What If: Flipping Off the Commies

Esteban Torres is an unsung hero of United States history who died recently with his as-told-to-Michael-Sedano autobiography a GOPlague-paused draft after two years of conversations. We'd pretty well wrapped up his recollection through the Chicano Moratorium and his unsuccessful run for Congress when the country fell flat on its unpresidential ass and shut down. 

We stopped exposing one another to possible infection, but left his story hanging.

With an unhealthy dose of character assassination still ringing in his ears, Torres leaves The East Los Angeles Community Union for Washington D.C. He reaches untold new heights of achievement for a kid from East Los: Ambassador, an office in the White House, BKK Landfill victory, Eight Congressional terms. 

And familia, Torres is not alone in all these achievements. We'd explored raising kids, homes to be lived in, a woman's side of the Great Man's story that rarely gets mentioned. Arcy was to tell her story.

Torres' early story has the hallmarks of your average mid-century urban U.S. Mexican. A kid grows up in a single-parent multi-generation home, nearly a high school drop-out, he enlists in the Army right out of Garfield and finds a home in the military.

Esteban Torres, like every other Chicano ex-G.I. you know, has Army stories he loves to relive. The silly pendejo muck-ups, his Article 15 punishment story, the colorful local resident stories, the high adventure stories, and the death-defying pivotal points in life. 

Torres, like any Vet, loved remembering that frisson of fear that made him feel alive when it was all over, and tells his death-defying story with keen enjoyment of that moment he knew he would live forever. 

All the history and social progress that came after Torres' maturation in the Service would never have come to be, had Torres been killed in a Jeep roll-over somewhere in the Black Forest.

Excerpt from The Autobiography of Esteban Torres As Told To Michael Sedano... 

Schwarzwälder Roll-Over and the First Communist

That nopal en la frente made friends among many Germans. Brown skin intrigued some, while the Mexican part of “Mexican American” raised questions I was happy to discuss. More Germans spoke a little English than GIs spoke a little German. An evening in a bierstube wasn’t complete without a slightly soused alter soldat mustering up enough English words to declare he’d never fought Americans in World War II. Etiquette demanded now I buy a round, and together, the old warrior and I, cursed the Russians. 

The United States Army is legendary for giving a man training then assigning him to something completely different. I was no exception. Trained as an engineer in electrical systems in the States, I was sent to Radio School in Europe, to learn field radio operations. I would not be working in electrical systems at all. I found myself “humping the frontier” for weeks at a time. 

That desire I’d felt back home in East L.A.—to get out, see new places around the world--was coming true in unusual ways. From East L.A. I traveled to Monterey, California to train at Ft. Ord. From California to Virginia and the nation’s capital, for engineer training. Then, shipping out from the U.S. east coast, I find myself living in a large German city, until I’m assigned to go into the forest, report Russian troop movements, and cruise rivers identifying bridges to blow up in case of war. I am one of thousands of United States soldiers guarding the German border against the Warsaw Pact. 

Three men jump in a jeep at zero seven hundred hours on Monday, exit the main gate then return Saturday afternoon. We’re called a Reconnaissance Team. The three of us drive along the border all day, mostly on roads, updating maps and locating Russian troop positions. Hauling a three-wheeled trailer behind us, we are, in theory, a highly mobile, hard-hitting defensive force. In practice, that Willys jeep and trailer keep us on the edge of our seats.

Civilians in the late 1940s knew the Willys brand autos. On the streets, Willys was as common as Studebaker, and Austin. Willys had the contract to build a light 4-wheel drive truck. In 1950, the company sold the Defense Department the model M-38 1/4 ton 4x4 truck, that’s the official name for a vehicle everyone calls a jeep. Everywhere we traveled in our shiny green Willys, we hauled either a Bantam M-100 Trailer, or a T3 Trailer. No matter which trailer we drew from the motor pool, we respected that trailer. It was a life-taker.

A soldier learns to disassemble his rifle in the dark and take Immediate Action when you break down. For the same reasons, I learned the basics of the jeep. Breaking down during an attack would put us out of operation and were critical in the first hours of war. We were supposed to blow up the bridges.

We weren’t at war, so getting stranded in the middle of the Black Forest meant waiting around for hours. Help arrived, got us back on the road. After you returned to post you got a razzing from the guys for days, until the next team got stranded from a poorly-maintained jeep or impassable ruts.

Chicanos created an art form of automobiles, out of our long history of loving creative pleasures, out of forced auto shop in high school, and because some like to ride in style. I wasn’t a mechanic, only one of my friends in high school owned a car. Though I knew how to drive, I walked a lot because most of my friends were homebodies too, and we spent hours challenging each other to chess matches. Now I was the Commo Man sitting in the uncomfortable back seat of a Willy’s Jeep.

The jeep’s wide wheelbase holds onto flat and uneven terrain solidly. The body sits on top of a high undercarriage to make it over rocky terrain. That high undercarriage makes the jeep wobbly on curves, and, other than enemy action, the jeep has always been one of the top killers of soldiers.

