Also depicted is Corky Gonzales. He got his name and his start from his early involvement in amateur boxing and was ranked at the very top of his division. He later founded the Crusade for Justice in Denver, as he took the most overt role in reshaping the ways Chicanos viewed our own identity. Early on, he embraced the idea that Chicanos had an unexplored indigenous (Indian) identity. His work still lives via La Escuela Tlatelolco in Denver.

Many veteran activists and scholars were involved in the mural project in one way or another. At the time of the painting, noted organizer Maria Jimenez insisted that the muralists include Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz. That tidbit is an invaluable part of history that symbolizes the growth that many Chicano males went through as a result of the Chicana feminist influence in the Chicano Movement.

Students, alumni and the general public have enjoyed the mural for years, and there has been some swift reaction. Two online petitions have surfaced, one on change.org, the other on my blog site, OurNewAnahuac.net. A facebook page has gone up, which you can find if you do a search of University of Houston on facebook. Faculty and students have met with administrators in an attempt to convince them to preserve the art. In addition, a few days ago, many people spoke out against the destruction of the mural at an assembly of the student government. All of these actions are happening spontaneously and independently of each other.

There have been few recent events or problems which have motivated so many people so quickly.

For many, the mural is a symbol. One signatory to the petition writes “I did not attend U of H but am familiar with the mural. It is more than a mural. It symbolizes a part of our past and serves as inspiration for future generations. When my eyes first fell upon it, I felt a sense of pride and encouraged students to consider U of H because I felt the university was aware of and respectful of our and the cultures of others.”

I felt the same way when I first saw it, and I can say that the mural was an influential factor in my decision to attend U of H. I don’t think that our community will allow this mural to be destroyed with out at least some resistance.

If this mural or if just the idea of the mural is important to you, please consider signing one or both of the online petitions. Speak out!

Sign At This Link; Firme en esta página:

www.ournewanahuac.net/save-uh-mural

Please sign this petition, which we plan to use in organizing to make sure that the mural stays up.

Sign the petition here.

It is especially difficult to hold back when the theme of the movie has to do with socio-political reality or history. I barely saw Avatar last night…spoiler alert. Avatar was well received in the progressive community internationally, and Filmmaker James Cameron, become recognized as a champion of indigenous and environmental rights almost overnight.

Perhaps it was this acclaim that allowed me to begin watching Avatar with a generally open mind. I usually expect the worst when Hollywood picks up such a theme, but I thought I would give the movie a chance.

The movie acts as a mirror for today’s corporate-driven imperialist politics. It is an allegory for what is happening today in Afghanistan and what has happened historically at the hands of white imperialism.

In the film, it becomes clear early on, and in no uncertain terms, that the invading, white human army is after a mineral deposit which sits under the tree that the Na’vi, an alien race, inhabit. The tree is miles tall and houses thousands of Na’vi families.

One of the techniques used by the humans to get the Na’vi to leave the tree is to create a Na’vi look-alike with some human DNA. This creation is called an Avatar. This Avatar is controlled by a white human counterpart named Jake Sully.

This was a reference to the racial politics of early Spanish and English colonization, where explicit imperialist strategies were to inter-marry invading men with native female royalty. One northern native elder called this strain of imperialists, “liberal” imperialists. The goal of the liberal was very much to take land, gold and women from the natives. They only disagreed with their conservative counterparts as to the most useful strategy.

This Avatar was to ingratiate himself with the Na’vi and influence them to move elsewhere. It was clear that if the Avatar was unsuccessful, the corporate contractor would then authorize the military to move in and blast the tree and the civilization to Mictlan. The corporate administrator, played by Giovanni Ribisi, says something along the lines of, “Shareholders are greatly bothered by media images of natives being slaughtered, but they are bothered much more by quarterly losses, so hurry up an get them to move.”

Long story short, Jake fails to persuade the Na’vi to move, and he falls in love with an alien native. He never warns the natives that they will be under attack. It is only until the military begins its assault that Jake bothers to protest.

The army does come in and does blast the Tree of Life and the Na’vi to Mictlan. The Na’vi leave and mount a conventional counter-attack on the invading whites. Some Na’vi die, but in the end, Jake is successful in uniting different clans of the alien race, and under his leadership he defeats the white humans. The Na’vi goddess permanently transfers his soul from his human body to his Avatar body, and he becomes a hero of the resistance and a recognized leader of the Na’vi.

Generally, the movie did an adequate job in portraying the imperialist culture as one which has no problems with trading the lives of “savages and their children” for corporate profits. For all of the leftist acclaim, I found it surprising that it was, at essence a white savior film. It took a white alien human to unite the Na’vi and create the new technology (the domestication of a large bird) to defeat the white aliens. I mean, come on, really? For being a darling of the left, Avatar sure played into this tired ass theme. The white savior complex has been done almost everytime there has been a story about uplifting minorities: Wildcats, Dangerous Minds, The Last Samurai, Dances With Wolves, Gran Torino, The Blind Side, Mississippi Burning, but the list is really endless.

I also took issue with the fact that the liberal imperialist ended up as the hero. Jake conspired to have their society destroyed, and he never for one minute before the invasion tipped off the Na’vi that it was coming. He was an agent for liberal white imperialism and ended up as the hero of the film.

