Beginning October 8th, 2005, Emerging From Aztlán, the third annual Chicano art show at the da Center for the Arts in Pomona California opens its doors to the public with a grand Artist’s Reception. This must see exhibit features dozens of the finest Chicano artists from around Southern California, and offers a kalidescope of styles and trends. The show includes well-known professionals along with up and coming artists. Emerging From Aztlán runs from October 8th, 2005 to November 20th, 2005. Patrons are invited to a special sneak preview Artist’s Reception on Saturday October 8th, from 4:00 to 6:00 pm, where serious collectors can meet the artists and have the first opportunity to acquire artworks. Music and refreshments are also part of the event. Tickets are available for $20 each (Phone: 909-397-9716.) The general public is invited to two FREE Artist’s Receptions - Saturday October 8th and Saturday November 12th, 2005 - both held from 6:00 to 9:00 pm. The da Center for the Arts is located at: 252-D South Main Street, Pomona California 91766-1630. For more information, visit their website, at: www.dacenter.org

[ The face of antiwar protest in Los Angeles. Aztecs surround a memorial of flag drapped coffins. Photo by Marcus at L.A. Indymedia. ]

A huge antiwar demonstration took place in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday, September 24th., one of many that occurred aross the nation. Organizers placed the size of the crowd at 50,000 - around the same size of the mass march that took place in San Francisco. In the nation’s capital, organizers claimed 300,000 attended the demonstration, with C-SPAN reporting the crowd at 500,000. Here in Los Angeles, we had a demonstration like no other in the country. The tens of thousands who took to the streets were a mix of all the different ethnic communities that make up the city, and they marched along Broadway Street in the downtown area of L.A. where there is a massive presence of Central American and Mexican immigrants.

Dozens of Aztec Dancers danced along the boulevard to the sound of drums, conch shells, and rattles. Xicano student groups from all over Southern California were in attendance, and Latinos in general made up a high percentage of the massive crowd. Unions, church groups, advocates for the poor and homeless, feminists and gay rights activists, artists, left parties and everyday people who had never attended a protest before - filled the streets with cries of “Stop the War!” and “Peace Now!” In the march were 60 flag draped coffins, each carried by four pallbearers. Those who carried the coffins marched silently at the end of the huge demonstration, and as the march came to its conclusion at L.A. City Hall, the coffins were neatly arranged at the base of the government building. Aztec dancers formed a circle around the coffins, dancing, praying, and offering incense to the gods. The entire march was an amazing spectacle to behold, and some say, just the beginning for an antiwar movement that is daily gaining in strength and numbers. To see more photographs from the L.A. demonstration, click here.

The Los Angeles Times wrote an article on September 16th about ABC television’s decision to provide Spanish closed caption translations of major programs. Titled Lost in Translation, the piece mentioned that ABC’s hit show, Lost, would be made available “in the language of Cervantes.” It seems a number of people at the Times are in need of some cultural sensitivity training. Xicanos and Mexicanos do not speak the language of the 15th Century Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes, any more than the Los Angeles Times writes in the language of William Shakespeare.

Massive demonstrations against the war in Iraq are scheduled to take place internationally on September 24th, 2005. In the U.S., major marches and rallies will take place in Washington D.C., San Francisco and Los Angeles, with smaller demonstrations and forums planned in cities across the nation. For more information on demonstrations near you, visit the United for Peace and Justice website. Here in Los Angeles, ANSWER has organized an enormous march and rally that will take place in downtown L.A., at 12 noon. The people will start gathering at the corner of Olympic and Broadway at around 11 am. Bring drums, flowers, banners, cameras, and your determination to stop the war.

[ This article about the largest Day of the Dead art exhibit in the U.S. was first published on Mark Vallen's web log. It should be be noted that Sergio Hernandez, resident cartoonist for Xispas and a fine artist in his own right, is also a participating artist in the exhibition Vallen writes about ]

[ "Dia de los Muertos" Oil on wood panel. Mark Vallen 2003. ]

I’m a participating artist in Dia de los Muertos: The Journey Home, the nineteenth annual Day of the Dead exhibition at Chicago’s Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum. I’m honored that the institution chose to exhibit my oil painting in its group show of forty artists from across the U.S. and Mexico. This is the nation’s biggest Day of the Dead art exhibition, and it’s being held in the largest Latino arts institution in the country. The museum sees Mexican culture as “sin fronteras” (without borders), and so presents works by artists from both sides of the border. With more than a million and a half Chicanos/Mexicanos in the Chicago area, the museum has been the cultural heart for that community since its founding in 1982. However, since its inauguration the institution has become a world class museum. In 1990 it presented the very last solo exhibition that famed Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo would hold in his lifetime, and in 1992 the museum signed a historic sister-museum agreement with El Museo del Templo Mayor (the fabulous archeological museum in Mexico City that holds all artifacts from the main Aztec Temple).