Hauling that two-wheel trailer around curves was especially prone to accidents. I think every Veteran has a jeep experience, one of those near-misses that causes your mother to turn white when you tell her about it.

Mine happened in slow motion.

The driver was operating as he normally did, not speeding on the road because civilian traffic frequently narrowed the road. This part of the road followed a rolling terrain, like a bumpy roller-coaster. Combine an undulating road with a sharp downhill curve and you have me one moment sitting all comfortable in the back seat, leaning back, one foot on the back of the Sergeant's seat, looking at the shadows and the upright trunks of trees, then the trees turn sideways and the view changes from the earth to the sky then back to the earth again. For the briefest moment I feel exhilaration of weightlessness even as gravity and kinetic energy are propelling my body through space. Trees and shadows and light blur, I sense my trajectory curving to the ground, the jeep is rolling toward me on its side. I feel the cushioning forest litter under my back and I come to rest flat on my back, staring into the dappled sunlight, blinking at the bright light.

I used to go swimming at Huntington Beach. When a wave would wrap itself around my body and thrust me shoulder-first toward shore, feeling the force of the entire earth around me, propelling me, I screamed in delight. Then the wave curls at the shoreline and pounds me face-first into the hard sandy bottom. 

That day in the Black Forest was like a great day in the water, except I was thrown through the air out of a jeep. I felt exhilarated—I’d flown!

The three of us pushed the jeep back on its wheels—the trailer had whipped us around but the properly-maintained hitch performed to specification, just like the Manual. The M-100 had stayed on its feet. I didn’t realize it at the time, but Union quality—form, fit, function, every individual one the same as the one before--saved three lives. 

I lived that day. The boy from East L.A. who had nearly dropped out of high school had found a place, and recognition, in the United States Army. That boy had a future, but would have died near the East German border, a casualty of the war against the Communists. 

The border exists as an imaginary Line running through miles of anonymous forest. It’s not as simple as East is that way, be careful. The Line zigs and zags following rivers, natural barriers, and political negotiations. 

To a team pulling border recon, the Line means: don’t make a mistake, don’t cross the made-up Line. We'd been to Buchenwald, we'd learned the Russians were as bad as the Nazis. Don't get caught on their side.

We were finding our way along a dirt track, through an isolated wood, studying the map and compass. In the deep woods, unless you recognize a tree or shrub, there are no landmarks to keep you oriented. You just drive and keep your eyes open.

The road bumped across a gully that water eroded out of the base of a gentle slope. Up we drove, the slope grew steeper, and I’m remembering that hill at Ft. Ord and the cans of tear gas that so-and-so dropped on us as we crested that rise. At the apex, the road heads almost straight down the other side. There, at the foot of this hill, we come face-to-face with the Iron Curtain. It’s made of logs.

The Russians must have found a sawmill on their side. Whole trees had been sharpened like pencils and buried pointing like double rows of spears toward our side. 

Russian engineers were trained as were we. They used the best trees for the picket line, Douglas fir and Norway Spruce. Our side of the line had a lot of Juniper and Silver pine. Not that I was trained as a forest agronomist but every detail stood out when I wrote my report.

Down at the foot of the slope, I was looking at the other side of the Line, at that Russian tank. Communists.

My driver had not been going too fast in the unknown terrain and he stopped right away as we crested. On the other side of the log wall the road was blocked by a Russian tank. The sun caught cigarette smoke against the forest shadow, the Communists were taking a break.

When they saw us come over the hill and stop, they just stared at us. I guess they were as surprised to see us, as we were astonished to see them. We thought enemy territory was over there somewhere, not behind us. We needed to fix our map, blitzschnell! 

Every month we troops went through mandatory training. We learned about the Cold War, the newly-forming alliance called NATO, the Russian nuclear threat, and what to do if captured. 

Looking down that dirt road at the Russians dropping their smokes and climbing up onto that tank sent a message we didn’t wait to hear. 

The driver put the jeep into reverse and began to turn around. That trailer makes every maneuver slower than you'd want sometimes. 

The Sergeant in the front seat and I waved and called out “Bye-bye.” I don’t know what got into the Sergeant. Maybe he was about to rotate home and he didn’t want to leave without saying goodbye to the first Russians he’d seen. 

“Slow down,” he told the driver. The driver slowed. The Sergeant stood up in his seat and held onto the windshield with his left hand. He raised his right hand high in the air and gave the Russians the middle-finger salute. 

The driver laughed. “They don’t know what the hell you’re saying, Sergeant.” 

I agreed, the finger was all over East L.A., but those guys were Russians.

One of the Russians standing on the deck of the tank grabbed the cannon with one hand and raised the other hand high in the air. 

He gave us the finger. 

That was my first and last encounter with Russians on the East German frontier. The vato threw the finger at us and got away with it. Me, and Communists, that’s another story.

Note: In coming weeks, La Bloga will share Torres' story in bits and pieces so gente can share the life of this average Chicano who plays a major role in the movimiento. The book need not be be published for readers to find its story.

 

Interview with a Mestizo. Are You Home? Are you Awake?

