Thursday, January 9, 2014

Language and Empire, Self Determination and Decolonization

A conversation with Tupac Enrique Acosta of TONATIERRA regarding the challenges of communicating across Indigenous and Popular Movements in the age of the SEXTO SOL: DECOLONIZATION of Abya Yala [the Americas] via the social media.

 Soundcloud:

KPFT Nuestra Palabra: Sexto Sol Interview - Tupak Huehuecoyotl 

Tuesday January 7, 2014

"Self definition is the precept of the principle of Self Determination."


BACKGROUND:
On January 1, 2014 the following set of 5 messages was posted on the Facebook page of the Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say:

1. The use of the Azteca icon on this "Latino" FB page is not appropriate.  It is in fact another typical expropriation by European American constituencies (I am assuming the American here unless the Latino reference literally means THE LATINO meaning from Italy) and their apologists who deem themselves entitled to peruse and collect our symbols without accountability to the Indigenous Peoples movement of Self Determination, and in complete denial of the BETRAYAL that the Latino Americano political forces have time and again been guilty of ever since the fight against the Penisulares and the Criollos - all the way up to President Correa of Ecuador today – who with their GENÍZARO REPUBLICS established as buffer states by PROJECT AMERICA (Anglo-America and Latino-America in simultaneous collusion and competition) CONTINENTALY in order to colonize, genocide, subdue, subject, and ultimately either assimilate or destroy the Nationhood and Cultural Integrity of the Nations and Pueblos of Abya Yala as “Peoples, Equal to all other Peoples.” (UNDRIP 2007) 

With all due respect and admiration for ALL LATINOS, the use of the Azteca icon on this “Latino” FB page is NOT APPROPRIATE.  It is historically inaccurate, culturally insensitive, intellectually caput and politically subversive to the cause of Self Determination of the Nican Tlacah Nations of Indigenous Peoples to whom this symbol belongs. 

Cover of 500 Años del Pueblo Chicano
2. Dare to Struggle, Dare to Win: US Human Rights Network
Podcast with Tupac Enrique Acosta of TONATIERRA
 

Tupac Enrique Acosta is a Judge of the First Nations International Court of Justice, Tupac is a founding member of the community-based organization of Indigenous Peoples TONATIERRA in Phoenix, Arizona. A long time researcher and activist in the field of indigenous international law, he has served as representative of Izkalotlan Pueblo to the United Nations Human Rights Commission, the UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations in Geneva, Switzerland and the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York. As Yaotachcauh of Tlahtokan Nahuacalli, he serves as custodian and ambassador of the NAHUACALLI, Embassy of the Indigenous Peoples in Phoenix, Arizona. As international observer, he has traveled to areas of armed conflict in Chiapas, Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Canada and across the US to monitor and report on the violations of civil, human and territorial rights of the Indigenous Peoples in their ongoing struggles against colonialism. 
 500 Años del Pueblo Chicano, p. 203

Bajo la idea de que a un estado corresponde una nación, los pueblos y naciones del Abya Yala hemos estado excluidos de los proyectos económicos, sociales, políticos y culturales que se han ido forjando en nuestros territorios, pero mantenemos en la resistencia nuestras culturas, lenguas y valores. Hoy, el modelo neoliberal, nos mantiene en una situación de exclusión, de explotación económica, de imposición de un modelo educativo que nos disminuye y discrimina, de una dominación cultural, social y política en todos los ámbitos de nuestra vida y bajo una práctica de saqueo y despojo de nuestros recursos naturales, de migración por causa de la pobreza y falta de trabajo, y de una falta de reconocimiento pleno de nuestros derechos; por ello, los hombres y mujeres de las naciones y pueblos indígenas somos extranjeros en nuestras propias tierras. 
 500 Años del Pueblo Chicano, p. 203
4. First Continental Encounter of Indigenous Nations Pueblos and Organizations 
 500 Años del Pueblo Chicano, p. 235

 500 Años del Pueblo Chicano, p.203

¡ Ya Basta !
 ###
POSTSCRIPT:
January 8, 2014 Message from Tupac Enrique Acosta to the KPFT Nuestra Palabra Community Radio Program hosts: 

Good greetings Liana,

Self Definition is the Precept of the concept of Self Determination.

*******

"Y mis hijos -
 500 Años del Pueblo Chicano, p.235
 Que les pasará?
Reconocerán la
lucha
de sus tatas?
Sentirán el calor de
su historia indígena,
como yo los enseñe?
Serán ahogados
en el río
de la historia europea, o
nomás
mojados?"


Thank you for allowing me on the program last night.   I wish we had more time, we did not get to report on the V Continental Indigenous Summit of Abya Yala which occurred in Colombia last November.  I feel we barely began to establish a context in order get to the core of the issues involved with our initial post on your FB page site regarding the use of the Azteca icon, which we still have the same position. It is inappropriate for a site titled Latino.
CULTURAL DEPORTATION by DESIGNATION of COLONIZING CLASSIFICATION
The use of the Azteca icon on this "Latino" FB page is not appropriate. It is in fact another typical expropriation by European American constituencies (I am assuming the American here unless the Latino reference literally means THE LATINO meaning from Italy) and their apologists who deem themselves entitled to peruse and collect our symbols without accountability to the Indigenous Peoples movement of Self Determination, and in complete denial of the BETRAYAL that the Latino Americano political forces have time and again been guilty of ever since the fight against the Penisulares and the Criollos - all the way up to President Correa of Ecuador today – who with their GENÍZARO REPUBLICS established as buffer states by PROJECT AMERICA (Anglo-America and Latino-America in simultaneous collusion and competition) CONTINENTALY in order to colonize, genocide, subdue, subject, and ultimately either assimilate or destroy the Nationhood and Cultural Integrity of the Nations and Pueblos of Abya Yala as “Peoples, Equal to all other Peoples.” (UNDRIP 2007) With all due respect and admiration for ALL LATINOS, the use of the Azteca icon on this “Latino” FB page is NOT APPROPRIATE. It is historically inaccurate, culturally insensitive, intellectually caput and politically subversive to the cause of Self Determination of the Nican Tlacah Nations of Indigenous Peoples to whom this symbol belongs.

