<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss version="2.0" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/" xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/" > <channel> <title>Chicana/o Studies – Amigos805.com</title> <atom:link href="https://amigos805.com/tag/chicanao-studies/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" /> <link>https://amigos805.com</link> <description>Information for and about the vibrant Latino community in Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties 805 region</description> <lastBuildDate>Mon, 23 Nov 2015 16:25:41 +0000</lastBuildDate> <language>en-US</language> <sy:updatePeriod> hourly </sy:updatePeriod> <sy:updateFrequency> 1 </sy:updateFrequency> <generator>https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.2</generator> <item> <title>Guest commentary: Forgotten Memories — Wasted Years</title> <link>https://amigos805.com/guest-commentary-forgotten-memories-wasted-years/</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Amigos805.com]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Mon, 23 Nov 2015 16:00:58 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[Cultural]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Education]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Local]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Chicana/o Studies]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Rodolfo F. Acuña]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://amigos805.com/?p=26066</guid> <description><![CDATA[Editor’s note: Amigos805 welcomes guest columns, letters to the editor and other submissions from our readers. All opinions expressed in submitted material are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the viewpoint of Amigos805. By Rodolfo F. Acuña / Guest contributor By…<p class="more-link-p"><a class="more-link" href="https://amigos805.com/guest-commentary-forgotten-memories-wasted-years/">Read more →</a></p>]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>Editor’s note: </strong><em>Amigos805 welcomes guest columns, letters to the editor and other submissions from our readers. All opinions expressed in submitted material are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the viewpoint of Amigos805.</em></p> <div class="storycontent"> <p style="text-align: left;" align="center"><strong>By Rodolfo F. Acuña</strong> / <em>Guest contributor</em></p> <p>By chance I met a respected adversary in the Freudian Sip, and I took a moment to exchange pleasantries. Out of the blue he asked me how was Chicana/o Studies conceptualized. It is one of those questions that, although asked and answered a thousand times, I have not fully dug into the recesses of my memory.</p> <div id="attachment_26067" style="width: 360px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="http://amigos805.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/a-sputnik-3.jpg" target="_blank"><img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-26067" class="wp-image-26067" src="http://amigos805.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/a-sputnik-3.jpg" alt="Courtesy image." width="350" height="502" srcset="https://amigos805.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/a-sputnik-3.jpg 628w, https://amigos805.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/a-sputnik-3-209x300.jpg 209w" sizes="(max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px" /></a><p id="caption-attachment-26067" class="wp-caption-text">Courtesy image.</p></div> <p>In looking back, all educational reform in the United States begins and ends with John Dewey (1859-1952).<a href="x-webdoc://28BAC507-6FA0-4D1E-8748-6C5900399D5F/#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1">[1]</a> His Inquiry Method has run through reform movements in the United States and abroad since the early 1900s. It was resurrected in the 1960s and is alive today in what we call critical thinking. Having started out as a junior teacher, I experienced heavy doses of Dewey throughout my education.</p> <p>Today Dewey has been forgotten in most narratives and education has been captured by neo-liberals who are trying to convert education into a cash register. Texas and other states are passing laws saying that classroom teaching experience is no longer required to be a superintendent of schools, a practice that has spread to California and Washington DC.</p> <p>However, Chicana/o studies thankfully was born in another era and is still kept alive by people who want to educate and not train students. Reform and experimentation are woven into its fabric.</p> <p>ChS was not based on any particular theory or model. It owes debts to educators such as George I. Sanchez who in turn were influenced by Dewey, the godfather of the Inquiry Method.</p> <p>In the fall of 1957, American education entered an era of intense educational reform. The Soviet Union launched Sputnik that led to cries for educational reform with different currents forming. Initially, it was an anti-reform movement that wanted to go back to a mythical “get back to the basics” and convert education into math and science factories. However, the Democrats took over in 1961 widening the trajectory of educational reform.</p> <p>Billions of dollars went into reforming the teaching of math and science, and not as much money went into the humanities and the social sciences. History rightfully claimed to be more part of the humanities than the social sciences so it had the best of all worlds.</p> <p>Another American trait surfaced; higher education seemed more interested in getting grants than actually implementing reforms. Much of the experimentation was eventually forgotten and the books on the findings were forgotten. However, for the moment, many of us were the beneficiaries of the intellectual ferment.</p> <p>The sense of urgency produced by Sputnik and the fear that perhaps the United States was not Number 1 made it clear that it was in the national interest to change education, i.e., curriculum in mathematics and science, but also the humanities and social sciences as well as education.</p> <p>Aside from teaching and community involvement, I belonged to the California Council for the Social Studies that were made up of many young radical scholars who wanted to change methods and the way history was taught. Our guru was Edwin Fenton, whose books on the Inquiry Method can today be found on Amazon for as little as one penny.</p> <p>The California Council was very successful for a time until it was intensely red baited by Max Rafferty, the state superintendent of public instruction who waged war on the reformers calling us Communist and subversives because they wanted to teach students to think critically.</p> <p>My first three textbooks. <em>The Story of the Mexican American, </em>1969, 3d grade, <em>A Mexican American Chronicle </em>1969, 8th grade, and <em>Cultures in Conflict</em>, 1970, 5th grade, were based on the Inquiry Method and influenced by Edwin Fenton. They were adopted by the State of California until the forces of evil went after them at the same time they went after John Caughey, John Hope Franklin, and Ernest May’s better known <em>Land of the Free: a history of United States</em>.</p> <p>The Sputnik era was important because Americans were out to prove their superiority over the Soviet Union. But once the money dried up so did the interest of higher education. It influenced me and others since it gave us the opportunity to experiment with ideas. Unfortunately, even Schools of Education abandoned experimentation once the money dried up.</p> <p>The emphasis of the neoliberals who eventually gained control was that everything could be resolved by a greater emphasis on higher academic standards, especially in science and mathematics.</p> <p>During this period I had the opportunity to work in a teacher training programs under Julian Nava and Ray McHugh in 1967 and 68. Having had public school teaching experience and a teacher trainer for eight years, I was their classroom consultant.</p> <p>I had received my PhD in 1968 and since 1966 taught experimental courses in Mexican American Studies at Mt. St. Mary’s downtown campus. I also began as a tenure track position at Dominguez State College where in order to justify its existence its president Leo Cain experimented with curriculum. Everyone was required to have an Area Studies Major and a disciplinary major. We took workshops on the newest trends, and I learned about Area Studies that later became the model for Chicana/o studies.</p> <p>No one person can be given credit for the formation of ChS or any other reform program. I consider ChS to be revolutionary. It is revolutionary because it frees students’ minds. It motivates them to think and demand more democracy. To achieve this we must preserve our memories since forgotten memories are wasted years.</p> <p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBeAZ35G4X0" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBeAZ35G4X0</a></p> </div> <div> <p><em>— Rodolfo F. Acuña is an historian, professor emeritus teaching at CSU Northridge. He is the author of “Occupied America: A History of Chicanos.” Visit <a href="http://rudyacuna.net/" target="_blank">http://rudyacuna.net</a> for more information.</em></p> <p><strong>Editor’s note: </strong><em>Amigos805 welcome comments on stories appearing in Amigos805 and on issues impacting the community. Comments must relate directly to stories published in Amigos805, no spam please. We reserve the right to remove or edit comments. Full name, city required. Contact information (telephone, email) will not be published. Please send your comments directly to <a href="mailto:frank@amigos805.com" target="_blank">frank@amigos805.com</a></em></p> </div> ]]></content:encoded> </item> <item> <title>Guest commentary: ¡Agua y Libertad!</title> <link>https://amigos805.com/guest-commentary-agua-y-libertad/</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Amigos805.com]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Mon, 13 Apr 2015 16:00:54 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[Cultural]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Education]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Local]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Youth]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Chicana/o Studies]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Mexican history]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Rodolfo F. Acuña]]></category> <category><![CDATA[water]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://amigos805.com/?p=22635</guid> <description><![CDATA[What do you do with Chicana/o Studies? Editor’s note: Amigos805 welcomes guest columns, letters to the editor and other submissions from our readers. All opinions expressed in submitted material are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the viewpoint…<p class="more-link-p"><a class="more-link" href="https://amigos805.com/guest-commentary-agua-y-libertad/">Read more →</a></p>]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: left;" align="center"><strong><em><span style="color: #800000;"><strong><a href="http://amigos805.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/A-acequia.-Courtesy-image.png"><img decoding="async" class="alignright size-full wp-image-22636" title="A acequia. Courtesy image" src="http://amigos805.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/A-acequia.-Courtesy-image-e1429033518260.png" alt="" width="350" height="354" /></a>What do you do with Chicana/o Studies?</strong></span><br /> </em></strong></p> <p style="text-align: left;" align="center"><strong>Editor’s note: </strong><em>Amigos805 welcomes guest columns, letters to the editor and other submissions from our readers. All opinions expressed in submitted material are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the viewpoint of Amigos805.</em></p> <p style="text-align: left;" align="center"><strong>By Rodolfo F. Acuña</strong> / <em>Guest contributor</em></p> <p>If asked once I have been asked a thousand times, what do you do with Chicana/o Studies? You get an education that hopefully frees you from the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurocentrism" target="_blank">Eurocentric worldview</a> that an American education produces.</p> <p>For example, in 2014, <a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/big-gap-between-what-scientists-say-and-americans-think-about-climate-change/" target="_blank">87 percent of scientists</a> said that human activity causes global warming, yet only half the American public believed this to be true. This is important because education forms American attitudes on race, gender, sexuality, the poor and foreign policy. Mind you, this is after the respondents had gone through twelve years of American schooling.</p> <p>In my case, the study Latin American and Chicana/o Studies helped me break out of this fog. Even though I received a master of arts in U.S. history I learned little about the ancient Native American civilizations. True to form we were required to take Western Civilization, not World Civilization.</p> <p>The academy’s worldview resists non-western European thought. When Black Americans pushed for Black Studies, American scholars labeled them “<a href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=afrocentrism" target="_blank">Afrocentric</a>”. They said Black Studies was limiting although, the truth be told, it was about identity and liberation, which all education should be.</p> <p>When Chicana/o Studies emerged similar accusations were made with even Chicano academics chiming in labeling it nationalistic. Eurocentric scholars could not understand that all learning does not begin and end with Western Europe. <em>La zorra nunca se ve su cola</em>.