Building A Bridge of Struggle Across the Border

An Interview with Subcomandate Marcos

By AURA BOGADO

I conducted this interview with Subcomandante Marcos, at The Center for the Documentation of Son Jarocho in Veracruz. We talked about the Zapatista's Other Campaign, change in Latin America, Zapatista women's struggle, and Latinos in the United States. Marcos is currently on a six-month tour of Mexico to organize and advance the Zapatista's Other Campaign. This interview is an excerpt from the forthcoming Open Media book, The Other Campaign, by Subcomandante Marcos with an introduction by Mexican public intellectual, Luis Hernández Navarro to be published by City Lights Books, April 2006. All royalties from the book will benefit indigenous media projects in Chiapas, Mexico.

Bogado: Why The Other Campaign now -- for 2005 and 2006?

Marcos: Well, because we, as Zapatistas, had to endure a process of preparation--like the uprising in 1994, where we prepared for 10 years to realize it--we also had to engage in a process of preparation for The Other Campaign.

The Other Campaign was actually born in 2001, when Mexico's three political parties--the PRI, the PAN and the PRD--denied the COCOPA initiative for Indigenous cultural rights. So at that point, we evaluated that the path with the Mexican political class was exhausted--we had to find another path. The options were: War, going back to fighting; or staying quiet in silence and waiting to see what would happen; or doing what we are doing now.

When we decided that we had to prepare for this possibility, we anticipated that it would be very likely that people who had supported us up until that point for Indigenous cultural rights would take back their support at the hour we distanced ourselves from the political parties, especially from the so-called "institutional left": the PRD. But at the same time, we had to prepare ourselves against a surgical strike, a strike from the military or from the police -under any pretext, that would attempt to behead the EZLN and without leave it without direction.

For us, the initiative of the Sixth Declaration is of the same magnitude, or maybe even greater, than our Declaration of War in 1994. We had to be prepared to lose our entire leadership. Because, according to our method, at the same time that we set out to do something, we have to put our leaders in front to set the example. We had to be ready to lose not only Marcos, but all of our known leadership, the ones that will be going out to do the political work: the Comandantes, like Comandanta Esther, Comandante Tacho, Comandante David, Comandante Zebedeo, Comandanta Susana ...the ailing Comandanta Ramona was also going to come out, but unfortunately [she died] .... All of us who are more or less publicly known were planning to come out, so we had to prepare for that, and we had to make plans for the first exploratory tour, which has fallen on me, which we are doing now.

Right now we're in Veracruz--Southern Veracruz -and in the event that something happens, the chain of command will be clear; nothing of what we've gained so far will be lost, or we will at least be able to defend it as much as possible. It could not have been before, and it could not have been after, because if we were already prepared, there was no need to wait longer to do it.

We specifically choose the electoral period, so that it would be clear that we want to do something else, and so that people could really see and could compare and contrast our political proposal--which many people have already joined from other organizations and groups--with politics from the top. Always, since our birth, we've insisted on another way of doing politics. Now, we had the chance to do it without arms, but without stopping being Zapatistas, that's why we keep the masks on.

Bogado: For people in Latin America, there is often a lot of hope in politicians like Lula in Brazil, Kirchner in Argentina, or Chavez in Venezuela. How do you see this change in the so-called left in Latin America?

Marcos: We always turn to look towards the bottom, not only in our own country, but in Latin America particularly. When Evo Morales presented this invitation for his presidential inauguration, we said that we were not turning our gaze upwards, neither in Bolivia nor in Latin America, and in that sense, we don't judge governments, whose judgment belongs to the people who are there. We look with interest at the Bolivian indigenous mobilization, and the Ecuadorian one. In fact, they are mentioned in the Sixth Declaration.

The struggle of the Argentine youth, fundamentally, this whole piquetero movement, and of the youth in general in Argentina, with whom we strongly identify with. Also with the movement to recover memory, of the pain from what was the long night of terror in Argentina, in Uruguay, in Chile. And in that sense, we prefer to look at the bottom, exchange experiences and understand their own assessments of what is happening.

We think, fundamentally, that the future story of Latin America, not only of Mexico but for all of Latin America, will be constructed from the bottom--that the rest of what's happening, in any case, are steps. Maybe false steps, maybe firm ones, that's yet to be seen. But fundamentally, it will be the people from the bottom that will be able to take charge of it, organizing themselves in another way. The old recipes or the old parameters should serve as a reference, yes, of what was done, but not as something that should be re-adopted to do something new.

Bogado: What can men do, for example, to increase the representation of women anywhere in the world--from families to cultural centers and beyond?

Marcos: In that respect, well, for us and for all organizations and movements, we still have a long way to go, because there is still a really big distance between the intention of actually being better, and really respecting the Other--in this case women--and what our realistic practice is.

And I'm not only referring to the excuse of "this is how we were educated and there's nothing we can do ..." which is often men's excuse--and of women too, who obey this type of thinking and argue for it one way or another among other women.

Something else that we've seen in our process is that at the hour that we [insurgents] arrived in the communities and they integrated us as part of them, we saw significant, unplanned changes. The first change is made internally among the relationship between women. The fact that one group of indigenous women, whose fundamental horizon was the home, getting married quite young, having a lot of children, and dedicating themselves to the home--could now go to the mountains and learn to use arms, be commanders of military troops, signified for the communities, and for the indigenous women in the communities, a very strong revolution. It is there that they started to propose that they should participate in the assemblies, and in the organizing decisions, and started to propose that they should hold positions of responsibility. It was not like that before.

But in reality, the pioneers of this transformation of the indigenous Zapatista woman are a merit of the women insurgents. To become a guerrilla in the mountainous conditions is very difficult for men, and for the women, it is doubly or triply difficult--and I'm not saying that they are more fragile or anything like that: it's that in addition to the hostile mountainous conditions, they also have to be able to put up with the hostile conditions of a patriarchal system of our own machismo, of our relationships with one another.

[Another difficulty that the women face] is the repudiation of their communities which sees it as a bad thing for a woman to go out and do something else. [After passing their training] a group of insurgent women are now the ones who are superior, and when they head back down to the communities, they now are the ones who show the way, lead, and explain the struggle. At first this creates a type of revolt, a rebellion among the women that starts to take over spaces. Among the first rebellions is one that prohibits the sale of women into marriage, which used to be an indigenous custom, and it gives, in fact (even though it's not on paper yet) the women the right to pick their partner.

