Pancho Villa loved Chicano Ice Cream © by Nephtalí De León When Pancho Villa contracted with an American film maker to record his battles from atop an El Paso Hotel rooftop while he skirmished across the border, there was an extra perk in the deal for the Centaur of the North. He would come over to El Paso, Texas, to slurp on ice cream cones. Pancho Villa loved Chicano ice cream. Who are Chicanos that provided the revolutionary hero with such a treat ? What is their country ? Chicanos are the product of conflicts of such magnitude as to have total-destruction consequences. A people banished from their infrastructure, enduring internal exile for centuries, with no nation to call their own, these people have to excel in the ways of the occupying forces if they are to survive. Genocide on a vast scale erased Chicano language and culture. Dismissed from their own, they adopted the language and ways of the occupying regimes in order to survive, making themselves useful and necessary but unassailable from a physical or mental vantage point. Natives of our kind have become ferocious warriors in battle, even when the battles are not our own, to graceful warriors of domestic triumphs in all fields ; from science to art to scholarly activities, -- all in at least two languages as sieved through our centennial multicultural presence. Our millennial presence is myth and legend. Of such an awesome scale were our ancestor´s achievements, that they were the beginning of our kind being branded as “aliens”. The fact that we are considered aliens by two nations that cradle and contain our kind, the United States and Mexico, even when we speak and reflect the language and cultures of both, often passes by our heads. We are too busy responding to some new and fresh assault each day of each year of each generation. The northern country deports natives, while forcing the southern country to be in a position that their natives have to leave. It is a politically created catch 22. It is entrapment either way. The heartbreak of destruction is not a thing of the past nostalgically remembered and referred to with sighs. Today´s horror of seeing a mother and a father dragged from home, while children scream, is a nightmare, not the fairy tale reference to an American Dream. France believed in America and gave it a statue of liberty. China calls it “Mei Guo” ( 美国 ), the beautiful land. The national anthem echoes, “ in the land of the free and the home of the brave”. This is the Camelot of perfection America has sold to the world. Only things have changed. The world has seen the Camelot and found it a destructive beast. It is the world’s most dangerous terrorist. It combines boots on the ground, with cushioned air conditioned suites creating local horror from a thousand miles away, using terror drones. It has taken the White Euro-illegals some time to see through and suffer the consequences of the culture they have voluntarily and involuntarily been creating from the moment of their arrival to the new world. It is a culture of advantage, trickery, and an attitude of race entitlement and race superiority. It is a dog eat dog society where capitalism reigns – not at any price, but at the best exorbitant price that the market can sustain, with global humanity sweating the lower price and only a few, benefitting from slave conditions and wages. (More than 30 young Chinese committed suicide by the early part of 2013 rather than continue to endure work conditions making mobile telephones that sold everywhere including America ). The bigger dog is called a CEO (Chief Executive Officer) of the multinationals that also rule the governments of the world. To insure that all this comes off, big brother is watching 24/7 . Drones can do any job of dismissal from the board of life in any part of the world, domestic and foreign. That is the state of things nowadays. George Orwell predicted it in his book “1984.” And the American President Ike Eisenhower warned America and the world, in 1950’s public speeches, to not let the military industrial complex take over as the most dangerous threat to freedom. The fact is that the most powerful factor in colonialism is raw brutal power, a power that can destroy the world that does not agree with it. This country has engaged in war ever since its inception and has refined it to world terrorism disguised as a gateway to democracy. Its docile servant is education and the continued insistence of American History and English only language. A language is the repository of culture as well its life force. To loose a language is to loose the ethos, sprit and identity as a people. Re-enter Chicanos, the Mexica nation of different tribes and backgrounds, most having a common language base of Nahuatl as a mother tongue, as well as other tongues. In the process they taught the world some jewels of their culture and language: chocolate, chile, tomato. As pawns of two vying European monarchs, the Spanish Crown and the English Crown, our Mexica Chicano tribes, were pitted against the most powerful nations of the world, so powerful they left their language stamp in the entire new world and beyond. We learned both languages, Spanish and English, and their cultures to survive. In doing so, and quite incredibly, we did not become either Spanish or English in our world view. Our people survived even the Empire dreams of Napoleon the Third of France, that established a French Monarchy in Mexico. Chicano general Ignacio Zaragoza of Goliad,Texas, led the battle of “El Cinco de Mayo” in Puebla, Mexico, in 1862. This was 14 years after the American Invasion of Mexico, that stole half of the country. The battle of Puebla set the stage