Ixiim: A Maiz-based philosophy

Journal of Latinos and Education
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Ixiim: A Maiz-based philosophy
Roberto Rodríguez
Pages 1-8 | Published online: 15 Nov 2017
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https://doi.org/10.1080/15348431.2017.1373649


ABSTRACT

This work examines the philosophical foundation of Tucson’s highly successful Mexican American studies program. The foundation included two Maya or maiz-based concepts: In Lak’Ech and Panche Be. What is explored here is actually the larger philosophical universe from which these ideas are derived. The work examines the writings of Domingo Martinez Paredez, a Maya scholar who influenced the Chicano movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s. This work examines whether those concepts are relevant today, but also whether they are part of an ancient philosophy or part of a living culture.

KEY WORDS: Mexican American studies, Maya philosophy, In Lak’ Ech, Panche Be, Domingo Martinez Paredez

At the heart of Tucson’s highly successful Mexican American Studies (MAS) department were several Indigenous philosophical concepts, including two Maya or maiz-based ones: In Lak’ Ech—Tu eres mi otro yo—you are my other me; and Panche Be—Buscar la raiz de la verdad—To seek the root of the truth.

The first concept, is derived from a Maya-inspired poem by Teatro Campesino’s Luis Valdez:

In lak’ echTú eres mi otro yo.You are my other me.Si te hago daño a ti,If I do harm to you,Me hago daño a mi mismo.I do harm to myself.Si te amo y respeto,If I love and respect you,Me amo y respeto yo.I love and respect myself.

This concept is akin to the universal Golden Rule. In the Yucatan peninsula, I have learned it another way, though with a similar meaning: In lak’ ech a laak’ en—I am you and you are me. Panche Be comes from the same philosophical place, and is associated with critical thinking and social justice. These two concepts give us but a glimpse into a much larger Maya-Nahua (Mesoamerican) philosophical worldview, and also into a human rights ethos that is Indigenous to this very continent. And traditionally, these concepts are passed on in the home as opposed to the schools.

When Arizona banned MAS and its books shortly after the passage of the state’s 2010 anti-ethnic studies legislation, HB 2281, it did so in part because the state school’s superintendent, Tom Horne, considered its curriculum to be outside of Western Civilization, resulting in a protracted legal struggle. Horne and his successor, John Huppenthal, objected to the teaching of curriculum that did not emanate from Greco-Roman culture. They also objected to the teaching of critical thinking skills to K–12 students. What Arizona actually ended up banning was an Indigenous worldview(s), arguably the same one that priests violently tried to eradicate during the Spanish colonial era. This banishment was also part of an “Americanization” throwback scheme, an attempt to forcefully separate students from their cultures and impose an “American” one upon them. The good news in all this is that, in the summer 2017 MAS trial, the court found that the state was motivated by racial animus in the elimination of MAS.

While much time has been wasted debating this manufactured conflict, what has not been examined is that larger philosophical universe that explains the nature of what it means to be human. The objective here is to interpret and introduce the reader to that worldview: Maya-Nahua philosophical concepts, which Yucatec Maya linguist and philologist, Domingo Martinez Paredez, argued were common, with variations, throughout the hemisphere.

Exposure to this philosophy in this country is attributed to Valdez’s Pensamiento Serpentino (1973 Valdez, L. (1973) Pensamiento serpentino. N.p.: Cucaracha.
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), who learned it from Martinez-Paredez, one of his mentors. This Maya scholar gifted his knowledge and specifically collaborated with Teatro Campesino during the Chicano Movement, greatly influencing the cultural explosion called the Floricanto movement, before passing on a generation ago. That collaboration resulted in several plays by the Teatro and continues to influence it to this day, Valdez recently told me. This philosophy, as presented here, comes primarily from Martinez-Paredez’s books (see References). The two aforementioned concepts made their way into Tucson’s MAS program in the 1990s, coming to constitute its philosophical core. Though, to be sure, he wrote that the concepts are actually not his, nor even Maya per se, but are maiz-based and common to this continent. Martinez-Paredez was introduced to the Teatro by Conchero (Nahua) elder Andres Segura, who also profoundly affected Teatro Campesino and their work.

He asserted that when Europeans first “learned” Indigenous languages, they misunderstood, mistranslated, butchered, and then demonized them and that Western [trained] scholars continue to quote from the same mistakes to this very day. With missionary zeal, they also destroyed thousands of “idols” and all the native books they could get their hands on, this not just at the infamous 1562 auto de fe in Mani, Yucatan, but during the entirety of the 300 years of Spanish colonialism. They tortured and killed those in the possession of these books and anything that connoted memory (in the Andean region, this included the quipus). In writing, his primary objective was to correct these errors and false narratives.

Here, Sean Arce, former director of Tucson’s MAS department, weighs in on the importance of these concepts to MAS:

In Lak Ech and Panche Be were significant in that they signified a revitalization of Indigenous knowledge, thought and culture. In Lak’ Ech represented a re-articulation of our interconnectedness—an approach or process to remind ourselves as teachers and students why we were engaged in MAS. Panche Be spoke to the need for us in MAS to utilize critical thinking, to dig deeper into issues of history, culture, and colonization as part of the critical process of de-colonization. (Arce, July 2017).

Here now is an introduction to a few of these concepts:

In Lak’ Ech: Beyond the universal Golden Rule, it is about the reciprocal relationship between human beings and all living beings and all life, including and especially with the earth and universe itself (El Hombre y el Cosmos, 1970 Martinez Paredez, D. (1970). El hombre y el cosmos en el mundo Maya. Mexico City, Mexico: Secretaria de Educacion Publica.
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).

Panche Be: It is also the search for profound knowledge, knowledge that is usually hidden and that invariably leads one to pursue social justice (Martinez Paredez, 1970 Martinez Paredez, D. (1970). El hombre y el cosmos en el mundo Maya. Mexico City, Mexico: Secretaria de Educacion Publica.
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). In Tucson, this may actually have been the primary reason why the program was eliminated. When the program began to be attacked, it was the students who defended their own program, invoking the 2007 UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples when they took over the school board on April 26, 2011.

Huracan or The Heart of Heaven: The Popul Vuh creation narrative speaks to the elements that created the universe: fire, lightning, and cosmic energy. The Popul Vuh itself tells us that three elements comprise Huracan: The Heart of Heaven (El Popul Vuh Tiene Razon, 1968 Martinez Paredez, D. (1968). El popul vuh tiene razon. Mexico City, Mexico: Orion.
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, p. 108). “The first was called: Caculha Huracan [fire]. The second is Chipi-Caculha [heat or lightning]. The third is Raxa Caculha [cosmic energy]” (p. 109). Here is an elaboration of Raxa Caculha: “…the common origin of everything… cosmic energy… that signifies, the first ray, or the original energy” (p. 204).

