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Juav's Latino World USA |
gowing up Latino by juav publications |
ARCHIVES 2006 |
The Destruction of a People The Conquest Begins As I waited for what I believed would definitely be a most boring ending to such a spectacular day, the lights slowly dimmed. The scent of incense slowly engulfed my sense of smell. The soft music of a Mayan flute and the gentle pounding of drums created an aura of holiness. The spotlight suddenly revealed a Mayan girl dressed in simple but yet elegant robes. She sang and asked us to observe a moment of silence to nurture the peace that is so violently being disturbed by today’s events. Mayan priests appeared from the darkness dancing and chanting. Two opposing teams met on a field to play a Mayan ballgame. The victorious team was awarded with dogs and flowers. The lights were dimmed, and the scene changed to native people from Michoacan playing a game of fire ball (a version of field hockey played with a flaming rubber ball). The lights dimmed, and the scene changed again to that of Aztec children playing among the statues of the Aztec gods. The Europeans proudly entered through the opposite side of the stage. They were received with gifts and flowers. Conflict erupted. A clash between Aztec warriors and European soldiers followed. At first the battle was a stalemate. The horse! Horses and their riders galloped on stage. The horse turned the tide in favor of the Europeans. Soon all Aztec warriors lay dead. A dreary light illuminated twelve cloaked figures. The cloaks were partially removed to reveal priests. The priests rushed to the pagan statues, and toppled them over. The cross was raised were the Aztec gods once stood. The Aztec civilization was effectively destroyed. A nation was violently subjugated. A whole people was changed for ever. A horrifying and profound sadness settled deep within my soul as I witnessed the destruction of a people-- a culture-- civilization. I suddenly grasped the magnitude of what had happened nearly five hundred years ago, and finally understood the vast and enduring consequences of such a tragic event. I have read many books detailing the destruction of the Mesoamerican peoples, but no book has had the effect that this program-- performed at Xcaret, Quintana Roo-- had on me. The discrimination that occurs--and is so well hidden or camouflaged-- in our Latino culture suddenly became completely apparent. ---Stay tune for the second section of this article, Es blanquito? Está morenito?--- |
ETHNIC FOOD ALL THE TIME "It must be great eating ethnic food all the time." I could not believe what I had just heard! I was amazed, I was flabbergasted by what had just come out of my new boss’s mouth. Either your very naïve or just a plain idiot. I thought. I was twenty-one, and working as an intern at a very prestigious corporation somewhere in the Northwestern USA. I had been on the job less than two weeks when the person that hired me left the company. A replacement was quickly named, and soon he was touring his site and meeting his staff. It was on a Friday, near quitting time, when I first met my new boss. He simply walked into my laboratory, shook my hand and told me who he was. After a few minutes of exchanging academic and work related facts about each other, we began talking about life outside of work. Everything was going very typical until he asked, " Are you Mexican?" First of all, I don’t consider myself just Mexican. I was born and raised in the USA (call me Mexican-American, Latino, or Hispanic---Mexican or Mexicano if you’re my friend). Nevertheless, for the sake of being polite, I answered, "Yes." Well, it didn’t stop there. He then asked me " Do you eat Mexican food at home?" Once again I answered just plainly "Yes." He then asked, " Everyday?" I then answered, "Just about." Then I heard the most idiotic thing in my life.-- " Wow! It must be great eating ethnic food all the time!" I really felt like telling him "It’s not ethnic to me dummy. That’s what I eat every day!" But I withheld myself and simply smiled. I knew I had encountered someone that was very naïve or just plain stupid. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the last of my encounters with just plain ignorant people. I have had many encounters. -- A few years ago I was walking past the frozen food section of a grocery store, and a lady stepped in front of me and asked, " Excuse me, do this taste good?" She shoved a box a frozen tamales in front of me, demanding an answer. My answer was, " I don’t know. I usually have them homemade." Has anything like this ever happened to you? |
Frijolitos y Tortillas "Frijolitos y tortillas," is what my cousin answered when Mrs. Person --our first grade teacher-- asked, " What did you have for breakfast, Marcos?" Why couldn’t he just have said eggs and toast, I thought. It was 1972, and Marcos and I were among the only three "Spanish People" in the classroom. We had been studying the food pyramid the previous day. Mrs. Person had given us a fair warning! She had said, " Children, don’t forget to eat a healthy breakfast just like the food pyramid says. Tomorrow, I am going to ask you what you had for breakfast!" That morning, I convinced Mom to fix me eggs and bacon instead of what I usually ate for breakfast; I even toasted my own bread. So there I was eagerly waiting for my turn--hearing several answers of " pancakes and eggs" and "eggs, toast, and bacon". Suddenly, "frijolitos y tortillas" rang throughout the classroom-- followed by a chorus of "What ?" No one knew what a tortilla was back then; in fact, they didn’t even know beans were also eaten for breakfast. My efforts of "completely fitting-in with the Anglo culture" had just been foiled. I wanted to prove that I was like everyone else by letting everyone know, " I eat what you eat to!" Now my cousin was squirming in his seat as he was battered by the many enquiries. Everyone then turned to me and demanded an answer. " Frijoles are beans, and a tortilla is like a flat piece of bread. That’s what we have for breakfast in Mexico." From that day on, I just stopped trying to fit-in. In fact, I later took pride in knowing that I was different. -- Tortillas and beans can change your world, if you let them. Have you ever tried to fit-in? Tell me about it. |
