Total Pageviews

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Truthout/Speakout: Gustavo Gutierrez and The Four Directions




Gustavo Gutierrez
Ce. Uno. One: First memories. Through his daughter Raquel, I meet Gustavo Gutierrez in 1992, who by then, is already a legend. In Arizona, his name is synonymous with workers, farm workers, Cesar Chavez, the United Farm Workers movement and the Arizona Farm Worker's union. Had Cesar not lived, Gustavo would still have organized; he would have still fought for the rights of all workers, with or without documents. This is a man who is truly ahead of his time; before his time. Early on, he recognized the existence of no borders; Un Continente y Una Cultura.
Ome. Dos. Two: Despite all that history, he will most likely be remembered for his work with the Peace and Dignity Journeys. Born of the Prophesy of the Eagle and the Condor, the journeys continue to connect the continent. The Journeys were birthed in Quito, Ecuador at a 1990 gathering of indigenous peoples, convened to counteract the so-called 500-year encounter between Spain and the Americas. There was no encounter; instead there was invasion, land theft and slavery. All the peoples of the continent know this, understand this. Gustavo was no different; those that gathered in Quito, including him, would hear no talk of encounters.
092012g 2


















...How will Gustavo be remembered? This is no cliche: by the huge footprints he left behind.

092012g 6













* The family has set up a Support Trust for Gustavo Gutierrez: Bank of America - 4570 2564 7444. For info re the Peace and Dignity Journeys, go to: http://eaglecondorproductions.weebly.com/support-the-2012-peace-and-dignity-journeys.html

Rodriguez can be reached at: XColumn@gmail.com 520-271-6796 http://drcintli.blogspot.com/

Arizona sb 1070 Abuse Hotline



"WE ARE ONE FAMILY" -
OUR RESPONSE TO THE RACIST, BACKWARD DECISION ON SB 1070

Arizonans Vow To Continue Working for the Repeal of SB 1070

Tucson - The Coalición de Derechos Humanos family and other local organizations join the millions across the state and the nation in expressing our opposition to the decision of U. S. District Court Susan Bolton to permit the immediate enforcement of Section 2B of Arizona's "papers please" historic legislation mandating that thousands of state law enforcement officers become the "frontline" for the U. S Border Patrol.

The community knows that the "papers please" provision is impossible to implement without racial profiling. But the State's lawyer and the Court dismissed this as "merely speculative that Latinos would face systemic racial profiling." This statement demonstrates the vast chasm and disconnect between their reality and that of the Latino/African American/Indigenous peoples. With historical and documented problems of racial discrimination in all areas of life, particularly in law enforcement for many decades, the accusation that we are merely speculating that illegal racial profiling will take place is indeed bold and unfortunate.

With solidarity among our brothers and sisters of all colors, religions, gender, sexual orientation, and ethnicities, we stand together to proclaim, "You will not divide us - we are one family." The human family. We will resist SB 1070 until this racist law is repealed. We will document and report all instances of racial profiling. We will nonviolently resist in the political arena, the courts, and on the streets. We urge members of the community who suffer or witness racial profiling to call the Yo Soy Testigo (I am a Witness) Hotline at 520-261-5890.

Together we will march forward, unified in our commitment to resist and repeal this racist and irresponsible legislation. We vow to work to build a community where all may live and work together in peace.

Monday, September 17, 2012

Gustavo Gutierrez and The Four Directions


Gustavo Gutierrez and The Four Directions:
The Red and the Black… and the Yellow and White
By Roberto Dr. Cintli Rodriguez



Ce. Uno. One:  First memories. Through his daughter Raquel, I meet Gustavo Gutierrez in 1992, who by then, is already a legend. In Arizona, his name is synonymous with workers, farm workers, Cesar Chavez, the United Farm Workers movement and the Arizona Farm Worker’s union. Had Cesar not lived, Gustavo would still have organized; he would have still fought for the rights of all workers, with or without documents. This is a man who is truly ahead of his time; before his time. Early on, he recognized the existence of no borders; Un Continente y Una Cultura.

