How accurate is the cinematic fantasy, Apocalypto, a film by Mel Gibson that presents his version of the end of Mayan civilization? Scholars on the Maya and other Mesoamerican civilizations are not holding their breath. Despite the Hollywood movie’s dazzling look, the film contains numerous factual errors. If you want an accurate examination of Mayan civilization, there are many absorbing scholarly books on the topic written by experts, but if you don’t care about facts and will settle for an action adventure set in an exotic location - Apocalypto is for you.

Apocalypto presents the viewer with Gibson’s take on the fall of Mayan civilization, and he attributes this collapse to corrupt rulers desperate to hold on to power by any means. According to Gibson, Mayan elites used religion as a means to control and manipulate the people, and the film focuses on the director’s view that the practice of ritual human sacrifice - which the movie depicts as having been performed on a massive scale, was one of the primary reasons for the downfall of the Maya. That is what raises the eyebrows of archaeologists and scholars - since there is absolutely no evidence that the Maya practiced human sacrifice on a massive scale. Gibson’s contention reveals his religious bias, he sees the Maya as victims of a controlling religious cult - but sees his own religious dogma as “the one true faith.” The film’s official website even uses the tagline, “When the end comes, not everyone is ready to go”, which can also be construed as a clear reference to the end times and one’s acceptance of the Christian savior.

It is well understood by the scientific community that the Maya did conduct rituals involving blood as a supplication to their gods. In prayer, Mayan priests and political elites pierced their earlobes, tongues, lips and even genitals, offering the drawn blood to favored deities. Everyday worship also involved making prayers to agricultural gods and goddess, providing deities with offerings of food, flowers, and other forms of tribute. During special observances or events, individuals were sacrificed by priests who cut out the hearts of the victims - but this practice was limited and not conducted to the magnitude depicted in Gibson’s film. While Archaeologists agree that warfare played a major role in the life of Mayan Kingdoms, they also agree that Mayan religious practice played no significant role in the collapse of their civilization. Gibson’s assertion to the contrary is pure conjecture on his part - and further evidence of his own zealous religious beliefs.

Jewish critics of Gibson’s previous film, The Passion of the Christ, were fearful that movie would reinforce anti-Semitism, with some making the charge that the film itself was an exercise in Jew-bashing. Those accusations took on new life when an inebriated Gibson let loose a flurry of anti-Semitic diatribes against L.A. County Deputies during his arrest for drunk driving in July, 2006. “F**king Jews. The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world”, was among the vitriol Gibson shouted at his arresting officers, and while Gibson apologized for his outlandish behavior - it’s still understandable why many Jewish people and their friends will not be flocking to see Apocalypto.

The Walt Disney Co. is the distributor for Apocalypto, and they are investing big money into reshaping Gibson’s public image from that of an anti-Semite loudmouth to that of a sensitive master film director. An aggressive promotional campaign for the movie began Thanksgiving evening, when Gibson appeared on the Disney owned ABC network with Diane Sawyer in an hour long special on the film. Sawyer abandoned the role of journalist to become one of Disney’s marketers - politely asking Gibson softball questions that would allow him to promote his film. At one point Gibson said the local amateur Mexican actors and stand-ins he worked with were ashamed to speak Mayan Yucatec (the film is being shot in Veracruz, Mexico), but then arrogantly proclaimed that he had “made the language cool again” - a supposed fact that inordinately pleased him. With an equally bigheaded attitude, Gibson explained that he taught the actors, many of them descendents of the ancient Maya - how to dance like their ancestors. Where Gibson was schooled in the art of ancient Maya dance and how he became an expert in the field remains a mystery.