Melinda Palacio

Mestizos Come Home!

Mestizos Come Home! is a book you'll want to read and then reread. You'll also be compelled to buy more books, copies of the book for your friends and copies of all the literature and references cited in the book. Mestizos Come Home! shares what Mexican Americans have accomplished since the 1960s, but also addresses important issues regarding community and its future in the United States. Rudolf Anaya says this book is a "must-read" for those who wish to understand the future of the United States. The research for this book reaches back to the eighteenth-century. La Bloga sits down with the author, Robert Con Davis-Undiano, Neustadt Professor and Presidential Professor at the University of Oklahoma and executive director or World Literature Today.

This interview is much more thorough and longer than a contemporary internet format, but I trust La Bloga readers will appreciate it. Before you listen to Maria Hinojosa's upcoming Latino USA show featuring Robert Con Davis-Undiano, you can read the complete La Bloga interview below.

Melinda Ann Palacio:

Where did the idea for this book spring from? How did you decide to combine the body, low rider culture, literature, and the sense of place Atzlan?

Robert Con Davis-Undiano:

My initial thought was to write a much simpler book than what I ended up with.  A few years ago, I was struck constantly that people said things in the media about Latinos and Mexican Americans that were patently untrue—just inaccurate.  For example, people casually talk about Latinos not wanting to assimilate into mainstream U.S. culture.  Every Latino knows that this isn’t true. Assimilation is at least a three-part process of acculturation and involvement with the new culture, and it does not happen overnight. Sociologists have studied this question specifically in regard to Latinos, and Latinos are not taking longer than any other group to assimilate.  So I wanted to correct some of these misunderstandings and put on display some of the great accomplishments of Mexican American and Latino culture.

I chose topics like the body, land, and the Chicano cultural “voice” because these issues are not always discussed in the culture, and I knew that they would be enlightening to non-Latinos.  Especially the issue of the body is a far-reaching issue that encompasses much about Latino culture and Latino history in the Americas and helps to contrast Latinos in so many ways to mainstream culture.  That topic is so important that it threatened to take over the whole book.  In a word, I chose the topics that I thought would be most enlightening to mainstream culture.

MAP:

This book is such a thorough text on the call home for Mestizos and Chicanos who claim Mexican American identity. Were your intentions always so all encompassing? Did some of the chapters start off as something else?

RC:

This is an excellent question.  I started out with the specific aim of bridging non-Latinos and Latinos, to bring the two cultures closer together.  What I soon discovered, however, was that the backlog of misunderstood history and culture was greater than I had thought, enormous, and it really cut across all of Latin America.  That’s when I read Eduardo Galeano and others who had already identified the pattern of cultural “amnesia,” the way in which mestizos have been systematically excluded and marginalized from so much about life and community in the Americas.  Basically, the Spanish in the colonial period created the pattern of marginalizing everybody who was not blanco, especialy blacks and those with complex racial identities.  That pattern is still part of the historical legacy of culture and community in the Americas.  I was able to see that so much of what needed to be exposed, put in the open, and discussed was covered over and made invisible, like a body hidden after a crime.  I further saw that, owing in part to the Chicano Movement and the Chicano Renaissance, much that blocked these issues and kept them hidden was no longer relevant or a barrier.

So you are exactly right when you ask if these chapters started out more simply and then got more complicated.  That’s what happened.  Once I realized that I could break some of these barriers and enable honest and revealing discussion about life and culture in the Americas, and that no one else was waiting in line to do this work of cultural recovery, I doubled down and committed to the more thorough task of recovering cultural and historical material that had been covered over for centuries.  From that moment forward, I saw recovering the body as an especially important act of cultural recovery that I had the responsibility of doing to try to make some good things happen in the culture.  I felt very committed to this project once I began to think of this project in these terms.

MAP:

Are you disappointed with policies imposed on Chicanos and do you feel that some of us may have dropped the ball in the journey to making those advances?

RC:

Yes, of course.  I’m disappointed that the country has not connected more with the Latino community and is committed (for the time being) to seeing us as the enemy.  This is lazy thinking and does not begin to present America at its best.  This approach also betrays the “American Idea” that the country is built on.  For example, the Founders were not very astute about race or gender—in fact, they were notoriously negligent and a product of their time in both areas.  But on the issue of class and community, they imagined a multicultural democracy, and this was a crazy high goal to achieve.  They left out indigenous people, for sure, but the idea in the abstract was amazing. No nation had ever done it, and there was no reason to think that the U.S. could pull it off either.  In fact, the country has never gotten nearly as close to the goal of being an accepting multicultural democracy as most of us would like.

By creating the “American Idea” and putting us on this path, the country, in effect, reenacts its own founding every time a new community comes here to assimilate.  When we as a country fail at assimilation, the spirit of the Founders fades a little and begins to die.  When we as a country can assimilate new communities, we are rediscovering liberty as we form new bonds with people who are different from us.  We are rediscovering democracy when we allow our communities and how they work to evolve and change in response to the new people who are becoming a part of us.  When we succeed even a little at these tasks, it does not take very much, the spirit of the Founders brightens in us and comes alive again.  In other words, the American Idea only continues to live as long as we stay true to the idea of a multicultural democracy that the Founders had in mind.  We don’t have to be that country that they dreamed about, but it is a great and noble goal, and we shouldn’t take a pass on what we can still achieve of it.