It was originally the indigenous people of Mexico who honored the dead through ritual celebrations. The Aztec held festivals of the dead that were presided over by the Queen of the underworld, Mictecacihuatl (Lady of the Dead). During these celebrations music, dance, flowers and special foods were offered to the deceased. After the conquest of Mexico by the Conquistadors, Spanish priests found that they could not eradicate the religious practices of the subjugated Aztecs - so they attempted to co-opt them. The church moved the date when the Indians celebrated the dead (late July and early August), to coincide with the Catholic Día de Todos Santos, or All Saints Day (celebrated during the first two days of November.) Despite the Spanish attempt to transform the pagan carnival into a Christian observance, the festival retained much of its original indigenous character - even to this day. In the late 1960’s the holiday became popular in the American southwest as part of a growing self-awareness on the part of Mexican Americans. Today it is celebrated by Chicanos and Mexicano wherever you might find them - and its enchanting appeal continues to attract new adherents.

In keeping with the traditions of the holiday, and as part of The Journey Home exhibit, a number of artists have been invited by the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum to build elaborate decorative shrines that honor the deceased. On this occasion the alters will pay homage to three artists from Chicago who passed away this year: Allen Stringfellow, Ed Paschke, and Carlos Cortéz (who donated his collection of artworks and personal papers to the museum). Dia de los Muertos: The Journey Home runs from September 23rd, 2005 until December 11th, 2005. The museum is located at 1852, West 19th Street, Chicago Illinois 60608. Admission is free. For more information, visit the museum’s website.

[ In this Column of the Americas opinion piece by Patrisia Gonzales, another view of the hurricane Katrina disaster is offered. You can reach the writer, at: XColumn@aol.com ]

Twenty years ago on Sept. 19 at 7:19 a.m., the earth opened up in Mexico City-Tenochtitlan, taking 85,000 lives. Tlalliyollo, Heart of the Earth, the Mexica called earthquake. Tlalliyollo created a social tremor as the people emerged from the ruins, organizing rescue relief and later for government compensation. Y la tierra no se los tragó. For the earth could not swallow them.

The government told them to stay inside their homes (and the government refused international aide, much like our government waited to accept aide), but people did not swallow that. They dug through Mexico City with their bare hands, as they saved many lives. El pulga, a man called the flea, burrowed through debris. From that era, emerged numerous social movements as the corruptness of the government was revealed: from torture chambers to buildings not up to code. The famed Sept. 19 garment workers union was created after numerous women on the early shift were locked inside buildings, having worked the early shift. Machinery was rescued before the women, some of whom escaped on bolts of material and others who were buried alive and were said to have died of madness. Of those who survived, emerged the heroes anonimos or anonymous heroes of Mexico as people united and organized. Some returned to their anonymity of everyday life, others continued in their collective work, most of them faceless before the media or historians. While many of these social movements have gone through the normal cycle of life-and-death, the cumulative impact on Mexican civil society remains.

In the United States, Heart of the Sky has swept our lands. Hurakan, the Maker, the Heart of the Sky, in the Mayan creation story, is the origin of the word hurricane. Hurricane is recognized as a Creator being because as a result of its destructive force land was created from the shifting waters. In Louisiana and Mississippi, despite the vast sense of helplessness when our government failed to protect people in the aftermath, people also banded together and united to survive and in the sheer recognition of their humanness. Some of the earliest responses came from tribal governments who dispatched resources and personnel the day the hurricane hit. Among the Mexican and Honduran communities people organized for food and shelter and security of one another. The ants were said to have balled up together and were spotted floating in the waters en bola. What these communities share are communal cultures with centuries-old legacies of working together. Neither Heart of the Earth nor Heart of the Sky could destroy the very impulse to live, nor the will of life to be. Heart of the Sky has reminded the United States of the interconnectedness of human beings to each other and to the natural world. United Nations officials warn that 17 more Katrinas could transpire if developing nations do not address their policies on emission standards and overdevelopment in costal areas. In the years to come, may we testify to the ability of people to unite and organize and to rebuild their communities.

As the television images clearly showed, African Americans were not simply left to fend for themselves, but it is they who took survival matters into their own hands. Even now, the larger African American community is responding in a way that goes beyond providing critical assistance. There’s a moral lesson at work here… just as the earthquake revealed the role of corrupt and inept government, Katrina has revealed a similar problem here. In the great tradition of participatory democracy, may we all also challenge a society that would create the kind of poverty, lack of environmental protections, and misguided development that made so many people vulnerable. And still, the earth did not swallow them.