Ome. Dos. Two: Despite all that history, he will most likely be remembered for his work with the Peace and Dignity Journeys. Born of the Prophesy of the Eagle and the Condor, the journeys continue to connect the continent. The Journeys were birthed in Quito, Ecuador at a 1990 gathering of indigenous peoples, convened to counteract the so-called 500-year encounter between Spain and the Americas. There was no encounter; instead there was invasion, land theft and slavery. All the peoples of the continent know this, understand this. Gustavo was no different; those that gathered in Quito, including him, would hear no talk of encounters.

Yei. Tres. Three: There are no Americas; instead there is Abya Yalla, Pacha Mama and Turtle Island. There is no division; there are not two continents. Yet, there is the Eagle (north) and there is the Condor (south), and the Quetzal in the center brings them together in unity. That’s how Peace and Dignity was born in 1992. I am not qualified to tell that story, though I can offer a glimpse. Runners began in Alaska in the North and Tierra del Fuego, Argentina in the South and they met on October 11, in the ancient city of Teotihuacan (Where Lords are Legitimated). The historic journeys lasted half a year, going through and uniting Indigenous nations, reservations, pueblos, barrios and historic villages for the first time in many generations. Hundreds of thousands came to this ancient city also on that day, as they came to celebrate “the last day we were free.”

Nahui:. Cuatro. Four: Peace and Dignity represents the coming together of Indigenous peoples from the four directions – red, black, yellow and white – from all directions.  Peace and Dignity represents creation as opposed to reaction. It represents truth as opposed to historical denial. It represents the idea that we cannot be foreigners on our own lands -- that we can not be immigrants on our own continent. This was the message in 1992 and it is the message of 2012. Peace and Dignity has since been run every four years; this year, the run is dedicated to water and the runners will meet in Guatemala, in part, due to the astronomical significance of this year to the Maya.

Macuili. Cinco. Five: In his own words, in the 2005 origins and migrations documentary Amoxtli San Ce Tojuan (We Are One), he says:

"And I told them, you know, I get tired of you guys talking about illegals. You guys have been here only 200 years. We've been here since time immemorial. My people have been here since time immemorial. I’m an Indian (Opata). And you guys call us illegals. We've been here… and we will continue to be here."

Chicuace. Seis. Six: Temoaya, Mexico. I have this memory of Gustavo in Mexico City in 1993. It was the day before the historic gathering of Indigenous peoples in Temoaya, Mexico – the ancestral grounds of the Otomi. This gathering was the follow-up to the 1990 Quito gathering, and a year after the first Peace and Dignity Journeys. On the day I saw him, he told us how he was bothered by divisions within the Indigenous movement, and so he took off his shoes, took deep breaths and placed tobacco on the ground. This was in the Zocalo, the historic part of Mexico City-Tenochtitlan. At this historic gathering at Temoaya, a contingent of Zapatistas showed up, a few months prior to the Jan. 1, 1994 uprising.


Chicome. Siete. Seven: Tonatierra, Phoenix. Akin to Peace and Dignity, the story of Tonatierra is not mine to tell. Only a glimpse. I only know that he and his wife Ricki (Raquel) were elders there. They were both well-respected and he was always present at all the important ceremonial functions. Tonatierra is an indigenous human rights organization; it has been instrumental and present at every international gathering of Indigenous peoples since 1990. It is one of the organizations that has been instrumental in including Chicanos/Chicanas in these historic gatherings, teaching them to see themselves not as unique, but as part of this red continent. Tonatierra is also the host of Nahuacalli: Embassy of Indigenous Peoples.

Chicueyi. Ocho. Eight: In the 20 years that I have known Gustavo, I have met his amazing family; his wife, and four daughters. Through the years, I've also had the honor and privilege of “working” with two of the daughters, Ramona and Anobel. At 80, he could no longer do the same work when he was a “joven de sesenta” (a young man of 60). It is those two sisters (along with many hundreds of volunteers) that continued the very difficult work of Peace and Dignity. And this story really can’t be put into the past tense because the 2012 Peace and Dignity Journeys continue.

