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
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 -
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
 |
| 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
nomásmojados?"
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.
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 |
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].
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
Si
os vendemos estas tierras, tendréis que recordar que ellas son sagradas
y deberéis enseñar a vuestros hijos que lo son y que cada reflejo
fantasmal en las aguas claras de los lagos habla de acontecimientos y
recuerdos de la vida de mi pueblo. El murmullo del agua es la voz del
padre de mi padre.
soledad
de espíritu. Porque todo lo que ocurre a los animales pronto habrá de
ocurrir también al hombre. Todas las cosas están relacionadas ente sí.