How these goals relate to the indigenous community and mestizos in general is clearly complicated, and much of that history is shameful, and I’m not suggesting that it isn’t.  But those goals are still real and incredibly valuable, and I would like for Mestizos Come Home! to be one powerful reminder of what the American Idea is and the part that Mexican Americans and Latinos can play to keep that vision alive.  If the country as a whole were more cognizant that it has a stake in how well Mexican Americans fare in becoming a part of this country, they would be more generous and accepting in regard to the Dreamers and on issues of immigration and acculturation.  I am saying that the country as a whole DOES have a stake in the fortunes of communities who come here to assimilate, but the country these days does not generally remember this fact.  That situation needs to change.

MAP:

You show how ideals of beauty for the Mestizo body have traditionally favored white European standards. What would help change this idea and celebrate the brown, Mestizo body?

RC:

I think that we have a great deal of cultural recovery to do.  I’m ultimately less of a romantic and more of a rationalist in that I believe that people can’t care about something that they don’t know about.  There’s a lot of low-hanging fruit about the history of the Americas that needs to come out and become a part of what Americans know about their country.  Once there is some general understanding that the creation of the “brown body” was a social and political act and not a natural development, an outgrowth of nature, we all will be able to see that people are not color coded and not destined to live out the script that is part of their racial nature.  Yes, we all look different, and some of us are brownish, black, or whatever, but the categories that the Spanish created were artificially constructed and designed to inhibit and limit people in a colonial setting.  Those categories had nothing to do with who we are. 

The human genome project has been very helpful in this regard by exploding the notion that ethnic communities differ greatly from each other.  They don’t, and we need to retire the notion of a variety of human species that can be ranked according to their excellence as human beings.  I hope that my discussion in the book of the origin of race theory in the eighteenth century will help people to focus on the bad science and destructive aspects of all racial approaches to explaining human behavior.  The underlying assumptions of racial categories were never science, and it is time to dislodge the Reign of Race as we have known it in the Americas.  It is time for the eighteenth-century-inspired Reign of Race to be over.

MAP:

You mention in the prefacing pages, "Everyone should have a stake in the success of the Mexican American community's journey and the quest for social justice?"

Is this how we would have avoided a Trump presidency?

RC:

In a word, yes.  Right after the election, the New York Times published a list of six books that could help explain the leadup to the Trump presidency.  J.D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy was one of them—you get the idea.  I got all six books and read them quickly.  Easily the most impressive of the six books was Thomas Frank’s Listen, Liberal (2016).  He basically argued that we as a culture ignored the millions of people in the working class who were suffering with high unemployment and the general destruction of their way of life over the last thirty years.  The democratic party and most of the country thought that “white people” in that class could get retrained, would find new jobs, and they would be alright.  They weren’t. The democratic party also abandoned the working class over the last thirty years and began focusing on the upper professional class.  Add to this fact the disappearance of the traditional trade unions, who used to educate their members and keep them on track in voting and cultural participation, and we start to see that the country made a horrible mistake in abandoning a whole social class and pretending that there was no real problem.  Trump played to that class, which Hillary (who I supported) seemed not to acknowledge, and the rest is history.  There needs to be some very sober rethinking of how we all played a role in electing Trump.  Even if there had been no actual Trump, this problem was waiting to happen for historical and economic reasons.  Historically, revolutions are fought over smaller issues!

MAP:

I see this book as a forum for sorting through topics that need our attention. Do you foresee a part II and part III of this book in which you might document future problem solving to acculturation?

RC:

A part II and a part III are interesting ideas that I had not considered.  If I can see that this book has been genuinely useful in its critique of the country, and if it seems that there would be an audience for more, I would certainly be open to extending this book’s analysis far more broadly.  I just want this book to do some good, and if more is needed in a kind of sequel, I would be up for that.

MAP:

A continuation of the first question. What gave you the idea to present a continuum of antepasados (dead testimony) and the historic record with recent texts made up of the current creators of literature?

RC:

Problems like racism always have a history, and to get to the bottom of the problem you must always take ownership of that history.  I was actually more surprised that others had not done much of this work before I did.  Why, for example, has there been virtually no general discussion in the culture of el Sistema de casta in the U.S.?  That’s weird.  In the casta tradition is a fully articulated record of the roots of racism in the Americas, and no one wants to understand that history and discuss it?  That can’t be.  When I saw such instances of flagrant oversight and dismissal of important and relevant material, I realized that something bigger was going on.  The cultural amnesia that has become habitual in the Americas is still dominating our thinking and perceptions long after the casta system ended.  This and many other instances of cultural amnesia are now not so much intended by anyone as simply left in place and serving some people while leaving many others out.  In this book, I was hoping to put in play some of those missing pieces to connect the past and present so that others would be motivated to continue this work in adjacent areas.  I’m still hoping that I have done that.