Chicnahui. Nueve. Nine: Kayenta to Keams Canyon, Arizona run. As human beings, we are a compilation of stories and memories. I have many fond memories of Gustavo and his family. Most of the latest stories and memories are about running. A few weeks ago, as I was seeing a chiropractor regarding my shoulder, she told me not to run anymore. Within an hour I received a message that Peace and Dignity needed runners to do the northern Arizona route. I ignored Gustavo’s message and a few other messages. Finally his daughter Ramona called and told me that it was important for me to run, because her father wanted me to run. She convinced me, shoulder or no shoulder. The 160-mile run, coordinated by Gustavo and Tucson’s Calpolli Teoxicalli, was most powerful, ending with a very moving ceremony before we headed back to Phoenix and Tucson. Had I not taken part in this run, perhaps my other memories would've faded and I would have remembered him differently. Because I ran for two friends, I will always remember this run in a most special way.

Matlactli. Diez. Ten: Gustavo’s passing. I did not intentionally inquire about the specific details of his death. What I do know is that after the ceremony, he went on to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, to continue on with the run. There, he took a fall while riding a horse. He was flown to a hospital in Flagstaff, where he remained several days before passing. That is the one thing I do regret; not visiting him while he was in the hospital. Yet his gift of two Peace and Dignity bandannas and the conversations I had with him on the run left me with good memories. If not for these memories, the last thing I would've remembered was speaking to him at Tonatierra, when we as a community ran to Phoenix (again), taking a long route (165 miles), in March of this year, in defense not just of Mexican American Studies, but of Indigenous Studies... as guaranteed by the 2007 UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.


Matlactli Huan Ce. Once. Eleven: Even before I met him in 1992, I had known about him. One reason was because of an article I had written 10 years before that: “Who Declared War on the Word Chicano?” He had reprinted many thousands of copies and made them into a little booklet and distributed them everywhere. When I met him, I told him that I had to do a part two to that article. He shook his head and said there was no need; that it was perfect just the way it was. We “argued,” and the result was that five years later, I wrote what I referred to as an anti-book: The X in la Raza. It was a response to myself, and in effect, I wrote it because of Gustavo. My argument was that beyond race and culture, our spirit is our identity. That's a good memory, and now, coincidentally, it’s a banned “anti-book.”

Matlactli  Huan Ome. Doce. Twelve: Last memories. When we were told of Gustavo’s passing, we went to Guadalupe and Salt River in Arizona to honor him. Those memories included seeing people from everywhere, especially those that came from afar. Many of them were part of the Peace and Dignity Journeys. The reverence I observed is what I saw at the Cesar Chavez funeral in Delano and La Paz, Calif., some 20 years before. And yet this was different; most of those that came to honor Gustavo in the Yaqui village of Guadalupe were Indigenous peoples. So too at the all-night ceremony at Salt River. There, I saw people stream in continuously, honoring him in the way that they knew. I didn't stay the entire night. I had seen enough and heard enough to know that he will not soon be forgotten.

Matlactli Huan Yei. Trece. Thirteen. How to honor him. Even though I'm not supposed to run anymore, I can't think of another way of honoring Gustavo, but to run. And so rather than mourn, that's what many of us have done since he has gone on to spirit world… we have followed his wishes by  continuing the journeys. This past weekend, the journeys went into Mexico, 120 miles from Tucson to Magdalena, Sonora. His spirit was with us. Most of us returned, but the journeys are continuing on to Guatemala. One of our brothers from Tucson – Mazatl – has been on the journeys since the spring from the south, heading towards Guatemala. It appears another one of our runners from Tucson will also be continuing on the run in Mexico, to join up in Guatemala by late November. We will all honor him in the way that we can.

Last Thoughts: The Preferential Option for the Poor. I will always remember that when I first heard his name, I thought it was the scholar, the Peruvian liberation theologian of the same name who coined the term: “The preferential option for the poor.” In a way, they shared something in common, except that the liberation that Gustavo fought for was not an option; it is indigenous/human liberation, predicated on self-determination.

How will Gustavo be remembered? This is no cliché: by the huge footprints he left behind.