</p> <p>Their mindset is, why should we teach or speak anything but American? The United States publishes more books than any nation in the world. Everyone wants to study here, don’t they? This closed mindset produces a Eurocentric worldview that begets the climate change deniers and neo-John Birchers who are today battling local and state school boards to change history standards to adhere to their Eurocentric worldview.</p> <p>My research on Mexican society has led me to explore the water question and has prepared me to appreciate the present crisis in California and throughout the world. Water is the essence of life. One of the first things that scientists look for on other planets is water whose presence means life.</p> <p>My research on <a href="http://www.uapress.arizona.edu/Books/bid1858.htm" target="_blank"><em>Corridors of Migration: The Odyssey of Mexican Laborers, 1600-1933</em> (2007)</a> took over 30 years. When I started to put it together I wrote 1,000 pages that I had to pare down to about 400. Similar to the history of American and Spanish Colonialism, it was a micro view of the privatization of water (something that is strangling us today).</p> <p>My odyssey began with the simple question of why and how Chihuahua and Sonora differed, separated only by the Sierra Madre Occidental. It raised questions such as why did the Yaqui, Mayo, Opata and other Sonoran Indians resist the Spanish for such a prolonged period, and why Chihuahua tribes such as the Conchos were wiped out or driven into the Sierra Madres?</p> <p>It was water that allowed large villages to develop on the Sonora side. The precipitation blowing west from the Gulf of California and the Pacific was trapped in the high sierras where snow packs kept Sonoran Rivers stocked. Less precipitation fell on the Chihuahua side where the Conchos and other tribes travelled in bands of a dozen or so to allow the ground water to replenish the streams. The Tarahumara and the Conchos traveled to the headwaters of the sierras during the summer, and drifted back to the deserts during the winter.</p> <p>The scarcity of water made the Indians vulnerable to the Spanish whose cattle and mining enterprises polluted the water. The missions, the presidios, pueblos and silver mines appropriated the water making the Indian vulnerable and dependent on their system. Finally, the ejidos that had been used to attract mestizo and criollo settlers to the frontier along with the acequias were monopolized by rich farmers, hacendados and capitalist enterprises.</p> <p>The same process occurred in Sonora where the water was targeted especially in the fertile Yaqui Valley. The <a href="http://www.mexconnect.com/articles/3552-yaqui-in-exile-the-grim-history-of-mexico-s-san-marcos-train-station" target="_blank">Yaqui resisted</a> well into the late 1920s. It was a <a href="http://www.mexconnect.com/articles/3552-yaqui-in-exile-the-grim-history-of-mexico-s-san-marcos-train-station" target="_blank">tale of genocide</a> with the Mexican and Sonoran governments selling Yaqui men, women and children to the plantations of Yucatan.</p> <p>I found my answers outside the parameters of the United States, and I was introduced to Mexican historians such as <a href="http://www.ceas.org.mx/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=206:aboites-aguilar&catid=35:socioscurricula&Itemid=55" target="_blank">Luis Aboites Aguilar</a> and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Roc%C3%ADo-Casta%C3%B1eda-Gonz%C3%A1lez/e/B001JOF722" target="_blank">Rocío Castañeda González</a>, specialist in the use of water. Aboites’ work is essential to studying the Mexican Revolution and provides a window into today’s water crisis and the treachery of Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto who is privatizing the nation’s natural resources. The study of the struggle for water gave me a deeper appreciation of the destructive nature of neoliberalism and privatization.</p> <p>Much of Aboites’ research centers on the area along <a href="x-webdoc://954E6F57-3BE3-433E-A730-7C81DA0DB17B/Demograf%C3%ADa%20hist%C3%B3rica%20y%20conflictos%20por%20el%20agua:%20dos%20estudios%20sobre%2040%20kil%C3%B3metros%20de%20historia%20del%20r%C3%ADo%20San%20Pedro,%20Chihuahua" target="_blank">Conchos River</a> that historically sent labor to Chihuahuan and Arizona mines. Because the river ran northward to the Río Bravo, it was a corridor to New Mexico and Texas as well as a gateway to New Mexico and Arizona. People from Durango, Zacatecas, and colonists from the interior travelled through this corridor.</p> <p>The population worked primarily in farming and mining that were dependent on water. Meanwhile, hacendados, rancheros, and ejido farmers multiplied along the Conchos River where small farmers dug acequias during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.</p> <p>This corridor was an essential to my research and a link to the Arizona mines and then to the 1933 San Joaquin Cotton Strike and other corridors. These workers and their families carried historical memories of struggles won and lost.</p> <p>Aboites Aguilar in a simple narrative tells the story of Santa Rosalia, today Camargo, Chihuahua, where ejidos coexisted with haciendas and small and medium sized farmers. Aboites describes how tensions developed over the use of water, as mestizo farmers and ranchers encroached on former mission and native holdings. Gradually the communal system gave way and the water fell under the control of medium sized landholders who along with a <em>terrateniente</em> in nearby San Francisco de los Conchos monopolized the water.</p> <p>Communal holdings disappeared in Santa Rosalía and La Cruz where small property owners shared the land with hacendados. Consolidation accelerated as the ayuntamientos (town councils) sold off communal properties and water rights to their friends and relatives. The monopolization of water was happening concurrently throughout Mexico, New Mexico and the southwest.</p> <p>State policies facilitated this monopolization. Chihuahua passed a law in 1825 to encourage the colonization of the margins of the Ríos Bravo and Conchos. It privatized public lands and the holdings of the native villages. This encroachment occurred all along the Conchos and along the Florido River (on the north side of the Valle of Allende). Further up, north of Santa Rosalia, Meoqui was part of the Hacienda Delicias until 1826.</p> <p>I would have never acquired this knowledge if it had not been for Chicana/o Studies that has forced a tiny number of scholars to explore this phenomenon and look at the trans-border nature of knowledge. The truth be told, the study of Mexico has grown tenfold, i.e., the publication of dissertations, books and articles, because of the establishment of Chicana/o Studies and the growth of the Mexican and Latino population.</p> <p>Unfortunately, much of the new knowledge is stamped <em>Made in the U.S.A.</em> and bears a distinctly Eurocentric flavor. It is this bias that we have to breakdown while at the same time expanding our own worldview.</p> <p>Hopefully this worldview will include the urgency of the <em>grito</em> ¡<em>Agua y Liberta.</em></p> <p> </p> <p><em>— Rodolfo F. Acuña is an historian, professor emeritus teaching at CSU Northridge. He is the author of “Occupied America: A History of Chicanos.” Visit <a href="http://rudyacuna.net/" target="_blank">http://rudyacuna.net</a> for more information.</em></p> <div> <p><strong>Editor’s note: </strong><em>Amigos805 welcome comments on stories appearing in Amigos805 and on issues impacting the community. Comments must relate directly to stories published in Amigos805, no spam please. We reserve the right to remove or edit comments. Full name, city required. Contact information (telephone, email) will not be published. Please send your comments directly to <a href="mailto:fmoraga@amigos805.com" target="_blank">fmoraga@amigos805.com</a></em></p> </div> ]]></content:encoded> </item> <item> <title>Guest commentary: His Mexican</title> <link>https://amigos805.com/guest-commentary-his-mexican/</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Amigos805.com]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Mon, 06 Apr 2015 07:10:41 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[Cultural]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Education]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Local]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Youth]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Chicana/o Studies]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Occupied America]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Rodolfo F. Acuña]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://amigos805.com/?p=22525</guid> <description><![CDATA[Age of the brokers Editor’s note: Amigos805 welcomes guest columns, letters to the editor and other submissions from our readers. All opinions expressed in submitted material are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the viewpoint of Amigos805. By Rodolfo…<p class="more-link-p"><a class="more-link" href="https://amigos805.com/guest-commentary-his-mexican/">Read more →</a></p>]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: left;" align="center"><span style="color: #800000;"><strong><em><a href="http://amigos805.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/a-Occupied-America-2e.jpg" target="_blank"><img decoding="async" class="alignright size-full wp-image-22526" title="a Occupied America 2e" src="http://amigos805.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/a-Occupied-America-2e-e1428422784647.jpg" alt="" width="350" height="526" /></a>Age of the brokers</em></strong></span></p> <p style="text-align: left;" align="center"><strong>Editor’s note: </strong><em>Amigos805 welcomes guest columns, letters to the editor and other submissions from our readers. All opinions expressed in submitted material are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the viewpoint of Amigos805.</em></p> <p style="text-align: left;" align="center"><strong>By Rodolfo F. Acuña</strong> / <em>Guest contributor</em></p> <p>My history professors would often say that history could not be evaluated in the present tense. Events had to ferment because what is apparent today may not be the case tomorrow. This norm is less true today with instant replay and prominent historians appearing on TV to give their take on current events often creating their own myths about the past. Many historians have crossed the line and become political scientists.</p> <p>The greatest adventure of my life has been writing of <em>Occupied America, </em>a process<em> </em>that has evolved over 46 years during which I have attempted to understand the story of the Chicana/o people. Because of the neglect of the field of study, <a href="http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8zc851j/" target="_blank">the narrative has changed</a> as my knowledge of the field has grown and I have accumulated <a href="http://digital-library.csun.edu/cdm/search/searchterm/rodolfo%20f.%20acuna/order/nosort" target="_blank">thousands of documents</a>. This has reinforced my belief that history books should never be static since our interpretations are constantly changing as the facts and our life experiences add to our knowledge.</p> <p>I realize that some people do not want to be bothered by change. They believe that because something or someone was a certain way 50 years ago that they are the same today. They are like my grandfather who took family feuds to his grave.</p> <p>The first edition of <em>Occupied America</em> (1972) had obvious gaps especially with my narrative of the 1950s and the omission of the 1970s. I have always liked to organize modern history by decades. My theory is that each decade has its own personality resembling good wines where a difference exists between a Chardonnay and a Merlot.</p> <p>The 1920s and 1950s were decades of reaction, apathy and normalcy that were triggered by periods of war or intense political and social upheaval. The reaction, apathy and normalcy during the Bush War Years saw Wall Street accumulate vast amounts of capital and power through deregulation, war profiteering and political corruption.</p> <p>While writing the second edition I was struck by the fact that the 1970s were so similar to the 1920s and 1950s. Obviously it had not yet been hypothesized by historians. I did not yet have a handle on the importance of the decade or the role that Chicana/o Studies. But I found this decade fascinating since it had more of an impact on Mexican Americans than preceding decade or decades.</p> <p>The second edition was published by Harper & Row in 1981 about ten years after first edition was written. Because I tried to reorganize the book into a textbook, my focus deviated from my usual decade format. I was working on another book at the time and multi-tasking often gets in the way of concentrating on conceptualizing history.</p> <p>I called the chapter on the 1970s “Born Again Democrats: The Age of the Brokers.” “<em>By 1973, the nation returned to a reactionary period. The abandonment by white America of the civil rights movement and the loss of the war issue muted activism</em>.” (OA 2d), By then many former civil rights leaders and educators had been co-opted by large doses of federal and foundation funds as well as issues that were extremely important but nevertheless took the focus from the plight of the Chicana/o.</p> <p>The gnawing question was what was the role of Chicana/o studies in expanding the middle class that made up the broker class? Education does not always make one more enlightened and subtle changes occur such as poor college students get married, more frequently with partners who are also professional. Two paychecks put them in the upper middle class thus making them visible and part of the other America.