for Mexico’s freedom from France during the ascendancy of President Benito Juarez, Zapotec Indian of famed words, “El respeto al derecho ajeno es la paz.” (Respect for the rights of others is peace). Chicanos, having to laugh rather than cry, look at this part of history and call it “El Drinko de Mayo.” The beer industry has made it a field day on their marketing calendar! A people without a country are destined to wander about aimlessly as rudderless boats without a captain or a guide. No port will welcome their arrival or departure, but they will be dealt with as a convenience from which the empires can profit. Their overskills will create envy and greater mistrust. Their multiculturalism and language skills will be used and abused but not compensated. They will be welcomed at fiestas, bur scorned at the table of justice. It will be insisted that all natives follow and reflect the American Dream, even if it is a hypocritical myth. We are caught in a trap between 2 nations that neither want us nor understand us, but will use us as raw labor commodities and market consumer targets. We are the pressure-escape pawns of two governments, neither of which will advocate for us or advance our interests. Both will deprive us of and plunder our nature and character, especially our identity. In the north we have gone through several name changes and many still exist: Mexican-Americans, Latin-Americans (newly revived as Latinos), and Hispanics. Those that respond to no such names will call themselves Chicanos, Mestizos, Native Americans, Raza, and “La Raza Cósmica.” Some will be aware of Aztlan as our nation home land. Many will not be aware. We will never have a country until we stop pretending that we are equal participant members of either country, to the north and to the south. We serve 2 masters but serve not our own. We are often better qualified than either side to prevail in almost any given task. Immediate examples of this are two persons that come to mind, one is Sebastien de la Cruz of San Antonio, Texas, that has wowed a nation with his virtuoso rendition of the American national anthem “The star Spangled Banner,” that he has sung on national forums. Dressed in a Mariachi suit he has earned the nickname of “el Super Charrito de Oro.” He is 11 years old. Another person is Luis Roberto Ramírez Álvarez of Michoacan, Mexico, who was completely bilingual Spanish/English by the age of 5, went on to teach himself French and Mandarin Chinese, and has already been admitted at Harvard University where he will seek a degree in Quantum Physics. He is also 11 years old. These are unusually endowed specimens of our Mechica tribes. Everyone else is simply multicultural and trilingual, they speak Spanish, English and Aztec Nahuatl, even if they may not be totally aware of this, as when the say “qué awite,” quiahuitl, being the soft gentle rain that may not drown you, but is a constant source of irritation that may get u totally wet. The sacate may turn into soquete, two more Aztec Nahuatl words. Let´s hope the rain will let us go to the mitote, Aztec word for dance. We pledge allegiance to 2 flags but pledge not to ourselves. We know the national anthems of 2 countries in two Euro-illegal languages but have none of our own. We repeat the histories of 2 nations but know not our own. The books that reflect us are often in jeopardy, and sometimes banned as in the state of Arizona. We often don’t exist where we’re not banned. We celebrate the independence of 2 countries and mourn our own condition of being held hostages by two cultures, two governments, two affronts to our sovereignty and jurisdiction. Two nations and two governments assault and plunder us. They say the immigration system has broken down. And we rally and advocate that something be done, “a comprehensive humane system that keeps families together. “ We react to the empire’s definition of us as if whatever stamp they use at the moment is the stamp that fits us. We never question the validity of the super power´s definitions and programming of our fate and lives. Although we protest on the surface, we do not protest beyond the surface. This is cozy for a system that keeps us occupied and exhausted always on a level of crisis and superficial defense. Part of the lush cohabitation of this is that the government often funds organizations that protest and defend what appears to be unjust. It is usually more than unjust, and it is usually less than living wages that the government doles out to such organizations. Nobody gets rich but a job is a job. This includes education. We choose what we want to accept and what we don´t want to accept. So far everyone has accepted a domination and a perpetual colonization of our kind. We protest, but at the end of the day, no one is agitating for a real change, or questioning the immutability of an eternal occupation. Dr. Rudy Acuña writes a book about “Occupied America,“ not “De-Occupied America.” He is our best spokesman and could be a formidable Ambassador at the United Nations. Rodolfo Muñóz, a San Antonio, Texas attorney, is pushing the courts to declare him, as a Coahuiltecan Indian, a human being with rights. After several years the courts have refused to do so and even de-barred him from practice at one time. Our protests are about demand for justice, not a demand for de-occupation and reparations. We are not demanding for a right to sovereignty and jurisdiction, but for a fair treatment as an occupied people who accept 2 foreign languages and the ways of two monarchies from Europe. We accept colonization. Our protests are not about what we speak and how we think, or about being true to our ancestral lineage, and