FINAL 24 HOURS: INSURGENT WRITE-IN CANDIDACY FOR CHAIR ELECT

PLEASE SHARE. INSURGENT WRITE-IN CANDIDACY FOR CHAIR ELECT (Roberto Rodriguez) for the National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies. If you want to know why I have been remanded to a write-in candidacy, please go to: http://drcintli.blogspot.com/

I am running because I believe:

• we are in a critical time in the movement to spread Raza/Ethnic/Indigenous Studies nationwide, particularly at the community college and K-12 level. Scholars within the organization should be at the complete service of our communities, including developing and creating the curriculum for this nationwide boom.

• the Raza Studies community, as we have learned in Arizona (by being attacked collectively), is one large family. As such, our organization should reflect this, opening up membership to all who are part of this large family. This includes community educators, K-16 students, parents, teachers and scholars.

• the organization should also widen its scope, akin to what Tucson’s UNIDOS youth organization proposed in 2013; that we should teach Mexican American Indigenous Studies, and within it, all the other Ethnic Studies disciplines, including Gender and Women’s Studies, LGBT Studies and Middle Eastern Studies…. so that we can learn about each other as we struggle together. (http://drcintli.blogspot.com/…/a-call-for-mexican-american-…)

• the focus of next year’s conference should examine the relationship between the organization, our communities and Indigeneity, locally, nationally and internationally. As part of this, the organization, along with MEChA, MALCS and all the Calpolis (Kalpulis) and Peace and Dignity should hold a summit to examine the Census Bureau’s attempt to force a Hispanic [racial] identity upon us in 2020.

• the organization should be a full-fledged human rights organization, at the service of our communities. For example, we as a body should be at the forefront of producing the research that will be helpful in mounting legal challenges to stem the epidemic violence against the Black-Brown-Indigenous communities of this nation, including along the 2,000-mile border. (http://truth-out.org/…/28921-not-counting-mexicans-or-india…)

• the organization should always be open, transparent and democratic and always accountable and responsive to the membership. It should always have open and competitive elections, always with choices as opposed to hand-picked unopposed candidates. The membership should lead and decide whereas the leadership should carry out the wishes of the body. The organization should be moved in this direction, beginning with changes to the by-laws this year, and going fully into effect in 2017.

• The organization should also be at the forefront of scholarship promoting discussion and dialogue within the discipline via its own top-notch, refereed academic journal.

* The election goes through 9 a.m. pst. Tues April 14.