We also think that while there is an economic dependence from women on men, it will be very difficult for anything else to develop. Because in the end, the women can be very rebellious, and very capable and all of that, but if she depends on a man economically, she has few possibilities. So in that sense, in the communities of the Autonomous Rebellious Municipalities, and in the Councils of Good Government, the same women that are already authorities with responsibilities at the municipal level, or on the Councils of Good Government, open spaces, projects, and economic organization for women in such a way that they construct their economic independence, and that gives more substance to [the women's] other independence.

Nevertheless, we're still lacking a lot in the area of domestic violence from men against women. We have gained some in other areas, for example, girls who were not going to school are now going to school. They weren't going before because they were women, and because there weren't any schools, and now there are schools and they go, regardless of whether they are men or women. And women are already in the highest posts of civil authority--because in the military authority, in the political organizing, we can say that women need to be included--but in matters of civil society, we [insurgents] don't hold authority, we only advise. So in reality, the women in the communities now reach the civil authority and autonomous municipal posts, which was unthinkable for a woman to reach before. [They reach those positions] through their own struggle, not through the authority of the EZLN.

Bogado: Do you have any message for [people] in the United States, particularly for Chicanos and Latinos?

Marcos: Well, what we've seen while we've been passing through as we're getting the word out--we've passed through Chiapas, through Quintana Roo, Yucatan, Campeche, Tabasco, and we've started in Veracruz--in all parts we've seen this pain from the people at the bottom--[people who have] part of themselves on the other side. They feel it's not a product of destiny, or of bad luck, nor from a tourist interest like the Mexican government says. Instead, it is part of this process of suffering that is imposed on us. They feel, and we feel it also along with them, that one part of them is far away and is outside, and that part is our men and women of Latino descent, or of Mexican descent, or Mexicans that have to cross the border--that are over there.

That's why, since the beginning, when the Sixth Declaration was proposed, it was said that the Mexicans that were on the other side were not part of the Internationals, the Intercontinental; instead they are part of The Other Campaign. We want to say to you: now that we're going to be in Ciudad Juarez first, and then in Tijuana, that you join us at the border, and let's have a reunion: we have a reunion planned only with people from the Other side, one in Juarez, the Other in Tijuana, to hear your struggle.

Like we say, the approach of the Sixth is [to ask]: Who are we? Where are we? What do we want to do? We know there are a lot of people that sympathize with the Sixth Declaration and with The Other Campaign. And we want to insist to them, now through your media outlet, that this is their place, this place right next to those of us who are on this side.

That which has provoked pain from the border, which signifies death, marginalization, apartheid of some kind or another--we have to construct, and break that border with a bridge of struggle, of dignity. The Other Campaign can be that space. No one will speak for them, no one will speak for the Mexicanos or Mexicanas or the Chicanos on the other side, instead, they will construct their own space, defend it, speak for themselves, explain the reasons why they are there, the difficulties that they face, and what they have been able to construct as rebelliousness and resistance on that other side--and that we will see each other there in Juarez and Tijuana.

Aura Bogado is a news anchor with Free Speech Radio. Email: kunumi@yahoo.com

Un Mensaje De los Ancianos Mayas - Febrero, 2006

Tuesday, February 14 2006

Contributed by: admin.

http://sacredroad.org/article.php?story=20060214191613310

Mucho se ha dicho sobre este tiempo, sobre las profecías dadas por los antiguos sabios visionarios. Algunas de las profecías se han guardado en libros secretos, algunas se han transmitido por tradición oral, otras han llegado en una serie de libros, documentales, artículos en revistas, periódicos y sobre todo en la Internet. Algunos son sumamente alarmantes, otros no tienen ninguna base y muchos son basados en las Profecías de las Grandes Tradiciones. Todos ellos señalan tiempos proféticos, como el Sabio maya Chi Mam Don Pascual le gustaba llamarlos.

Toda esta información ha despertado el interés de millones de personas, pero también ha creado mucha confusión y miedo, desde la fecha del 21 de diciembre de 2012 se ha usado como la fecha del fin del Mundo. Sin embargo, esta fecha señala el principio de un nuevo ciclo que esta marcado en la tradición de los Ancianos Mayas como un tiempo de armonía y crecimiento espiritual, este ciclo se llama el QUINTO SOL y cada uno de los anteriores duró 5200 años.

El primer ciclo era de una energía femenina y el fuego era el elemento que lo gobernó.

El segundo ciclo era de una energía masculina y la tierra era el elemento que lo gobernó.

El tercer ciclo era de una energía femenina y el aire era el elemento que lo gobernó.

El cuarto ciclo era de una energía masculina y el agua era el elemento que lo gobernó.

El quinto ciclo es de armonía entre la energía masculina y la femenina y el elemento que lo gobernará será el éter.

Cada uno de estos ciclos dura 5200 años y ellos han sido afectado por la polaridad de la energía masculina o femenina y claro ellos también han sido afectados por los elementos. Hoy estamos a las puertas del fin del cuarto ciclo que acaba el 20 de diciembre de 2012, seis años desde ahora. Durante estos seis años seremos testigos de la confrontación de las fuerzas Negativas y Positivas, la lucha eterna entre la polaridad, la lucha entre el Fuego Eterno y el Hielo Eterno, como los Grandes Maestros lo han llamado, los tiempos ásperos y mágicos, los tiempos proféticos, como el Maestro, Don Pascual, habría dicho.

No tenemos que cerrar nuestros ojos para poder ver quién está dominando en este momento, a diferencia de los Seres de Luz, por el otro lado no hay ninguna duda de quién es el jefe y nadie discute sobre los grados de poder, ellos trabajan con una efectividad, tan eficaz que algunos de ellos incluso dirigen para aparecer como Guerreros de Luz.

Lo contrario pasa con los Guerreros de Luz, porque desgraciadamente la mayoría de ellos están fascinados con sus Egos, convencidos que ellos son los más buenos y los portadores de la Verdad, pero ellos sólo están interesados en su lucha por el poder, fama y su afición excesiva por la riqueza económica.