Diane Sawyer’s co-host was John Quinones, who reported from the Maya heartland of Guatemala in a series of remarkably uninformative and misleading “special reports.” In one such commentary focusing on the squalor and poverty suffered by large numbers of Maya in Guatemala, Quinones actually said their misery was due to the “excesses of their ancestors.” That utterly despicable remark fits the imperialist pattern of blaming the oppressed for their own misery. Quinones’ reports did not mention the Spanish invader’s murder and plunder of the indigenous peoples that truly did take place on a massive scale, nor did it mention the indigenous being ravaged by small pox, venereal diseases, and other plagues introduced by the Spanish conquerors - afflictions that took the lives of hundreds of thousands. The entire legacy of a brutal colonial rule was ignored. In passing, Quinones did mention that in the 1980’s over 200,000 Maya were killed by the Guatemalan army during the nation’s bloody counterinsurgency war, but he didn’t mention the U.S. arming, financing and training of the Guatemalan army. At any rate, his mention of the massive number of deaths that occurred during the genocidal war of the 1980’s was simply a footnote, as if it had little significance to the Maya and their way of life.

The Walt Disney Co. has intentionally aimed Apocalypto at Latinos, hiring the oldest Latino marketing agency in the entertainment industry, The Arenas Group, to help popularize and sell the movie. The Beverly Hills-based Arenas arranged screenings of the film to the L.A. Latin Business Association, which afterwards conferred their “Visionary Award” to Gibson. Disney spokesman Dennis Rice said: “We think this movie plays to a wide audience and that there’s going to be a tremendous amount of interest generated from the Latino community, especially the Mexican community, because this is a story about their ancestors.” The elite sector of Latino politicians and businessmen in Los Angeles have been invited to advance screenings, including L.A.’s Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. The omnipresent Chicano actor, Edward James Olmos, attended a screening, and gave the film a good review, but he made an interesting remark in doing so. Olmos said, “Basically, if you watch Elia Kazan’s movies, I could surely watch Mel Gibson’s movie. I think more damage was done understanding what Elia Kazan did than what Mel Gibson did. That’s his problem and he has to live with it.”

Olmos was of course referring to director Elia Kazan having co-operated with the McCarthy era witch hunts of the 50’s, the repressive nationwide anti-communist campaign that also destroyed the careers of hundreds of Hollywood professionals. Kazan testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), giving them the names of fellow studio professionals who were supposedly communists or left-leaning sympathizers. To this day the name of Kazan can’t be brought up without getting into a discussion over his being a genius or a rat fink informant. You can view Kazan’s masterwork, On The Waterfront, as a morality tale about a common working man overcoming the corruption of big crime bosses, or as an autobiographical self-justification for Kazan’s own odious behavior before HUAC. That Olmos would compare Kazan to Gibson is appropriate, and while Olmos can separate the personal behavior of the two from their artistic accomplishments - many others cannot.

Speedy Gonzales, the Warner Brother’s Looney Tunes cartoon from the 1950’s, is making a comeback in a new series of ads for Volkswagen. Developed in the early 50’s, Speedy wore an oversized sombrero and spoke broken English with a comical Mexican accent, and his calls of “Arriba, Arriba”, were meant to rouse his fellow mice - who were all stupid, lazy, slow moving, hard-drinking, womanizers - which at the time was how American society generally depicted Mexicans.

Speedy usually conducted cross border raids into the U.S. for cheese, where he had to outsmart Sylvester the cat in order to succeed. One must put the Speedy Gonzales cartoon in a social context, as the animated series was popular at a time in the United States when Mexican Americans suffered from debilitating racial prejudice and unbearable discrimination. American citizens of Mexican descent enjoyed little if any political representation, and their image was largely defined by the Eurocentric mainstream culture. Speedy Gonzales was part of that demeaning representation, along with the odious “Jim Crow” depictions of African Americans that were popular at the time.

The financial success and popularity of the Speedy Gonzales franchise lead to the development of another Mexican cartoon character, the Frito Bandito. In 1967 animator Tex Avery created the bandito as the cartoon mascot for Fritos Corn Chips, and the bandito was given voice by Mel Blanc, the same voice actor who played the role of Speedy Gonzales. The racist depiction of the gun toting Mexican bandit speaking broken English became part of American television culture - until the rise of the Chicano movement. [ View a Frito Bandito video clip on You Tube ] Both Speedy Gonzales and the Frito Bandito came under attack by Chicano activists who rightly charged the characters were racist characterizations of Mexicans, and by extension, Mexican Americans. In 1971, community organizing by Chicano activists, along with the work done by the National Mexican-American Anti-Defamation Committee, succeeded in banishing the Frito Bandito, with the Frito-Lay company wisely choosing another mascot. However, Speedy Gonzales continued his career, but to an ever shrinking audience.