MAP:

Can you talk about how the impact of this book would make a statement like, "Go back where you came from," obsolete?

RC:

Mexican Americans and Latinos long ago became a part of the fabric of the U.S.  The time to object or to reject their influence passed sometime in the nineteenth century, and the Chicano Renaissance signaled the passing of a threshold when the evidence of Mexican American and Latino influence in the U.S. was made too clear to be refuted at any level.  As the heirs to the Chicano Movement and Chicano Renaissance, we cannot pretend that Latinos are not woven into what this country is about.  Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton is signaling the crossing of that threshold, too.  I think that he and other Latinos also have the appreciation of the Founders that I mentioned earlier and also recognize the wonderful goal of a multicultural democracy—now, of course, a goal that includes gender and racial equity.  Latinos “get” the Founders, and now we just need to help the rest of the country once again to recognize and value living the American Idea—that amazing goal that we can realize and achieve far better than the Founders ever could in their own time.

MAP:

What book projects are you looking to next?

RC:

Right at this moment I am working on starting a Latinx Studies program at the University of Oklahoma, and that has taken up some time.  I like your idea of a sequel to Mestizos Come Home!, and if there seems to be a demand for more discussion along the lines of what that book is saying, it would be fun to track some of the same themes through the publication of really current fiction, like the amazing work that you are doing in your books.

MAP:

Thank you for taking the time to speak to La Bloga. Is there anything else you'd like to add?

RC:

I want Latinos to talk to each other more.  If we are going to pull together the pieces of our souls and “own” the Americas once again, as Galeano referenced, we need that time together to talk and think.  We need to become dedicated resolaneros who are not content to mimic mainstream culture and mirror accepted notions of who we are.  We can recapture some of the energy of the founding of this country and the inauguration of the Chicano Movement when we connect with each other, with our indigenous brothers and sisters, and with all people across the Americas who are disenfranchised, people who don’t feel that they belong to the place that they are from.  In the past, there were strict prohibitions to having those discussions.  Now we must be willing to break through the barriers of amnesia that are still keeping us from what we need to accomplish for ourselves.  When we work together, we see that in a democracy nobody wins unless everyone does.  Once we get past this period of economic unrest (it is very hard on people when their livelihood is threatened; they are not at their best), I believe that we will see a better side of America come forward.

RC

A Retrograde Cultural Nationalism Weakens Political Action

La Bloga guest post by Jimmy Franco, Sr.

“There is no neutrality. You either have to be a part of the solution, or you’re going to be a part of the problem” - Eldridge Cleaver

Within recent years there has been a growth of cultural awareness among many young Latinos and other minority youth. This is a positive first step toward developing a higher level of cultural pride in one’s ethnicity, history, language, identity and traditions.

Such a nationalistic trend is a normal reaction when an ethnic group experiences discrimination and injustice by those who control a political system that denies equitable political and cultural rights to all. The natural response by national minorities to any repressive situation imposed upon them by a dominant group is a growth of nationalistic feelings and an ideology that asserts a growing pride and dignity in one’s roots. Yet, the ideological trend of cultural nationalism that is a preliminary stage of awareness and activity has its limitations.

One of these can be a sectarian attitude and a form of isolationism from other cultures. However, the major limitation is that a cultural nationalist ideology does not explain nor propose concrete solutions to eliminate the structural cause of a national minority’s subordinate position in society nor the political methods of control and policies used to maintain it. If someone remains at this preliminary cultural stage which entails personal pride and a growing awareness of one’s ethnic background without eventually progressing forward, then this can lead to a stunting of one’s political consciousness and development. This stagnation may also hinder one’s perspective and awareness of broader social issues which often results in a reactive and culturally self-serving individualism that does not assist in pro-actively resolving the social ills faced by the broader community.

A focus solely on cultural nationalism has allowed our social problems to persist

During the Civil Rights period of the 1960’s and 1970’s, many cultural nationalist groups were created as a reaction to the prevailing rampant injustice and discrimination existing at that time. However, the narrow response of those involved in this trend was to primarily focus on cultural issues and feel-good activities related to music, history and wearing ethnic dress. This also included a good deal of time primarily learning languages such as Swahili and Nahuatl with a focus on a return to the past and romanticizing the cultures of Africa, Puerto Rico and Mexico. There were many individuals who were also proud of their culture, but in contrast, also advocated and utilized militant civil rights tactics and even revolutionary nationalism. Their political perspective pointed out the root-cause of the problem of ethnic rights and discrimination and this was accompanied by action to eventually change it.

The extreme cultural nationalist trend during the late 1960’s and early 1970’s practiced a form of what could be characterized as a safe form of escapism in contrast with those engaging in political activism who were more aggressive in civil rights organizing or attempting to effect social change. This is not to say that those groups involved in political struggle were not proud of their cultures and ethnic groups as they were, but they did not limit themselves to cultural activities or dwell solely upon the narrow realm of individualistic personal awareness or a romanticizing of the past.