Hel Men or Zero: In the “West,” zero means nothing or the absence of value; however, for the Maya, zero marked the beginning of everything. “From nothing, nothing can be created, but from something, something can be created…. The Maya thinker established that the zero is the germinating seed, the beginning of everything, which is why it was illustrated as a seed or a conch shell…” (1968 Martinez Paredez, D. (1968). El popul vuh tiene razon. Mexico City, Mexico: Orion.
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, p. 9).

Paxil Cayala or Gran Signo Inicial: The end of one era (deglaciation) and the beginning of a new one (maiz); when the Maya marked their beginnings. When the Maya came to be: 4 Ahau 8 Cumhu on their calendars (1970 Martinez Paredez, D. (1970). El hombre y el cosmos en el mundo Maya. Mexico City, Mexico: Secretaria de Educacion Publica.
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, p. 18). Paxil Cayala: The end and the beginning; destruction and birth (p. 92).

Quetzalcoatl: A hybrid Maya-Nahua name for bird-serpent. Quetzal in Maya is bird. Coatl in Nahuatl is serpent. The concept represents solar knowledge; thus, people were considered “solar beings” or “children of the sun.” “Quetzalcoatl (it) is nothing more than the sun” (1970 Martinez Paredez, D. (1970). El hombre y el cosmos en el mundo Maya. Mexico City, Mexico: Secretaria de Educacion Publica.
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, p. 36). Also known as Kulkulcan, Gucumatz, Chichen Itzam (Maya) and Arara (Andean) (El Idioma Maya Hablado y El Escrito, 1967 Martinez Paredez, D. (1967). El idioma Maya hablado y el escrito. Mexico City, Mexico: Orion.
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, p. 117). The Bird-Serpent or Eagle-Serpent comes “possibly from humanity’s most remote times…” (p. 80). In the U.S. Southwest, reputedly the Water or Horned Serpent.

Tamuanchan: “Ta” is place of origin, “muan” is bird, and “chan” means serpent. “Tamuanchan is the place of the bird-serpent or Quetzalcoatl-Kulkulkan” (Un Continente y una Cultura, 1960 Martinez Paredez, D. (1960). Un continente y una cultura. Mexico City, Mexico: Editorial Poesia de America.
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, p. 84). This is the same place where Maya-Nahua peoples creation stories took place per the Popul Vuh and Codex Chimalpopoca. The place of the Eagle/Serpent was the “Land of Quetzalcoatl,” purportedly a civilization, as opposed to a location. That is what the Mexica were reportedly looking for thousands of years later (Mexican flag): migrating from the north, they searched for the eagle-serpent and ended up founding Tenochtitlan. The same idea is memorialized by many of the continent’s cultures (p. 86).

Can, Chan or Kan—A cosmic-serpentine philosophy: “Can constitutes the supreme expression, as a symbol of the great everything, because of its undulating form, to the Maya, signified vitality and cosmic energy. The importance of this thinking climaxed when the Maya declared themselves Can or Chan, Itza or the children of Quetzalcoatl-Kukulcan” or the plumed serpent” (1967 Martinez Paredez, D. (1967). El idioma Maya hablado y el escrito. Mexico City, Mexico: Orion.
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, p. 19). “Kan… contains within its name, the following concepts: to learn, to teach, to know, science, philosophy, religion, human being, sun, maiz, water, wind, fire, earth, moon, the Milky Way, etc…” (Hunab Ku, 1963 Martinez Paredez, D. (1963). Hunab ku. Mexico City, Mexico: Orion.
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, pp. 63–65).

Mazehual or Macehual: Many people of Maya-Nahua-related cultures from Mexico and Central America refer to themselves as mazehual or mazehualob (Yucatec Maya), or macehual or macehualli (Nahuatl). This identity is not based on geography and refers to a common person, the opposite of elite, and also connotes Indigeneity. For some, this is an ancient, not current, identity.

Ixiim or Xiimte: Ixiim is the word for maiz and Xiimte is sacred maiz (1960 Martinez Paredez, D. (1960). Un continente y una cultura. Mexico City, Mexico: Editorial Poesia de America.
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, p. 40). For peoples of this continent, maiz is everything. It is who we are, where we come from, and what we are made of: sacred sustenance, thus: gente de maiz. Scientists consider it one of humanity’s greatest feats in that it was scientifically created as opposed to naturally evolved, and it cannot grow by itself. Because it spread from “Mesoamerica” in all directions, its very existence is proof that peoples from the entire continent were/are connected and related via the seeds of maiz. All have their own name for it and their own stories as to how it came to them.

Hunab Ku: “[I]s derived from three words: Hun, One-Only; Naab, Movement and Measure; and Ku, Giver” (1963 Martinez Paredez, D. (1963). Hunab ku. Mexico City, Mexico: Orion.
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, p. 57) “Hunab Ku was not a national or tribal God, but rather: cosmic order” (p. 59). “Hunab Ku was the bone marrow and the essence of their existence, their being, their having, their everything…” (p. 24). “It was the soul of the earth, it was life itself, it was in everything…” (p. 85) “…that cosmic consciousness [that] is called HUNAB KU—The Giver of Movement and Measure (a mathematical concept), which is how they came to understand the concept of zero; how they achieved the creation of the maíz, how they built their pyramids, etc.” (1968 Martinez Paredez, D. (1968). El popul vuh tiene razon. Mexico City, Mexico: Orion.
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, p. 207).

Men: “Creer, crear y hacer: To imagine, create and follow through. It is a power within the psyche, enabling us to do whatever we choose to do. It enables us to create our own reality.” It is how one goes from having a dream to making it happen and seeing it through (Parapsicologia Maya, 1977 Martinez Paredez, D. 1977, Parapsicologia Maya. Mexico City, Mexico: Manuel Porrua.
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, pp. 68–69). It is the same idea as SI SE PUEDE! as popularized by Dolores Huerta of the United Farm Workers of America.

K’ochil: Education with a true sense of responsibility, based on a human rights ethos. “This carga or responsibility makes up our philosophical and spiritual personality; a reflection of that intelligent energy… one is born with and dies with this responsibility. Nothing or no one is able to shirk from it,” giving rise to the expression: “By the ruler we measure, we too will be measured” (1977 Martinez Paredez, D. 1977, Parapsicologia Maya. Mexico City, Mexico: Manuel Porrua.
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, p. 17).

“Whoever was not educated, was given the name: ‘motherless,’ because education is nurtured and that demonstrates that women were the most solid base for the education of the Maya” (1977 Martinez Paredez, D. 1977, Parapsicologia Maya. Mexico City, Mexico: Manuel Porrua.
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, p. 126).

