power

Whether it was a democrat or a republican in office- my people got screwed.

Treaties have gone broken and not honored. The treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo had articles protecting the existing property rights of Mexican citizens living in the states that were virtually robbed. Land was stolen, people were murdered, and American imperialism continued on one-sided christian values.

As conspiracies and portrayals of Trump propagate and divide this nation- the so-called Latino is being swayed to betray their own. Seeing our own degrading us for being undocumented is a nudge to spread truth and history. During the great depression- up to 1.8 million people of Mexican descent were rounded up in unlawful raids and deported to ease the fear that was fed to the nation to excuse the robbery by the banks: deport the brown people to reserve jobs for whites. Point the finger at the melanated person so the majority don’t realize that they are being oppressed, just not as much as the brown and black people. This has been the rhetoric since the founding of this country.

Did you know in the 1930’s, the Los Angeles Welfare department deported hospital patients of Mexican descent- no matter their legal status? People with tuberculosis, paralysis, mental illness or problems related to old age- none were immune to this inhuman treatment. Then informal, unlawful raids were done- racial profiling targeting even kids and the elderly. Our people died, lost hope, and suffered unimaginable treatment. Being put in camps before the transportation to unfamiliar territory- abuse and neglect was undocumented.

Modern economists have found that this unlawful “repatriation” did not boost local economies. Some argue that it may have further increased their level of unemployment and depressed wages- given that many laborers and farm workers were in demand. These raids continued until WWII when the U.S. started recruiting temporary Mexican workers for wartime labor.

What type of reparation did we get, you may ask? CA state passed the Apology Act for the 1930’s Mexican Repatriation Program in 2005 which led to a commemorative plaque near the site of a 1931 La Placita Park raid. I have to laugh to not cry at the nerve. Plaques, streets, paint- none of it abolishes poverty or injustice.

After the Trump election- there was undoubtedly a rise in hate crimes against so-called Latinos in this country. While too many of our people are praising this man, the rhetoric he spews is affecting us all. I encourage you all to hop over to splcenter to read the list of “Hate Crimes Against Latinos Rising Nationwide.” https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2007/hate-crimes-against-latinos-rising-nationwide

Here’s an exerpt:

“DEC. 29, 2004
Redlands, Calif.
Two Latino men and a Latina woman are beaten and kicked in the parking lot of a strip club by a “gang of about 10 skinheads,” as later reported by the San Bernardino County Sun. The neo-Nazi skinheads yell racial slurs at their victims, prompting the Redlands police chief to declare that hate crime charges will be pursued if and when the perpetrators are caught.

JULY 12, 2005
Patchogue, N.Y.
A 61-year-old Ecuadorean immigrant is badly beaten by three white men as he pushes a shopping cart through the streets collecting cans. Before the attack, the man was asked if he had a green card. “Then they started pummeling him,” Suffolk County Hate Crimes Det. Robert Reecks tells reporters. The man, whose name is not made public, suffers a broken eye socket and facial bruises.

OCT. 16, 2005
Sacramento, Calif.
Six people are injured by three white men who crash a private party with the intent of “beating up Mexicans,” according to police. One of the assailants uses brass knuckles after shouting racial epithets and “white pride.”

MARCH 30, 2006
North Bergen, N.J.

After a series of pro-immigrant marches and demonstrations bring out hundreds of thousands of immigrants and their supporters in cities across the country, an acerbic neo-Nazi radio host makes an appeal for people to carry out the mass murder of any “illegal aliens” sighted.

“All of you who think there’s a peaceful solution to these invaders are wrong. We’re going to have to start killing these people,” Hal Turner writes on his website. “I advocate using extreme violence against illegal aliens. Clean your guns. Have plenty of ammunition. Find out where the largest gathering of illegal aliens will be near you. Go to the area well in advance, scope out several places to position yourself and then do what has to be done.”

APRIL 3, 2006
Tucson, Ariz. Laine Lawless

One of the founding members of the Minuteman movement, Laine Lawless, exhorts the leadership of the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement (NSM) to launch a campaign of violence and intimidation against Latino immigrants. “Steal the money from any illegal walking into a bank or check cashing place. … Discourage Spanish-speaking children from going to school,” Lawless writes in a private E-mail to Mark Martin, “SS commander” of the NSM”s western Ohio chapter. “Be creative. … Create an anonymous propaganda campaign warning that any further illegal immigrants will be shot, maimed or seriously messed-up upon crossing the border.”