Cultural nationalists tend to primarily focus on personal identity issues and abstain from the economic and political struggles that affect our society. In contrast to this trend, are activist cultural workers who share and utilize their musical, artistic and writing talents to raise issues, support struggles and politically educate our young people. Cultural activists play a vital role in nurturing a political movement by utilizing their art to raise people’s political consciousness and by further enhancing a culture by integrating new experiences from vibrant social movements into it.

Dwelling on the past and on abstract activities contributes to our social problems 

The progression from cultural nationalism to political activism is vital in order to confront and resolve the many social and economic problems presently facing our community and improve its wellbeing. The issue of voting rights, a lack of equal political representation and civil rights injustices continue to persist and fester within our society.

In addition to these, there are scores of economic issues such as job and gender discrimination, low wages, unjust immigration policies, a high rate of incarceration and an unequal educational system that deprives our youth of enlightening their minds and providing financial security for them and their future families. Lastly, the number of Latinos who are working and visible within the media industry is still insignificant in comparison to the demographic growth of Latinos and this has the effect of censuring and limiting our ability to tell our stories to a broader public as others are allowed to do.

Individualistic and personal cultural pride are good traits, but they are no substitute for the right of a repressed ethnic group to gain equitable entry into the overall culture of the country and contribute to it in a significant way. This presents us with a choice of either actively participating in the struggle to confront and resolve this array of social problems that we face or we can retreat into the isolated shadows and separation of individualistic self-serving pride and abstract feel-good activities of cultural nationalism.

Two directions: a detached cultural nationalism or involvement in a political movement

If a better world existed where conditions within the US were more equitable than what presently exists, then self-cultivating cultural activities and an individualistic detachment from social issues would not pose a problem. However, since we live in an imperfect society which inflicts economic and political harm upon certain sectors of our people and communities, this means that we have a moral and ethnic duty to contribute to the elimination of such social defects. Involvement in a political struggle is not a hobby or merely some type of therapy to fill the time with, rather it is a social responsibility that has been historically thrust upon us by the defective conditions and injustices of the social system under which we live.

This developing trend of cultural nationalism that a growing number of young people are receding into involves a romanticized attachment to the past and even an assortment of mystical practices. Such a one-sided perspective and mental detachment can become a form of therapeutic escapism that is split from objective reality. Another aspect of this cultural nationalist obsession involves a type of dogmatic book worship and personal self-cultivation which borders on selfishness by divorcing book knowledge from its application to the practical experience and vibrant knowledge of solving real social problems. In opposition to such a passive worship of the past, an ideology is presently required that reads and analyzes information from a scientific perspective and creatively applies it to address people’s needs within our communities.

A method of persuasion needs to be used to link cultural awareness to political activism

We need to respect the choice of those who are entwined within this revived trend with its cultural pleasantries and a mystical longing for the past. A dialogue needs to be created that utilizes discussion, persuasion and an exchange of views on this issue. It needs to be explained to cultural nationalists in a respectful manner that their decision to abstain from the political struggle and recede into a pleasurable self-cultivation on the sidelines creates a strategic problem by objectively assisting those who wish to harm our community.

Many college students in ethnic studies programs around the country are being introduced to cultural nationalism by their instructors, and this ideological trend can be a beginning phase if they then use this knowledge to proceed forward and integrate it with political activism in the real world. If both professors and students remain bogged down in abstract academic speak, intellectualizing and culture for culture’s sake which is often disconnected from the real needs of students and the community, then this type of cultural nationalism becomes a retrograde and toxic trend that does not contribute to our future wellbeing.

What is presently needed are more individuals of all ages who are pro-active and involved in constructively changing our communities and improving the lives of its people. A person can be proud of their ethnic identity, culture and history, yet this knowledge needs to be linked and enhanced through practical action and experience which involves cultivating our community’s educational needs, organizational level and political consciousness.

This article originally posted by Jimmy Franco Sr. on LatinoP.O.V., on Nov 12, 2015.  Copyright, November 12, 2015: Jimmy Franco Sr.

Facebook: Jimmy Latinopov   Twitter @xicanomc

Jimmy Franco Sr. is a long-time educator and community activist who was born in Texas and grew up in the Lincoln Heights area of Northeast Los Angeles. He attended Cal-State L.A. where he was an active member of M.E.Ch.A. and did graduate work in history and education, including his thesis entitled Chicano Trade Union History of the Southwest: 1919 to 1929. He has taught elementary through twelfth grade, adult school, at the university level, classes at Chino Prison in California.

     Jimmy began writing in 1967 for the community newspaper “Inside EastSide”which at that time was geared toward high school students and assisted in preparing the groundwork for the 1968 East L.A. high school walkouts or “Blow Outs”. During this time, Jimmy was active in the Chicano Moratoriums of 1970-1971 against the Vietnam War. He has also been involved in various community organizations and written for other community-based newspapers such as El Machete and El Pueblo Obrero.