[ Patrisia Gonzales is author of The Mud People: Chronicles, Testimonios & Remembrances, which chronicles social movements and indigenous knowledge in Mexico. © Column of the Americas 2005 ]

Indigenous People’s Day (formerly Columbus Day) was declared by the United Nations in 1992 as part of the Decade of the Indigenous People’s of the World and 500 years of survival and resistance to cultural genocide and colonization. Indigenous Alliance is a collaborative effort of individuals and organizations. This group operates with the principle that all Indigenous/ Indígena people are connected/related - without regard to “borders”. It is a grassroots committee organizing to have a progressive, educational and entertaining Indigenous People’s Day celebration. On Sunday October 9th, 2005 they will hold a memorial walk; Remembering Those That Have Walked Before Us.

Indigenous Alliance invites everyone to participate in the Santa Barbara, California walk. Meet at 9:00 AM at Rocky Nook Park, (right above Santa Barbara Mission) where the walk will stop at significant locations such as the Santa Barbara Mission, and the “Presidio,” to finally end at the Dolphin Fountain at Sterns Wharf. With each stop, there will be speakers that address the historical inaccuracies, sacrifices of our ancestors. Starting at 12 noon we begin a celebration at La Casa De La Raza, located at 601 East Montecito St Santa Barbara, CA. 93101. Join us with with good food, traditional dancing, contemporary music and speakers with a progressive message about diversity, responsibility and peace. Mark your calendars! Join us in celebration on Sunday, October 9th 2005!

[ Offers of hurricane relief aid have been made to the people of the US by a number of foreign countries. Germany, England, Venezuela, Chile, Kuwait, and dozens of other nations have offered assistance. Even countries slammed by December’s tsunami such as Thailand, Sri Lanka and India have offered help. In addition, the United Nations, the Organization of American States, and the Arab League are contributing to the relief effort. The most interesting offer came from Bush’s nemesis, Cuban President, Fidel Castro. On September 2nd, 2005, Castro made the following remarks. ]

“Our country is ready to send, in the small hours of morning, 100 clinicians and specialists in Comprehensive General Medicine, who at dawn tomorrow, Saturday, could be in Houston International Airport, Texas, the closest to the region struck by the tragedy, in order to be transferred by air, sea or river to the isolated shelters, facilities and neighborhoods in the city of New Orleans, where the population and families are that require emergency medical care or first aid. These Cuban personnel would be carrying backpacks with 24 kilograms of medications, known to be essential in such situations to save lives, as well as basic diagnosis kits. They would be prepared to work alone or in groups of two or more, depending on the circumstances, for as long as necessary.

Likewise, Cuba is ready to send via Houston, or any other airport of your choosing, 500 additional specialists in Comprehensive General Medicine, with the same equipment, who could be at their destination point at noon or in the afternoon of tomorrow, Saturday, September 3. A third group of 500 specialists in Comprehensive General Medicine could be arriving in the morning of Sunday, September 4. Thus, the 1100 said medical doctors, with the resources described tantamount to 26.4 tons of medications and diagnosis kits, would be caring for the neediest persons in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina. These medical doctors have the necessary international experience and elementary knowledge of the English language that would allow them to communicate with the patients. We stand ready waiting for the US authorities’ response.”

[ On September 5th, 2005, CNN reported the Cuban leader made a second address directed to the American people in which the number of physicians offered was increased to 1,586. The doctors are trained in emergency relief aid, and had been sent to South Asia after the December tsunami. In his televised address Castro said political enmity should be put aside during such a crisis, and he read out news stories describing the lack of medical attention for the suffering people of Louisiana and Mississippi. Castro noted the US government has not responded to Cuba’s offer of doctors and tons of medicine as of Sept. 4th. "Forty-eight hours have passed and we still haven't received any response to our offer ... We will wait patiently as many days as are necessary," he said. ]

[ This Column of the Americas article by Roberto Rodriguez is titled, Escape from New Orleans. The writer can be reached at: XColumn@aol.com. The editorial cartoon is by Sergio Hernandez ]

Katrina’s aftermath is forcing us to rethink the social contract and sacred trust that we as human beings have with government. Currently, that contract seems to be dog-eat-dog… and that trust has been irreparably shattered. Obviously, Job One is to respond competently to the extended crisis. After the massive cleanup, then the long rebuilding process will commence. But what will be rebuilt? Beyond buildings, homes and infrastructure - which will cost several hundred billion dollars — our relations with government and with each other have to be constructed anew. We cannot return to what we are living. Our pre-Katrina relations is what continues to fuel the nation’s response. And what we had is a very divided and sick society, conditioned to always make excuses or point fingers, this while many thousands continue to be in danger, this also amid unimaginable death and devastation.

