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13 de Septiembre, 2006
Thoughts for Miércoles
Categorized under Palabras | Tags:
THERE IS NO CHICANISMO DECIDER. Nobody defines what is true for all Chican@s. There is no one person who can tell you what to do to be a True Xican@, to be Truly Brown, to be Real As a Only the Realest Mexican@ /Latin@ /Boriqua /Boriqueño, etc@'s are; nobody to run to when you want to know if you need an image of Lady Guadalupe that is five inches tall, or one that is life-size, or if you need one at all. There is no blogger, and there is no published writer, and there is no University Professor who knows enough to dictate this. It can not be María Herrera-Sobek, Lorna Dee Cervantes, or Sandra Cisneros; nor is it Carlos Fuentes, Juan Felipe Herrera, Francisco X. Alarcón, or Corky Gonzales. And though these people have many things to say on the struggle, or journey of Chicanismo, I don't find them taking such a stance. Although online, I have found some otherwise intelligent people who do try to lay down the unequivocal law on What It Means to Be ———.
A true movement happens organically, when people with similar goals and visions come together as if by magic. And it is a magic. It is the magic of love, and destiny, and truth. It might be called by a million names, but when there is need, people will find each other. They will find their voices, and they will choose their words. They will become leaders and soldiers and thinkers and singers and healers and planners rising from a necessity, or a calling.
There will always be certain voices that pretend to be showing the way to Unity, but are instead a force of division. I would be wary of voices that proclaim with inflexibility How to Be a Real Patriot, or How to Be a True Chicano, or What the Actual Feminist Thinks.
That said, there are voices that help to educate us, or have that potential, as we travel our own path. I have found it useful to gather wisdom from many sources. Some I have listed by name above. And I have found many others, and hope to find many more. Sometimes these voices are found in published print or sound media. Sometimes they are found in everyday life. But always defined and finally integrated and approved by myself. It is in the heart where any decision of belonging must be made—one's own heart.
And there is a reaction today amongst Chican@s today. We are being called, are we not? Do you feel it? I do. A return to unity, to our histories, to truth, and to Chican@ identity. Mi corazón y mi vida y mis manos para esto fin. I am part of that reaction. I do not think I am alone, and signs make me feel I am right in this thought. While some people call it "reactive ethnicity," I say inventing a label is another way of burping to music; sometimes you can do it in time, and sometimes you're just feeding yourself leftovers. I say this movimiento is part of a big wheel, one that does not grind corn, but grinds out Truth, given enough revolutions.
My story is the story of many others. We are uniting and self-identifying and self-affiliating; we are supporting each other, we are using our buying power and our speaking power and our loving power to help guide each other into a force. I am not here to define what purpose this force will serve. Despite the article above, which ends on a note of pro-homogeneity, I do not claim to know the end result of such changes. But I do know that wherever true power arises, there will be resistance. A will to drive that power back, to keep the status quo as such. I don't know what shape this conflict will exist. But I am ready for it, should it manifest. And I bring my war with all my love.
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Comentarios (10)
nezua limón xolagrafik-jonez dijo:
Sombrero tip to Reenee and Leesee, who posted on a couple things that got me thinking.
Also, any reader who wants to offer their personal experience with writers who address the Chican@/Latin@ experience, or give names of good books, please feel free to drop these in the comments,
Graz—
09.13.06 - 9:23 am
Palabras por nezua limón xolagrafik-jonez spat forth on el 4 de Enero, 2007 at 07:52 AM
Ernest M. Saenz dijo:
Simon, no one can tell you exactly what it takes to be a Chicano, but some can tell you what is not a Chicano.
I enjoyed reading your page, wish you had an RSS feed to hook you up to our network.
09.13.06 - 4:25 pm
Palabras por Ernest M. Saenz spat forth on el 4 de Enero, 2007 at 07:53 AM
nezua limón xolagrafik-jonez dijo:
Ernest, thanks. I really appreciate that.
On the feed thing, I don't know tons about them, (and I know there is a lot of junk on my sidebar), but if you scroll down, you see toward the bottom (faster to just scroll all the way down and then roll back up slow) a tiny "XML" icon and one above it says "feed." Two different feeds there. Does that help?
And I am very open to others' people's experience. Any other Chicano/Chicana has things I can learn about this path, and I am grateful to hear their stories.
Thanks again, man.
09.13.06 - 4:39 pm
Palabras por nezua limón xolagrafik-jonez spat forth on el 4 de Enero, 2007 at 07:54 AM
Leesee dijo:
Gracias, it is always a joy to read what you write. I feel as though the next generation will kick some serious butt because the struggle never ends.
Adelante soldados!
09.13.06 - 5:17 pm
Palabras por Leesee spat forth on el 4 de Enero, 2007 at 07:55 AM
nezua limón xolagrafik-jonez dijo:
Yeah man. Here's to the next generation. We can help them kick ass, too. We owe it to younger people to educate, as I see it. Bring what we have learned and learned to see through in our time. Educate by trying our best to be who we ought to be, want to be, should be. Help them see through the mire of blowback and disinfo that exists out there. Mostly, try not to steal their wonder and sense of hope too much with this mess that we get so used to living in. And then, check out that wonder, right? Let it rejuvenate us, too.