</p> <p>In the 1960s <a href="http://books.google.com/books/about/The_Other_America.html?id=sZDgwcHQmkwC" target="_blank">Michael Harrington</a> talks about the invisibility of the poor and the visibility of the middle class. <em>“[T]he poor are politically invisible. It is one of the cruelest ironies of social life in advanced countries that the dispossessed at the bottom of society are unable to speak for themselves. The people of the other America do not, by far and large, belong to unions, to fraternal organizations, or to political parties. They are without lobbies of their own; they put forward no legislative program. As a group, they are atomized. They have no face; they have no voice</em> . . . .</p> <p>I wrote “<em>The rise of the Chicano broker network is tied to the Chicano population explosion during the past two decades</em>.” This growth spurred the number of national organizations and political bureaucrats while “<em>The Chicano community remained poor and powerless</em>”. (OA, 2d, 1981) With the growth of numbers you had to have middle persons, aides to elected officials, public and private outreach programs, brown figureheads that gave the illusion of progress among Mexican Americans and then Latinos. Those with power had to appoint<em> their</em> Mexicans to justify the American delusion.</p> <p>During the 1970s there were no Latinos mostly Mexicans in Los Angeles. Puerto Ricans on the East Coast and the term Latino was used only in places where various Latin Americans intersected such as in San Francisco’s Mission District and Chicago.</p> <p>Chicana/o Studies was important to the formation of this broker class. Students did not attend college to take a vow of poverty and for CHS to exist; students had to have jobs once they graduated. In California as well as elsewhere the growth of Chicana/o Studies was tied to increased access to the higher education, and the growth coincided with a decline in white enrollment – the white baby boom was over and Latinos became a valuable commodity.</p> <p>Unfortunately, many leading Chicana/o scholars took offense to the thesis and although most said nothing to me directly I heard about it. They felt that I was attacking the discipline, Chicana/o students and professors. In other words they took the criticism personally. The outcome was that the topic was never vetted openly and an important discussion on the effects of Chicana/o studies never took place.</p> <p>Subsequent editions of <em>Occupied America</em> (OA, 3d, 1988) fleshed out the broker thesis specifically as to Nixon’s Latino Strategy to create Latino Republicans by promoting the interests of the middle class at the expense of the working class. It explored the celebration of success and the legitimation of a broker class (3d Ed, p. 377) and how the 70s became a “Me Decade.” With it came a tolerance of Chicano Republicans and a minimizing of the label Chicano. In the process the agendas of Latino national organizations were reshaped to cater to government, powerful foundations and Cuban Americans.</p> <p>Actually the third edition should have been the second. I had recently published <em>A Community Under Siege: A Chronicle of Chicanos, East of the Los Angeles River, 1945-1975</em> (1984) that was a history of Boyle Heights and East LA. It dealt with the 1950s thus allowing me to conceptualize the decade. I had totally missed the point of the 1950s in the first and second editions and called it something like a decade of defense.</p> <p>I once wanted to write a book focusing on the 1950s and another on the 1970s. However, as I like to say life ran out on me. Hopefully it will be pursued by others since it is an important discussion and a stairway to learning about the muddled state of Chicana/o national organizations and politics. It has to do with our class interests and the growing income gap between the visible and the invisible.</p> <p><em>— Rodolfo F. Acuña is an historian, professor emeritus teaching at CSU Northridge. He is the author of “Occupied America: A History of Chicanos.” Visit <a href="http://rudyacuna.net/" target="_blank">http://rudyacuna.net</a> for more information.</em></p> <div> <p><strong>Editor’s note: </strong><em>Amigos805 welcome comments on stories appearing in Amigos805 and on issues impacting the community. Comments must relate directly to stories published in Amigos805, no spam please. We reserve the right to remove or edit comments. Full name, city required. Contact information (telephone, email) will not be published. Please send your comments directly to <a href="mailto:fmoraga@amigos805.com" target="_blank">fmoraga@amigos805.com</a></em></p> </div> ]]></content:encoded> </item> <item> <title>Guest commentary: How do we fight back? Turning the other cheek? Take a Toke?</title> <link>https://amigos805.com/guest-commentary-how-do-we-fight-back-turning-the-other-cheek-take-a-toke/</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Amigos805.com]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Mon, 21 Jul 2014 15:30:10 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[Cultural]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Education]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Chicana/o Studies]]></category> <category><![CDATA[CSU Northridge]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Rodolfo F. Acuña]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://amigos805.com/?p=17834</guid> <description><![CDATA[Editor’s note: Amigos805 welcomes guest columns, letters to the editor and other submissions from our readers. All opinions expressed in submitted material are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the viewpoint of Amigos805. By Rodolfo F. Acuña / Guest contributor We…<p class="more-link-p"><a class="more-link" href="https://amigos805.com/guest-commentary-how-do-we-fight-back-turning-the-other-cheek-take-a-toke/">Read more →</a></p>]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div id="attachment_17835" style="width: 235px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-17835" class="size-full wp-image-17835" title="Courtesy image" src="http://amigos805.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Courtesy-image1.jpg" alt="" width="225" height="225" srcset="https://amigos805.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Courtesy-image1.jpg 225w, https://amigos805.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Courtesy-image1-150x150.jpg 150w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" /><p id="caption-attachment-17835" class="wp-caption-text">Courtesy image</p></div> <p><strong>Editor’s note: </strong><em>Amigos805 welcomes guest columns, letters to the editor and other submissions from our readers. All opinions expressed in submitted material are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the viewpoint of Amigos805.</em></p> <p><strong>By Rodolfo F. Acuña</strong> / <em>Guest contributor</em></p> <p>We must recognize that government is not the problem — we are. Government only works when people are involved and frankly we are not. We believe what the media tells us, ignoring that it is controlled by the one percent. Through the media and the outright bribes, the Kochs and their tribe control a majority of our elected officials — from local elected public officials to the Supreme Court, to the president.</p> <p>Meanwhile, we dream of nirvana, a place of continuous pleasure. For many the consuming issue has become pot, and the dream that when it is legalized Like in the sixties they can go to bed taking one last hit before they sleep, and then light up again to usher in another day.</p> <p>They stumble through life with the more ambitious among them dreaming of becoming part of the system seeking to become “part of the solution rather than the problem.” This scenario is played out on Facebook with Chicanas/os posing with politicos smugly believing that they are doing their best for<em> their</em> people.</p> <p>Tragically the will to fight back has been taken out of them. They have been domesticated by the old biblical sayings such as turn the other cheek – and sayings that have never been followed such as “<em>the meek shall inherit the earth</em>” – rules written by the one percent to appeal to pendejos during the early stages of Christianity.</p> <p>Even activists are conditioned to believe that it is futile to fight back – join the system instead of resisting it. They are reduced to just wanting to take their toke or take a vacation so they can escape reality.</p> <p>The truth be told, it is frustrating to fight back. It is aggravating to constantly fight with vendors and government brokers over trivial problems.</p> <p>My family just spent over a year fighting Kaiser Permanente over claim that should have taken five minutes to resolve. The same is true of the Bank of America and the government bureaucracy that rely on frustrating you, knowing that very few people will fight back!</p> <p>However, the materialist side of me has taught me that if I want to change things I have to fight for changes on earth and not nirvana. Materialism has given me a sense of community. It instructs me that the more education people have the more responsibility they have to change reality – change does not happen by escaping.</p> <p>In the initial stages of Chicana/o studies, it was expected that full professors would take most of the burden of pressing the administration. They were the most protected by the institution. Unfortunately, this did not always happen and some complained that those at the forefront got all the credit forgetting that leadership requires visibility and sacrifice.</p> <p>A factor in the success of CSUN’s Chicana/o Studies Department has been its refusal to turn the other cheek. It took criticizing Chicanas/os and Latinos who betrayed the interests of the student community. Although distasteful, Chicana/o Studies is currently criticizing the administration for disrespecting us and distorting the truth. The current controversy may take us over the cliff; however, the alternatives are to turn the other cheek or take a deep puff on a joint.</p> <p>The truth has become an obsession with me. I am currently exposing a lack of respect by the California Attorney General’s office that is supposed to vet judicial appointments. I won’t bore the reader with a litany of judicial improprieties of the state and federal court system. However, the system supposedly vets judicial appointments to insure the appointment of impartial judges.</p> <p>This past month I received an email from Michael E. Whitaker, a Supervising Deputy Attorney General in the Employment & Administrative Mandate Section of the State Attorney General’s Office. It began “I am in the process of vetting Judge Audrey Collins who has been nominated by Governor Brown to be an Associate Justice of the California Court of Appeal.” Whitaker wanted to speak to me. I made arrangements for him to call me at my home.</p> <p>However, Whitaker intentionally shined me on after I made my feelings about Collins known – evidently he was not serious about vetting her. I followed up with numerous emails that he ignored. In my email correspondence I made it clear that Collins was the most biased judge that I had encountered.</p> <p>This was based on the fact that she did not recuse herself during my trial although she had personal and professional ties to the defendants — the University of California and its counsel. The defenses’ lead counsel was a personal and professional friend of Judge Collins and he wrote a letter of nomination for her during her appointment to the federal bench. The vice chancellor at the University of California Santa Barbara at the time of the controversy was her law professor at UCLA and she had professional and personal ties with the UC, i.e., she was active in the UCLA law alumni association that through Ralph Ochoa and others played a major role in my case. From the beginning she was antagonistic toward us.</p> <p>At trial, Collins allowed her clerks to run wild; they sat and ate with defendants’ counsel. Her head clerk took a count for the defendants’ team and she seemed as if she were interviewing for a position with the UC. Collins’ rulings were questionable; she severely limited the number of documents my attorneys could present. As the plaintiff I had the burden of proof, and this was especially harmful because I had two causes of action.</p> <p>When the draw of jurors appeared to go our way, Collins dismissed three minority jurors saying that it would not be fair to have too many minorities on the panel. At the time having minority jurors was an anomaly — rarely if ever were white jurors dismissed because there were too many white jurors on the panel.</p> <p>At the end of the trial she had a group of mostly Latino prisoners led into the court room in chains and dressed in prison garb. Judge Collins was visibly shaken by the verdict that went in my favor. When my counsel spoke to the foreman of the jury he commented on how solicitous the judge was of the defendants but he thought it was like a criminal case where “the judge was required to protect the defendants’ rights.” Collins never cleared this relationship up.</p> <p>It is difficult to prosecute a case against someone that has “deep pockets.” The UC spent $5 million on the case. Evidently Whitaker was not in the mood to hear the truth. So I feel that it is my moral duty to expose his office and his malfeasance. Once appointed appellate judges for all practical purposes the appointee is on the bench for life.</p> <p>If those of us who have benefitted most from the system do not complain and expose elected officials, judges like Collins and public officials like Michael Whitaker who should? Not everyone has equal access to resources.