Alguien tiene que portar la Antorcha de la Luz y crear conciencia; estos líderes tienen que regresar a su camino. Ellos tienen que encontrar su camino una vez más y asumir la responsabilidad que se les dio en el momento que ellos recibieron su grado de guías y el poder mágico que los acompañan, ésta es el llamado de los Antiguos Ancianos Mayas de que las puertas para construir a nuestro destino están abiertas... Los Ancianos Sabios están cansados de esperar, ellos han enviado este mensaje previamente y hoy, sabiendo la delicadeza de este año, la violencia, la locura, el cansancio de nuestra Madre Tierra que sin tener en cuenta la advertencia que ella nos ha enviado (los huracanes, inundaciones, sequías, El Tsunami, etc.) todavía estamos impasibles, destruyendo 10000 acres de bosque cada día, dejando a 100000 personas, la mayoría de ellos niños, se mueran de inanición, y para nosotros, esto es solo otras noticias que no nos afectan directamente. Hace un año el Tsunami nos aturdió, el miedo y el pánico crecieron, hoy esto es solo una memoria vaga. Sin embargo, tenemos que estar ciegos para no ver que tenemos que dar un basta a esta destrucción, hoy estamos alarmados con el invierno cruel, con las lluvias torrenciales que están saliéndose de estación, también dimos testimonio de una tormenta tropical que casi era para volverse un huracán, esto sin incluso hablar de los terremotos en todos los continentes.

Esto ya fue predicho por los Profetas y visionarios Mayas, así como el ataque a Irak (con una fecha precisa, dos años antes de que pasara), y los Ataques Terroristas (el de las Torres Gemelas, los de Francia y España, y los que vienen).

Los Ancianos Mayas están esperando eso en el lapso de los próximos dos años habrá una gran explosión de magma en el Parque Yellowstone, esta explosión tendría el efecto equivalente a la destrucción que varias bombas atómicas causarían, dando como resultado una gran materia de contaminación y polución.

También estamos esperando el ataque inminente a Siria y la posibilidad de un ataque a Irán, así como el intento de derrocar y poner fin a los Movimientos Democráticos Socialistas que están en auge en América Latina, especialmente el del Presidente Chávez en Venezuela. Las últimas predicciones, todavía podemos poner un basta, pero tenemos que usar nuestras armas poderosas, la magia interna en cada uno de nosotros, nuestras ceremonias de fuego, meditaciones y cualquier otra técnica. Es URGENTE detener la locura de la guerra.

La transcendencia del fin de este cuarto ciclo queda en el hecho que estamos una vez más en las puertas de construir a nuestro destino, la historia de la humanidad actual (la cuarta).

Las otras humanidades no tuvieron éxito con el propósito de llevar a nuestra Madre Tierra a la edad de oro, la edad de la nobleza, el amor, la igualdad, la paz, la conciencia, el Reino de Gran Espiritualidad en que cada ser tiene su espacio y valor y donde todos podemos crecer en una palabra simple, ARMONíA, que es la premisa del Mundo Maya.

Esta oportunidad maravillosa esta conectada a la Madre Tierra que como una entidad viviente, tiene la oportunidad de acceder al Quinto Cielo una vez más, esto significa vibrar en una energía más sutil gobernada por el elemento éTER. Esta oportunidad fue desperdiciada por las tres humanidades anteriores y tomó millones de años de nuevo a la Madre Tierra volver a las condiciones apropiadas.

La humanidad actual, como la anterior, ha alcanzado un desarrollo tecnológico extraordinario, pero se ha olvidado del equilibrio espiritual y la relación responsable con la Naturaleza que estamos destruyendo y contaminando cada vez más.

Esto fue predicho por los visionarios y sabios Aj'Kijab (shamanes) mayas, cada evento que está ocurriendo, las plagas, los terremotos, las inundaciones, los huracanes, deshielos, cambios de clima, guerras, virus incontrolables, la contaminación y daño que estamos causando a la Naturaleza, nuestra propia Madre, sin embargo, nosotros permanecemos pasivos como espectadores, no haciendo o diciendo algo, somos cómplices que prefieren seguir la rutina que se impone a nosotros, las ilusiones falsas que nos hacen creer que somos personas de éxito, de ese éxito que es sólo la visión de una sociedad materialista consumidora y vendemos nuestra vida con el fin de tener estas distracciones y no confrontar la realidad, desde que no tengamos el valor para entrar en nuestros egos internos y conseguir saber y aceptarnos, la cosa más importante es guardar una imagen y la competencia estéril de un impulso incontrolable para correr, esa prisa para no llegar a ninguna parte...

Nosotros tenemos la responsabilidad y posibilidad de cambiar el destino, tenemos nuestras armas, y lo que es muy importante NOSOTROS SOMOS MáS... Y nosotros no estamos hablando de violencia; nuestras armas son la meditación, las ceremonias sagradas, el pensamiento de millones de personas, el poder asombroso de la mente, creando la armonía del amor, el respeto y extendiendo la conciencia. Nosotros podemos crear la conciencia en otros, nosotros podemos hablar, escribir y demostrar que es necesario detener la destrucción, la contaminación, que tenemos que detener a los que son cómplices y que nuestra voz debe oírse, que debemos escribir a los medios de comunicación, a las personas que mueven los gobiernos, porque debemos recordar que ellos son servidores públicos y no los dueños de los países, y si ellos reciben millones de cartas y correos electrónicos, ellos tendrán que prestarnos su atención, pero recuerden justamente que la violencia no es la respuesta, no busque la respuesta en el intelecto y la fuerza, la respuesta está en el poder de su corazón...

Nosotros pensamos que poseemos la tierra... ¿ustedes la poseerán 200 años desde ahora? Los Ancianos dicen que la tierra nos posee, como una madre que nos nutre. Seamos consecuentes con ella, no permitamos que las sombras caigan de nuevo en ella...

Mensaje emitido por los Ancianos mayas en Guatemala y entregado por:

Carlos Barrios, Ajq'ij maya, Antigua, Guatemala, Adam Rubel, Codirector, Saq ' Be ': la Organización para Estudios Espirituales mayas e Indígenas. Traducido del Inglés por Jaime Fernando Gutiérrez. Carlos Barrios es un Ajq'ij Maya. Nacido en Guatemala, donde hoy vive. Carlos ha recibido una misión de los abuelos para que empiece a compartir las profecías y enseñanzas de los abuelos para que conozca el resto del mundo. Carlos vive fuera de su país para compartir muchas de estas enseñanzas y también para generar conciencia y apoyo para el rescate y preservación de la tradición ancestral Maya de su Tierra. Carlos también es autor del libro: "Kam Wuj: El Libro del Destino" un libro sobre la profecía y astrología Maya. Desafortunadamente este libro no se volvió a producir mas, pero Carlos esta escribiendo una nueva edición que luego será traducida al Ingles, "Ch'umalil Wuj: El Libro del Destino"

.