Mexicans don’t use drugs! One evening my husband and I started talking to our 11 year old son, we started off talking about personal hygiene and how he should really start taking his personal hygiene seriously. We talked about people’s perceptions and how you should take pride in presenting yourself as a respectable young person. Our quick little talk about using deodorant turned into a two hour talk about self respect. During this two hour discussion, we talked about gangs, and drugs, and how we never hoped to see him involved in either of these things--let alone have friends who were. He then told us he was not stupid; he had listened in school when they talked to them about the dangers of drugs and gang violence. He then proceeded to say this would never happen to him anyway, because only black kids do drugs and only black kids are in gangs. We asked him why he thought this was true. He told us that those are the only kids he sees smoking after school at the park and also fighting. We then tried to educate him (just a little) about how drugs were not prejudice. All kinds of people and kids take drugs, Mexicans, blacks, whites, Asians, all kinds of people. When we told him white kids did drugs and were in gangs his eyes opened so wide in disbelief. He really could not believe white kids would do things like this or even get in trouble. He had never seen or heard of this happening. I don’t really know if this means we’ve sheltered him from certain TV shows, movies or people. Could we be hurting him, or protecting him?? In a way I’m glad he thinks Mexican kids don’t do drugs or join gangs, maybe this will keep him safe and clear of these things. This definitely will not stop us from monitoring what he does, where he goes and the friends he "hangs" out with. He still can’t watch PG13 movies or late night TV shows. I bet after this two hour long talk, he’ll start using deodorant! contributed by Elva G. |
A Child Gains Awareness of Race Ten years ago my wife and I were strolling through the mall with our four year old daughter, and she suddenly asked, " Por que los niños no se fueron con su mamá?" She was asking us why the children had not gone with their mother. That’s when I realized that she had no awareness of race! We were walking behind an African-American woman who just happened to be walking alongside two white boys (they seemed to be 10 to 12 years old). The woman turned into a store, and the boys kept on walking. It was very obvious to me that the boys were in no form or fashion acquainted with the woman. Yet to my daughter, since the boys were walking alongside the woman, they were the woman’s children. Anyways, I just answered, "She is probably not their mother, otherwise they would have gone into the store with her." Case close. A couple of weeks later my daughter returned home from her pre-K school very agitated and confused. She was complaining about a boy who had been picking on her and her friend. As soon as she saw me she blurted out, "A little boy at school kept telling me and my friend that we were not white! What did he mean?" That’s when I knew that my little girl’s view of humanity was going to be altered forever . My child’s perfect world had been ruined by what seemed to be a learned act of racism. I was very saddened. That day I explained to my child the many differences among people. I also had to make her aware of racism. When did you first gain awareness of race? Of racism |
© 2006 juav publications. All Rights Reserved |
Es Morenito o Blanquito? Es morenito o blanquito? Is almost undoubtedly one of the first questions a proud father, a joyous grandmother, an elated aunt, or a supportive friend will be asked upon the arrival of a brand new life.--At least this is my experience on the Texas-Mexico border. This question has always bothered me. Why all the fuzz about color? Aren’t we all just Mexican, Latinos, Hispanos? You would figure that skin color should not matter among the same group (or does it?). I have never experienced any preferences or discrimination, due to my skin color, among the US Latino community (although I have experienced preferences and discrimination due to other reasons, but that’s another story). But exploring this question about skin color further, we must understand who is doing the asking. In my experience, the people asking this question are those born Mexico. I am fortunate to be able to travel throughout Latin America. These travels are almost always associated with business. During these trips I meet with presidents/owners of companies. I meet with superintendents/supervisors. I talked with receptionists, technicians, and line laborers. All these individuals have one thing in common--the color of their skin. The owners and upper management tend to be fair skin, the mid level personnel is fair to lightly tanned. Everyone else (with the exception of the receptionist) is generally darker. There are some exceptions, but what I just mentioned above is usually the norm. I do not know why fair skin people seem to be more successful in Latin America. Perhaps it’s due to "old money" inherited from an the overthrown European society that once ruled Latin America. Perhaps it’s due to preferences that were deeply ingrained into the original Latin American community upon its subjugation by the Europeans. Perhaps what I mentioned above is the origin of the question "Is the baby light skin or dark skin?" Perhaps there is deeply ingrained belief that a child’s skin color will determine his or her success in life. Perhaps this question is a manifestation of what was once openly preferred by society, but is now so well concealed. What do you think? |