</p> <p>A student once told me that she admired me because it seemed as if I was always getting arrested for a cause and that her father seemed mute. I pointed out to her that if her father missed a day of work, her family missed a meal whereas I could list the arrest on my resume as “community service.”</p> <p>The problem was not her father, but the Latino leaders posing for photos – like my father used to say smiling, “<em>como changos comiendo caca</em>.”</p> <p><em>— Rodolfo F. Acuña is an historian, professor emeritus teaching at CSU Northridge. He is the author of “Occupied America: A History of Chicanos.”</em></p> <div> <p><strong>Editor’s note: </strong><em>Amigos805 welcome comments on stories appearing in Amigos805 and on issues impacting the community. Comments must relate directly to stories published in Amigos805, no spam please. We reserve the right to remove or edit comments. Full name, city required. Contact information (telephone, email) will not be published. Please send your comments directly to <a href="mailto:fmoraga@amigos805.com" target="_blank">fmoraga@amigos805.com</a></em></p> </div> ]]></content:encoded> </item> <item> <title>Guest commentary: Identity Crisis — An Arrested Development</title> <link>https://amigos805.com/guest-commentary-identity-crisis-an-arrested-development/</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Amigos805.com]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Mon, 11 Nov 2013 15:30:55 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[Cultural]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Education]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Youth]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Chicana/o Studies]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Hispanic]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Latino]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Mexican]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Rodolfo F. Acuña]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://amigos805.com/?p=15484</guid> <description><![CDATA[Editor’s note: Amigos805 welcomes guest columns, letters to the editor and other submissions from our readers. All opinions expressed in submitted material are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the viewpoint of Amigos805. By Rodolfo F. Acuña / Guest contributor The…<p class="more-link-p"><a class="more-link" href="https://amigos805.com/guest-commentary-identity-crisis-an-arrested-development/">Read more →</a></p>]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div id="attachment_15485" style="width: 296px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-15485" class="size-full wp-image-15485" title="Acuna" src="http://amigos805.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Acuna.png" alt="" width="286" height="223" /><p id="caption-attachment-15485" class="wp-caption-text">Courtesy Google Images</p></div> <p><strong>Editor’s note: </strong><em>Amigos805 welcomes guest columns, letters to the editor and other submissions from our readers. All opinions expressed in submitted material are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the viewpoint of Amigos805.</em></p> <p><strong>By Rodolfo F. Acuña</strong> / <em>Guest contributor</em></p> <p>The debate as to what to name Chicana/o Studies will have future repercussions. The proposals are not new; they are not innovative; and they are symptomatic of the historical struggle of Mexican origin people in the United States to identify themselves.</p> <p>The problem is that the group has grown so large and the stakes so high that the consequences will hurt everyone. Unfortunately, the level of the discourse lacks logic, and it prolongs a resolution to the identity crisis of Mexican Americans.</p> <p>Admittedly, Latinos have a lot in common, but we also have a lot of differences, e.g., in social class, population size, where we live, and our history to name a few dissimilarities. These differences strew the landscape with landmines especially for those who already believe that all Latinas/os look alike. It makes it easier for them to lump us into one generic brand.</p> <p>The constant name changes are wrongheaded and ahistorical. Identity takes a long time to form, e.g., it took Mexico over 200 years to get over their regional differences and become Mexicans. If you would have asked my mother what she was, she would have answered, “<em>Sonorense</em>,” my father would have said “<em>tapatio</em>.”</p> <p>Today, the children of immigrants usually identify with their parents’ country of origin. Some, depending on where they live, will say Hispanic or Latino, despite the fact that there is no such thing as a Hispanic or Latino nationality.</p> <p>The result is an arrested development that carries over into the popular media where it is not uncommon to see an Argentinian playing a Mexican on the screen with an Argentinian accent. To movie directors, all <em>Latinos</em> look and sound alike.</p> <p>Chicana/o Studies is supposed to be staffed by intellectuals, and you would think that they would bring about a resolution. However, I have been disappointed by the inconsistencies in their epistemological stances. Instead, they follow the latest fad or what is convenient for them. The result is that they confuse students and the public, thus creating an identity crisis that arrests the development of the disparate Latino sub-groups.</p> <p>Some self-described sages, a minority I hope, even want to change the names of the few Chicana/o Studies departments that have survived the wars in academe to Chicana/o-Latino or vice versa. The pretexts are: it is a progressive move; it promotes unity; and it is strategically the right move — it makes us Number 1.</p> <p>Even on my own campus where Chicana/o Studies offers over 172 sections per semester, a minority of Chicana/faculty members want to change the department’s name. They believe this change will enable them to teach courses on Latin America and thus increase their individual prestige.</p> <p>Having worked in academe for nearly 50 years, this is a naïve! In the past, we tried to establish an interdisciplinary program but we were torpedoed by the Spanish Department. In academe, you don’t just wish changes. They are the result of political confrontation and negotiation.</p> <p>It is beyond me how some Chicana/o Studies faculty members can be so naïve. Do they think that the history, political science or Spanish departments will roll over and concede CHS the right to teach classes that they think belong to them? Do they think that these departments are so stupid that they will stand by and let us to take student enrollment away from them?</p> <p>What is to be gained by creating a pseudo identity?</p> <p>You would think that Chicana/o professors would have developed a sense of what a discipline is. Chicana/o studies were developed as pedagogy; their mission is to motivate and teach students’ skills. CHS were not created to give employment opportunities for Chicana/o professors or to create a safe haven for them to be tenured.</p> <p>The reality is that most Latino programs are clustered east of Chicago whereas most programs west of the Windy City are called Chicana/o Studies. As of late, however, there has been a breakdown, and CHS programs out west have begun to change their names to a hybrid Latino-Chicana/o studies model.</p> <p>Tellingly, although the Mexican origin population is rapidly spreading east of Chicago, there is no reciprocal trend to change the names of programs to include Chicana/o or Mexican American.</p> <p>What is the message for Mexican Americans?</p> <p>As a kid, many of my acquaintances preferred calling themselves Latin American. Unlike hot jalapeños <em>Latino </em>did not offend the sensitive taste buds of gringos.</p> <p>What it boils down to is opportunism and an arrested development. These frequent changes have led to a collective identity crisis as well as short circuiting the community’s historical memory.</p> <p>The best data on Mexican Americans and Latinos comes from the Pew Research Center. It informs us that 71 percent of all Latinos live in 100 counties. Half (52 percent) of these counties are in three states — California, Texas and Florida. Along with Arizona, New Mexico, New York, New Jersey and Illinois they house three-quarters of the nation’s Latino population.</p> <p>Los Angeles County alone has 4.9 million Latinos or 9 percent of the Latino population nationally. In LA-Long Beach Mexican Americans make up 78 percent of the Latino population followed by Salvadorans who are 8 percent. In NY-Northeastern NJ Mexicans are only 12 percent, the rest are Latin Americans. Understandably, in NY-New Jersey there is no movement to change to Latino-Mexican American studies whereas in LA many programs have changed the name of Chicana/o Studies.</p> <p>The Mexican share of the Latino population in California is 83 percent; Texas 88 percent; Illinois 80 percent; Arizona 91 percent; Colorado 78 percent; Georgia 61 percent; and in racially confused New Mexico, Mexicans are 63 percent of Latinos.</p> <p>In metropolitan areas like Los Angeles Mexicans are 78 percent of Latinos; Houston 78 percent; Riverside 88 percent; Chicago 79 percent; Dallas 85 percent; Phoenix 91 percent; San Francisco 70 percent; San Antonio 90 percent. Eight of the ten largest Latino cities are overwhelmingly of Mexican origin.</p> <p>For me, it does not take an advanced degree in mathematics to figure out what the name of the programs should be in the eight states. Still there are Chicana/o geniuses that want to change the name of the programs.</p> <p>At California State Northridge the solution appeared simple in the 1990s. It made sense to support Central American students and create a Central American program. They make up 12/14 percent of LA’s Latino population, and changing the name to Chicana/o –Latino would not have solved anything.</p> <p>What purpose would it have served if 98 percent of the courses and faculty remained Mexican? Central Americans wanted ownership of a new program catering specifically to their needs and their identity.</p> <p>This schizophrenic behavior of the name changers has worsened the existing identity crisis; it has resulted in an erasure of history. You can bet that there will political fallout in the future. Words and history have meanings.</p> <p>For example, Steve Montenegro, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio did not just happen.</p> <p>Arizona state representative Steve Montenegro is from a reactionary Salvadoran family. Since his election in 2008, he has supported the racist SB 1070. Montenegro, supported by the Tea Party, is not vetted by the Mexican community that comprises over 90 percent of Phoenix’s Latino population.</p> <p>In Texas Cuban-American Sen. Ted Cruz got enough Mexican American votes to be elected to the U.S. Senate. Both Montenegro and Cruz are anti-immigrant. They see immigration as a Mexican issue.</p> <p>Cuban-American Marco Rubio also advertises that he is a “<em>Hispanic</em>”. He has been active on immigration, but he is pushing a reactionary bill and like his other musketeers is a Tea Party darling.</p> <p>Ernesto Galarza used to say that a people without a historical memory are easier manipulated, and they lose the ability to defend their communities. The only power poor people have to check the universities and elected officials is the power of numbers.</p> <p>“<em>History gives order and purpose to our lives</em>” Identity whether it is working class or communal clarifies that purpose. Inchoate changes in identity are infantile and are not helping rather they are arresting our development.</p> <p><em><strong>For those who have an extra $5 a month for scholarship</strong></em></p> <div> <p>The For Chicana/o Studies Foundation was started with money awarded to Rudy Acuña as a result of his successful lawsuit against the University of California at Santa Barbara. The Foundation has given over $60,000 to plaintiffs filing discrimination suits against other universities. However, in the last half dozen years it has shifted its focus, and it has awarded 7-10 scholarships for $750 apiece annually to Chicanoa/o/Latino students at CSUN. The For Chicana/o Studies Foundation is a 501 C3 Foundation donations are tax exempt. Although many of its board members are associated with Chicana/o Studies, it is not part of the department. All monies generated go to scholarships.</p> <p>We know that times are hard. Lump sum donations can be sent to For Chicana Chicano Studies Foundation, 11222 Canby Ave., Northridge, Ca. 91326 or through Paypal below. You can reach us at <a href="mailto:forchs@earthlink.net" target="_blank">forchs@earthlink.net</a>. You may also elect to send $5.00, $10.00 or $25.00 monthly. For your convenience and privacy you may donate via PayPal. The important thing is not the donation, but your staying involved.</p> <p>Click: <a href="http://forchicanachicanostudies.wikispaces.com/" target="_blank">http://forchicanachicanostudies.wikispaces.com/</a></p> <p><em>— Rodolfo F. Acuña is an historian, professor emeritus teaching at CSU Northridge. He is the author of “Occupied America: A History of Chicanos.”