Saq' Be': Organización para Estudios Espirituales Indígenas y Mayas es una organización sin animo de lucro basada en New México, EEUU. Saq' Be' trabaja para atraer personas, en especial personas jóvenes, hacia las tradiciones ancestrales para preservación cultural y espiritual y para abrir las puertas de oportunidades para que estas tradiciones puedan compartir sus enseñanzas con el mundo. Los programas de preservación incluyen: la frecuencia de una estación de radio para la comunidad Indígena de Chichicastenago, Guatemala. Guías y apoyo para filmar documentales de los ancianos de la tradición Maya. Viajes a comunidades Indígenas en Guatemala. Viajes para los guardianes del conocimiento ancestral a los Estados Unidos y Otros Países Internacionales. Para mas información www.sacredroad.org o por email a: saqbe[at]sacredroad[dot]org.

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Atribución-NoComercial-SinDerivadas2.5 License.

Message from the Mayan Elders - February, 2006

Saturday, February 11 2006

Contributed by: Admin

http://sacredroad.org/article.php?story=2006021120273120

by Carlos Barrios

A lot has been said about this time, about the prophecies given by ancient wise visionary men. Some of the prophecies have been kept on secret books, some have been transmitted in a verbal way, others have risen in a series of books, documentaries, articles in magazines, newspapers and especially on the Internet. Some are extremely alarming, others have no basis and many are based on the Prophecies of the Great Traditions. All of them point out the prophetical times, as the Wise Chi Mam Maya, Don Pascual liked to call them.

All this information has wakened the interest of millions of people, but it has also created a lot of confusion and fear, since the date of December 21 of 2012 has been used as the date of the end of the World. However, this date points out the beginning of a new cycle, which is marked in the tradition of the Mayan Elders as a time of harmony and spiritual growing, this cycle is called the FIFTH SUN and each of the previous ones lasted 5,200 years.

The first cycle was of a feminine energy and fire was the element that ruled it.

The second cycle was of a masculine energy and earth was the element that ruled it.

The third cycle was of a feminine energy and air was the element that ruled it.

The fourth cycle was of a masculine energy and water was the element that ruled it.

The fifth cycle is of harmony between the masculine and feminine energy and the element that will rule it will be ether.

Each of these cycles last 5,200 years and they have been affected by the polarity of the masculine or feminine energy and of course they have also been affected by the elements. Today we are at the door of the end of the fourth cycle, which ends on December 20th of 2012, six years from now. During these six years we will be witnesses to the confrontation of the Negative and Positive forces, the eternal fight amongst polarity, the fight between the Eternal Fire and the Eternal Ice, as the Great Masters have named it, rough and magical times, prophetic times, as the Master, Don Pascual, would have said.

We do not have to close our eyes to be able to see who is dominating at this time, unlike of the Beings of Light, on the other side there is no doubt of who the boss is and no one argues about the grades of power, they work with an effectiveness, so effective that some of them even manage to appear as Warriors of Light.

The opposite happens with the Warriors of Light, because unfortunately most of them are spellbound with their Ego, convinced that they are the best and the carriers of the Truth, but they are only interested on their fight for power, fame and their excessive fondness for economical wealth.

Someone has to raise the Torch of Light and create consciousness; these leaders have to come back to their path. They have to find their path once again and assume the responsibility that was given to them at the time they received their grade of guide and the magical power that accompanies them, this is the calling of the Ancient Mayan Elders, of which the doors to build up our destiny are open... The Wise Elders are tired of waiting, they have sent this message previously and today, knowing the delicacy of this year, the violence, insanity, the tiredness of our Mother Earth, that regardless of the advise she has sent us (hurricanes, floods, droughts, The Tsunami, etc.) we are still impassive, destroying 10,000 acres of forest each day, letting 100,000 people, most of them children, die of starvation, and to us, this is just another news which does not affect us directly. A year ago the Tsunami stunned us, fear and panic grew, today this is just a vague memory. However, we have to be blind not to see we have to give a stop to this destruction, today we are alarmed with the cruel winter, with the torrential rains that are coming out of season, we also witnessed a tropical storm that was almost to become a hurricane, this without even speaking of the earthquakes in all the continents.

This was already predicted by the Prophets and visionary Mayans, as well as the attack to Iraq (with a precise date, two years before it happened), and the Terrorist Attacks (the one of the Twin Towers, the ones of France and Spain, and the ones to come).

The Mayan Elders are expecting that in the laps of the next two years there will be a great explosion of magma in the Yellowstone Park, this explosion would have the effect equivalent to the destruction that several atomic bombs would cause, giving as a result a great matter of contamination and pollution.

We are also expecting the imminent attack to Syria and the possibility of an attack to Iran, as well as the trying of overthrowing and putting a stop to the Socialist Democratic Movements that are rising in Latin America, specially the one of President Chavez in Venezuela. The last predictions, we can still put a stop to, but we have to use our powerful weapons, the inner magic in each of us, our fire ceremonies, meditations and any other techniques. It is URGENT to stop the madness of war.

The transcendence of the ending of this fourth cycle lies in the fact that we are once again in the doors of building up our destiny, the history of the actual humanity (the fourth).

The other humanities did not succeed with the purpose of taking our Mother Earth to the age of gold, the age of nobility, love, equality, peace, conscience, the Kingdom of Great Spirituality, in which every being has its space and value and where we can all grow in a simple word HARMONY, which is the premise of the Mayan World.

This marvelous opportunity is linked to Mother Earth, who as a living entity, has once again the chance of acceding to the Fifth Sky, this means to vibrate on a more subtle energy ruled by the element ETHER. This opportunity was wasted by the three previous humanities and it took Mother Earth millions of years to redo the proper conditions again.

The actual humanity, like the previous, has reached an extraordinary technological development, but it has forgotten the spiritual balance and the responsible relationship with Nature, which we are destroying and polluting more and more each time.

This was predicted by the visionary and wise Mayan Aj'Kijab (shamans), every event that is occurring, the plagues, earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, thaws, weather changes, wars, uncontrollable viruses, the contamination and damage we are causing Nature, our own Mother, however, we remain passive as spectators, not doing or saying anything, we are accomplices who rather follow the routine that is imposed to us, the fake illusions that make us believe that we are people of success, of that success that is only the vision of a consumer materialist society and we sell our life in order to have this distractions and not confront reality, since we do not have the courage to go into our inner selves and get to know and accept us, the most important thing is to keep an image and the sterile competence of an uncontrollable urge to run, that rush to get nowhere...