Similarly, those that took part in the MAS struggle to defend and spread it nationwide, viewed it virtually as a sacred responsibility.

Et p’iz: Todo se paga (no bad deed goes unpunished), akin to the Buddhist law of cause and effect. Also known as the law of compensation and responsibility and the scientific concept of “for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” “No one escapes this law. Each person is responsible for what one thinks, says and does…” (1977 Martinez Paredez, D. 1977, Parapsicologia Maya. Mexico City, Mexico: Manuel Porrua.
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, p. 42). Also, what comes around goes around.

Yaxche baalche: A concept that says that without vegetation, there are no animals, and thus no human beings. This gives rise to: “The death of the last tree, signifies the death of the last human being” (1977 Martinez Paredez, D. 1977, Parapsicologia Maya. Mexico City, Mexico: Manuel Porrua.
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, p. 79). While an ancient concept, that idea of living in ecological balance rings true even more so today, as the Earth is in extreme peril due to the climate change that is currently wreaking havoc upon the planet.

K’ahlyand—K’hal or Memory and Documentation: The Maya placed great emphasis and importance on remembering and acknowledging their accomplishments, origins, their past, and their future. The two concepts “are intimately related based on the genius of the Maya which managed to leave behind an impressive chronicle that appear to speak to us with a live and fresh voice of the magnificent spirit of the Maya, that left behind with masterful skill each idea (Hobhool) each thought (Tecul) on the surface of stone, in the arts and on clay and on paper (Huun) in their Analteoob and Uinalteoob (sacred books)… giving birth to the art of writing via hieroglyphics, their language, called Nucul Ttan (instrument of speaking) and writing (Dziib): painting (Bon), reading (Xoc) and giving name to the hieroglyphics themselves that served to preserve the K’ahlay and K’hal (records)…” Even in the post-invasion books, “regardless, they contain the essence of the Maya soul, by way of the intelligence of their children, embedded in the pages of their books (Chilam Balam, Las Cronicas de Chacxulubechen and the Popul Vuh), their K’ahlay of their great past…” (1963 Martinez Paredez, D. (1963). Hunab ku. Mexico City, Mexico: Orion.
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, pp. 82–83).

Pixan: “The three energies within the soul are represented by: Naat understanding. Uolah; will, K’ahlay: memory” (1963 Martinez Paredez, D. (1963). Hunab ku. Mexico City, Mexico: Orion.
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, p. 80). Naat is also synonymous with intelligence and prophesy. “Pixan is the universal essence that is unknown, hidden and invisible, yet present in all things; the form—the soul…. And this is how they determined that the form is the soul-pixan and the spirit is the essence of the Being, which is fiery from its solar condition that feeds with its energy, animal life and refer to it as K’inan, which comes from the word K’in-Sol (or Sun), and the conditional suffix an-ser (or being), that is to say that the spirit is fiery owing its condition to the Sun. And this energy, K’inan, they believed, was also contained within animals, plants and minerals” (1968 Martinez Paredez, D. (1968). El popul vuh tiene razon. Mexico City, Mexico: Orion.
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, p. 201).

Nic Te Katun: Part of the Maya calendar, “marking the arrival of the European; the end of the world as we knew it. At that time, the era of freedom and independence ended for the Maya. At that point, they became subservient in a way they had never been, but also embittered because their way of life and their beliefs were destroyed. It represented a calamity on a previously unknown scale. And worse, it was when all things European were imposed, including religion, ways and worldview” (1967 Martinez Paredez, D. (1967). El idioma Maya hablado y el escrito. Mexico City, Mexico: Orion.
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, p. 140).

X’cmane: “To the Maya philosophers the Earth was a living being, intimately related to the existence of human beings, coming from the point of view of the physical as well as the psychological. X’cumane was the Earth similar to Coatlicue and Tonantzin: the living Earth, the one that gives life and then embraces us amorously under her breast when we die; as such her symbols are life and death. The Maya thinker came to the conclusion that life came from death and death from life…” (1968 Martinez Paredez, D. (1968). El popul vuh tiene razon. Mexico City, Mexico: Orion.
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, p. 53).

In Yacunah: “When the Maya exclaim: !IN YACUNAH! They are expressing two things at the same time: My Love and my Pain, because what one loves, hurts. Because pain is contained within the love that two people have for each other. If love unites, pain bonds. That is why the Maya sealed with the genius of their language that thought and sentiment in reference to Love and Pain in Yah” (1968 Martinez Paredez, D. (1968). El popul vuh tiene razon. Mexico City, Mexico: Orion.
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, p. 144).

Utz Yetel K’az: The Maya did not deny the existence of evil. Rather, they acknowledged that “Utz Yetel K’az—good and evil—existed within all human beings (1968 Martinez Paredez, D. (1968). El popul vuh tiene razon. Mexico City, Mexico: Orion.
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, p. 175). As such, the idea is to emphasize the good within all of us.

Yan: “My spirit, my experience, my existence, my being. All contained within this one word, within this one concept” (1968 Martinez Paredez, D. (1968). El popul vuh tiene razon. Mexico City, Mexico: Orion.
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, p. 140).

“All exist within a person, and exists within that which is theirs, including when that which is theirs, can also belong to someone else, including the person’s image, their possessions, etc. But they continue to belong to him/her” (1968 Martinez Paredez, D. (1968). El popul vuh tiene razon. Mexico City, Mexico: Orion.
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, p. 140).

Yan U Xiutl Ti: A metaphor for someone who possesses wisdom. Xiu translates to herb, but is also synonymous with science, and thus the expression to this day in the Mayab language when referring to someone intelligent: yan u xiutl ti: Tiene La Yerba, Es decir, Tiene la sabiduria—The person has knowledge of the herbs; that is, the person has wisdom (1960 Martinez Paredez, D. (1960). Un continente y una cultura. Mexico City, Mexico: Editorial Poesia de America.
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, p. 41).

Cizin: The belief that we all have a second personality, something akin to the Greek idea of ego (1968 Martinez Paredez, D. (1968). El popul vuh tiene razon. Mexico City, Mexico: Orion.
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, p. 177).

