Re OCT29 I AM A CHICANO OF MEXICAN DESCENT!: Peta de Aztlan

http://peta-de-aztlan.blogspot.com/2005/12/re-oct29-i-am-chicano-of-mexican.html
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Hola Xico and All ~ Gracias for sharing and caring. You have a lot you can teach all of us. I think I remember seeing a blogspot that you or your group had. Where is it at? I found this ~

A Flash Art Exhibit "ARTE REVOLTOSO" By Xico González
September 30th through November 5th, 2005
http://www.galeriaposada.org/flashart.shtml

This OCT29 List has not evolved into much of an organized movement but it is an interesting list and some good has come of it. I am going to develop a personal blogspot for keeping track of stuff one of these days. I am not sure how to find the archives for this List and its archives can be cumbersome anyways.

Your post brought back a lot of nostalgic memories of times, events and personalities of what seems like light years ago. We were once rabid wolves under orders and ready to pounce on anything that moved… expecting to die in a shoot out on any given day guns blazing and the revolution was going to start at 5 PM on Friday! Some of our best leaders are long gone, others have gotten sucked into the System and some have forgotten who they once were. We are now in the New Millennium and as far as we have come we still have so so far to go! Time is sacred.

I am first and foremost a humane being, know who I am and remember that we are all products of history. However, I do have several cultural identities I still relate to, including being a Chicano!

On my paternal side, my bloodline goes back to Geronimo {Chiricahua Apache} who was not an actual tribal Chief, more of a Warrior-Chief or Head Warrior. Another family wing of mine was Chief of a Sonoran Yaqui Tribe that was the only one NOT conquered by the Spaniards.

Alas, so much of our own personal histories has been lost forever. Nowadays, I see that it is extremely important that we leave distinctive landmarks behind for future generations. When we remember where we have been we can better understand where we are at and make clear plans for the future with history as a guide to action.

On my maternal side, my Abuelo Rafael Perez was a miner who became a soldier with Pancho Villa in Zacotecas, Mexico and my Abuela Lupe Fernandez was in the first Red Cross there and treated the wounded. She had a few stories that she passed down to us!

I was born in Sacra in ‘51 atwhat was then called the County Hospital {now UCD Med Center}; raised in Barrio Cinco ~the oldest barrio in Sacra~ near Southside Park, singing after dark and have spent most my life within a few square miles. Still waters run deep…
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I attended Washington, then, William Land Elementary Schools; Lincoln Jr. High and graduated from Sac High in ‘69. A hot year! I first got involved heavy in the Chicano Movement back in the late 60's. A lot has changed since those early years and I have learned to change with the times.

Once upon a time in the early 70's, we supported a Manuel Ferrales for City Councilman. Those were heavy days!

Relevant Link ~
http://www.sachcc.org/organization/index.html

We had a big assembly of Raza in the St. Joseph’s auditorium at what was then Sacramento Concilio {where the Sacra County jury parking lot is at now!}.

There were a lot of Mexican Mexicans there and back then the Alkali Area was a real ‘barrio‘. We had to go find Frank Godina {aka: The Fox} who came up to the stage in order to explain to us what a Chicano is!

A lot of traditional Mexicanos and parents were disturbed by their youngsters calling themselves Chicanos and Chicanas. We have evolved a lot since those early days of the Chicano Movement aqua in Sacra.

Relevant Link ~
http://cemaweb.library.ucsb.edu/rcaf_slides_cap1.html

Thus, I was in the First Generation of Chicanos here in Sacra. I was raised in a Mexican Catholic family, then, in my teens I joined the Mexican-American-Youth Association at Sacra High. I got involved with the Friends of the Farmworkers in the early UFW Grape Boycott with a dedicated Sister named Peggy McGivern, helped by Jose Montoya, Joe Serna and many others. The Grape Boycott Office was by 13th and F Streets, later, it became the COPA Headquarters {Chicano Organization for Political Awareness} for Joe Serna for City Councilman {our future Mayor}.

Relevant Link ~
http://www.prospermag.com/default/community/News_Board/general_news/la_raza_galera_posada_hosts_royal_chicano_air_force_37_years_of_culture_con_cultura/

Recall: the early UFW storefront location later became the La Raza Bookstore, which evolved into what is known now as the Galeria Posada and the ‘movimeinto‘ goes on.

Relevant Link ~
http://www.galeriaposada.org/bookstore.shtml

Around that time I was in the Jr. Brown Berets as Minister of Education and for a time we had the largest unit in Aztlan here in Sacramento. We had to be 18-years old to be in the Senior Berets. I always related more to the Black Berets from San Jose. Some of us got turned off by the espousal of non-violence by Cesar Chavez and many in the Movimiento were side-tracked by Chicano cultural nationalism instead of moving forward along the lines of scientific socialism. We were bodyguards for Corky, Tijerina and other ‘pesado’s on speaking tours. The Brown Berets did a lot of good in different ways, yet due to various connected reasons the Brown Berets along with the old Chicano Movement faded away, though some did profit from it all in different ways.

And then I ‘met’ Che Guevara through his writings and the true nature of our collective struggle and the Third World at large opened up!

My first mentor was Companero Domingo Neostefredes from Guatemala. He was in down there at the same time Che Guevara was and turned me onto the concept of being a Latino, especially in relation to Latin Americans. Text words have limits and labels have built in limitations. In terms of ancestry, I think of myself as a MAN! Mexican-American-Native of the lost Chicano tribe! We must move forward beyond nation, race, tribe or sex labels.

Ultimately, I identify with and relate to the masses of the people, the wretched of Mother Earth ~the majority of whom are in the Third World of Africa, Asia and Latin America~ all those billions of human beings who exist in the misery of poverty, daily endure exploitation and fight back against all forms of repression!

My first Family is the family of humanity in a vast global community that has intercontinental proportions.

Libertad o Muerte!
Peta de Aztlan
Sacramento, California, USA
Yahoo Email~ sacranative@yahoo.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Humane-Rights-Agenda/
http://humane-rights-agenda.blogspot.com/

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Relevant Link ~ Message to the Tricontinental:
By Comandante Ernesto 'Che' Guevara
First Published: Havana, April 16, 1967.
http://www.marxists.org/archive/guevara/1967/04/16.htm

"Now is the time of the furnaces, and only light should be seen." ~ Jose Marti
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Re: OCT29: Human Rights ARE Humane Rights = Peta de Aztlan
Xico González <revoltoso@gmail.com> wrote:
Peta,

Here is a little on labels and identity:

Chicano is a political state of mind not a nationality.

Latino comes from Latin which is a language, the language of the Romans to be exact. I am not a language carnal, I am a human beign that has roots in this continent call America by the European (those native to Europe and their descendants). Furthermore, I am not a dead language but I'm alive!

Hispanic means that your are from Spain or Hispania, the name that the Romans gave it when they dominated that region. I am part Spanish and part Indigenous to this continent (I am Cora and Huichol from the state of Nayarit, Mexico). So if I call myself Hispanic, I am denying my Indigenous roots, so chales! with that label.

To be Mexican is to be a native of Mexico or have roots in that country.

La Raza comes from Jose Vasconselos, a Mexican intellectual that wrote a book entitled "La Raza Cosmica." That term become popular during the Chicano Movement i.e. La Raza Party and "Viva La Raza!"

So there it is carnal. I AM A CHICANO OF MEXICAN DESCENT! The way I see it is that no one can label you, but yourself. So if you want to be a "Latino" much power to you!

Paz,

Xico

PS- As a Chicano, I have a commitment to help my community move forward, but I will never deny my hands and my heart to other oppressed communities in this country and in the world!