re-establishing our culture and language, but about what we eat and what we drive. We want a home, no matter what language we speak in. And we have by default, (and brutal repression) handed our sovereignty and jurisdiction on an easy plate to the empire. No one is agitating for self determination. “El Plan Espiritual de Aztlan,” was just that, so spiritual that it went up in smoke. We undergo great contrasts and contradictions. The plan of self determination concept faded away, but the raids, abuses and assaults, have gotten worse, the border wall is taller, more ominous, complete with star wars type of surveillance, and the marches and protests have reached such a scale that they shake the very roots of the American foundation. This occurs frequently in many cities, often simultaneously, the continental shelf rocks as if a giant has awakened ! The giant has never been asleep. It was knocked out. What I thought would be the tombstone of Aztlan, our protests and marches, may be its resurrection. I have often thought that Chicano Studies might also be the tombstone of Aztlan, as Chrsitianity, according to Nietzche is the tombstone of Christ. To find comfort in a process, action or belief is to kill the fire that inspired what began the whirlwind motions. This is what happened to Mexico´s PRI (Partido Revolucionario Institucional). How can a revolution be institutionlized? The gigantic Chicano marches, as gargantuan in size as they are, do not engage the enemy. There is no one to deliver grievances to, and no one is waiting at the other side of the road or building to hear or respond to the denunciations and accusations of injustice. La Raza has been marching and protesting for decades during which time, no negotiation or fair hearing takes place. Uncle Sam scoffs at these gigantic actions dismissing them as ... “There they go again, those restless natives...“ The United States of America is built upon so many layers of lies, trickery, genocide, debauchery and turncoat treason that it has little left to stand on in moral or fair grounds. It has to be said likewise that as individual humans they have also displayed great moments of courage and justice as when Thoreau, Emerson, Lincoln, Walt Whitman and the entire St. Patrick´s Battalion rose up to challenge and even fight the government that was intent upon invasion and assault upon a defenseless country that was Mexico. To the United States of America, (U.S.A. ), we exist either as a commodity , a problem, or we do not exist at all. To the United States of Mexico (Estados Unidos Mexicanos -- E.U.M), we exist as the buffer that can absorb its millions that continue to migrate back and forth. We can sing the national anthem of both countries in their languages and we celebrate the Independence of both – “el 16 de Septiembre” and the “4th of July.“ Neither one of them insures us or allows us freedom, independence or respect for our dignity and rights. The history of their anthems have nothing to do with us, no matter how faithfully and graciously we sing and respect them. The American anthem was written by a poet/lawyer who supposedly witnessed the British shelling of Fort Mchenry after bypassing the Potomac River and setting fire to the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue. It was called the war of 1812, but there were only a couple of battles and no war. It also resolved nothing and is deemed unnecessary by all historians and parties involved. Why do we learn and sing such a song? Why do we celebrate the 4th of July ? Were American settlers occupied by a foreign power they needed independence from ? Or were American settlers desirous of vast new lands to call their own and not share them with the nation that had sent them to occupy such lands in the name of their monarch ? Was America their land to call their own? Or was it a great land theft and genocide of some 60 to 100 million natives with no parallel or equal in history ? Is this what we celebrate with the Euro-illegals in the “4th of July? “ Th U.S., priding itself as a nation under the rule of law, easily explains this as a legal acquisition, by no less than a Supreme Court ruling. In 1823, Chief Justice John Marshall’s opinion became law when he stated that the action of “Discovery” – “extinguished and preempted” any claims the natives had to their own homeland. Little did it matter to the Anglo American English speaking nation that it was a Portugese sailing for the Spanish crown that bumped into the Americas. “In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue…”! The Elementary school ditty was used as the basis for the horrific genocide and theft of a monumental part of the American continent. The opinion was not an orphan out of the blue, but a decision made in a case known as “Johnson v. M’ Intosh.” This legal aberrancy is now so infamous and embarrassing that it is rarely brought up, although studied in law school and actually cited as the reason and basis of American ownership of all that is claimed as North America, USA. There is an even greater cause for shame and debasement in regards to this case. Although the case would end up creating tenants overnight of former owners (the American natives), it was a case as to who would steal the land from them, individuals or the state, the state winning, the United States of America. Naturally this gave a free reign to individuals. If their government could shoot and steal the land from the Indians, why couldn´t they ? Wouldn´t they be helping the mother country by doing it´s dirty job? Did you ever hear of American settlers punished or arrested for killing Indians and stealing their property ? “The only good Indian is a