The goal?

“Make every illegal alien feel the heat of being a person without status.”

APRIL 22, 2006
Houston, Texas
David Ritcheson

David Ritcheson, 16, is attacked by racist skinheads at a house party after supposedly trying to kiss a white girl. David Henry Tuck breaks Ritcheson’s jaw, knocking him unconscious, while screaming, “White power!” and calling Ritcheson a “s—” and “w——.” Keith Robert Turner joins in, and the two attackers burn Ritcheson with cigarettes, kick him with steel-toed boots, attempt to carve a swastika into his chest, pour bleach on him and finally violently sodomize him with a patio umbrella pole. It takes 30 surgeries before Ritcheson, confined to a wheelchair and wearing a colostomy bag, is able to return to school.

Tuck is later sentenced to life in prison. Turner gets 90 years.

A year after the attack, Ritcheson, who up to that point has not been identified in press accounts by name, goes public and speaks out to the U.S. House of Representative’s Judiciary Committee. In wrenching testimony, the boy recalls the horrific experience for lawmakers deliberating over strengthening federal hate crime laws. “With my humiliation and emotional and physical scars came the ambition and strong sense of determination that brought out the natural fighter in me,” Ritcheson testifies. “I am glad to tell you today that my best days still lay ahead of me.”

Less than three months later, the teenager commits suicide, jumping from a cruise ship into the Gulf of Mexico. Before his death, he assisted the Anti-Defamation League in creating an anti-hate program at his alma mater, Klein Collins High School.”

—

Too many don’t even know about the history of this country lynching Mexicans. The only documented woman to be lynched in California was a Mexican American women that the media named “Juanita” in its tradition of creating caricatures of melanated people. A white man made an advancement toward her and she whipped out a knife from her garter in what seemed like seconds. Jock’s friends pulled him away, but later that night he tore her door down and there was a scuffle at her home. He was stabbed and bled to death. An angry mob demanded that Juanita and her partner were taken into custody and a miner’a trial began. During trial she testified that there were many such interactions like these, which is why she slept with a knife under her pillow. Some Mexican boys in town had also let her know they overheard Jock and his friends plan to break into her home to rape her many times. The jury found her guilty at trial and sentenced her to be hanged that day. “While Juanita dressed for her hanging, a makeshift gallows was prepared for her on the bridge. When the time came, they say she walked proudly in her finest red hoop skirt, and a Panama hat, which she tossed to her beau before placing the noose around her own neck. When asked if she had anything to say, she responded, “I would do the same thing again if I were treated as I have been.”

This is how Juanita died, hanging from the bridge at Downieville that day, July 5, 1851, the first, last, and only woman to be lynched in California.”

So, what’s the solution? How do we remember who we are, build community, and protect ourselves and our own from the hands of those depraved beings that judge us by the color of our skin and our heritage? I can’t pretend I have the answer- but, what I do know is that we all have gifts specifically designed for our collective rise. Whether it is activist in nature or in the creative space- it is our duty to fight for our justice.

Educate, mobilize, and change YOUR world. I know too many that hated school but love to learn; connect with those like-minds. Learn from people that look like you, talk like you. Let’s elevate the vision- cement our mission- and stand firm on our values.

To get different you gotta do different. We become so cemented in our routine- we let our subconscious operate on a set program. Try one or a few of these suggestions:

-Wake up at 4-5 am and take a cold shower. Then, all day, keep that fortitude present to accomplish things that have been on your to-do list. You didn’t take a cold shower to go to sleep with unfinished business.

-Take a different car route to work, or back from work.

-Do 10 pushups as soon as you wake up, meditate for 2 minutes, make your bed, read 1 page, smile, and say thank you.

-Brush your teeth with the opposite hand.

-Listen to positive audios first thing in the morning and any time throughout the day that you have a negative thought- challenge yourself to make lemonade from the lemon handed to you.

These suggestions aren’t miracle workers- the only miracle worker is yourself operating from your higher/supreme self. These are suggestions that will get you operating outside the program. Doing things you have to actually use your brain for, first thing in the morning, strengthens neural activity and neural connections in your brain. If you want to get to the next level, you have to grow.

Peace.