massive police presence. It responded with police dogs, with sharpshooters,
with a bomb squad, with a helicopter, with more than 100 police, including
fully equipped riot police. Inside, seven women were arrested for attempting to
speak, and outside students and community members were harassed, physically
abused and beaten. To this day, there has never been an investigation and, to
this day, the school board has not provided an explanation, nor has anyone been
held accountable.
Instead, supporters of
MAS continue to be demonized, and of course, now MAS has been dismantled.
And so we return to the
question to my colleagues? What have they done? What have we done?
It is not too late to
answer the question; it is not too late to step forward in this struggle of
epic proportions. Yes, we’ve done some, but we can do a lot more. The students
notice. Many national organizations have denounced Arizona's state legislature
and the governor for these backward state measures. Also recently, a conference
was convened to lay the groundwork for expanding Raza Studies at the pre-K-12
level nationwide (RazaStudiesNow.com).
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| Raza Studies Now Conf. in Santa Monica July 21, 2012 |
Yet, that question of
what have we done should be asked not simply of my colleagues nationwide, but
of everyone. What did we all do when the forces of ignorance attempted to take
us back into the dark ages?
And what of those from the
community? They've been there, sometimes, but not always. Not like the
students, not like the youths. When it has been time to defend the department
and to defend the discipline, it has been the students that have stepped
forward with their bodies, their minds and their spirits – the very essence of
who they are – which is what is under attack.
With my own eyes, I have
seen the definition of courage in the eyes of students who have been beaten
down, who have been told that their history is not worthy of being studied,
that their culture is deficient, and that they are less than full human beings.
I have seen the students
literally beaten, I've seen them arrested and I have seen them at all-night
vigils, march across the city, protest in front of the school board and inside
the state building. I've seen them rally and I’ve seen them walkout. I've seen
them at community forums; I've seen them step forward, when others stepped back
or when others were conspicuously MIA. I've seen them run through the desert in
115-degree heat to deliver messages to the state superintendent, the state
legislature and to the governor, and I've seen them eloquently address the
Tucson school board.
Through all this, I've
seen them face hate and condescension and I've seen them ridiculed and
demeaned. I’ve seen this in person and also in the media. I have seen the faces
of dehumanization, but more importantly, in the students, I have seen the faces
of courage…of coraje.
These students have
taught our Tucson community, and the world, the meaning not simply of
resistance, but of creation-resistance. Their reality is not dependent upon
reacting to the forces of hate, bigotry and ignorance. They’ve organized
themselves. They’ve created their own school. They’ve trained themselves and
they’ve secured their own organizing space. These several generations of
students (Social Justice Education Project, UNIDOS and; MEChA) battle because they believe in their right to a relevant education.
Many of them have long graduated from MAS and yet they continue to battle. Many
say it is no longer for them, but for their younger brothers and sisters... and for their children.
What has always been
incredible is the way Dr. Pedicone and the school board have always treated
them. Noting that they have already dismantled MAS, they often wonder, they
often ask why the students and community keep coming back?
Cesar Chavez once said
that once you educate a person, you cannot un-educate them.
This is why the students
keep coming back. They know their history and they are fully aware of their
human rights. That is why they invoked the 2007 UN declaration. They know who
they are.
The school board knows
that the students are guided by the maiz-based ethos of: In Lak Ech -You are
my other me. Contrary to what their detractors say, they have never been
violent, precisely because of that ethos. But also, perhaps the school board
and Dr. Pedicone are miffed by Panche Be-To seek the root of the Truth.
It is not simply about seeking truth, but about critical education and seeking
justice. That's why they don't go away.
At the moment, there are
many legal cases wending through the court system; both state measures continue
to be challenged on constitutional grounds. Tragically one of the legal cases
involves a $1 million lawsuit against two educators from Tucson’s MAS
department: its former director, Sean Arce and teacher, Jose Gonzalez.
It is a slap suit,
without merit, designed to silence and intimidate those who battle to defend
the now seemingly defunct MAS department. But as the students and community
always tell the school board: long after they are gone, MAS will still be
here.
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| Gonzalez and Arce |
When Tom Horne said that
MAS was outside of Western civilization, what did you do? When the school board
shut down the department, what did you do? When the curriculum and the books
were banned, what did you do? When MAS teacher, Norma Gonzalez was forced to
take down the Aztec Calendar, what did you do? When the teachers were fired,
what did you do? When they were sued, what did you do?
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| Aztec Calendar Banned in Tucson |
* There are several ways
you can act. There is still time to attend Tucson’s Freedom Summer. For
info, go to: tucsonfreedomsummer.com. To learn more about
and to assist the educators being sued, go to: http://tinyurl.com/RazaDefenseFund
* UNIDOS can be reached
at: unidostucson.wordpress.com and facebook!
Rodriguez, an assistant
professor in Mexican-American studies at the University of Arizona, can be reached
at: XColumn@gmail.com - http://drcintli.blogspot.com/ or 520-271-6796
Reposted at
ReplyDeletehttp://mexmigration.blogspot.com/2012/07/dr-cintli-on-arizona-intellecuals-and.html
Good work, colega. En solidaridad siempre