“…The Maya were an integral part of that great Intelligent Energy that manifested in the body; wuinclil, that is the vibrant being” (1977 Martinez Paredez, D. 1977, Parapsicologia Maya. Mexico City, Mexico: Manuel Porrua.
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, p. 42). “The Maya thinker referred to the human body as wuinclil: vibrant being of energy, which translates to wuinic: being, and lil; vibration…” (p. 46). They believed that all human beings were directly connected to Hunab Ku. “These two words wuinclil and cizin reveal in a most impressive manner that knowledge that the Maya possess regarding human beings, in relationship to their situation and condition, integrated human beings to that cosmic consciousness and that intelligent energy…” (p. 81)

K’ex: “Exchange; the original idea of sacrifice (distorted). Involved only flowers, birds and animal skins.… their ceremonies did not require human sacrifices, instead hearts of birds, animal skins, maiz and flowers, plus symbolic objects that the Maya call: K’EX or INTERCAMBIO or exchange…. Later, that ritual ceremony arrived, it arrived amongst other peoples. And is it true that there is not a single people on earth that can claim never to have practiced human sacrifice? None…. [Yet] Spanish priests created the trope: Europeans carried out massive genocide, but did so only in response to human sacrifice” (1968 Martinez Paredez, D. (1968). El popul vuh tiene razon. Mexico City, Mexico: Orion.
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, p. 89).

Cabauil: “Creator energy. Cosmic energy that created the earth/universe. And akin to what Magaloni Duarte says; one could see, but not see; it was the development of cosmic consciousness. It was the idea prior to reality. It existed and it did not exist. Cabaguil existed as potential before materialization, and before action. For the Maya thinker, that consciousness was belief, and by believing, they created, and by creating they caused things to be” (1968 Martinez Paredez, D. (1968). El popul vuh tiene razon. Mexico City, Mexico: Orion.
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, p. 123).

Cabuil: La Causa Final—The Final Cause: “And this is what is reasonable: And this is what caused Cabuil to project itself, even before acting, and its image was the earth, because it is the final cause; it is the reason it caused it to exist. And that is why Cabuil is double because it is both spirit and soul; essence and form. The visible and the invisible; that which had not manifested, but which finally manifested” (1968 Martinez Paredez, D. (1968). El popul vuh tiene razon. Mexico City, Mexico: Orion.
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, p. 128).

A synthesis: “…through cooperation they attained their freedom through the recognition that the I does not exist, but rather, Mi otro Yo, my other self: In Lak Ech, that is, a great feeling of fraternity that prevented human beings from being wolves to each other, the enemy of human beings. In this manner, the Maya thinker, seeded the basis for human rights centuries, actually, thousands of years before modern humans began to speak to the issues of social justice” (1968 Martinez Paredez, D. (1968). El popul vuh tiene razon. Mexico City, Mexico: Orion.
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, p. 209).Philosophy: “These ethos regarding what it means to be human were achieved thanks to the fact that they followed these cosmic guidances and that they lived according to nature, based on living according to these proper and just guidances, without having to surrender one’s intelligence or free will” (1968 Martinez Paredez, D. (1968). El popul vuh tiene razon. Mexico City, Mexico: Orion.
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, p. 210).

The Maya language: The key to understanding this way of thinking is the Maya language because embedded within it is their philosophy, religion, math, and science. The language informs us the opposite of the colonial knowledge left behind:

“… The priests transformed the [written] language in a manner so different and foreign that the native peoples didn’t understand their own language” (Fray Beltran de Santa Rosa). The tragedy, Paredez added, is that this invented language was erroneously written down in documents and books that continue to be copied, with all those mistakes, by modern scholars. (1967 Martinez Paredez, D. (1967). El idioma Maya hablado y el escrito. Mexico City, Mexico: Orion.
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, p. 39)

A constant battle for Paredez was confronting such and other similar mistaken ideas: “What is curious regarding this case [the Maya language], beginning with the colonial era to the present date, is that writers continue to make the same errors that they critique, being that each of the writers have written their own books based on their own understanding, making the most absurd arguments, that the Maya do not know their own language, and that they need to be taught it, advancing the “logical thesis” that the Maya language that was translated by the priests (and others) differed substantially from the language they spoke. To be sure, in those early works, not all the vocabulary was recorded, but only a portion of the language, therefore, the works are not actual Maya grammar or dictionaries, besides, the art of the Maya language was contaminated by the missionaries who were bent on evangelizing the Maya…” (149).

Penumbras and shadows: Martinez-Paredez comments here as to what happened to the [psyche] of the Maya, as a result of the invasion:

“…their silencing transfigured their response, their actions, because they learned to live among the shadows, without making a sound, without echoes, quiet, became materially integrated and connected to their pathways into their forests and mountains and their rivers and lakes; and finally, they converted into shadows in the middle of nature. And that governed their conduct, and thus the Indigenous campesino walks through pathways and roads, like a ghost in the twilight hours, and just as they appear, they disappear and blur and get absorbed by the penumbra, the outer edges of the shadows. (1968 Martinez Paredez, D. (1968). El popul vuh tiene razon. Mexico City, Mexico: Orion.
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, p. 140)

Final thoughts

While this work is preliminary, it appears that the ideas presented here are both ancient and contemporary, and are undeniably Indigenous to this continent. These are ideas that were once decreed by colonial Spanish priests to be both illegitimate and demonic. And yet, to this day, Western society continues to pedal these same erroneous beliefs regarding the original peoples of this continent, concocted by those very same superstitious priests, still living in the dark ages. The effect historically has been to discourage peoples in general from accessing these worldviews or cosmovisions. At best, most [non-Maya] peoples who know about these ideas have come to know them through a badly distorted Western prism.

The notion that the beliefs of peoples had to be eradicated is mind-boggling, yet the idea that those same ideas continue to be considered forbidden knowledge, after some 500 years, defies language.

What is here is but an attempt to give readers a glimpse of that broader worldview. This should not be controversial, yet apparently it is. People from maiz-based cultures and communities have the historic right, minimally, to know about the original and living worldviews or cosmovisions of this continent, primarily because they themselves are part of these same cultures, albeit mostly de-Indigenized. Within this specific context, one can actually see this as part of a re-Indigenization effort, though this is not entirely similar to revitalization efforts undertaken by other Indigenous people on this continent. The communities discussed here did not intentionally seek to revitalize their Indigenous cultures. Many simply continued the tradition of glorifying Mexico’s ancient Indigenous past, while essentially ignoring the living. It was Indigenous elders, including Martinez-Paredez, from Mexico, Central America, the United States, and other parts of the continent, who initiated such contact and have brought with them such and similar knowledges since the advent of the Chicano Movement. Some of that knowledge has come by way of ceremonies and the oral tradition: danza, medicine, language instruction, running, stories, art, music, poetry and song or floricanto.

All this is part of a much larger story, but as many of these elders have taught, peoples from maiz-based cultures—who have been disconnected from their cultures as a result of colonialism and imperialism—are being exposed once again, not to lost knowledges, but rather to these knowledges from which they have been disconnected for generations (many migrants from Mexico and Central America nowadays are not disconnected from their cultures). Over the past generation, most of the knowledge passed on has been Nahua-based. Most of what is here is Maya-based and, as Martinez-Paredez argued, Maya-Nahua culture is part of the same maiz-based culture. It has served to center peoples to these very lands, peoples who continue to be under ferocious attack as aliens, with the knowledge, as proclaimed at several recent Indigenous gatherings in Guatemala and Peru, that “we can never be foreigners on our own continent.”