In 1999, the Cartoon Network decided to permanently shelve Speedy Gonzales because of the cartoon’s stereotypical depictions, but fans of the mouse organized an effective campaign to have the cartoon brought back on the air, and in 2002, Speedy was once again broadcast by the Cartoon Network. Undoubtedly this roll back has opened the door to what was once considered off limits.

Volkswagen’s new compact car, the Volkswagen Golf, also known as the Volkswagen Rabbit, is being marketed by a series of television ads that feature none other than Speedy Gonzales. Unbelievably, Volkswagen hired the Miami-based “Hispanic” marketing and advertising agency CreativeOndemanD (COD), to come up with three Speedy commercials that will be targeted specifically at the Latino market. The 3 ads are airing on Telemundo, Telefutura, Univision, Galavision, Mun2, Fox Sports en Espanol, Azteca America, American Latino, SiTV, ESPN Deportes, CNN en Espanol, GolTV, and MTV en Espanol. The campaign will also include outdoor advertisements in Los Angeles, Miami, and New York.

You can view one of the VW commercials featuring Speedy Gonzalez at YouTube. On the face of it, the ad seems harmless enough, it uses vintage Warner Bros. Looney Tunes footage but leaves out Speedy’s stupid, lazy, slow moving Mexican fellow mice - after all, it is a fast car that’s being advertised here. The question is, can a cartoon character, or any fictional character from our racist past, be reformed, repackaged, and made acceptable for a contemporary audience? If so then you can expect to see the return of the Frito Bandito, along with his pals Little Black Sambo and Amos and Andy.

The government of Mexican President Vicente Fox quietly released a jaw-dropping report on how former administrations used violence, torture, massacres, and murder to silence political opponents from the 1960s to the 1980s. Five years ago the Fox administration opened an investigation into political crimes carried out by the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, the authoritarian party that had ruled Mexico for 71 years before being ousted by Fox and his conservative pro-business National Action Party (PAN) in elections that took place in 2000.

The report released by the Fox government makes clear that the political violence was not an aberration, but official government policy set in motion and condoned by Presidents Díaz Ordaz (1964-1970), Echeverría (1970-1976) and López Portillo (1976-1982). However, human rights activists in Mexico are worried that the report was released without fanfare just before a three-day weekend, and that the 859 page report was posted to the internet rather than being released at a major press conference. Critics of the Fox regime point out that the report, titled “Historical Report to the Mexican Society“, makes no recommendations about bringing human rights violators to justice.

Included in the report is an admission that the massacre of students and their supporters at Tlatelolco Plaza in Mexico City during a 1968 protest against government corruption, was planned and carried out by the highest levels of government. The mass student protests took place ten days before the International ‘68 Olympics were held in Mexico City, and over the years activists have insisted Mexican army troops and police shot dead thousands of unarmed dissidents - carting off their bodies to be unceremoniously buried in secret. The authorities have always maintained that only rogue forces opened fired at the students in Tlatelolco Plaza, and that 4 were killed.

The report contains a whole chapter on the Tlatelolco massacre, as well as chapters on other massive human rights violations where populations of entire villages considered “subversive” were rounded up, and the communities burned to the ground. The report cites the names and circumstances of 645 people “disappeared” by the government, 99 outright extrajudicial executions, and more than 2000 cases of civilians being tortured at the hands of the army and police [ Read more about the report. ]

The United American Indians of New England (UAINE), is a Native-led organization of Native people and their supporters who battle against racism and support Indigenous struggles - not only in New England but throughout the Americas. They have organized against the Pilgrim mythology perpetuated in Plymouth and protested the use of racist team names and mascots in sports. In 1970, United American Indians of New England declared US Thanksgiving Day a National Day of Mourning. In the words of UAINE activists;