Case Study: Melendres v Arpaio (Arizona 2013)
http://cdb-tonatierra.blogspot.com/2013/05/discrimination-against-indigenous.html
500 Años del Pueblo Chicano, p. 203
Response by Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say
Got your satiric essay. Love the ironic persona: an Aztec copyright lawyer from the empire writing to Chicanos telling them they might not be Mechica. Love the irony of it in English-language of the crew that defeated the crew that defeated the crew that defeated that empire. It is a bit too long, however. Can we interview you on our radio show?
***************************
 500 Años del Pueblo Chicano, p. 235
 
Among other points, we did not get a chance for Nuestra Palabra to explain how you all took our January 1, 2014 ¡Ya Basta ! set of submissions to your FB page as "a satiric essay".

Food for thought.
 500 Años del Pueblo Chicano, p.203
The Mestizo Concept: A Product of European Imperialism

To place this discussion in proper perspective, let us contrast the situations in Mexico and Spain.  North American social scientists and intellectuals and the ruling elite of Mexico commonly seem to agree that Mexico is a mestizo nation, that not only are most of its people racially mixed but that its dominant culture is also mestizo.  North American Anglo-Saxon scholars, in particular, delight in using the mestizo and Indo-Hispano concept when discussing Mexico and Chicanos (persons of Mexican background in the United States).  It is very clear that Anglo scholars (and the Mexicans and Chicanos influenced by them) regard the very essence of the Mexican-Chicano people as mestizo (except for the perhaps ten percent of the Mexican people who are regarded as indio).

Now, is this mestization of the Mexican-Chicano people a concrete social reality or is it primarily the Europeans' imposition of alien descriptive categories upon the Mexican-Chicano masses?  Let us look at the situation of Spain and Mexico with this question in mind.  Spain is, clearly, far more of a mestizo nation (if that term is ever properly to be used) than is Mexico.
Language families of the Indigenous Nations and Pueblos of Abya Yala North

Oooo la la! The French Connection: Le Latin
Origin of the latin-american identity is in: FRANCE!!!!! 

Comprehend this: The borders of latin-america (liguistic and political) are a divisive mechanism of the settler states to accomplish in collusion and in competition with their anglo-american bretheren settler states of the north, the total and final annihilation and genocide of the Nations and Pueblos of the Indigenous Peoples of Abya Yala Cemanahuac [the americas].


 500 Años del Pueblo Chicano, p.203
Inevitably…….
500 Years of Resistance Continental Encounter - Quito, Ecuador 1990

“WE AS INDIGENOUS PEOPLES KNOW THAT THE DEFENSE OF OUR TRADITIONS, BELIEFS AND KNOWLEDGE ARE A CENTRAL PART OF THE STRUGGLE FOR OUT DEFINITE SOCIAL LIBERATION AS A PEOPLE.  UNFORTUNATELY, THOSE THAT OPPRESS AND EXPLOIT US, IN WHICHEVER COUNTRY WE ARE, ALSO KNOW THIS.  IN THAT SENSE, AND ENORMOUS INSTITUTIONAL BUREAUCRACY HAS BEEN CREATED THAT SEEKS TO SUPRESS OUR VALUES IN ORDER TO SUBSTITUTE THEM WITH OTHERS THAT CORRESPOND TO EACH GOVERNMENT.

IN GENERAL OUR CULTURE IS RESPECTFUL OF THE EARTH AND OF NATURE. WE FEEL WE ARE A PART OF THE EARTH AND IN HARMONY WITH HER.  BASED ON THIS FUNDAMENTAL BELIEF, WE HAVE DEVELOPED A COSMOVISION, WHICH EMPHASIZES THE HARMONIOUS AND COMMUNAL EXISTENCE BETWEEN MAN AND OUR NATURAL SURROUNDINGS.  OUR INDIVIDUAL DESTINIES ARE IN UNION WITH ALL LIFE, INCLUDING ELEMENTS THAT ARE CONSIDERED INERT BY WESTERN CULTURE. THAT IS WHY WE SHOULD NOT ABRUPTLY BREAK FROM OUR ENVIRONMENT AND THE CREATION OF OUR SYMBOLS, WHICH WE REGARD WITH REVERANCE AS THEY ENRICH OUR DAILY LIVES.  THIS IS OUR TRUE SPIRITUALITY, WHICH IS AT THE BASE OF OUR CULTURE. . . . . .”



October 12, 1991 Xelaju, Guatemala 100,000 Indigenous Peoples march in 500 Years of Indigenous and Popular Resistance

NAHUACALLI 
Embassy of Indigenous Peoples
Tupac Enrique Acosta, Yaotachcauh
Tlahtokan Nahuacalli

******* 
YouTube:
MAZAMEH

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