With that comes not so much rights, but responsibilities, to resist and to create. It is implicit that, due to language and cultural issues, these concepts minimally are not being pronounced correctly, nor clearly grasped, and probably not understood within their actual context. And yet, what is minimally expected is that these ideas be approached with respect and understood that they are part of that larger philosophical universe of living peoples and cultures, as opposed to being museum relics, and always within the context of peace, dignity, and justice. This brings to mind that adage that we are judged, not by what we profess, but rather, by the footsteps we leave behind.

“If the Spaniards come looking for our corn or our chickens, our corn they will find at the point of our arrows and our chickens at the point of our spears.”

–A Maya Cacique (1967 Martinez Paredez, D. (1967). El idioma Maya hablado y el escrito. Mexico City, Mexico: Orion.
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, p. 46)

Notes regarding Domingo Martinez-Paredez

This essay barely scratches at Martinez Paredez’s body of work, whose primary theme was social justice and the cultural unity of the original peoples of the continent, based on maiz.

Conscious of the uniqueness of his cultural and linguistic background, he once noted that, of the thousands of books written about the Maya, few had ever been written by native-born Maya scholars. He was fluent in the Yucatec Maya language, was academically trained and a professor in the field of Maya linguistics and philology, who inherited his knowledge from his mother, a curandera, along with other Yucatec Maya elders.

Because he has detractors from many quarters, it is important to examine his work, and the concepts he describes, thoroughly. To ensure this, revered elders who worked with him, plus other Maya linguists, language teachers, and elders, have and will continue to be consulted for this ongoing work. At the moment, this represents but the equivalent of an initial review of his works.

To be sure, there is much excitement among the scholars/elders that I am collaborating with that people in El Norte are interested in their philosophy and worldview.

The final objective here, as a result of this collaboration, is to elaborate these concepts further, bringing with it a greater philosophical coherence and also examining how these communities are either contributing to this worldview or helping to develop their own related worldview, in that hostile space called El Norte.

Appendix: Additional Glossary

● Chilam Balaam: Chi—to speak, Lam—profoundly, Balam—hidden. Enigmatic, secret, and mysterious (1968, p. 184).

● Caput Zihil: To be born a second time, akin to reincarnation (p. 152).

● Canil Cuxan—Canil Cuxtal: When we die, we see our entire lives before us (p. 151).

● Bey Uale—Le Ca Ualic: What happened to the Maya after the arrival of Europeans: became shadows in the middle of nature (p.140).

● Helel: “From life surges death and from death surges life. They had the magnificent conviction that the act of dying is simply but a momentary pause from life” (p. 209).

● Tepeu & Gucumatz—Energy and Water. Creator spirits in the Popul Vuh (p. 61).

● Kizin: the psyche (1977, p. 44).

● Mak’am: The equivalent of handmade or a laborer (1960, p. 130).

● Ueytiuavan—Teotihuacan: Where lords are made (legitimated) (1960, p. 50).

● Noh Yum or Tata Yum: Equivalence of God/Father. Not Hunab Ku (1963, p. 15).

● Ch’Eenel Ik: Calm and silence. When the wind can not be heard.

● Analteoob y Uinalteoob: Sacred books (1963, p. 82).

● Tecul: “to think, in the rich language of the Maya, it is the logical base from where a whole gamut of concepts reveal themselves in stupendous and intellectual form…” (1963, p. 76).

● K’ahol: Conocimiento—knowledge (p. 77).

● Cin K’aholt Cimba: I know myself (p. 77).

● Ohel: knowledge that would permit one to rise to a higher spiritual plane (Nak O’lal), full of noble and generous sentiments (p. 77).

● Pixan Yocol Cab: The world’s soul (p. 88).

● Lukanoob Tumen Kan: Those that had been swallowed by the knowledge of the serpent. Initiates into the deep knowledge of the Maya (p. 89).

● Akab Dziib: Enigmatic writing or difficult-to-comprehend writings (p. 92).

● Canil cuxtal: The serpent of life (1977).

● Nenhool: mirror of the mind (p. 21).

● H’menes: healers, curanderos, [good] magicians (p. 31).

● Ti ma ococ ha tin pol cuchi: Per the writer Nakuk Pech: “Before water had been poured on my head; before baptism” (1967, p. 70).

References

Martinez Paredez, D. (1960). Un continente y una cultura. Mexico City, Mexico: Editorial Poesia de America. [Google Scholar]
Martinez Paredez, D. (1963). Hunab ku. Mexico City, Mexico: Orion. [Google Scholar]
Martinez Paredez, D. (1967). El idioma Maya hablado y el escrito. Mexico City, Mexico: Orion. [Google Scholar]
Martinez Paredez, D. (1968). El popul vuh tiene razon. Mexico City, Mexico: Orion. [Google Scholar]
Martinez Paredez, D. (1970). El hombre y el cosmos en el mundo Maya. Mexico City, Mexico: Secretaria de Educacion Publica. [Google Scholar]
Martinez Paredez, D. 1977, Parapsicologia Maya. Mexico City, Mexico: Manuel Porrua. [Google Scholar]
Valdez, L. (1973) Pensamiento serpentino. N.p.: Cucaracha. [Google Scholar]


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CHICANO MOVEMENT TO COMMEMORATE 50 YEARS OF STRUGGLES

The next several years will see a number of 50-year commemorations of the events that helped to launch the historic Chicano Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. For some, the movement was a series of legal actions, strikes or huelgas, civil rights protests, and mass rallies and marches, all challenging the permanent dehumanization of Mexican peoples in the United States. 

For others, the movement was a levantamiento, an insurrection or a liberation movement. Whatever it was, it was generally outside of the national conversations on race, though for the right wing, it was simply "un-American." For the rest of the column go to: http://www.truth-out.org/speakout/item/42438-chicano-movement-anniversaries-marking-50-years-of-struggles

DIA DE LLS MUERTOS EN LAS TIERRAS DE LOS MUERTOS

DIA DE LOS MUERTOS EN LAS TIERRAS DE LOS MUERTOS

HOW AND WHEN WE THINK ABOUT DEATH

Roberto Dr Cintli Rodriguez

At this time of the year, many people prior to getting into a holiday mindset, are thinking about death. Different cultures celebrate it differently. Below is how I think of death, as I continue to research on the topic of law enforcement abuse and brutality in the United States.