And so with this tragedy, someone will have to pay. But that doesn”t help today. Yet, today isn’t the only concern. How do we prevent similar disasters and similar responses? When the waters recede, Congress will no doubt investigate such questions, including questions of accountability. But it’s beyond that. After the initial national unity in response to 911, fear and scapegoating have been allowed to creep back into the national culture. As FDR once said: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Never underestimate the power [and paralysis] of fear. It is what is permitting the complete militarization of society… including the march toward martial law. It also permits government to trample upon human rights, eliminate privacy and to discard labor, health and environmental laws. Scapegoating and dehumanization thrive in this environment. A populace, distracted by its own singling out [in this case] of Arabs-Muslims, other people of color, Jews or immigrants - permits government to implement draconian measures that erode liberties, but do little to protect its residents.

All this militarization has been useless in the face of Katrina. After 911, we were told that the United States was under siege … that we need more lethal weaponry and that we need to be on the lookout for terrorists (read Mexicans) coming across the border. And yet, 100 terrorist strikes or all the stampeding illegal aliens of the world couldn’t do a fraction of Katrina’s damage. Four years of exploiting fear and preparing for invading terrorists (the pillars of a moated society), did not help U.S. Gulf coast residents one bit. If anything, it drained badly needed resources. We created a massive Department of Homeland Security (DHS) when we already had a Department of Defense (DOD) — which permits a military empire to expand, but seemingly doesn’t defend or protect anything. Katrina is proof.

In all this, charity is not enough. While it may assuage guilt, it rarely promotes dignity and it will not even total one percent of what’s needed. All the people who’ve lost their homes, possessions, memories and livelihoods should receive grants to permit them to start anew, rather than loans. And why not? Have they not suffered enough? Should that not be part of our social contract with government? Perhaps now’s the time to redefine that social contract to include the right to home, livelihood, security, health and education. Too costly? Examine the exorbitant and wasteful DHS & DOD budgets and our illegal and immoral wars and then tell us there’s no money. (Congress has certainly found money to make permanent war). The last thing we need now is for government - whose other obligation is to protect our sacred Mother Earth — to begin weakening environmental rules (It already believes global warming is a myth). To do so will also invite other toxic disasters and further erode our fragile wetlands.

Finally, for all the Minuteman who’ve mobilized to “protect our borders” - your long-term services are greatly needed. Not to patrol a border, but to help your fellow human beings on the gulf coast. If only others would get off their gas-guzzling behinds and join you in this noble cause… And while you’re at it, pick up some migrants along the way… that’s what this country sorely needs: a huge hard-working labor force — to assist in this massive construction project.

© Column of the Americas 2005

[ In the past Richard Vargas has submitted poems to Xispas. He sent us the following opinion piece he wrote on the unfolding tragedy caused by Hurricane Katrina. ]

The images and reports of the devastation and loss of life from our recent natural crisis left me feeling numb and helpless. Those feelings have now given way to shame and anger. Our federal government’s inability to respond quickly to Katrina’s aftermath, and the unnecessary loss of life that has been allowed to happen is inexcusable. The sloth-like response and inept planning apparent at the top leadership levels of the current administration reflects the same “head in the sand” posture prevalent in how the war against terrorism has been waged. Isn’t it ironic that the same leaders who have recklessly gambled with this country’s future and resources by investing in a campaign of “nation building” in Iraq, will now have the opportunity to give us a taste of their bitter medicine as they begin to put into practice what they have failed to accomplish in Baghdad?

The people of this country will respond and react as always… pulling together and giving from a bottomless well of determination and goodwill for our fellow citizens. But we count on that guy in the White House and his staff to provide the direction and guidance. One has to wonder how our government would be able to respond if (heaven forbid) the Dept. of Homeland Security’s worst case scenario would come to pass.

Yes, the president’s supporters will rally to his side, declaring “shame” to anyone criticizing this debacle. They will shout down anyone daring to point out the obvious. Those of us who see through the spin and doublespeak will be accused of trying to turn this disaster into a political gain. The truth is any leader, no matter his political party, no matter his race, no matter his religion, should be held accountable for this drastic failure in the face of grim adversity. When it happens with someone else’s country, we can live with ourselves. The idiotic attempts by our president and his cabinet to rationalize their actions overseas are laughable, but when it involves the death and suffering of countless fellow citizens here, on our own shores, then it’s time to hold someone accountable. If not now, when?