We have the responsibility and possibility to change the destiny, we have our weapons, and what is most important WE ARE MORE... And we are not talking violence; our weapons are meditation, sacred ceremonies, the thought of millions of people, the amazing power of mind, creating the harmony of love, respect and spreading conscience. We can create conscience in others, we can speak, write and demonstrate that it is necessary to stop the destruction, the contamination, that we have to stop being accomplices and that our voice should be heard, that we should write to the media, to the people that run the governments, for we should remember that they are public servants and not owners of the countries, and if they receive millions of letters and e-mails, they will have to give us their attention, but lets just remember that violence is not the answer, do not look for the answer on the intellect and the strength, the answer is in the power of your heart...

We think we own the earth... Will you own it 200 years form now? Elders say the earth owns us, as a mother that nurtures us. Lets be consequent to her, lets not let the shadows fall again on her...

Carlos Barrios is a Mayan Ajq'ij, who originates from and resides in Guatemala. Carlos has been given the mission by his elders to begin sharing the prophecies and teachings of the Mayan peoples with the rest of the world. Carlos travels internationally to share these teachings and to generate awareness and support for the rescue and preservation of the ancient Mayan tradition in his homeland. Carlos is also the author of "Ch'umalil Wuj: El Libro del Destino", a book on the astrology and prophecies of the Mayan peoples.

Saq' Be': Organization for Mayan and Indigenous Spiritual Studies is a non profit organization based in New Mexico, US. Saq' Be' works to bring people, especially young adults, together with ancient traditions for the purpose of cultural and spiritual preservation and to open the doors of opportunity for those traditions to share their teachings with the rest of the world. More information can be found at: www.SacredRoad.org, or by email at: saqbe[at]sacredroad[dot]org.

Zapatistas: Revolutionary Women's Laws

Zapatista Women

"Women have been the most exploited . . . We get up at three in the morning to prepare corn for our husband's breakfast and we don't rest until late at night. If there is not enough food we give it to our children and our husbands first. So the women now have decided to take up arms and become Zapatistas." -Comandante Ramona, EZLN

Indigenous women make up almost a third of the Zapatista army. They go to the hills to join because of their need to help in the fight for their homes and because they know that that the EZLN is committed to equal rights for men and women and will not tolerate sexism within their ranks.

The EZLN has come up with comprehensive laws concerning women. The following are the ten Revolutionary Women's Laws:

Women, regardless of their race, creed, color, or political affiliation, have the right to participate in the revolutionary struggle in a way determined by their desire and ability.

Women have the right to work and receive a fair salary.

Women have the right to decide the number of children they will bear and care for.

Women have the right to participate in the affairs of the community and to hold positions of authority if they are freely and democratically elected.

Women and their children have the right to primary attention in the matters of health and nutrition.

Women have the right to education.

Women have the right to choose their partner and are not to be forced into marriage.

Women shall not be beaten or physically mistreated by their family members or by strangers. Rape and attempted rape will be severely punished.

Women will be able to occupy positions of leadership in the organization and to hold military ranks in the revolutionary armed forces.

Women will have all the rights and obligations elaborated in the revolutionary laws and regulations.

Although most of these items seem like basic rights, most women in Chiapas do not have these rights given to them. Abuses against women are widespread and frequent all over Mexico. While the Zapatista women are granted these rights, the majority of women are subjected to practices that are barbaric. Since 1994, there have been 684 documented cases of assaults on women and children, including over 300 rapes, mostly by government forces.

The Right to be Anywhere on This Continent

Comments on immigrants from Native Americans

By Roberto Rodriguez & Patrisia Gonzales

Along the U.S.-Mexico border, the body count continues to pile up daily. Meanwhile, the Minutemen patrol the U.S.-Mexico border and shameless politicians find it easy to denounce illegal immigration as the cause of all the nation’s problems – including linking it with “the war on terror.”

Amidst all the clatter, the only views not being heard are the ones that matter most. Thus here, we bring you a truly historic column, featuring the views of those that have come before us to these lands: American Indians.

“The immigration issues are many and are so very complex; however, we cannot have a productive dialogue about anything when we begin the conversation, thinking it is "us against them" or when the "truth" is only half true or we only use rhetoric to back our claims. We can't resolve any of these complex issues if we label our neighbor as an "immigrant" and not as a relative, friend or human being.”

Nadine Tafoya, friend and colleague

Mescalero Apache -Salt River Pima -Maricopa

“I feel that as Native Peoples of the Americas, we have the right to be anywhere on this continent as we have for generations. To hear people telling my relatives that they are "illegal aliens" and criminals and to get out of our own land is very disturbing!”

Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart, PhD

President/Director, The Takini Network

“Indigenous peoples haven't known any borders. Colonial borders are new. It's ironic that essentially white men of privilege who created the category of white - that it is they who determine who gets permitted into our lands.”

Winona LaDuke, founding director,

White Earth Land Recovery Project

“From the point of view of the laws of the indigenous nations of North America, the Europeans are the original illegal immigrants in the area of North America. The United States… has, for more than 200 years, methodically and militarily violated indigenous law, and even solemn treaties, in order to take over and occupy the vast majority of the lands of Indigenous nations and peoples.… it is hypocritical in the extreme for the people of the United States to now pretend that it is paragon of virtue, and a country that has always conducted itself on the basis of the rule of law.”

Indian Law Scholar, Steven Newcomb

“The movement to try to force the Mexican people to learn the English

language and the culture and traditions of America to stay in this country may not be totally successful. I can tell you from firsthand experience that when the federal government tried to strip me of my language and traditions, it did only a partial job, because of my resistance to being subdued. Today I am glad I have retained my culture, traditions and the Keres language, for that is where my heart and soul belong….

Katheirne Augustine - Laguna Pueblo,

retired nurse, excerpts from Albq Tribune

“Too bad WE didn't think of insisting that European arrivals speak OUR language. We'd all be speaking Ojibwemowin right now.”

Patty Loew

Assoc. Prof., UW-Madison

“In an important and emphatic way, the indigenous peoples of the Americas are reclaiming their continent, whether with the ballot, by boat, by air, or on foot. Let us call it repatriation on the march.”

Shirley Hill Witt,

Coauthor, El Indio Jesus

“The white supremacists masquerading as patriots are building a fence at the southern border to keep out the brown people. Notice that they aren't building a fence at the northern border… Recall too that the 9-11 terrorists were here legally, complete with freakin' flyer numbers. I'm for all the Native people to have cross-border privileges up and down our hemisphere, and would close the borders against all the peoples from other places who look down on us.”