</em></p> <p><strong>Editor’s note: </strong><em>Amigos805 welcome comments on stories appearing in Amigos805 and on issues impacting the community. Comments must relate directly to stories published in Amigos805, no spam please. We reserve the right to remove or edit comments. Full name, city required. Contact information (telephone, email) will not be published. Please send your comments directly to <a href="mailto:fmoraga@amigos805.com" target="_blank">fmoraga@amigos805.com</a></em></p> </div> ]]></content:encoded> </item> <item> <title>Guest commentary: Por eso estamos como estamos</title> <link>https://amigos805.com/guest-commentary-por-eso-estamos-como-estamos/</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Amigos805.com]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Mon, 15 Jul 2013 15:00:58 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[Cultural]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Education]]></category> <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category> <category><![CDATA[California State University Northridge]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Central American Studies]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Chicana/o Studies]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Rodolfo F. Acuña]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://amigos805.com/?p=14134</guid> <description><![CDATA[Editor’s note: Amigos805 welcomes guest columns, letters to the editor and other submissions from our readers. All opinions expressed in submitted material are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the viewpoint of Amigos805. By Rodolfo F. Acuña / Guest contributor A…<p class="more-link-p"><a class="more-link" href="https://amigos805.com/guest-commentary-por-eso-estamos-como-estamos/">Read more →</a></p>]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div id="attachment_14135" style="width: 335px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="http://amigos805.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/MEChA-1971.jpg" target="_blank"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-14135" class="size-full wp-image-14135" title="" src="http://amigos805.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/MEChA-1971-e1373906052289.jpg" alt="" width="325" height="217" /></a><p id="caption-attachment-14135" class="wp-caption-text">MEChA 1971. Courtesy image.</p></div> <p><strong>Editor’s note: </strong><em>Amigos805 welcomes guest columns, letters to the editor and other submissions from our readers. All opinions expressed in submitted material are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the viewpoint of Amigos805.</em></p> <p><strong>By Rodolfo F. Acuña</strong> / <em>Guest contributor</em></p> <p>A simple definition of trust is “one in which confidence is placed” in someone or something else. It can be extended to products and/or future behavior. For example, I have often heard friends say, “Our relationship is founded on mutual love and trust.” The term is common to most languages.</p> <p>It is embedded in Mexican culture in the choice of a padrino or madrina (godparent) for our children or a best man or woman at our weddings. At one time, the words carried the sense that it established a familial tie, and if something happened to you, they would take care of your family.</p> <p>Euro-Americans are much more practical; they are called witnesses and do not necessarily form familial bonds. For instances, white people don’t go around referring to each other as padrino or madrina. Of course, the custom varies from religion to religion.</p> <p>In our complex society, there are legal trusts that establish a relationship between parties. This has become more formal as society becomes more complex and more property is involved. No longer do we trust a person based on a handshake.</p> <p>In legal trusts you have a trustee or fiduciary that has the power to manage property for the beneficiary who is to receive the benefits from that property. The trusts can be used for the benefit of individuals or charitable gifts. In essence, you are saying that you trust the trustee to be honest — to act like family.</p> <p>I guess I am ambivalent about the word trust, and I believe in the old adage that says not to trust anyone who says “trust me.” That is why I liked the godfather’s advice of “keeping your friends close but your enemies closer.”</p> <p>In Texas they used to say “Never trust a Mexican smoking a cigar or a Gringo speaking Spanish!” In other words, never trust a politician, or in my case, never trust the system. All these sayings address the betrayal of a trust.</p> <p>However, in the last analysis you have to trust someone or get involved in pursuits that that do not involve trusting others – which brings me to why we build institutions. When you put so much energy into building an institution, you do so because it has a mission. You are forced to rely on the good faith of those who take over after you because you have no control over the trust once you pass it on.</p> <p>It is the same as when you make out a living trust to protect your family. When Mexicans migrated to the United States, although they had once owned it, they were “Strangers in the Land.” They formed mutualistas, mutual aid societies, to protect their families. They trusted the other members to give the benefits to their family.</p> <p>When I got involved in Chicana/o studies I figuratively joined a mutualista. I did not have to like everyone involved but I had to trust them. Sure there would be betrayals, but we trusted that that we all had the same goal and that we were forging through the sacrifice of students and our own careers something that was lasting. What we were doing was putting Chicana/o studies in trust for the community. The goal was to not only seed a generation of Chicana/o students but to instill in them a cultural bond that went beyond “me.”</p> <p>Why would we stay in Chicana/o studies if it had no meaning? I got paid more as a community college instructor than I did as a state college professor, and with three K-12 in publication and two book contracts with a university press, all I had to do was keep my mouth shut and wait. But, I guess I never grew up, and I had to answer, why am I here? Why did I get a Ph.D.?</p> <p>We were fortunate at California State University Northridge (AKA San Fernando Valley State). We had a great bunch of students, many of whom shared the vision of the “we.” Because of them, we offer 166 sections per semester and have close to 70 full time and part time instructors. So what am I ruminating about?</p> <p>My fear is that over the years both faculty and students have lost the sense that they owe the past and are holding Chicana/o studies in trust for future generations.</p> <p>The truth be told, faculty members have changed in the perception of their trust. Their interests are not necessarily governed by the “we” and often border on the “me” – more office space, too many students in my classes, and complaints over the lack of preparation of students. The feeling that they are there to serve the people has become secondary to their careers.</p> <p>In many some ways, we daily betray our trust. Many advocated for what amounts to a two-day work schedule, although they knew damn well that 50-minute classes are more conducive to learning than 90-minute sessions. The bottom line is 50-minute classes force them to be on campus five days a week. Professors parachute into campus, avoiding student functions, selectively catering to students, and building their individual bubbles.</p> <p>I have often said that the challenge of Chicana/o studies is not to administer it. Once established it grows through its own momentum; the challenge is to grow Chicana/o studies. The history of labor unions shows the dangers of going to bed with management. You end up eating dinner with executives and playing golf with them. I guess that I just believe that in order to grow, it has to be “them and us!”</p> <p>There are so many ways that we are collaborating in the demise of Chicana/o studies: approving joint offerings of our course titles without insisting on conditions; the lack of holding the administration accountable for affirmative action; the lack of an aggressive strategy for growing the department. At CSUN, programs have been eliminated such as the social science waiver in education, and we have acquiesced.</p> <p>It is difficult to jam someone who you play golf with or socialize with, or you call padrino.</p> <p>As of late I have been disappointed with students. Their main function hypothetically is to enforce the “trust.” When I took the job of putting together Chicana/o studies in 1969, I pledged that if MEChA gave me a vote of non-confidence that I would resign. It was a sign of how much trust that I had in the power and idealism of students.</p> <p>Today, students do not have this sense of duty. They complain about the faculty but they won’t do much about it. The “me” trumps the “we.”</p> <p>My main concern is that many students have forgotten that they are holding what others earned in struggle in trust, and it is not theirs to do as they please. They can destroy the department, for example, but that is a betrayal of trust. They can ignore the laziness of faculty members, which is also a betrayal of a trust.</p> <p>Recently MEChA voted to go along with the dean and faculty members in what amounts to giving away half the Chicana/o House to other groups. I have no problem with the other groups – they are deserving. What I am objecting to is acquiescing with the dean who took the easy way out by taking from Chicana/o studies.</p> <p>My point is that we should have joined them in pressuring the administration to find space for them. We should not have taken the easy way and bailed out the administration. (It is easy to be generous with what is not yours).</p> <p>When we gave up a total of four positions to help students establish Central American Studies, we did not do it because the administration was ordering us. We merely recognized that Central American students had reached an impasse. The administration was not about to give them a program, and student leaders such as Siris Barrios were deserving.</p> <p>After this, administrators took credit for Central American Studies, but kept coming back to the department to furnish office space, clerical assistance and the like. It is not that we begrudged the support but it was the institutions’ duty to furnish resources. Central American and Native American studies are two areas that the administration has neglected. Native Americans made the bid for a house forty years ago, and they were ignored. Native American studies should be showcased instead they are treated like step children.</p> <p>A trust often means saying “no.” When it involves other groups, it means entering into struggle with them instead of converting political space into social space. We should never acquiesce so the administration will not be inconvenienced.</p> <p><strong>For those who have an extra $5 a month for scholarship</strong></p> <div> <p>The For Chicana/o Studies Foundation was started with money awarded to Rudy Acuña as a result of his successful lawsuit against the University of California at Santa Barbara. The Foundation has given over $60,000 to plaintiffs filing discrimination suits against other universities. However, in the last half dozen years it has shifted its focus, and it has awarded 7-10 scholarships for $750 apiece annually to Chicanoa/o/Latino students at CSUN. The For Chicana/o Studies Foundation is a 501 C3 Foundation donations are tax exempt. Although many of its board members are associated with Chicana/o Studies, it is not part of the department. All monies generated go to scholarships.</p> <p>We know that times are hard. Lump sum donations can be sent to For Chicana Chicano Studies Foundation, 11222 Canby Ave., Northridge, Ca. 91326 or through Paypal below. You can reach us at <a href="mailto:forchs@earthlink.net" target="_blank">forchs@earthlink.net</a>. You may also elect to send $5.00, $10.00 or $25.00 monthly. For your convenience and privacy you may donate via PayPal. The important thing is not the donation, but your staying involved.</p> <p>Click: <a href="http://forchicanachicanostudies.wikispaces.com/" target="_blank">http://forchicanachicanostudies.wikispaces.com/</a></p> <p><em>— Rodolfo F. Acuña is an historian, professor emeritus teaching at CSU Northridge. He is the author of “Occupied America: A History of Chicanos.”</em></p> <p><strong>Editor’s note: </strong><em>Amigos805 welcome comments on stories appearing in Amigos805 and on issues impacting the community. Comments must relate directly to stories published in Amigos805, no spam please. We reserve the right to remove or edit comments. Full name, city required. Contact information (telephone, email) will not be published. Please send your comments directly to <a href="mailto:fmoraga@amigos805.com" target="_blank">fmoraga@amigos805.com</a></em></p> </div> ]]></content:encoded> </item> <item> <title>Guest commentary: Since when is losing winning?</title> <link>https://amigos805.com/guest-commentary-since-when-is-losing-winning/</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Amigos805.com]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Mon, 06 May 2013 15:00:09 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[Cultural]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Education]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Chicana/o Studies]]></category> <category><![CDATA[CSU Northridge]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Moorpark]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Rodolfo F. Acuña]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://amigos805.com/?p=13232</guid> <description><![CDATA[Playing-Follow-the-Leader Editor’s note: Amigos805 welcomes guest columns, letters to the editor and other submissions from our readers. All opinions expressed in submitted material are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the viewpoint of Amigos805. By Rodolfo F. Acuña / Guest contributor…<p class="more-link-p"><a class="more-link" href="https://amigos805.com/guest-commentary-since-when-is-losing-winning/">Read more →</a></p>]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div id="attachment_13233" style="width: 335px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="http://amigos805.