October, like every month, has been an especially deadly month for people in this country, particularly people of color. I focus on people of color because my research tells me that the killings of POCs are not random, but rather, as a result of dehumanization and the patrolling of bodies and communities of color, especially that of red-black-brown peoples. Unfortunately, this is not a new phone number since I literally traced is to 1492. Regardless if the killings are random or targeted, the amount of law enforcement killings in this country is unparalleled anywhere else in the “developed” world. Killedbypolice.net (KPB) lists 88 people killed for the month of October.

People around the world don’t think the same way as I do at this time on the subject of death. Many people honor or remember their dead in different ways. In the United States, apparently Halloween is some kind of holiday related to the dead. On the rest of the continent, spirits are honored publicly in what is referred to as ”Dia de Las Animas,” though also known as Dia de Muertos or in the U.S. as Dia de los Muertos (DDLM). They are celebrations of death, which is really celebrations of life. Death is not feared and the spirits are honored. I could be wrong, but I believe every city and every town and village in Mexico have their own procession and celebration at their cemeteries, Etc. Some are bigger than others, but they are all unique.

In Tucson, where I normally live, the day is celebrated in a very different way. Borderlands are a  very violent place. That is, that’s where a lot of migrants perish. Many if not most are poor and/or indigenous peoples that have fled either poverty or violence and have migrated from the south on their way to El Norte. Since the enactment of NAFTA in 1994, it is estimated that some 7,000 to possibly 10,000 people have died trying to cross the border, whereas prior to NAFTA, the tally was zero. Each year, DERECHOS HUMANOS conducts a pilgrimage honoring and remembering the dead that have been found in the desert that particular year. This year the number is 147 for the year ending October 1. This year's pilgrimage will be November 2nd.

Another group - The Detention Watch Network - has also been having events coinciding with Dia de Los Muertos nationwide, including vigils and other actions in 15 cities through Nov 6., bringing attention to the high number of migrant deaths under ICE detention. Since 2003, 173 migrants have died in detention, with 12 this year alone. The events also honor these dead.

While I do love the public celebrations (Self-Help Graphics in ELA is the first when I attended 44 years ago), nowadays, I’m leaning towards doing something similar to what Tucson and also the The Detention Watch Network does, in relationship to all the unjustified law enforcement killings in this country. When I said these deaths go back to 1492, that is not hyperbole. At times it has been worse, yet it is undeniable that we are in the midst of a crisis. Here, I wanted to mention a few things regarding the 88 deaths for the month of October.

Here is an outrageous case involving a pregnant native woman, Renee Davis:  At the moment, her case is not listed in KPB.

There are other groups - media outlets, primarily - that tally, but I have found this to be the one that has done the most consistent job since 2013. The Guardian was doing excellent work also, however they stopped this past year. All have methodological problems dealing with issues of undercounting and miscounting, but KPB continues with their selfless and invaluable work.

For October, I tallied 5 native peoples killed. Two are identified by KBP (Davis is not listed) and these two below are not identified by KPB.

This is a 27-year-old man. Not 100% certain that he is Ho Chunk, but he is connected to the nation:

While the identity is not yet confirmed, chances are very likely that person killed here is native because the killing took place at Standing Rock.

Additionally, I count, at least 19 labeled as Latinos/Latinas, though truly, only 5 were identified as such, with 4 named. There's probably 1-2 more, and possibly more because some are mislabeled as white and in other cases are not identified at all, killed in cities where the likelihood that it was a Latino/Latina is fairly high. This one, Cabrera, is not identified, but most certainly should be added to the count bringing to 20 confirmed in this category.

Also an unidentified man was killed by police in Los Angeles. While his name was not provided by the LAPD, KPB does identify him as a Latino. This brings to 21 confirmed:

What I show then from KPB is:

• 15 are listed as Black.
• 21 Latino ( 5 named, 16 not named and possibly 1-2 more)
• 5 American Indian
• 22 white
• 63 identified
• 25 not identified, though, due to last names, one can assume that at least 16 of them are Latino/Latina, though possibly 1-2 more. That leaves 9 unidentified. Due to location, probably either Black or white, though possibly American Indian or Latino also.
  

Thus, KPB lists 88 deaths at the hands of law enforcement for the month of October. The average is virtually 3 per day. It has to be noted that this is not a list of unjustified killings. At the same time whether justified or unjustified, it tells us several things. 1) We live in a very violent society; 2) the numbers regardless of cause, are unparalleled by countries in Europe; 3) the numbers of people of color being killed, proportionate to their numbers in society are at a crisis level. I would even say at a genocide level; 4) while the media reports a few spectacular cases, for the most part, virtually all those killed here will remain nameless and forgotten shortly, even though most will have never known of them at all, and 5) quite a few of those killed are either mentally ill or homeless or both. They end up dead because the officers are not properly trained to deal with their situations.

Because KPP updates their information as they receive it, these numbers and the identification data will most likely be adjusted.

* This is part of a larger work on the same topic, released to coincide with DDLM. Thanks to: Killedbypolice.net

Tomar una rodilla en Honor de un sordo

Taking a knee for a deaf man

http://www.truth-out.org/speakout/item/42185-taking-a-knee-for-a-deaf-man

In Spanish below

Beyond cultural and demographic genocide (Are Mexicans Indigenous?) this is about a low intensity genocide against this same community, though it is actually bigger against communities of color as a  whole. Here is the column on this topic in Spanish. Please share as you see fit.

Tomar una rodilla en honor de un sordo

por Roberto Rodríguez

Tomé una rodilla en honor para Magdiel Sanchez, que llevaba un tubo de cuando murió en septiembre 19, por policías de Oklahoma City, por supuestamente desobedecer a sus órdenes. Aparentemente eran inconscientes de que él era sordo.

Hace unos meses, tomé una rodilla en honor de Francisco Serna, de 73 años de edad, con un crucifijo en mano, quien fue asesinado por policías de Bakersfield, CA.. El mes antes, tomé una rodilla para Adalid Flores, quien fue asesinado por un oficial de policía de Anaheim, Calif. Lo mataron con solamente un teléfono celular en su mano.

He estado tomando una rodilla para alguien la mayor parte de mi vida, y cosas que parece ser empeorando, no mejor, a pesar de la prevalencia de grabadas en vídeo evidencia y el acceso a la no letal de armas, tales como tasers etc. Nadie goza de tomar una rodilla, debido a que los asesinatos y las palizas no paran.

Cuando yo tenía 16 años, el periodista Ruben Salazar, fue asesinado por un agente del Sheriff del condado de los Ángeles, adjunto realizada el 29 de Agosto, 1970, en el Este los Ángeles, por la calle desde donde crecí y fue este asesinato de que me inspiró para ir a la universidad y convertirme en un escritor. Así que hoy en día, tomo una rodilla en su memoria.

Tengo la mayor respeto a Colin Kaepernick por lo que ha hecho, y ahora para sus colegas que siguen en sus pasos.

