This weekend, I was invited by some friends of mine to visit Cleveland, Texas.  The trip was not a leisurely one.  We were invited to meet with a community which had been affected by a horrific incident-the gang rape of an 11-year old by a group of men.   This young girl was lured to an isolated location, where men from the age of fourteen to twenty seven years of age took turns having sex with her on different occasions.  I was also informed that in later incidents, members of the same group threatened to kill this young girl if she did not return to the same location to be raped again.  If this isn’t enough of a tragedy, this child, her parents and the community quickly became victims of an ensuing media circus. 

Racial Perspective

One of the most attractive parts of the story for mainstream media types is that the victim of this rape was a so-called Latina.  All of the accused are black.  Traditionally, there is little else that attracts mainstream media more than racial problems, especially when the two sides are people of color. 

Quanell X, a local activist, staged a town hall meeting in Cleveland to discuss some points of concern with the situation.  Many people involved in social justice and human rights have learned to be guarded with the criminal justice system.  Having protested cases like Pedro Oregon’s murder at the hands of HPD in the nineties to most recently the detention of babies in immigrant jails like Hutto, I understand the apprehension of other activists when it comes to issues of criminal justice. In general, Mr. X is correct in questioning law enforcement’s process with people of color. 

In his speech, he clearly said that any adult who had sex with a child should “have his butt whooped” and go to jail.  He also said that he told one of the accused who had admitted to his crime that he had to pay for his crime, even if the accused did not know her age, and he scolded black elders for losing control of their neighborhood.  He said that those who admitted their involvement did the right thing, and that those who were involved needed to pay for their crime. 

However, he made some other statements, which many people, including myself, interpreted as blaming the victim and her parents.  “This rape did not happen one night. It did not happen in two days, this was going on over a protracted period of time so I have to ask the question if this young girl did not live in that neighborhood…(if she was) so much experiencing sex with so many African -American men (sic)…where was her mother.” 

I spoke to Quanell X about his comments for this piece.  He was adamant that he did not intend to blame the child.  “She is a baby,” he said.  “If these brothers are guilty of what they stand accused of, they are worthy of death.”  He repeated that phrase for emphasis.  However, he stood by the assertion that the parents bear some responsibility. 

I am relieved that he does not blame the victim, but I do not see the parents as being negligent in this case.  The NY Times reports that she was an honor student, and local witnesses claim that her siblings were as well.  Even if they were negligent, I don’t know that it would be accurate or correct for them to bear any responsibility for having been manipulated, even if that manipulation spanned a few months.

 Women’s perspective

As I heard Quanell X’s comments with a female listener, she quickly responded, “How can he say she was having sex?  She was being raped.” That sums up the sentiment of many women who have been following this case.

In Cleveland, Yolanda Navarro Black, made it clear that “CHILDREN CAN’T CONSENT TO SEX.”  She explained that it was not as much a racial incident, as it was a women’s issue.  Nothing else matters, except for the fact that a minor child had been raped by adult men.  It doesn’t matter whether the child thought she wanted to.  It does not matter how the child dressed.  It does not matter whether her parents were respectable or not.  “A child can’t say yes.”

A group of women organized a press conference to reiterate the same message.  They made it clear that this was not so much a racial incident, as it was a women’s issue.  

“We’re talking about race, why?” said Councilwoman Jolanda Jones in an interview about the press conference.  “I was a victim of rape at eight years old, and I didn’t report it until I was twenty one.  Part of the reason was because the rapists threatened to kill me and my family members.”  Reportedly, this is how the Cleveland rapists convinced the child to return to be victimized again.

Sylvia Gonzales, LULAC’s National Vice President for the Southwest, is preparing to take up a collection and to fundraise for the victim’s family.  “They are very much in need due to this incident,” she says.  She can be reached at 832-283-5752.

I applaud these women for putting ethics first and for questioning a strong personality in defense of women and family, before any man did the same.

Organizing/Bigger Perspective

In the end, I believe that race is pertinent.  Quanell X says that he believes that three of the accused are innocent.  From my experience, it is plausible that three out of the nineteen black men could be charged with insufficient evidence to support these charges. It is also plausible that race could play a part in their charges.  While I strongly object to his take on the victim’s family, I believe in due process, and that the guilty should spend a lifetime paying for their crimes.

For my part, I told the good people in Cleveland, that it was extremely important to have a standing organization which is prepared to deal with all injustices as they come.  Injustice exists most often when the people fail to organize in its own self-defense.  I encouraged them to begin meeting with the aim of preparing themselves for the likely event that justice might not be served in this or in many other cases to come.  Previous preparation is the key to fighting injustice.

