Chicanos,
puertoriqueños, domicanos, cubanoamericanos--many of us consider ourselves
mestizos, part Native American, even when we aren't sure which tribe to trace
our ancestry to.
My family history is
filled with memories of Tarahumara, Yaqui and even Aztec ancestors, though I
may never learn what's true.
Reclaiming and
resurrecting our native heritage play a large role in the children's and Young
Adult literature I write, however much my works are hodgepodges of native lore.
I do this believing that the salvation of our species--not only our
country--will can only come from reconnecting to past ways that respected many
forms of life that are disrespected by modern society.
Here are a few news
items that make me wish my mestizo half was more pronounced and ingrained. And
evidence of why to go Indian.
A lifelike violent video game
"Ehdrigohr,
designed over the course of several years by black, American Indian game
designer Allen Turner, Ehdrigohr
filters Dungeons and Dragons-style roleplaying experiences through a
distinctly Native cultural lens rather than a European one.
"There is violence and conflict in Ehdrigohr, but only in the sense that human beings are
victims of a violent world. The game as a whole is far more focused on finding
exciting challenges and hashing out interesting solutions, and there’s an
inherent beauty in how people persevere peacefully in spite of the struggles
they face.
"Later, the players face off
against a Shiver, a shadowy monster
that can't be killed by a sword. Instead of attacking their bodies, it attacks
their minds, trying to capitalize on their insecurities and manipulate them
into giving up. The mental strain takes its toll, but they are able to repel
and destroy it through sheer strength of will. In over a decade of playing
roleplaying games, I've never had an experience quite like that."
Sherman Alexie's Young Adult sci-fi novel
From NPR: "Call me Zits." It's
not quite as memorable as call me Ishmael, but arresting nonetheless. The
15-year-old narrator of Sherman Alexie's novel, Flight, is half Native American, half Irish. He's never seen his
father. His mother died when he was six, and he shuttled through dozens of
neglectful and abusive foster homes.
"So Zits is a little,
shall we say, angry. He finds himself in the middle of a bank, about to gun
down random customers when he's transported through time and space before
coming back as himself in the end."
Stephen Graham Jones. Because.
I recently received a copy of The
Faster Redder Road by Stephen Graham Jones, of the Blackfeet tribe. On his website, he
lists "15.5 novels, 6 story collections, 220-odd stories, 1 PhD, and way
too many boots."
That's as intimidating to me as
the 408 pages in this collection from UNM Press. I'm not done reading it, but I wish …
the publishers had put out a two-volume edition instead of one. I wish … the type was bigger. I wish ... I could
read faster. I wish … Jones wasn't so prolific, no, call it, fertile. The man's
not Blackfeet, not human, he's a literary geyser.
"This collection showcases
the best writings of Stephen Graham Jones, whose career is developing rapidly
from the noir underground to the mainstream. The Faster Redder Road features
excerpts from Jones’s novels—including The Last Final Girl, The
Fast Red Road: A Plainsong, Not for Nothing, and The
Gospel of Z—and short stories, some never before published in book
form."
Reservation children stolen from their families
"This is probably one of
the most depressingly heart-wrenching photos I've ever seen. Native American
children taken from their families and put into school to assimilate them into
white society. the slogan for this governmental campaign, 'kill the Indian to
save the man'. No official apology has ever been issued." [from Sunny A Redcloud's FB page.
Neo-Aztec cradle for new nieto
My
word-working attempt of going Indian.
A driving joke, from the rez
A man and woman are driving
on the same road. They pass each other.
The woman yells out the
window, “Pig!”
The man yells at her, “Bitch!”
He rounds next curve.
Crashes into a huge pig in the
middle of the road. And dies.
Thought for the day: If only
men would listen....
My favorite mestizos
My
immediate family, who are unsure of their Indian roots.
Es
todo, hoy,
RudyG,
Chicano author Rudy Ch. Garcia, wondering which tribe(s) he's lost
2 comments:
Reconnecting with your family's Indian roots is so hard. Mestizo histories are usually undocumented. What we have are myths and legends. As a fiction writer, I can work with that, but still, there's a yearning, and need, for more.
Yeah, Ernesto, something we First Voice latinos need to write to fill in the gaps. – RudyG
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