¿Qué se puede decir acerca de un presidente que esquivado el proyecto y luego falta el respeto, a continuación, constituye una amenaza para la mayoría de los jugadores Afro-Americanos de fútbol con sus medios de vida, sin que abordar la cuestión de por qué Kaepernick ha tomado una rodilla, esto mientras que aparentemente ajeno a su entorno, incluida la devastación que ha visitado Puerto Rico?

El presidente de la respuesta parece decir: el respeten a la bandera y el Himno Nacional, porque los símbolos son más importante que la vida de las personas de color estan perdiendo sus vidas diariamenete.

Al final de mi 1er año en la Universidad, todavía me recuerdo las noticias de Santos Rodriguez, 12, que fue matado con un tiro en la cabeza en julio de 1973, estilo Ruleta Ruso, a manos de un oficial de policía de Dallas. Hoy en día yo también tomo una rodilla en su memoria.

Otro muerte de esa época, fue el secuestro, la tortura y de ejecución, de 18 años de edad, David Dominguez, El 28 de febrero, 1977, por otro agente del Sheriff de los Ángeles, adjunto en el Valle de San Gabriel. Cubrí was juicio. Yo tomo una rodilla hoy en su memoria.

Algunas muertes no se olvidan. Cuando me esposaron en la parte trasera de un coche de patrulla después de que mi cráneo había sido fracturado por cuatro diputados del Sheriff de Los Ángeles, y mientras sangraba profusamente en el camino al hospital de la cárcel del condado de Los Angeles, recordé la ejecución de Domínguez. Esa noche de marzo de 1979, tomé una rodilla para mí.

En todos estos años he reunido un sinnúmero de miembros de familias que han perdido seres queridos, principalmente a partir de las comunidades de color. Todos están cansados de tomar las rodillas. En la mayoría de los casos, sus comunidades o sus cuerpos fueron dirigidos racialmente. Esa es definition de “racial profiling”, o sea, la conducción, caminar o de la respiración, mientras ser Raza, Afro-Americano o de pueblo Indijena en Los Estados Unidos.

Psicológicamente, la gente puede sanar a partir de trauma, sin embargo, a menos uno consigue un lobotomía, no hay cierto curativo, porque ¿cómo las familias o los sobrevivientes o comunidades pueden sanar cuando uno está continuamente expuestos o objeto de violencia extrema, año tras año tras año?

Recuerdo que el mundo tomó una rodilla para Rodney King en 1991. después de la paliza, el hermano Afro-Americano nunca recuperó. El se ahogó en el 2012. Lo oficial de la causa de muerte fue drogas, el alcohol y una condición de corazón. Digoyo que su causa de muerte fue: ser de Raza Negra.

Recuerdo que tomé una rodilla para Alicia Sotero en 1996. Su golpiza por isheriffes diputados en el sur de California, fue emitido en vivo por un helicóptero de televisión.

Las palizas y asesinatos nunca paran y sin embargo, a sólo unos reciben cobertura nacional. El problema se detuvo ser parte de la conversación nacional durante muchos años, hasta el 9 de agosto, 2014, la matanza de Michael Brown en Ferguson, Missouri, cuando la nación tomó una  rodilla colectiva en su honor.

Desde esa fecha, muchos de los Estados Unidos han tomado una rodilla para Eric “I can’t breathe” Garner, Freddie Gray, Tamir Rice, Philando Castile, Sandra Bland, etc. Lo mismo para Luis Rodriguez, un notorio caso casi idéntica a Eric Garner, quien se quejó que no podía respirar antes de morir, cuya demanda por su esposa fue despedido esta primavera, sin su consentimiento. Rodillas también se han tomado  para Andy Lopez, de13 años de edad que murió mientras que llevaba un de juguete rifle, y Valeria Tachiquin, asesinada por una “migra,” vestido comp civil, etc. Nunca se debe olvidar las muertes de personas de Los pueblos originarios de Este pais, tales como: Sarah Circle Bear, Paul Castaway, Daniel Covarrubias, el gran nieto del jefe o “Chief Seattle,” y la lista de estas comunidades es interminable. Cerca de donde crecí,  7 Chicanos han sido asesinados por oficiales de la policía de Lo Angeles en la División Hollenbeck, justo en los pasados 18 meses por sí solo.

Alguien podría pensar que yo, o cualquier persona, podría cansarse de escribir acerca de este tema o de tomar las rodillas, porque nadie debería estar constantemente recordándoles a agentes gubernamentales y los principales medios de comunicación, que han invisibilizado y silenciado a estas muertes. Y si estoy cansado porque estamos en medio de una pandemia; algunos 3500 personas han muerto por el cumplimiento de la ley, muchos atrapados en la cámara, a sólo desde la muerte de Michael Brown y sin Justicia en cualquier lugar a la vista.

Como resultado de esta impunidad, la próxima rodilla que debemos tomar no es ante un sordo en la Casa Blanca, sino ante los Tribunales Penales Internacionales tanto de las Naciones Unidas como de la Organización de Estados Americanos. Para eso se diseñaron estos tribunales; para contrarrestar el sistema judicial cuando no funcionan en sus países.

Rodríguez es profesor asociado en estudios de México Americano en la Universidad de Arizona y puede ser contactado en XColumn@gmail.com

LOS MEXICANOS Y CENTROAMERICANOS SON NATIVOS O INDIJENAS?

This column has apparently struck a nerve and gone viral. There is also a forthcoming part 2 to this column. Here it is in Spanish below, translated per what I originally wrote, which is slightly different from what was published in Truthout at: http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/42193-are-mexicans-indigenous 

Please read and share.

¿Los Mexicanos y Los Centroamericanos son Nativos o Indígenas?
Por Roberto Rodríguez

Para algunos, esta es una cuestión controvertida debido a cientos de años de mestizaje o mezcla y también debido a cientos de años de colonialismo y pensamiento colonizado. Para otros, esto no es nada polémico porque con pocas mujeres europeas que fueron traídas a este continente, la mezcla no fue igualitaria y consensuada, por lo que la mayoría de los Mexicanos permanecen esencialmente indígenas o son pueblos des-indigenizados como resultado de la colonización (México Profundo, 1996).

Todas las respuestas son complejas porque la categoría de mestizo / mestiza es en realidad un término no científico nacido de un sistema de castas raciales de explotación, diseñado principalmente no como un descriptor racial, sino para privar a la gente de sus derechos humanos. Si se tratara simplemente de una designación racial, en Canadá, un metis o persona de "sangre mezclada" se considera una persona “First Nation,” o Indijena.

Una de las respuestas primarias, sin sorpresa, también nos da una idea de por qué los Mexicanos siempre han sido odiados y despreciados en los Estados Unidos.