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Oscar-Castillo.jpg" target="_blank"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-13233" class="size-full wp-image-13233" title="" src="http://amigos805.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Oscar-Castillo-e1367858102870.jpg" alt="" width="325" height="146" /></a><p id="caption-attachment-13233" class="wp-caption-text">Public attending "Building Chicana/o Studies" program April 27, 2013 at CSU Northridge. Courtesy image</p></div> <p style="text-align: left;" align="center"><span style="color: #800000;"><strong>Playing-Follow-the-Leader</strong></span></p> <p><strong>Editor’s note: </strong><em>Amigos805 welcomes guest columns, letters to the editor and other submissions from our readers. All opinions expressed in submitted material are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the viewpoint of Amigos805.</em></p> <p><strong>By Rodolfo F. Acuña</strong> / <em>Guest contributor</em></p> <p><em></em>The other day I gave a presentation to teachers in Moorpark. Like always you can predict the question and answer period. More often than not you get friends in the audience who don’t ask questions but give speeches instead of questions.</p> <p>Everyone wants to be a presenter, and activists feel more entitled than most to promote their point of view.</p> <p>Moorpark was no exception, and an old time friend from the San Fernando Valley was chomping at the bit to promote his cause and his perspective. My friend is a cheerleader, so I settled back realizing that this is a very important function of the Left. We get so few spaces to reach out to people outside our orbit.</p> <p>You also learn a lot from the speeches, such as what tendencies or lines different groups are pushing. In this case my friend asked or better still stated that the Latino critics of the immigration bill were jeopardizing the passage of an immigration reform bill. I was taken aback because this is the kind of rhetoric usually used by the Right to silence the Left.</p> <p>I shot back that I was a critic of what was coming out of Washington on immigration reform. I have not played the game of follow-the-leader since childhood — quickly rattling off what was wrong with the proposals: no quick and just pathway to citizenship, a jingoist and racist border security policy, and a neo-bracero program.</p> <p>I emphasized that in this instance I did not trust President Obama, Senator Marco Rubio or for that matter the Latino leadership on the question of immigration reform. Further, I did not trust the knowledge of our so-called Latino leaders to bring about a fair and just immigration bill.</p> <p>History shows that the wrongheaded logic of a half a loaf of bread is better than none results in none.</p> <p>I realize that I am getting old (but not senile), but since when is losing winning?</p> <p>Last Saturday we had a reunion of Chicana/o studies alumni at California State University Northridge where we screened “Unrest” – the story of the founding of the department. With only a little over a month to organize and zero funds, we were surprised when over 300 attended (not enough food).</p> <p>In the documentary I was asked why it was so important that I had a PhD and a quick path to tenure. I replied because I had to be secure that I could tell administrators and white faculty to go to hell. The decision to play it fast and furious was very important to the success of the CSUN Chicana/o Studies department which offers five to ten times as many classes as the next most populated programs.</p> <p>Of course, in order to do this it was essential to have united students that the administration feared. It was the only power that Chicanas/os had at the time that prevented the administration from eliminating us.</p> <p>My feeling was that I did not take the leadership in a program to lose. A department had to have a full complement of courses and the teachers to teach them. Anyone who stood in our way had to be taken on.</p> <p>I always felt that if we could not be the best then I should not take the job or sell out and go into a traditional department in a prestigious university where my pension would have been much higher than at a state college. Besides if money was the issue, I could have made much more money in sales than in education.</p> <p>Looking back at the students that have gone through the department and the Education Opportunities Program, they have done so much more collectively than I could have done as an individual. I was never good looking enough to be a movie star.</p> <p>This brings me back to the game of Follow-the-Leader. The purpose of education is to produce leaders. To produce leaders who think and are not copycats. Issues such as the current immigration bill are too important for us to settle for a half loaf of bread; for us to compromise even before a vote is taken.</p> <p>We should learn from history. Ask questions such as why other programs are not as large as the CSUN Chicana/o Studies department? We should ask if our leaders have led? Looking at my former students on April 27, 2013, I realized that it was because of them that we have had a measure of success. They were too raw, too idealistic to accept that losing was winning.</p> <p><em>— Rodolfo F. Acuña is an historian, professor emeritus teaching at CSU Northridge. He is the author of “Occupied America: A History of Chicanos.”</em></p> <p><strong>Editor’s note: </strong><em>Amigos805 welcome comments on stories appearing in Amigos805 and on issues impacting the community. Comments must relate directly to stories published in Amigos805, no spam please. We reserve the right to remove or edit comments. Full name, city required. Contact information (telephone, email) will not be published. Please enter your comment below for approval or send your comments to <a href="mailto:fmoraga@amigos805.com" target="_blank">fmoraga@amigos805.com</a></em></p> <div id="attachment_13234" style="width: 335px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="http://amigos805.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/MEChA-march-circa-1970.jpg" target="_blank"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-13234" class="size-full wp-image-13234" title="" src="http://amigos805.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/MEChA-march-circa-1970-e1367858192488.jpg" alt="" width="325" height="137" /></a><p id="caption-attachment-13234" class="wp-caption-text">MEChA march circa 1970. Courtesy image.</p></div> ]]></content:encoded> </item> <item> <title>Guest Commentary: We ain’t going back</title> <link>https://amigos805.com/guest-commentary-we-aint-going-back/</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Amigos805.com]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Mon, 29 Apr 2013 16:56:27 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[Cultural]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Education]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category> <category><![CDATA[California State University]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Chicana/o Studies]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Northridge]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Rodolfo F. Acuña]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://amigos805.com/?p=13073</guid> <description><![CDATA[Editor’s note: Amigos805 welcomes guest columns, letters to the editor and other submissions from our readers. All opinions expressed in submitted material are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the viewpoint of Amigos805. By Rodolfo F. Acuña / Guest contributor Mexican…<p class="more-link-p"><a class="more-link" href="https://amigos805.com/guest-commentary-we-aint-going-back/">Read more →</a></p>]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div id="attachment_13074" style="width: 335px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="http://amigos805.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/MECha-meeting-1971.jpg" target="_blank"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-13074" class="size-full wp-image-13074" title="MECha meeting 1971" src="http://amigos805.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/MECha-meeting-1971-e1367254425583.jpg" alt="" width="325" height="203" /></a><p id="caption-attachment-13074" class="wp-caption-text">MEChA meeting circa 1971. Courtesy image.</p></div> <p><strong>Editor’s note: </strong><em>Amigos805 welcomes guest columns, letters to the editor and other submissions from our readers. All opinions expressed in submitted material are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the viewpoint of Amigos805.</em></p> <p><strong>By Rodolfo F. Acuña</strong> / <em>Guest contributor</em></p> <p>Mexican American or Chicana/o History by definition is the history of people of Mexican origin in the United States. It is about how Mexican origin people survived and formed an identity within the U.S. As such Mexican American history belongs both to the histories of Mexico and the United States. The different is that the Mexican identity responds to different forces. For all of the limitation in Mexico, Mexicans know they are Mexicans. In the United States it is constantly evolving and responding to a society that has itself not found its identity. Racism, for example, is much different here than in Mexico.</p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;">The conceptualization of Chicana/o Studies</span></p> <p>Mexican American history is a disciplinary specialty; it is not per se Chicana/o Studies which is an area of study which is an integrated course of academic studies much the same as African American, Asian and Latin American studies. Mexican American history evolved about the same time as Chicana/o studies in the 1960s and is a core course in that area. It is important to draw the difference between Chicana/o studies and the disciplinary specialty.</p> <p>It must be remembered that what we accept as traditional disciplines are relatively new, and many of the social sciences evolved from specialties within the field of history; for example, social history became sociology and political history political science. The emergence of Chicana/o history is much more complex than the traditional fields of study.</p> <p>Chicana/o history and the area of Chicana/o studies are products of the Civil Rights era of the 1960s. Unlike sociology, political science and economics, they did not come about because historians saw the need to expand their intellectual inquiry rather the conditions produced the change. It was by popular demand and a result of societal needs, and a response to the material conditions with American society.</p> <p>In my perceptive, Chicanas/os have always had a history, the problem was that it was not recognized by the academy. What became Chicana/o history and Chicana/o studies was influenced by works of scholars and non-scholars such as Paul S. Taylor and George I. Sánchez. The epic work of Carey McWilliams, <em>North From Mexico, </em>was a milestone in this formation.</p> <p>The pedagogical strategy for an integrated course of academic studies to address the needs of came Sánchez. Many educators followed his lead, and called for bilingual-bicultural courses to help motivate Mexican American children.</p> <p>In the 1960s a perfect storm brought about Chicana/o history and many other disciplinary specialties. It is not by coincidence that education was the most receptive to Chicana/o history classes. It was here where the contractions and needs were most obvious. In the Los Angeles Unified Schools, the percentage of Mexican origin students jumped from 10 percent in 1960 to 22 percent in 1970 (to 75 percent today). In the School of Education there were no specialists that could train student teachers to educate Mexican students.</p> <p>The need was obvious. The Mexican child was at the bottom of the vertical scale. In 1960 in the median of education for Mexican children in Texas was the third grade, in California the eighth grade, and they were last in median of school years completed in almost every southwestern state. The dropout rate was over 60 percent.</p> <p>As urbanization and Mexican origin school aged children grew, Mexican American political and professional organizations pressured the schools of education to examine their teacher training programs. It was clear by the 1960s that there was a need to serve an expanding sector of American society. One of the solutions was Mexican American studies. The need could not be served by one service course that was not really a history class but a smorgasbord.</p> <p>History was one of the most resistant disciplines in academe. Historians resisted and still resist classes in Mexican American history or the hiring of faculty of Mexican origin. They were content in teaching the histories of Western Europe and the United States. To this day, many resist teaching World history; civilization began and ends in Western Europe.</p> <p>In my case, I was influenced by my experiences as a K-12 teacher and by my activism.</p> <p>The 1963 <em>Los Angeles Times</em> published a series of very influential articles by Ruben Salazar that summed the need for Mexican American history as a strategy to attack the horrendous dropout epidemic among Mexicans. At the core of the articles was the cultural conflicts heightened by a flawed educational system. One of the solutions was — using the language of the times — the initiation of teachers’ training program that met the needs of Mexican children. A program that made Mexicans participants in history — combating the negative self-image many Mexican children of themselves.