Suzan Shown Harjo - Cheyenne & Hodulgee Muscogee

Dir., Morning Star Institute

“The argument used by the Minute Men, that their mission is to keep terrorists out of the U.S., cannot be ignored: With terrorist training camps recently found just north of the U.S.-Canadian border, their mission makes little sense and gives weight to my belief that the Minuteman movement is clearly racist. So is the new U.S. policy to keep our southern relatives out by militarizing the border to the south. Not that troops are wanted on the northern border either, but why send 6,000 troops to the southern border when no terrorists ever have been detained there?”

JoKay Dowell, Quapaw-Peoria-Cherokee, OK

Eagle and Condor Indigenous Peoples' Alliance

“Indigenous peoples are brothers and sisters, regardless of which side of the line drawn in the desert sand they are from. Our historic relations pre-date any European conquest. Our 'free trade' was much less conflictual, and was on more of an equal basis. Corporate 'free trade' is the driving force behind American politics and international actions…. It continues to be, contradictory to the interests of humanity.”

woliwon chi miigwech,

Karen S., Ypsilanti

“Are 'immigrants' the appropriate designation for the indigenous peoples of North America, for enslaved Africans and for the original European settlers? No. Are 'immigrants' the appropriate designation for Mexicans who migrate for work to the United States? No. They are migrant workers crossing a border created by US military force. Many crossing that border now are also from Central America, from the small countries that were ravaged by US military intervention in the 1980s and who also have the right to make demands on the United States. So, let's stop saying 'this is a nation of immigrants.' “

Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz – mixed-Cherokee

activist, professor, writer

“… False and violent borders have been imposed upon our many peoples and upon the landscape, dissecting our Mother Earth, our home continent, in two and attempting to sever our deep connection with the land, and with each other… We maintain our recognition and respect for all our Indigenous brothers and sisters of the Western Hemisphere, with whom we traded, learned from, loved and laughed with for a millennia. We are Indigenous, of this place on Mother Earth, called Turtle Island, the Middle Place, Abya Yala and the Fourth World. And we remain bonded together forever, knowing ourselves as the K'iche and Karuk, Saraguro and Cheyenne, the Cherokee, Xicano and Chumash, we are all relations.”

Tia Peters

Zuni, Seventh Generation Fund

“If America is a shining beacon of hope for legal immigrants perhaps the laws should be adjusted to make it a reality for the illegal immigrants. They also see America as a place where dreams can be lived. Ironically, most of the illegal immigrants are Indians, or Indios as they are known in Mexico, and in Central and South America. Most of their ancestors did not come over on the Mayflower or on the Spanish galleons. They were indigenous to the Western Hemisphere.”

Tim Giago, president

Native American Journalists Foundation

“Americans can say, surely not with pride, that our country knows from centuries of personal experience how unchecked immigration devastates life and why it's an issue that deserves the best of our thinking and empathy. These are thoughts that cross some of our minds when we hear rhetoric about the so-called invasion of illegal immigrants (many of whom are -- gasp -- Indians) and calls to protect "our" land. If we smile in response, it's not so much out of agreement. We see a payback coming home to roost.”

David House - mixed Cherokee/Scots-Irish

Fort Worth Star-Telegram

“It's never been clear to me why animosity exists toward today's immigrants, considering the founding fathers arrived as immigrants. Are today's anti-immigration voices afraid of a new Manifest Destiny?

… Many Native prophecies foretell the demise of U.S. indigenous people from European invaders. But the stories also speak of a time when the land will be reclaimed by indigenous people.”Perhaps the time has come.”

Jodi Rave reports on Native issues for Lee Enterprises.

On Haudenosaunee citizenship & naturalization:

“Naturalization was not race-based as the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) granted citizenship to other ethnic groups. Once a person became a Haudenosaunee citizen they were expected to discard any previous connection to their birth nation. They had to speak an Iroquoian language, dress as Iroquois, contribute to the security of their host nation and provide for the well being of their new families and communities though a host of activities ranging from hunting, fishing, food preparation and home building. They took part in the elaborate ceremonies which defined Haudenosaunee spirituality and were given extensive instruction into the history, customs and beliefs of their new nation.

In the end, the Haudenosaunee people expected the new citizen to undergo an almost complete transformation; physically, mentally and spiritually. This process worked extremely well… [it] secured our survival and provided for our prosperity....”

Doug George-Kanentiio

Mohawk writer

The Popul Vuh– one of the most important books ever written on this continent -- offers us a valuable lesson and roadmap about migration disputes. The volatile conflicts among the Maya finally ended when those who were new to the land accepted those who were here before them as their guides. In this spirit, we do the same. So too should the general public, Congress and the president.

* Feel free to send us your views at XColumn@gmail.com

Video Game Genocide

by Xiuhcoatl of Aztlan Rising

The recent debate over immigration has nothing to do with terrorism or border security. Immigration “reform” in America is driven by widespread xenophobia, the colonizer’s mentality and plain old racism.

Now, with Minutemen on the border and the President promising National Guard deployment there, anti-Mexican sentiment and reactionary xenophobia in this country has been turned into a video game. “Border Patrol,” developed by neo-Nazi Tom Metzger, puts the player in the role of a hunter/murderer who patrols the border. The objective: “Keep them out…at any cost!” “Them,” means the “wetbacks” trying to cross the border from Mexico.

As if the mere concept of a game that requires you to shoot indigenous migrants were not insulting enough, Metzger identified each character with a common stereotype of Mexican people.

The “Mexican nationalist” holds a Mexican flag and totes two guns as he runs across the river. The “drug smuggler” carries a bag of marijuana on his back. The most offensive target is the “breeder,” a pregnant Mexican woman who lugs two children behind her. In true neo-Nazi fashion, the author exhibits an obvious lack of respect for all women, identifying those who give us life with the label of an animal. In this scene the game credits you with four “kills” – one for the mother, one for each child, and one for the unborn baby.

This “kill them all” mentality isn’t mere fantasy – it’s Western history relived on a video screen. No game better illustrates the point than “Gun,” set in the American Old West. Colton White, a hunter turned gunslinger, must kill Apache Indians in order to “advance.” As White, you slaughter the Apache people, scalping as many as you can with your “scalping knife.” The message of these games is clear – genocide against indigenous people is still accepted and encouraged in the US.

Since the introduction of movies in the US, indigenous people have been portrayed as villains, savages, rivals of righteous white cowboys against whom anything goes. Today, we see the same relationship in the struggle between the “upright” white police officer and brown skinned gang members. Racism against Indians has always been commonplace, but these “games” take it to new proportions.