dead Indian” became the national motto. One last word on “Johnson v. M’Intosh”. It dealt with the rights and ownership of native lands, to be decided by the highest and most respected court of the land, the Supreme Court, repository of fairness, jurisprudence and the rule of law. There was not a single native involved or present, or any one asked their opinion on the matter. There was not one native there, or their representative or counsel, to accept, protest or appeal the decision. It was all decided exclusively by the Euro-illegals. Now you know that while this is the law and the legal argument on record as to why the American government has jurisdiction, ownership, and sovereignty over the North American continent, now you know why nobody ever brings it up. In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue… Based on this spurious, cynical and hypocritically flaky proclamation , America has declared itself as the legal inhabitant of North America, and all the true and rightful heirs, illegal. Hence the Gestapo type raids upon our kind to control our numbers. Our land rights are “extinguished”. Our language is gone, our taco bell Chihuahua dog is gone, (remember how he used to say “yo quiero taco bell”?). Even our fritos are gone. Tripitas are often banned for sale, and our nopalitos are sold in glass jars and “re-fried beans” in tin cans. Does anyone really re-fry their beans ? We have become a prize not only in life, but even in death. It is rumored that the “Skull and Bones” society of Yale University, has the heads of Pancho Villa, and that of Chiricahua Apache legend Geronimo. Both father and son, Bush Presidents, were members of this society. To make matters interesting they have at least a couple of tombs in Mexico with Pancho Villa’s remains, one in Chihuahua, and one in Mexico City, both without a head. Multinationals are studying why he loved ice cream. You can see him slurping ice cream in El Paso, Texas, shops. Photos of the real thing, the Centaur of the North licking vanilla, Chicano ice cream cones. It is people that make history not history that make people. For instance how did the Mexican Anthem come about ? Mexico was downhearted, it had just had half of its territory stolen by a disastrous war brought about by an American invasion by land and by sea. I say half of its territory, it was really all Indian land, to the north and to the south, as was and is the entire American continent. Santana of Alamo fame, set up a contest to produce a poem to be set to music for the national anthem. There was a poet who loved to write love poems. His girlfriend told him to enter a poem. He refused saying that that was not his genre or style of poetry. She insisted, he refused. She tricked him by goading him into a secluded room. She slipped away and locked him in. He banged and nearly knocked down the door. She refused to let him out until he wrote the poem to enter in the contest. Various pictures on the wall inspired him. Lo and behold his poem won! Because Guadalupe Gonzalez del Pino (nicknamed Pili), put her fiancée, Francisco González Bocanegra on the spot, he wrote the Mexican National Anthem ! Jaime Nuno set it to music and history was made! “Mexicanos al grito de guerra, el acero aprestad y el bridón. Y retiembla en sus centros la tierra, al sonoro rugir del cañón! (Mexicans, upon the cry of war, make ready the steel and the bridle. The earth centers tremble at the sonorous roar of the cannon!) History does not always win, but it sets a great example for others to win. Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, was beheaded, but he is remembered as father of Mexican Independence from Spain. Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata fell to cowardly ambushes. Cuitlahuac won the only decisive battle against the Spaniards, but his reign lasted only 80 days as he fell not to their cannons or muskets but to their sickness, dying from smallpox. Cuahutemoc was only 18 years old when he led the Aztec nation in defense of their capital city. He left his name as a memory of courage and heroics in the face of supreme odds. History has seen the most powerful nations of their time occupy and try to make us over in their own image. Like Spain that endured 800 years of Moorish occupation of their homeland, we have endured 500 years of foreign monarchs on our homeland and soil. Spain overthrew its occupying oppressors and gained its freedom – after 800 years of suffering a foreign presence. We shoud not ask, how will history treat us? -- but how will we treat history? Will our history be one of eternal protests and marches until we become a cozy party to everything that is America? Will we be a melting pot ingredient until our individual history and provenance is but a dim memory of the past ? Or will we retain our identity unto the days of time and eventually gain our freedom and independence as others have before us? History is not written on stone, unless it is lived by a people of great stature, as our ancestors who carved their presence on stone stelae and mighty temple cities that still stand awesome and silent in the jungles. History waits for no one. Time is ticking away. Pancho Villa’s ice cream is melting. It is beyond the time of politics and politicians . Our history demands statesmen and stateswomen of incisive quality to represent us at the table of real world states at the United Nations. Our battle is won when the Mexica tribes pledge allegiance to ourselves. Aztlan is already here. Our far and wide extended families are real. There´s more ice cream in the fridge.
Posted on: Wed, 19 Jun 2013 04:32:26 +0000
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