* The family has set up a Support Trust for Gustavo Gutierrez: Bank of America - 4570 2564 7444. For info re the Peace and Dignity Journeys, go to: http://eaglecondorproductions.weebly.com/support-the-2012-peace-and-dignity-journeys.html

Rodriguez, an assistant professor at the University of Arizona, can be reached at: XColumn@gmail.com - 520-271-6796 - http://drcintli.blogspot.com/

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Running Epistemology: Corriendo Educando or Teaching/Learning While Running

 Learning While Running

A couple of weeks ago, the International Journal of Critical Indigenous Studies published an academic article I wrote on running epistemology -- about how we learn/teach when we run. This article has now also been published in Truthout's Public Intellectual Project.

In the original article, I mention Gustavo Gutierrez, one of the co-founders of the Peace and Dignity Journey's birthed at a conference in 1990 in Quito, Ecuador. On Sept 1, while on the P & D Journeys in Northern Arizona, Gustavo passed away. A Support Trust has been established for Gustavo Gutierrez: Bank of America - 4570 2564 7444.

Here is the article in Truthout:

This article is dedicated to Gustavo Gutierrez, one of the co-founders of the Peace and Dignity Journeys, who passed away on Sept 1, 2012. The P & D Journeys are runs that take place every four years from both ends of the continent, meeting in the middle of the continent; this years run, which is dedicated to water, will meet in Tikal, Guatemala in December. The runs are part of a prophesy that unite the eagle and condor, bringing about consciousness regarding issues that affect Indigenous peoples. He died, after falling off of a horse while coordinating a portion of the run in the Grand Canyon. Prior to this, he had just coordinated the Kayenta to Keams Canyon portion of the run in Navajo and Hopi country, in which the author of this article took part in.

Abstract
Indigenous ceremonial running is traced back many hundreds of years and generally forms part of larger ceremonial ways. Today, running functions as part of athletic events, although running can also function as a means to commemorate a past event (memory) and as a means to transmit ancestral or traditional knowledge. This article examines running as a means of learning and acquiring knowledge and as a method of teaching and raising consciousness. It also considers how ceremonial running has transformed the Tucson community, which has been involved in intense human rights struggles, particularly in the struggle to teach Ethnic Studies and examines the testimonios of the runners.

Introduction
The Arizona desert is merciless in the summer; at 115 degrees, it can claim you at any given time. At 55 years of age, I have no clue what I'm doing running from Tucson to Phoenix in the middle of summer. I know the purpose of this 120-mile run: to defend Tucson Unified School District's Ethnic/Raza Studies program1 which is under heavy attack by the state schools superintendant and the state legislature. What I don't know is what gave me the idea that my body could withstand the extreme heat of this inhospitable Arizona/Sonora desert.

The 2009 run came about when Arizona state legislators attempted to eliminate Raza Studies via Senate Bill 1069, authored by then State Senator Jonathan Paton.2 The Bill sought to outlaw the teaching of Ethnic Studies for Arizona's K-12 (kindergarten to year 12) students. The architect of the effort to eliminate Ethnic Studies was state schools' superintendent, Tom Horne. His primary arguments were that Tucson Unified School District's (TUSD) Raza Studies department was anti-American and that it was teaching un-American values, not rooted in Western (Greco-Roman) civilisation. What he was alluding to was that Raza Studies was teaching pre-Colombian ideas and values such as In Lak' Ech (You are my other me) and Panche Be (To seek the root of the truth). These ideas constitute the philosophical foundation for the department.3 He further alleged, beginning in 2006 that the students were being taught to think of themselves as members of an oppressed group, Indigenous Mexican Americans, as opposed to being taught as individuals. This argument was based on the fact that the department stresses a social justice perspective. The Arizona Bill emerged within the context of not just other harsh anti-Mexican and anti-immigrant legislation,4 but also amid the many thousands of deaths of Mexican migrants along the United States/Mexico border.5

For the rest of the article, go to... and also, feel free to post, fb or  pass this article along:

http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/11239-corriendo-educando-or-teaching-learning-while-running

Rodriguez can be reached at: XColumn@gmail.com - http://drcintli.blogspot.com/ or 520-271-6796