</p> <p>Sal Castro whose funeral I attended this morning was one of the early proponents of giving children a historical presence. It was simple: how could Mexican American children feel part of the American family if they never saw themselves in the family photo albums. A student who did value him or herself was educationally handicapped.</p> <p>In 1966, I taught one of the first courses on Mexican Americans at the downtown LA campus of Mt. St. Mary’s College. Books are teaching tools, and it was obvious that there were not many materials on Mexican Americans available. I used McWilliams’ <em>North from Mexico</em> and Octavio Paz’s <em>The Labyrinth of Solitude</em>. They were supplemented by articles that I ran off on stencils. Photo copies were extremely rare at the time. The next year Julian Nava led a NDEA Institute for social studies teachers at San Fernando Valley State, and I was a resource teacher.</p> <p>By this time, there was talk about adding the History of Mexican American as a specialty in the field of history. However, this discussion was very limited, and it met resistance within history faculties. When I became a candidate for a tenured position at the SFVSC history department the chair opposed the appointment on the grounds that my parents were Mexican so I could not be objective in teaching Latin American history. He added that they already had one (a Mexican) in the department. But even so, things were opening up; I was offered positions in Latin American History at San Jose, Fresno, and Dominguez State Colleges.</p> <p>However, the institution of classes on Mexican Americans did not come from professions such as me. The truth be told, there were two few of us. What pushed us over the top was the surge of Chicano high school student activity throughout the United States. The Chicano student movement fit in perfectly with the progressive white and black baby boomers. I have studied school walkouts in California, Arizona, Texas, Washington, Kansas, and Wisconsin, and there is a common thread among them: most demanded the abolition of the no Spanish rule, more Mexican teachers, and Mexican American history. There were over 100 walkouts between March 1968 and 1970 throughout the southwest, Midwest and northwest. The small but expanding Chicana/o student populations on the college campuses grew more militant and participated in student strikes.</p> <p>Within this context, led by black students — supported by Chicano and white radicals — strikes broke out at San Fernando Valley in November 1968 that forced the college to initiate Mexican American Studies department in January 1969. The student demands went beyond a call for a disciplinary specialty; students instinctively knew that area studies incorporated most of the disciplines within the college. They wanted the power to control these new programs.</p> <p>In this context, I published three children’s books: <em>The Story of the Mexican American</em>, <em>Cultures in Conflict</em>, and <em>A Mexican American Chronicle</em>. They were for Mexican American children, and based on my experiences as a public school teacher. They put the picture of Mexican origin children in the family photo album.</p> <p>Chicana/o Studies has been a success at CSUN. Today we have over 60 full time and part time teachers. When we began in 1969 there were less than a 100 students, and less than a dozen faculty members throughout the college that identified as Mexican. Today the Chicana/o Studies department offers 166 sections a semester in CHS and employs over 65 instructors.</p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;">What is Mexican American history, according to Rudy Acuña?</span></p> <p>Like the history of the human race, Mexican American history is part of the diaspora of the human race. Like groups Mexican Americans formed roots in different environments where they adapted to changing conditions. The narrative includes how these migrants changed as they changed their location, and how religion, patriarchy, modes of production, and urbanization affected them.</p> <p>In 2008 I published <em>Corridors of Migration</em> that studied the different corridors traveled by Mexican people into the United States that led them to the San Joaquin Valley, and ended with the San Joaquin Cotton Strike of 1933 that saw three strikers murdered, and at least nine infants starved to death. How and why were they there? This is one strain within billions of other corridors.</p> <p>We must remember every ethnic and racial group — every person – every creature — has a history. Unfortunately, the dominant society often submerges the histories of what is different. Minorities are minorities because the dominant societies like our bodies reject them as foreign matter, actively seeking to destroy them. The minorities only become part of the main body when they are large enough to resist the rejection and are able to mutate. If they don’t they are absorbed and their history is killed off. The degree of the absorption depends on many factors that include race, class, and physical compatibility.</p> <p>What makes Mexican Americans different from other minorities or even other Latinos is the 2,000 mile border that separates the United States and Mexico. Like in the case of the wall between East and West Germany, or before that the Great Wall of China, walls are pretty ineffective. In the case of the United States, there are added factors: trade, natural resources and labor. Robots, for instance, are not yet a viable alternative to people – they cost money to obtain and maintain. In all probability they will be made in China. Lastly, but more important, Robots do not consume.</p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Mexican American History: Quo Vadis?</span></p> <p>Where are we going? What is the future of Mexican American history? From my perspective, interest in Mexican American history will grow as time marches on. There are 55 million Latinos in the United States, 35 million who are of Mexican origin.</p> <p>By 2050, Latinos are projected to be 29 percent of the United States. This is at a time that the white population is growing older. By 2030, all 79 million boomers will be at least 65 of age. By 2050, the elderly portion of the population will be 72 out of 100 working age people compared to 59 in 2005.</p> <p>Mexico has a population of 115 million people. It is the largest Spanish speaking nation in the world. Its art and literature are world renowned. In contrast Canada is a country of about 35 million – about the same number as people of Mexican origin people living in the United States. There is a power of numbers as in the 2012 Presidential Elections where Obama received at least 71 percent of the Latino vote. Most experts attribute the victory to the heavy Latino vote. This heavy vote has pushed immigration reform into the national spotlight something that was not possible in 2007.</p> <p>If Latinos were an autonomous nation, they would be the third largest country in Latin America; the second largest Spanish-speaking nation in the world. Latinos would be larger than Spain and Argentina. Mexican Americans alone would rank as the sixth largest Latin American nation, the fifth largest Spanish speaking nation in the world. The stupidity is that while portions of the media and politicians it has received very little attention from academicians other than to try and get funding.</p> <p>Higher education increasingly uses the numbers as a hook for attracting outside funding. Today there are 223 Hispanic-Serving Institutions in higher education. To qualify as a member of HUAC, “colleges, universities, or systems/districts where total Hispanic enrollment constitutes a minimum of 25% of the total enrollment.”</p> <p>No matter what the xenophobes want, they are not going to be able to eliminate the identity of the Mexican American in this country. An example is that between 1880 and 1920 four million Italians entered the U.S. An estimated 80 percent of Italian immigrants came from Southern Italy. They were darker and rural and less acceptable than the northern European and thus less easily absorbed. The National Origins Immigration Laws of the 1920s allowed social engineering, and the U.S. shut out Italians, and they were able whiten their descendants. This will be more difficult with Mexican and Latin American immigrants.</p> <p>Given the increased interest in Mexican American culture and cuisine, it is doubtful whether the Mexican origin and Latinos will be absorbed as quickly as the European. Mexicans have left large footprints. Their history is part of U.S. history, i.e., the United States invaded Mexico and seized half its territory, and today cities in a large portion of the U.S. have Spanish and Indian names. Get on a bus in California and it almost sounds as if you were in the state of los santos, i.e., San Diego, San Pedro, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San Francisco, etc..</p> <p>Time marches on! A 1968 ERIC study showed that there were 100 Latino PhDs in the U.S. – about half of them were of Mexican origin. Today there are thousands.</p> <p>In the area of research, Chicana/o studies have played a role in the dramatic transformation of the study of Mexican Americans in the United States and even Mexicans in Mexico. Before December 31, 1970, not a single dissertation had been written under the category of “Chicano”; as of 2011 870 dissertations had been recorded under this heading. Under “Mexican American” a search reveals 82 dissertations before 1971, and 2,824 after that date; the search for “Latinos” shows 6 before 1971 and 2,887 after. This is also the pattern in dissertations on Mexico; before 1971, 660 were found in the Proquest data bank; after 9,078. The number of books and journal articles on Chicano and Latinos has also zoomed.</p> <p>As a result, I have no doubt that the disciplinary specialties that make up Chicana/o studies will grow in number. However, they may not be in Chicana/o studies departments. They will be in traditional disciplines and they will be held captive by the bishops of the academy. The thrust will not be to motivate Chicana/o students but to tell they stories.</p> <p>But, in the last analysis, like my students say, we are here and we are not going back!</p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Postscript</span></p> <p>The failure to root Chicana/o studies will not be because they are not viable. Indeed, as a pedagogy it has been proven effective at CSUN and in Tucson, Arizona. It has also been the only proven strategy to integrate and advance the study of Mexican American in the multi-disciplines campus wide. However, I am a cynic and know that the self-interest of the disciplines will not allow competition. Among many of the old timers at CSUN I am still blamed for the decline in the enrollment in history (we are three times as large as the History department).</p> <p>In the early 1970s Berkeley sociologist Robert Blauner wrote that the only power students and poor people had was the power to disrupt. The question is how long will it take this time around?</p> <p><em>RODOLFO F. ACUÑA, founding chair of the Chicana/o Studies department at then San Fernando Valley State (California State University at Northridge) — the largest Chicana/o Studies Department in the United States with 27 tenured professors, has authored twenty-one books, three of which received the Gustavus Myers Award for the Outstanding Book on Race Relations in North America. Acuña has received the National Hispanic Institute Lifetime Achievement Award, Austin, Texas, 2008, A Life Time Achievement Award from the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, 2010, the Distinguished Scholar Award from the National Association for Chicano Studies, the Emil Freed Award for Community Service, the Founder’s Award for Community Service from the Liberty Hill Foundation among others. Black Issues In Higher Education selected Acuña one of the “100 Most Influential Educators of the 20th Century. Among his best-known books are Voices of the U.S. Latino Experience [Three Volumes] (Greenwood Press, 2008), Corridors of Migration: Odyssey of Mexican Laborers, 1600-1933 (University of Arizona 2007) Winner of a CHOICE [American Library Association] outstanding Academic Title Award. Occupied America: A History of Chicanos 7th edition (Longman, 2010); Sometimes There is No Other Side: The Myth of Equality (Notre Dame, 1998); Anything But Mexican: Chicanos in Contemporary Los Angeles. (Verso Press, 1996), US Latinos: An Inquiry (Greenwood Press, 2003), Community Under Siege (UCLA, 1984), The Sonoran Strongman (University of Arizona, 1974). His latest book is The Making of Chicana/o Studies: In the Trenches of Academe (Rutgers 2011). Acuña has also published three children’s books and more than 200 academic and public articles in addition to over 160 book reviews in academic journals.</em></p> <p><em>— Rodolfo F. Acuña is an historian, professor emeritus teaching at CSU Northridge. He is the author of “Occupied America: A History of Chicanos.”</em></p> <p><strong>Editor’s note: </strong><em>Amigos805 welcome comments on stories appearing in Amigos805 and on issues impacting the community. Comments must relate directly to stories published in Amigos805, no spam please. We reserve the right to remove or edit comments. Full name, city required. Contact information (telephone, email) will not be published. Please enter your comment below for approval or send your comments to <a href="mailto:fmoraga@amigos805.com" target="_blank">fmoraga@amigos805.com</a></em></p> <div id="attachment_13075" style="width: 335px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="http://amigos805.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/MEChA-2012-Outreach-Team.jpg" target="_blank"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-13075" class="size-full wp-image-13075" title="" src="http://amigos805.