     Jimmy became a member of the Retail Clerks Union at the age of sixteen and has been a member of three locals of the United Steel Workers of America Union. He was also a member of the United Teachers, Los Angeles and received a N.E.A. award for his civil rights contributions. Previously, Jimmy was the California State Civil Rights Chairperson for the League of United Latin-American Citizens (LULAC), and the past president of its NorthEast L.A. Council.

     He has been involved in bilingual education, drop-out prevention, affirmative action, educational reform, labor and anti-war work, and educational outreach to promote systematic reform of the educational system.

Latino Sci-Fi Society? Keystone XL Pipeline.

Latino Sci-Fi Society? Charla 1

The La Bloga list of book authors in speculative lit is in the process of updating. Here's the latest, with more to come. We've gotten suggestions from many people and groups, including members of the Carl Brandon Society, a group of black spec authors. Eventually, the influx of more published books in these genres will bring up a question, even possibly this year at latino lit conferences:

Should latinos form their own Spec lit group, like black authors have with the Carl Brandon Society or The Black Science Fiction Society?

Should latino authors follow the pattern from the 60s, when Black Student Alliances and UMAS and MECHA student groups multiplied on campuses to join forces and advance and advocate their "special" interests? 

My initial reaction is, "Maybe not." Por qué no? What's the matter con me, some might ask.

Latino spec authors as young as Amy Tintera and Matt de la Peña may not know, but viejos like Rudy Anaya and Armando Rendón haven't forgotten how the Chicano Movimiento developed. I won't go into it much, but it's worth studying. To remember the past so we're not condemned to repeat it, as Spanish-American George Santayana advised.

[Mi aviso: these thoughts are mine alone, though I've learned from other authors. They are not set in stone; I could be turned other directions. Nor are they THE best ideas. Those can only come out of a charla, a straightforward, modest conversation. Something that Chicano history teaches us is not necessarily fácil to achieve. And the collective dynamic of latino authorship, however well guided, can't be controlled. A hundred flowers might blossom, with some wilting into weeds.]

First questions first. Should Latinos join SFWA?

There are natural societal pressures on latin spec authors. Those wanting to become successful in U.S. markets could join the very influential Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA). SFWA, largely white-male dominated from its inception, repeatedly goes through convulsions of privilege, attempting to recruit, absorb and appeal to women and non-Anglos into a more equitable, multicultural organization. That continues today. I can't speak to how well they appeal or respond to latinos. Based on Internet chatter and info, I await the time when they have a better understanding of themselves. At the bottom are some links describing recent turmoil in SFWA.

Should Latinos join CBS? - Latino spec authors have joined the Carl Brandon Society. Its mission is "to increase racial and ethnic diversity in the production of and audience for speculative fiction." From what I could discern, their awards and recommendations for published books do not seem to include any latinos; their Hispanic Heritage reading list might only list one U.S. latino. All of which may reflect low latino membership, or that few latinos have been nominated. Despite this, latinos could/might still join CBS. As an author, I'm in contact with them. There may other groups worth investigating.

Raza Movement lessons not worth repeating

The Chicano student and community organizations springing up in the 60s & 70s spread across the Southwest like prairie wildfires ignited by a lightning storm of nationalist self-identity and pure piss-offedness. Ya basta! Somos Chicanos! Viva Che y Zapata! It was exhilarating, dismal, chingón, scary and incredibly successful. La Revolución didn't arrive, but not all embers were tempered. What I describe happened with others, the mexicanos, the puertoriqueños, and similar lessons may apply from there. I use the Chicano Movement in this article, since I know most about it. Those movements had weaknesses, some cultural, some fatal.

Caudillismo is a dish best served green

An English alternative to caudillismo would be bossism, where one or a handful of leaders made decisions for their followers, with democratic input and voting, at times, severely absent. Our version had/has its cultural roots in feudal Spain, with an added indigenous spice of picante. Leaders competed for press, followers, money and reputation. Bodyguards, "muscle," beatings, shootings and other macho misbehavior sometimes followed. May our respect for revered latino authors never fall into that. Those aspiring to caudillo roles in latino lit are easily recognizable. Qué no? So, maybe this lesson has been learned.

Equal rights and leadership of latinAs

If you don't know the stories, read Chicano History, assuming your state hasn't outlawed it and banned the texts. Few Chicano Movement groups genuinely allowed women's democratic participation and fewer deliberately developed women as leaders. I'm proud that the UMAS I belonged to trained and elected two female to be presidents of the group. This lesson seems to have been better learned, though more is needed.

What is undetermined is the portrayal of women in latino spec. From Reyes Cardenas's book cover to Junot Díaz's macho characters, I guess this will long remain the most contentious and possibly divisive questions. On one side is verisimilitude, free speech and poetic license and men's genetic flaw of being attracted by--well, you know. On the other, is the desexualizing, demystifying and respecting women as people first; plus there's more. As you can read below, the decades-old SFWA hasn't solved this among its membership. For a latino sci-fi society to not die at its inception, un chigón/chingona of a path about equality would need to be laid.