The purpose of the games is threefold: as a recruitment tool for hate groups, they portray people of color as sub-human; they serve to desensitize the public and potential recruits to very real crimes against humanity, like mass deportations, hate crimes and mass incarceration; if the people can be numbed to this brutality and convinced that the targets are sub-human, the next step will be one we have seen before – genocide.

Europeans colonists engaged in the wholesale slaughter and enslavement of Indians and of Africans with no remorse. 100 million Native Americans – our ancestors - and 100 million Africans were ultimately killed at the hands of white colonialists and slavers. European culture was desensitized to these atrocities by the dehumanization of non-whites. This condition is known as the colonizer’s mentality, and it is recreated, and meant to be recreated, in the mind of everyone playing these “games.”

The neo-Nazi “National Alliance,” creators of the video game Ethnic Cleansing, know this all too well. Ethnic Cleansing encourages you to play a skinhead or a noose-wielding Klan member. You patrol the streets of a city which has been devastated by gangs of “sub-humans.” From the words of the creators, you “run through the ghetto blasting away various blacks and spics.”

Ethnic cleansing in the US is not an implausible course. The government is already building concentration camps for migrants. Soon, the law will allow them stop anybody on the streets with brown skin to ask for proof of citizenship. We have been stripped of our rights by the Patriot Act. The American Indian holocaust is very real; it has endured the test of time, and it continues, both in the real world and in the media. These “games” are nothing but video genocide.

Immigration: A Nation of Colonists – and Race Laws

By Juan Santos

You hear it everywhere. Even from Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner, author of the vicious anti-migrant legislation that has polarized the US.

“We are a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws,” he says.

And like almost everyone else, he’s got it wrong.

The original Europeans in what is now the US were not immigrants, but colonists. And the US is not a nation of immigrants - it is a white colonial settler state, like South Africa under Apartheid, the former Rhodesia, Australia and Israel.

And like those states the US has always operated on a sometimes hidden, sometimes overt system of Apartheid.

Like those places, the US is a nation of colonists – and race laws.

It is a place where white colonists arrived, seized the land, and dispossessed, exterminated or attempted to exclude the original “non-white” peoples – all of them.

They did so at the point of a gun - by open terror and genocide, which was the precursor and the necessary pre-condition of European “immigration.” And, of course, they didn’t only use guns and overt terror. Where “necessary,” they operated by “law.”

Let me prove the point. It’s simple. We all know the facts.

In the US, Native Americans were dispossessed, subjected to mass murder, and locked on separate, Apartheid-style “reservations.” So it stands today.

Africans were enslaved, and once “freed,” they were subjected first to Jim Crow, then, when that proved no longer advisable, Jim Crow was transformed into the mass terror of mass incarceration and permanent Apartheid-style ghetto-ization. So it stands today.

The Indian nation of Mexico was conquered in a racist war of aggression by the US in 1848. The only debate in the days of “Manifest Destiny” was not whether to seize Mexican / Indian land, only how much of it to seize, and what to do to keep the Mexicans out of what had been stolen.

Two choices were before them. These were the terms of the debate: take the whole nation and lock the people on reservations, or take as much land – with as few Mexicans – as possible. Thus the border was established through a race war, through brute and overtly racist violence. The border is an Apartheid Wall. So it stands today.

The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was the first significant law restricting immigration into the United States.

The Act claimed that “the coming of Chinese laborers to this country endangers the good order of certain localities within the territory” of the US – the same racist rhetoric used today against other Brown people. Like HR4377, the current notorious immigration bill, the Chinese Exclusion Act made it illegal for “any Chinese laborer to come, or… to remain within the United States.” So it stands today. Only the immediate target of the law has changed.

Every group the US has sought to eliminate or exclude has been a people of color.

The logic is simple.

Allow entry or citizenship for those who can be “assimilated” into the colonists’ culture – those who can become loyal colonists themselves – and exclude the “Other” - those who are the targets of colonialism – those whose land, cultures, bodies and souls must be sacrificed for the colonists to remain dominant and for their system to function.

Immigration law has always been race law in the US.

As far back as 1790 the Federal government ruled that the right to become a naturalized citizen was reserved to "free white persons."

So it remained until 1952. Until then the Supreme Court repeatedly determined exactly which migrants might be considered “free” and “white,” as applicants of various ethnic backgrounds sought to become citizens.

Today, “The Nation of Immigrants” theme is struck to avoid the historical and cultural truth. Europeans – who could be assimilated to colonial culture – were allowed entrance en masse.

But there was a “stark division,” as Haney Lopez reminds us, based on skin color.

“This stark division necessarily also carried important connotations regarding, for example, agency, moral authority, intelligence, and belonging,” he writes. “To be unfit for naturalization--that is, to be non-White--implied a certain degeneracy of intellect, morals, self-restraint, and political values; to be suited for citizenship--to be White--suggested moral maturity, self assurance, personal independence, and political sophistication.”

In other words, those “unfit” for citizenship were the colonized. The description Lopez offers for the “unfit” matches precisely the characteristics ascribed to colonized peoples by European imperialists and settlers for hundreds of years.

It also matches the racist stereotypes offered today of immigrants from areas south of the US border with Mexico, who Congressman Sensenbrenner has referred to as degenerate “alien gang members terrorizing communities.”

But the racial subtext around immigration is not a subtext. It is the text itself.

Before Europe could “immigrate,” someone else had to be removed. Before there was land to settle it must be stolen. Before anyone could be “free and white” someone else had to be “non-white” – and enslaved. Before “Americans” could become “Americans,” “Latin Americans” – who are overwhelmingly Original Americans – had to become something else – “Latinos,” “Hispanic,” the not-Native – the Alien.

The Illegal Alien.

In a stunning bit of triple think the Natives, who knew no borders, became “Aliens,” while Europeans became “Americans,” and “Americans” became “Natives,” while the Original Americans became “foreign” infiltrators and lawbreakers bent on who-knows-what brand of “terrorism” against “innocent” colonists, or if you prefer, “Americans.”

Or “Settlers.”

Or is it “Afrikaaners.”

Take your pick.

The Six Nations Confederation - the Iroquois, or Hau De No Sau Nee - wrote in their classic Basic Call to Consciousness that colonialism means “to be controlled from afar,” that “colonialism is the process by which we are systematically confused,” and that confusion is “an agent of control.”

Like this.

“We are a nation of immigrants, and laws.”

But sometimes someone slips, forgets the double talk, and makes the agenda clear. They don’t mean for us to overhear, but they can’t help themselves.