The film also fetishizes the response of the Na’vi. In the white mind, the only honorable way for an oppressed, obliterated, colonized society is to pull itself up from it’s bootstraps and engage in a conventional warfare response. Even in this Hollywood version of resistance, the response of native people is held to a higher, double standard. In reality, most colonized people have beaten the colonizer not by engaging in conventional warfare, but by being elusive and using effective, guerrilla tactics, by tiring and exasperating the invaders so much that they lose their will to occupy.

Finally, in the Hollywood version of colonial resistance, the native army simply rounded up the invaders and sent them back home with not so much as a handcuff to inconvenience them. The white psyche only wishes that the resistance would be so forgiving, even though the invaders themselves are guilty of intentionally killing unarmed civilian children. Deep in the white psyche, it is just for them to be strongly reprimanded and sent home. wrong. Think more along the lines of scorched earth.

The film did a good job of characterizing colonialist tendencies, which admittedly I did not cover in depth in this post, but it did a characteristically poor job in characterizing native response to colonialism. In the end, I give the film the score of fifty out of a hundred, which is higher than all other Hollywood films of a similar nature.

The exhibit shows photography of peoples’ movements from around the world.  In the interview, she describes some of the photos and explains that some of the photos taken in Palestine were taken secretly, after officials required the photographer to put up her camera.

The exhibit is part of Foto Fest, which occurs every two years, but it looks like we won’t have to wait that long for another exhibit.

The audio is a little bumpy, but I’m still experimenting with this little device, and with the art of interviewing, so take it easy.

Bohemeo’s has recently rolled out some new, cold drinks for the summer, so make sure that you visit soon to cool off.

 

 

PS. If you missed it, there’s always next year.

Roberto Rodriguez (left), recently featured for his conjunto music in Houston Free Press, and Nick Gaitan (right), just off his tour with Willie Nelson

Full House

Armas

arte

Arte on Wood (My Favorite)

Rock with a message

Osvaldo Hernandez with his new vestuario in the spirit of Mictlan

Xavier Herrera, voaclist, guitarist, and Chiahui Nahui event organizer

The Event

SRO (standing room only)

The Consul and The Curator

Every photo exhibit was flanked…
on the left by…

Gobierno BOLIVARIANO De Venezuela

On the right by…

Venezuela: Ahora Es De Todos

Subtle? Not really. Inspiring? A que si.

Update:

Venezuela Grants Land to Indigenous Communities On Indigenous Resistance Day.  Follow the link for more information.

Caracas, October 13, 2009 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Celebrating 517 years of indigenous resistance to invasion and colonisation Venezuela marked Indigenous Resistance Day on Monday with a street march through the capital, Caracas, the granting of title deeds to indigenous communities, and a special session of the National Assembly.

My Little Frida Look-Alike in front of Stephanie Guajardo's art

 

 

A booth showcasing Lizbeth Ortiz' work.

 One important thing:  It is hot in the East End Market.  It is a warehouse with fans only.  Bring water or whatever you can to stay cool.  The cooler you stay, the longer you’ll be able to stay.  The more prepared you are for the heat; the more comfortable you’ll be; the more money you’ll spend on positive art

At the first floricanto that we sponsored, we recognized the fact that we have been separated from this society by its policies, and that we must begin building independently if we are to hope for our survival, restoration enlightenment and eventual rebirth! Statistics say that one in six so-called Latino males will end up in prison at least once during his life. HALF of all Latinos will contract diabetes in his or her lifetime. If these statistics don’t speak to our separation, I am not sure what might.

In the process of building our own nation, the first step must be spreading information that underscores the point of independence. All we must do is spread the truth with our mouths and with our pens. We are planning for our next floricanto tentatively on the first Sunday of November 2007. In the same spirit, we must create mechanisms with which to communicate with our people (in addition to the floricanto). This communication must have at its core the betterment of our community, but most of all it must stress independent, not reformist, solutions to our problems. This form of communication must touch on everything that is required by a nation to survive and prosper without the charity or approval of the powers that be. History has taught us that seeking their approval and their reform has gotten us very little.

So with this in mind, we must work toward a mechanism of communication with these goals in minds. It will begin as humble as our first floricanto, but it will grow. This form of communication must touch at least on the following points:

Health: Without accurate information on issues like the lead in our homes and junk food, we will never prosper. If you have ever been truly sick, you know that you can’t be a useful member of your nation while you are truly ill.

History: True history will be one of the foundations upon which we build our nation, just as most other nations build their nations upon their history

Ethics: Many of our people are lost because we have nobody from our own ranks teaching proper ethics, teaching us what to keep and what to throw away from this system.

Economics: We must provide the tools to survive and prosper in our current economy, and we must promote independent economics as a part of this survival strategy. As long as the hand that feeds us is the hand of our opressor, we won’t work very well on independent strategies.

Culture/spirituality: Culture is the living portion of our history, and it is forever intertwined with spirituality. Any nation requires this for the growth of its own soul.

Justice: There will be times when we must confront the oppressor, perhaps not to reform, but to keep his hands off of us. Issues of physical survival and physical freedom should take center stage.

“Foreign” relations: Most especially the elders of our community recognize the importance of reaching out to the struggles of other countries.

I am personally asking for help with two things: 1) help with expanding the list of areas necessary to build our nation. 2) names of individuals, including perhaps yourself, of people who have expertise in some of these areas as well as time to contribute to gathering the information in these areas that we will need to communicate to our gente. We need information gatherers so that we may do the work of presenting it to our gente.