En los Estados Unidos, los Mexicanos representan la memoria; un recordatorio del robo de tierras y la guerra injusta. Sin embargo, lo que comúnmente se expresa por omisión y comisión, es que son la antítesis de los estadounidenses idealizados, rubios y de ojos azules. Los Mexicanos son vistos como extranjeros y enemigos “otros” y como mestizos impuros; salvajes tal vez, aunque nunca noble e incuestionablemente ajeno. Ser un recordatorio tiene que ver con el asunto inconcluso del destino manifiesto: los negros debían ser esclavizados y se suponía que los pueblos originarios debían ser erradicados de estas "tierras prometidas".

Los Mexicanos siempre han sido vistos simplemente como pueblos inferiores y "en el camino", y siempre han sido siempre para chivos expiatorios convenientes. Esto ayuda a explicar las campañas de deportación periódica, masiva e inhumana a lo largo de la historia de los Estados Unidos (Decade of Betrayal, 1995), incluyendo campañas de linchamiento de los años 1840-1920 (The Forgotten Dead, 2013). La pregunta es ¿por qué? ¿Porque la mayoría son de color bronze, cortos, hablan español y son Católicos? Tal vez, aunque me atrevería a decir que la razón principal puede ser simplemente su color bronze y lo que representa aquí en este pais.

Durante el auge del Movimiento Chicano, es este hecho el que se afirmó con orgullo. Para este país tratan, afirmaron algo radical; que eran mestizo / mestiza y parte de un continente de bronce que no reconocía ningunas "frontera caprichosas". Estos fueron los orígenes de "Brown is Beautiful" y "Brown Power!" y tales ideas estaban incrustadas en El Plan Espiritual de Aztlán, uno de los documentos fundamentales de este movimiento. Muchos también proclamaron una Indigeneidad. Esto era contrario a cómo las generaciones anteriores habían identificado, insistiendo en una identidad blanca, en particular, para emprender batallas legales contra la segregación. Aunque como ha demostrado la experta de la Universidad de Texas Martha Menchaca en el "Chicano Indigenism", nunca fueron tratadas por la sociedad y sus instituciones como blancos, especialmente en la sala de audiencias.

Casi 50 años después de la altura del movimiento, y la pregunta que ahora se plantea es si los Mexicanos / Chicanos /as no son mestizos / mestizas, sino más bien si son nativos, sobre todo porque la población se ha disparado, ya no se limitan al Suroeste de Estados Unidos y también se han unido muchos más millones de personas de México y América Central, que a menudo comparten una raíz Mesoamericana común y que cada vez más provienen de pueblos Indígenas vivos (no simplemente históricos).

En cierto sentido, estas nuevas comunidades de pueblos Zapotecos, Mixtecos, Purpechas, Otomíes, Nahuas y Mayas, etc., complican la cuestión, aunque en realidad, para estas comunidades, su Indigeneidad no está en cuestión, aunque los extremistas raciales cuestionan su presencia aquí. Lo mismo con los pueblos Mexicanos que se han mezclado con Nativo Americanos en todo Estados Unidos.

La pregunta entonces realmente es en general acerca de los des-indigenizados Mexicanos y Centroamericanos, etc. ¿Son nativos? Esa cuestión debe limitarse a los pueblos des-indigenizados, pero incluso los Yaquis, por ejemplo, son vistos por algunos como Mexicanos en pero no nativos. Sumando a esta complejidad, algunos consideran a los pueblos O'odham que viven en Sonora también como mexicanos pero no O'odham.

Durante el movimiento Chicano, los Mexicanos / Chicanos /Chicanas generalmente hablaban de descender de los pueblos Indígenas; Aztecas y Mayas principalmente. Nunca identificaron cuando ellos mismos dejaron de ser Indígenas. Esa es la clave; no el pasado, sino el presente. Y dado que estamos hablando de quizás entre 30 y 40 millones de personas, ¿es posible volver a la Indigenización, más allá de la descolonización, entre una población que es históricamente anti-Indígena -en gran parte debido al auto-odio provocado por esa colonización? ¿Quien decide? ¿Tiene la America de Anglosajones - incluyendo el gobierno de Estados Unidos - una voz en este asunto? El gobierno puede definir la ciudadanía Estadounidense, pero sin duda no tiene ninguna relación con una identidad histórica que precede a la formación de los Estados Unidos y, de hecho, involucra a todo el continente en comparación con sólo este país.

Es una conversación que se necesita tener, especialmente en una sociedad que está empeñada en erigir un muro masivo - el símbolo consumado de la supremacía blanca - para mantener a las "hordas de bronce".

Quienes sin duda tendrían una voz en este asunto serían los pueblos AmerIndigenas - los pueblos originarios de este continente - especialmente dentro de los Estados Unidos. Metafóricamente, los "mestizos" son los "hijos" de la gente original de este continente, y así los padres no rechazan a sus hijos, y viceversa, aunque históricamente, lo contrario no siempre ha sido cierto. Debido al colonialismo y al racismo extremo, los "niños" fueron entrenados o educados para rechazar a sus propios padres y muchos lo han hecho y siguen haciéndolo. Dada esta realidad, muchos pueblos originales nunca los "aceptarían". Otros tienen y hacen, y muchos lo hacen con los brazos abiertos, preguntándose por qué esto ha tomado tanto tiempo "volver".

Estoy sospechando que si alguna vez llega un momento de plena aceptación, se producirá mínimamente, como resultado de mucho diálogo. Y sin embargo, serán estas comunidades des-indigenizados- las que finalmente tendrán que decidir no sólo su identidad, sino también su futuro. ¿Está entrelazada con los pueblos originarios reconocidos de este continente, o eligen un curso diferente? Pero como se ha señalado, no puede ser una decisión unilateral impuesta.

Rodríguez es profesor asociado en la Universidad de Arizona y puede ser contactado en: XColumn@gmail.com

La columna fue primero publicado en Ingles con El titulo: Are Mexicans Indigenous? Truthout.org: http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/42193-are-mexicans-indigenous

Are Mexicans/Central Americans Indigenous and who decides?

As many US states and municipalities have begun to eschew the colonial tradition of "Columbus Day" in favor of adopting Monday's holiday as "Indigenous Peoples' Day," one might wonder where people of Mexican heritage fit in.

For some, this is a controversial question due to hundreds of years of mestizaje, or mixture, and also due to hundreds of years of colonialism and colonized thinking. For others, this is not controversial at all, because with few European women brought to this continent, the mixture was not co-equal and consensual, and thus, most Mexicans essentially remain Indigenous or are de-Indigenized peoples as a result of colonization. For the rest of the column, go to: http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/42193-are-mexicans-indigenous