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/MEChA-2012-Outreach-Team-e1367254555404.jpg" alt="" width="325" height="175" /></a><p id="caption-attachment-13075" class="wp-caption-text">MEChA 2012 Outreach Team. Courtesy image.</p></div> ]]></content:encoded> </item> <item> <title>Commentary: Arizona Copycats — Mexicans in the Photo</title> <link>https://amigos805.com/commentary-arizona-copycats-mexicans-in-the-photo/</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Amigos805.com]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Mon, 22 Apr 2013 17:25:08 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[Cultural]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Education]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Events]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Youth]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Chicana/o Studies]]></category> <category><![CDATA[CSU Northridge]]></category> <category><![CDATA[immigration]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Rodolfo F. Acuña]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://amigos805.com/?p=12972</guid> <description><![CDATA[Editor’s note: Amigos805 welcomes guest columns, letters to the editor and other submissions from our readers. All opinions expressed in submitted material are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the viewpoint of Amigos805. By Rodolfo F. Acuña / Guest contributor By…<p class="more-link-p"><a class="more-link" href="https://amigos805.com/commentary-arizona-copycats-mexicans-in-the-photo/">Read more →</a></p>]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div id="attachment_12688" style="width: 335px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="http://amigos805.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Building-Chicano-Studies.jpg" target="_blank"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-12688" class="size-full wp-image-12688" title="" src="http://amigos805.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Building-Chicano-Studies-e1364578338737.jpg" alt="" width="325" height="420" /></a><p id="caption-attachment-12688" class="wp-caption-text">The program 'Building Chicana/o Studies,' featuring a photo exhibit and screening of the documentary 'Unrest,' will be presented from 5 to 10 p.m. Saturday, April 27 at CSU Northridge, at the Jerome Richfield Hall.</p></div> <p><strong>Editor’s note: </strong><em>Amigos805 welcomes guest columns, letters to the editor and other submissions from our readers. All opinions expressed in submitted material are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the viewpoint of Amigos805.</em></p> <p><strong>By Rodolfo F. Acuña </strong>/ <em>Guest contributor</em></p> <p>By now most of you are getting the message that there will be a photo exhibit at Chicana/o Studies at California State University at Northridge on Saturday, April 27, 2012 from 5 to 10 PM. – free of charge. I consider this to be an important event — not just because it brings alumni, students and community together — but because we are recovering lost memory and casting a bright light on how much we as a people have achieved in the past fifty years. We often lose sight off the fact that most of us are first generation college students – first in our families to go to college.</p> <p>A lot of us will be passing on – we are getting up in age. A friend and a giant in the Chicana/o Movement — Sal Castro — just passed away. He was a year younger than I am, and I knew of him since high school when he haunted the Cathedral High basketball gym. As long as there is a historical memory, Sal Castro will be presente.</p> <p>I consider my time at California State University Northridge very special. This is not because of the university; I still harbor resentment toward it and most white faculty members because they looked down and hampered the progress of Chicana/o-Latino students. What I value is that it brought a lot of you together and changed your lives, and that in turn, you made life better for those around you.</p> <p>Every time I visit Ventura County I encounter someone who graduated from CSUN. The communities in that Valley have benefited materially from your presence. Increasingly those who followed you are going into fields other than Chicana/o Studies and into graduate studies – which is what we wanted and hope for.</p> <p>What makes your experience so special is that many of you made it despite the public schools.You are in the majority immigrants or children of immigrants. We as a people went from work class to university grads in one generation. Other immigrant groups took at least three generations to achieve this in mass numbers.</p> <p>Moreover, conditions were different for them; they had a lot more opportunities.</p> <p>For this progress to continue, it is going to take a community. Like the Texas Raza Unida Party used to say, “Una mano no se lava sola.” (One hand doesn’t wash itself!) A community comes about when you think of others; it matures when its members remember that they did not make it on their own –someone came before them.</p> <p>Looking back I can remember that I had my doubts about many of my first students making it through college. One of them told me that he only intended to stay a year and then move on. He enrolled because of financial aid and to get away from his probation officer – he stayed and today he is a probation officer. Hopefully, he is extending a hand to others.</p> <p>Our communities are still under siege. A war is raging in Arizona. The prison industry is still agitating, and the tea partyers and the minutemen types are still terrorizing Mexicans.</p> <p>The fight for education and the right to learn about Mexican American heritage has not let up in Tucson. And it shouldn’t because it is an important. We knew from the beginning that it was not just about Arizona or just about Tucson – it was about justice.</p> <p>Everyone has to know that they are somebody – children cannot learn without respecting themselves. As three-year olds they already love to look at photo albums, and ask where am I?</p> <p>The teaching of history is a pedagogical srategy, it is a healing process that tells people, “I am somebody, and I am here because of somebody.”</p> <p>Arizona SB 1070 that profiles Mexican and Latin American undocumented workers has been copied in Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, South Carolina and Utah. It is spreading to other places. However, the people there benefit from the war in Arizona, and we all know that the assault on our history and education does not end in Arizona.</p> <p>Returning to the basics – nothing happens by accident. We all learn from our experiences.</p> <p>Because of Arizona, more people today know about the Koch brothers and ALEC — American Legislative Exchange Council – and their role in the war to privatize Arizona than they did three years ago. More of us know that the tea party and the minutemen are not aberrations, and that they are not democratic or grassroots. They are products of the privatizers. They are the product of hate.</p> <p>The minutemen’s assassination of nine-year old Brisenia Flores did not happen by accident in 2009. It was the inevitable result of a hate campaign.</p> <p>The only thing that has prevented the prairie fire from spreading is the numbers that make up a Chicana/o-Latino community, and the fact that we fought back and will continue to fight.</p> <p>An even bigger threat than Arizona is Texas. In 2007 Texas State Board of Education waged war on anyone who did not see God as they do. The standard was the creationist paradigm. Texas became associated with the ridiculous notion that the earth is 6,000 years old.</p> <p>In 2012 members of the Texas Board set standards for public school textbooks that purged historical figures suspected of “subversive” religious views. The list included Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, and Benjamin Franklin and political figures such as Dolores Huerta.</p> <p>Presently, Texas has gone one step further, and it has sponsored bills copying Arizona’s HB 2281. Senate Bill 1128 and HB 1938 are currently making their way through committees. The bills attack Mexican American and African American history in Texas public universities, eliminating their credits from counting toward college graduation.</p> <p>It is getting its cue from Arizona Gov. Janet Brewer and the National Academy of Scholars, an organization supported by John Birch type foundations.</p> <p>The advantage that the Tejanos have over Arizona is that they benefit from Arizona. Because of its size, it is also more difficult to buy the state.</p> <p>Led by students and University of Texas historian Emilio Zamora who has rallied the Tejas Foco of the National Association for Chicana/o Studies, the Tejanos are fighting back and have begun a letter writing campaign. Texas also has a critical mass of elected officials who support the fight back effort.</p> <p>What dismays me is that that despite gains made in the education of Mexican American children in the Lone State, they continue to lag behind white and Asian children. It does not have to be that way.</p> <p>The preponderance of evidence for the past 70 plus years is that a major cause of functional illiteracy and dropping out of school is racism and the stereotyping of Mexicans. The evidence shows that a positive history plays an important role in combatting negative self-images.</p> <p>Just today I read a report from social psychologists at Indiana University Bloomington that suggests that negative stereotypes have debilitating effects on women. According to University of Indiana social psychologist Katie Van Loo, these stereotypes hinder women’s learning of mathematics. “If you can make women feel powerful, then maybe you can protect them from the consequences of stereotype threat” that makes them conclude that “women can’t do math.”</p> <p>The preponderance and a much larger body of research also show that people of color are harmed by negative stereotypes and negative self-images. Forty years ago, people of color were nowhere to be found in textbooks. Educators pointed out that the basic first grade reader <em>Dick and Jane</em> only had one creature of color — Spot, the dog.</p> <p>Just seeing themselves in photos gives a child a sense of belonging to a family and community. When they don’t see themselves in history books, it as if they did not exist. The results are disaffection and alienation.</p> <p>The greatness of Sal Castro is that he always communicated with students through history. Often when he would go off to speak he would call me as well as others and ask us if we knew of any Mexican historical figures in that region. Sometimes I would shake my head and say, “Sal, does it matter if we had Mexicans fighting in the confederate army?” For Sal it was important for us to be in the photo.</p> <p>His hero was Joe Kapp. He was bad (good), the best, according to Sal. Sal breathed and lived Chicano.</p> <p>Sal will always be presente for as long as we remember our history and remember that we are the people in the photo.</p> <p>REMEMBER APRIL 27, 2012 CHICANA/O STUDIES @ JEROME RICHFIELD HALL, THE ENTIRE FIRST FLOOR, 5 PM-10 PM. Take back our history!</p> <p>There will also be tables available for those who want to bring photos of their own to display their own pictures. It is a family gathering.</p> <div id="attachment_12974" style="width: 335px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="http://amigos805.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Dick-Jane.jpg" target="_blank"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-12974" class="size-full wp-image-12974" title="" src="http://amigos805.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Dick-Jane-e1366651195643.jpg" alt="" width="325" height="344" /></a><p id="caption-attachment-12974" class="wp-caption-text">Where are the Mexicans in the Pictures? Dick and Jane first grade reader. Courtesy image.</p></div> <div id="attachment_12973" style="width: 335px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="http://amigos805.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Black-dick-and-jane.gif" target="_blank"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-12973" class=" wp-image-12973 " title="Black dick and jane" src="http://amigos805.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Black-dick-and-jane.gif" alt="" width="325" height="250" /></a><p id="caption-attachment-12973" class="wp-caption-text">Black Dick and Jane version in late '60s. Courtesy image.</p></div> <div id="attachment_12975" style="width: 335px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="http://amigos805.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Home-child-labor.jpg" target="_blank"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-12975" class="size-full wp-image-12975" title="" src="http://amigos805.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Home-child-labor-e1366651347780.jpg" alt="" width="325" height="173" /></a><p id="caption-attachment-12975" class="wp-caption-text">Home child labor. Courtesy image.</p></div> <p><em>— Rodolfo F. Acuña is an historian, professor emeritus teaching at CSU Northridge. He is the author of “Occupied America: A History of Chicanos.”</em></p> <p><strong>Editor’s note: </strong><em>Amigos805 welcome comments on stories appearing in Amigos805 and on issues impacting the community. Comments must relate directly to stories published in Amigos805, no spam please. We reserve the right to remove or edit comments. Full name, city required. Contact information (telephone, email) will not be published. Please enter your comment below for approval or send your comments to <a href="mailto:fmoraga@amigos805.com" target="_blank">fmoraga@amigos805.com</a></em></p> ]]></content:encoded> </item> </channel> </rss>