In his mercilessly racist article Are We Really a Nation of Immigrants?, Lawrence Auster slips. He writes, “…throughout its history the United States has been a member of Western civilization—in religion overwhelmingly Christian… in race… overwhelmingly white, in language English. Why shouldn’t those little historical facts be at least as important in determining our immigration policy as the pseudo-fact that we’re all ‘descended from immigrants?’” (FrontPagemagazine.com).

Auster, and David Horowitz’ Front Page Magazine, want one thing; they know what it is, and they’re willing to tell you. They want a white nation. They slipped.

The many who write diatribes and hate mail on the theme of “What part of ILLEGAL don’t you UNDERSTAND?!” also slip.

We understand “illegal” perfectly well.

Conquest of territory in wars of aggression is illegal under international law. The US occupation of most Native land and all of the occupied sections of Mexico is illegal. The presence of the conquering people, the usurpation of the land itself is illegal. The colonists themselves are illegal aliens.

But, for the Right, it’s not really about some imaginary adherence to a just, neutral system of “law.”

It’s about race law and white privilege.

And race law, codified on paper or not, is deeply codified in white people’s expectations about their place in society, and some of them are getting dangerously edgy about having “their” land – their turf – stepped on by Brown people.

On the web site of the anti-Mexican hate group Save Our State, a correspondent calling themselves “USA Today” writes:

“To be honest we are heading for a Balkinization and a racial cleansing

I know its not politicly correct to say so but I think lots of folks see it coming and I'll bet the vast majority of Americans would have no problem with genocide as a last resort to save this country , Usually when you back somebody into a corner they will defend themselves by any means ........get it ?

Does this sound like something you would hear the nazis say? sure it is but I spend lots of time scanning the forums and blogs and its coming from normal , everyday people that are just about fed up with the whole mess.

I know a large number of Germans didn't agree with hitler but they didn't exactly act against him either.

Just keep pushing and pretty soon you'll find the American people in a corner.

On that day, Beware.”

People who think like this are the social, cultural and political base of politicians like Jim Sensenbrenner.

They are classic colonists, with the colonizer’s outlook. For them, mere “immigration” is impossible. Their “forefathers” conquered the land, so those coming here must be out to “re-conquer” the land – to take it back from them.

These are the true inheritors of the American Dream, a dream which, for the colonized, has been nothing but a nightmare.

They intend to defend that nightmare – no matter what it takes.

That’s what “immigration reform” and “immigration control” are really all about.

Colonialism.

And the race laws that defend it.

In the Spirit of the Ancestors:

Reconciling Post Tribal Stress Disorder

by Patrisia Gonzales

Patzin (Nahuatl for Venerable Medicine):

a monthly feature on indigenous medicine

Column of the Americas May 1, 2006

I once heard an Ojibwa woman tell a group of Chicanos working on indigenous liberation that our ancestors did what they had to, to survive.

Our indigenous ancestors survived by passing as Mexicans or mestizos, or being defined away as mestizos by governments. And many married mestizos. As a result, the Mexican community is a pan indigenous community comprised of native peoples of both Mexico and North America.

Indigeneity became private and individualized in families. They survived by hiding the indigenous knowledge so deeply that some of us could no longer recognize it. Some were taught to forget and to fear and disconnect from our place in the natural world and the power of nature within our own hands. There was no need for the Inquisition once forced conversion could be regulated by the community itself.

Choctaw scholar Karina Walters says that part of historical trauma was established through forced conversion and separating people away from their original instructions, the ancestral agreements and covenants about how to treat each other and how to honor their responsibilities to the natural world.

I believe that among those defined as mestizos many suffer from PTSD or Post Tribal Stress Disorder. I use this term to refer to the suffering and afflictions that result from de-Indianization. Invariably, there is someone who remembers in their family that they are Indian. Or they will recount how one of their grandparents told them to never forget, "we are Indian." But like historical trauma, not all suffer the soul wound of de-Indianization.

Part of their historical trauma is the void where there should be remembrance of the names of our ancestors and nations. They are the other disappeared of the Americas, by the processes of social control.

Some argue that mestizos are like a brown clay pot, emptied of a native spirit that was claimed by impositions. Others argue mestizos indigenized Spanish culture and that it is, in fact, only a shallow topsoil that covers indigenous Mexico, which is indigenous in the spaces also claimed as mestizo or urban. We are another kind of Indian that does not fit into the current boxes on identity.

Many scholars concur that Mesoamerica's indigenous legacy remains in traditional agriculture and Mexican traditional medicine - and protective factors against disconnection. Zapata asserted that the land belongs to those who work it -- Mexicans still work the land and have relationships with this natural world. But many are taught to deny their Indianness, to even hate it. A Kickapoo elder once recounted to me how a group of Mexican kids in Coahuilla, Mexico, got mad when he proclaimed to them, "you're Indian."

Those people identified as mestizo, Hispanic, or Latino suffer from a particular kind of historical trauma. They are told that they are both the oppressed and the oppressor. Many Mexicans are largely Indian by heritage and do not descend from Spanish colonialists, and when they do, it may be through rape or forced marriage, such as with one of my Kickapoo grandmothers. It is hard to determine who is the we/they, who of the relatives were/are the mestizos who benefited from controlling the Indian. The Mexican (read Bolivian, Ecuadorian etc.) community has been in a constant process of de-Indianization and each family has its own particular relationship to that process.

In my work, I identify some symptoms of PTSD:

1.Anehlos -- a feeling of longing and that something is missing.

2. Cracked mirror --a feeling that something wants to break through, or break open and that your sight is refracted from cracks in perception, with some parts distorted and others clear.

3. Rejection -- feeling rejected by Latinos and mestizos as being too Indian and by some Native Americans as almost or maybe Indian, but then again not really (while others welcome you as cousins, brothers or sisters.)

4. Loss-mourning the loss of ancestors, nations and the spiritual teachings that were wrested away and in which you had no say or control.

Fortunately, there are numerous native elders working with, or in, these communities as people resist de-Indianization, particularly the more recent indigenous migrants from the southern hemisphere. Some people argue that mestizos and Latinos should accept their historical conditions, that they have no right to renew or strengthen their indigeneity. Yet, that goes against the spirit of self-determination. If we could hear them speak in the spirit world, would they not ask for their children to return? to fight? to renew knowledge in the spirit of their ancestors? To do otherwise, is to accept colonization, something no community, native or not, can justify as an acceptable human
condition. To proclaim their Indianness, someone once said, is the biggest paradigm shift since the Spanish debated whether Indians had souls.

2006 Column of the Americas

XColumn@gmail.com - 608-238-3161 or Column of the Americas, PO BOX 5093
Madison WI 53705.

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