About one million teenage girls in the United States, or one in three, gets pregnant before they turn 20.

More than 80 percent of those pregnancies are unintended and unintentional, and one quarter of the girls who have babies have another one within two years.

Hispanic girls have the highest teen birth rate at 83 out of 1,000 girls.

For  many reasons, activistas have never really touched on the subject teenage preganancy in our comunidad. This, along with other issues like health, have traditionally been seen as a personal issue, and traditional activism has always been about fighting the system. It seems that activists draw the line at the canton’s door.

There are complex reasons why activistas won’t touch the subject. Those on the far, far left have traditionally seen family values as a construct of capitalism, and some proponents of communism really believe that the family is an enemy to the state or at least an impedimet to the creation of the new human, which should see all humanity as his brother/sister, and not just his family. They see this as slightly elevated individualism. Addressing teenage pregnancy properly also requires a talk about personal responisbility. Many would rather focus on defeating the system.

There is also the feminista challenge. Some feminists resent the implication that children require a man to have a “proper” upbringing or that gay couples can’t do an explary job in rearing children.  Point taken.  I have seen very strong women and men grow up without a father, and I have seen others grow up in a situation in which a father has done more harm than good.

Even so, when speaking about the ideal situation for our children, I still believe that family is important.  Setting aside the requirement of a straight man, I believe that a positive family is a requirement for the strong nation that we shall build in Our New Anahuac. 

I accept that families can come with a variety of gender relations and that a traditional marriage might not be necessary.  But a positive family is required for us to be a strong people.  I don’t think that a movement promising a new tomorrow can ignore it.  If those of us who concern ourselves with flowering the pilosophy of Mexicayotl do not pay attention the the values of our community, then who will?

The Catholic Church has failed, as it was destined to when forced on us.  The schools won’t touch the issue.  Planned Parenthood has promoted women’s rights, but has no place in promoting our people’s culture.  Those of us who see our people as a nation have the responsibility to make sure that the nation is built upon values that will sustain our nation.  If a nation has no values, it will fall.

Do not confuse the ideas of this post with the Christian ideal of marriage being an intractable covenant with Jesus. 

I am not suggesting that we promote the idea of trying to force unhealthy marriages (I remember a pamphlet about 15 years ago.  I think it was from the Chicano Moratorium Committee which suggested 50 actions, and it included dissuading people from divorce).  I have seen single fathers be more involved than some fathers who live in the child’s home.  My ideal  would discourage the behaviors which lead to divorce, such as alcohol and spousal abuse, infidelity and materialism.

I’m not suggesting that the problem is “unwed mothers.”  This phenomenon is a symptom of the problem, and blaming mothers frees the young man of his responsibilities.

I’m not saying that gay couples can’t raise healthy families.

What I am saying is that we must promote the idea of a healthy family in our community.  Our sacred ancestors called their community their extended home (kalpulli).  Our best friends are honored by attaching them to our home: nonchantlaka, literally means homeboy in Nahuatl.  Places of worship, teokalli, is literally translated at spirit home.  All of this speaks to the important place that the home and family plays in our traditions. 

Our nations were build on the foundations of families, and exteneded families, and our nation must be re-built on families.  So what does the ideal Anahuac family look like, if traditional Christian marriage is not needed, if gay couples are not condemned to hell, and if we recognize the importance of extended families.  I have my own ideas, but I will leave it up to you to comment.  Please share your thoughts below.

I took a photo of this in a local restaurant in Houston. Unfortunately, it is not the only advertisement that I have seen that equates Mexican women with beer. Other ads in Spanish talk about prefering “blondes” (beer/women), and they play on the colonization that we have suffered, which makes us value whites more than ourselves. These other ads go so far as to depict blondes in the ads.

For the Spanish impaired, the ad uses a double entendre to say “The Easiest Way To Have A Mexican (Lady) In Your Hands.”

This ad blatently encourages men to most easily get women into bed by giving them beer, and it also doubles to compare women with beer itself. This is how our young men are taught to see their other self. Young women get the same message, and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you tell someone that they are trash, they become trash. What properties are associated with beer? They wish for us to see our women as we see beer: for entertainment, void of responsibility, for pleasure and finally for the trash can.

Don’t discard our women. Discard this system.

Don’t reform the system. We havef been pleading for reform for 100 years. We will do for self and build our own nation. When the first pyramids were built in Mexico, they said that it was an impossible task. Do not be deterred, we can build our own!