The
National
Day of Action on May 29,
2010 which saw 100,00 people march through Phoenix was a massive convergence of
protest and presence against the racist policies coming out of the Arizona
state legislature such as AZ SB1070.
Distinct in character of the march and organizing both before and since
has been the deliberate insertion of the point of reference of Indigenous
Peoples as PEOPLES with the Right of Self
Determination in the
debate on policy and federal immigration enforcement priorities. This has never occurred before at the
scale of a national mobilization for social justice in the entire history of
the United States. While common in
mass mobilization throughout the southern part of the hemisphere, the presence
of Indigenous
Peoples as not just
protagonists and participants, but in leadership roles as NATIONS is a development that all of the peoples
who marched in Phoenix felt and experienced collectively, but the mainstream
narrative of what is occurring in Arizona is still missing the boat.
Or perhaps it is more accurate to say that the mainstream narrative, including the tale told by the advocates and networks, is still on the boats: the Niña, the Pinta, the Santa Maria, the Mayflower and the NAFTA. All the same boat.
Or perhaps it is more accurate to say that the mainstream narrative, including the tale told by the advocates and networks, is still on the boats: the Niña, the Pinta, the Santa Maria, the Mayflower and the NAFTA. All the same boat.
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| Anchor Babies of 1492 |
We
however on here the ground know that that we are at the pivot point of not just
the history for Arizona but the future of our relationship as families of the
children of Abya Yala and Mother Earth.
The first wave of the impact of the impending climate
chaos on the horizon of
the global economy, which is projected to produce 50,000,000 climate refugees
globally due to climate change exacerbated by global warming, has
already broken upon the borders of Arizona. The climate of fear, ignorance, and insecurity which is
driving the vicious attack against the migratory workers of Arizona and their
families is signal that the climate of social relationships which should be
based on our shared human values and supported by public policies is
dangerously misguided. We are
being assaulted on a daily based by the dying gasp of the pathology of white privilege as determinant
of the legal, political, and cultural identity of US citizenship and
nationality.
Had
it not been for TONATIERRA’s participation, persistence and credibility the
Indigenous Peoples presence would not have emerged during this process and
there would be no COGNITION much less recognition that the public
debate on immigration can only justly be addressed from 1492 to the present, with full acknowledgement
of the Right of Self Determination of Indigenous Peoples. Otherwise what occurs is not a public
debate on immigration policies, but a manipulation of the term to mask
the final extermination
of the Indigenous Nations of Abya Yala [the Americas], not under the heels of
the Doctrine of the Divine Right of Kings, but under the wheels of the
multi-lateral and bi-lateral trade agreements imposed under the Doctrine of the
Divine
Right of States.
The
Mission of TONATIERRA has resonated on the community level
through our work with the Comités de Defensa del Barrio and the national organizations that work
the immigration issue, and even further to the higher echelons of progressive
politics although albeit reluctantly at times. We reaffirm the simple truth that the family of social
constituencies from our Indigenous Peoples perspective includes all members of
the public, and our relatives of the natural world, and we are only secondarily
legitimized by our status as citizens or subjects of the established republics
in the territories.
We are not immigrants
in our own continent of Abya Yala.
www.tonatierra.org
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