But I wouldn't give up on my generation yet! I hope we have a lot more we can do. Dang, chica. I ain't dead over here!
09.13.06 - 5:29 pm
Palabras por nezua limón xolagrafik-jonez spat forth on el 4 de Enero, 2007 at 07:56 AM
??? dijo:
Hi Nezua,
Thanks for getting me thinking for the day.
Have you read "Borderlands"? A few Chican@s have written on the issue of definition (or lack of) of the term Chican@. Although, I think some good critiques have been offered by Native Americans as well. Maybe because they are well aware that giving this land (I live in CA) back to Mexico will not solve their problems (or ours). They will just be oppressed by a different county (that was also created through colonialism). Moreover, the Native Americans in Mexico are treated in a very similar way to Chicanos, Native Americans, Black people in the U.S.
If you are a Nahua person in Mexico, you cannot sing the Mexican National anthem in Nahuatl.
A lot of Chican@s (including myself) attempt to learn to speak Nahuatl. I used to think that this was Azteccentric (as oppose to Mayancentric). In truth, it is not even Azteccentric. The Hopi are decendants of the Aztecs as well and we are not learning their language. Why? Because it is on the 'wrong' side of the border? Should we be Mexican nationalists? Do we feel more connected to Native people in Mexico? I don't know...
I hear there is an interesting film about how Nahuatl and Hopi language are so similar that if you speak Nahuatl fluently you can understand Hopi. Yet, we still believe speaking Nahuatl will make us more Chican@ as oppose to Hopi (or Mohawk or Yucatec Mayan etc.).
If we ask what is it to be a Chican@ we must first ask "what are we resisting?" America or all colonialism? or something else?
I don't have the answer to any of my questions. And I'm too young to try. Maybe in a few years.
I like that you write about magic. There is a social theorist (whose name I can't remember) who writes that magic is created in the 'in between.' Many Chican@s feel that this luminality is their defining characteristic. They are in between.
thank you for you blog. i like it a lot.
09.13.06 - 6:13 pm
Palabras por ??? spat forth on el 4 de Enero, 2007 at 07:57 AM
nezua limón xolagrafik-jonez dijo:
Thank you very much for all your words, anonymous amigo. Great stuff to think on...you've got me thinking right back. And I am writing "Borderlands" down on my list. También, Nahuatl is also on my list, and has been since I started riffing off some thoughts my old man spun.
I enjoyed your information on the Nahua, I've got to learn more. So much to know about so many things, even my own background....But it's a journey I enjoy.
And again, the questions you offer are great guides. Gracias one mo' time.
09.13.06 - 6:31 pm
Palabras por nezua limón xolagrafik-jonez spat forth on el 4 de Enero, 2007 at 07:58 AM
reenee dijo:
Yo, leesee...if the next generation kicks butt as well as we do then we did our job.
and nezua, thanks for the tip of the sombrero.
09.13.06 - 9:27 pm
Palabras por reenee spat forth on el 4 de Enero, 2007 at 07:58 AM
??? dijo:
Anonymous poster strikes again.
Nezua,
Since you added "Borderlands" to your list I thought you might also like "The Travels of Chicana and Latina Popular Culture: Loca Motion" by Michelle Habell-Pallan.
Habell-Pallan writes about Latinos in Rock/punk/multi-media. She used to be (is?) a Chicana punk and seeks to shed some light on Chican@s that have distorted Chican@ identity politics (for the better) and redefined 'white' sub-cultural norms (using them as a tool to challenge power dynamics). I'm reading it now and it feels like a fresh look into the meaning of Chican@ subversity/revolutionary theory.
Also, I was born in 1981 so let me assure your other posters that yes, the 'new' generation kicks ass.
09.14.06 - 3:26 am
Palabras por ??? spat forth on el 4 de Enero, 2007 at 07:59 AM
nezua limón xolagrafik-jonez dijo:
anónim@, it sounds like a very interestin' read, and I will write it down for sure. thanks again!
well i can tell you kick ass, and i have no doubt that it is because of your heart! i am not down so much with thinking about generations and hours of tomorrow and sections like that. i don't really feel that in my bones. there is a chican@ born every year between my father and myself, and one every year between me and you. i don't know this "Generation," i just know people, myself, you, hearts, hands, minds. i suppose these terms are a way, for some, thinking about their children carrying on. i can understand that. but otherwise, i am not done, and i am not handing any work off to anyone else. we all have work to do! and i guess we do it as long as it moves us.
thanks for comin' round with yo bad self and ya info!
09.14.06 - 8:08 am
Palabras por nezua limón xolagrafik-jonez spat forth on el 4 de Enero, 2007 at 07:59 AM