Nationalism may not be far-reaching and long lasting

Chicanismo, latinismo as an identity is correct within its own definition. What you describe yourselves, you are. Cultural nationalism when practiced by a group can also be great, however short and limited its lifespan. If a Chicano sci-fi society begins tomorrow, bet that its name alone will not appeal to the puertoriqueños. And what about the mexicanos, U.S. citizens and residents though they may be? Latino may not be the ultimate term, but one in that vein would work better if the group aimed beyond national identities.

Empowering younger writers and the children

The fact that Amy Tintera and Matt de la Peña have an agent and grossly better sales than some old latinos, doesn't mean los ancianos have no obligation to those younger. Envidia has no place in a flowering of literature, anymore than it did in the Chicano Movimiento's political wildfires, and leads to stagnation that serves no writer.

To some extent, the Chicano youth and college movements were suffocated by the older generations. The young rivaled the power of the caudillos. Threats, shootings, beatings, political maneuverings--these and more secured the old-people status quo. Bits of that dynamic may be what periodically erupts in SFWA.

In a sense, some of the raza youth were forced out, driven to seek guidance elsewhere--in the writings of Mao and Che, for instance. Eventually the young latinos mellowed, partly from the frustration of fewer successes and declining memberships.

Many established latino writers mentor younger writers, individually or through various writers' workshops. A latino spec society would need to expand on that work.

Expand it also into the public schools where our future Mario Acevedos and are dying to be discovered, guided, nurtured and applauded. Teachers go it alone every day in public schools, and any new lit society should buttress that work with its expertise. You would not believe how many teachers--latinos and otherwise--are crying to know how to teach fiction to little brown kids.

How far should a latino literary spec society reach?

Such a group has no limits. It is a new mutant species that has never existed before. Assuming we avoid the major weakness of the Chicano, Puerto Rican, mexicanos, dominicano movements of the 60s-70s, we can make as many mistakes as needed. As alien as the gaseous creatures of Cortez on Jupiter, as innocent as freshman Chicano, latinos entering college in the late 60s.

Obviously, latinos of any label should be encouraged to join or participate in any manner they want and can. (Latinos who don't "advertise" their ethnicity nor write latino characters might prefer "observer" status.) Just as obviously, non-latino authors who support the aims and "atmosphere" of the group should be recruited, not simply allowed to participate. How else to build a strong base, if not with the participation of people-of-letters like Ilan Stavans?

Bottom line, this suggests a latino-initiated organization that from the onset actively intends to eventually fill a vacancy. That of a multinational, necessarily progressively oriented (anti-sexist, anti-racist, anti-bullying of any nature) group. Why not? We are not required to go back to 1968-Go and only create a nationalist-rooted group.

Sherman Alexie

Could latino authors benefit from working non-latinos who have experience, agents, connections and anthologies they're producing? Could non-latinos' art benefit from professional contact with latinos and become more inclusive to reflect U.S. society's peoples, increasing their audience? Could I learn anything from Sherman Alexie? Would you enjoying mentorship from a progressive Hugo, Nebula or Bram Stoker award winner? Even if they weren't latino.

If not now, when?

These are a few questions relating to the eventual establishment of some type of latino spec group. Mine are not the only possible answers, however much thought I've given to this and related matters.

Author Guadalupe Garcia-McCall

Nor are they a proposal to be presented at a conference. As the title states, they may be useful in helping to begin a discussion, in many places. Una charla.

Do leave comments here, but more, take the topics and begin the discussion with others.

[Samplings of the SFWA "debates" are here and here and here. And here's Silvia Moreno-Garcia's excellent take on criticisms one woman received about her attire, if you can believe!]

Your/our last chance to tell Obama NO on Keystone XL Pipeline

From 350.og comes this; This pipeline can be stopped. One of the very last steps before President Obama makes his decision on the pipeline, and the final opportunity to give your input (in an official way). Numbers really count, and a flood of comments would show the President that there’s a huge risk, politically and scientifically, to approving the pipeline.

The last time the State Department was accepting comments, we submitted over 1 million as a movement. To top that, click here to submit your comment against the pipeline.

Building an 830,000 barrel-per-day pipeline of the world’s dirtiest oil will have an impact on the climate. The President said he would reject the pipeline if it has a significant impact on the climate, and the evidence is in: it does.

Any effort to build the pipeline would be deeply compromised by big oil’s corruption of the process.

We can either have Keystone XL, or a safe and livable climate -- ‘all of the above’ is not an option. We are past the point of building fossil fuel infrastructure and hoping for the best -- Keystone XL isn’t compatible with even the President’s weak climate goals. After 6 years of supporting more fossil fuel projects while saying he’s committed to climate science, President Obama needs to decide if he wants to be a climate champion, or be remembered as the pipeline president.

Sending a strong message in this forum is critical to showing the President that the science is serious.

Here’s where to go to submit.

Es suficiente, hoy,

RudyG

1st Novel - http://www.discarded-dreams.com/

Author FB - rudy.ch.garcia

Twitter - DiscardedDreams