“The first official ‘Day of Thanksgiving’ was proclaimed in 1637 by Governor Winthrop. He did so to celebrate the safe return of men from Massachusetts who had gone to Mystic, Connecticut to participate in the massacre of over 700 Pequot women, children, and men. About the only true thing in the whole mythology is that these pitiful European strangers would not have survived their first several years in ‘New England’ were it not for the aid of Wampanoag people. What Native people got in return for this help was genocide, theft of our lands, and never-ending repression.”

Over the years, participants in the National Day of Mourning have buried Plymouth Rock a number of times and boarded the Mayflower replica - placing ku klux klan sheets on the statue of William Bradford. The Indigenous people’s tradition of mourning on ‘Thanksgiving Day’ continues, and this year will be the 37th annual National Day of Mourning. A march and protest has been called for Nov. 23rd, 2006, to take place on Cole’s Hill, directly above Plymouth Rock in Plymouth, MA. UAINE activists have released a statement regarding the event:2006 National Day of Mourning:

Since 1970, Native Americans have gathered at noon on Cole’s Hill in Plymouth to commemorate a National Day of Mourning on the US thanksgiving holiday. Many Native Americans do not celebrate the arrival of the Pilgrims and other European settlers. Thanksgiving day is a reminder of the genocide of millions of Native people, the theft of Native lands, and the relentless assault on Native culture. Participants in National Day of Mourning honor Native ancestors and the struggles of Native peoples to survive today. It is a day of remembrance and spiritual connection as well as a protest of the racism and oppression which Native Americans continue to experience. Join us as we dedicate the 37th National Day of Mourning to our brother, Native political prisoner Leonard Peltier. Add your voice to the millions world-wide who demand his freedom. Help us in our struggle to create a true awareness of Native peoples and demonstrate the unity of Indigenous peoples internationally. Help shatter the untrue glass image of the Pilgrims and the unjust system based on racism, sexism, homophobia and war.

Since 1970, the National Day of Mourning has been a solemn, spiritual and highly political day. While most of us will not be able to travel to Plymouth Rock to join with our Indigenous sisters and brothers - we can still offer our support. Show your solidarity with the first people’s of this land, by joining them in fasting and prayer. Since it is a time when families and friends gather, take the opportunity to rededicate ‘Thanksgiving’ to all Indigenous peoples - acknowledging their humanity, bravery and contributions to civilization [ You can read more about UAINE at their website - www.uaine.org ]

Mexican archeologists believe they may have found the tomb of an Aztec Emperor, if so it would be the first imperial burial site of an Aztec leader ever to have been discovered.

Last October Xispas wrote about the discovery of major Aztec ruins in Mexico City, which included the unearthing of a gigantic carved stone slab. Since then archeologists have meticulously cleaned the monolithic carving, and have confirmed the relief sculpture as a representation of Tlaltecuhtli, Earth Goddess and ruler of the underworld. When the discovery was made in October, 2006, it was evident that it was an important find, but archeologists are now saying it may be one of most important ever made.

Archeologists believe the monolithic stone of the Earth Goddess may actually be a grave marker for Emperor Ahuizotl, who ruled the Aztec Empire from 1486 to 1502. At a Nov., 16th press conference, Eduardo Matos, the country’s chief archeologist and director of all excavations of Aztec ruins in Mexico City, said, “We think this could be a gravestone covering the place where this ruler was laid to rest.”

Ahuizotl was the father of Moctezuma, the sovereign overthrown by the Spanish invaders in their conquest of the Mexica/Aztec Empire that took place from 1519-1521. All previous stone carvings of Tlaltecuhtli have been found ritualistically buried face down in the earth - this is the first carving to be found face up. In the claw of her right foot is a carved representation of a rabbit and ten dots, the Aztec glyph for 10 Rabbit, or 1502 - the year of Emperor Ahuizotl’s death. If archeologists are correct in thinking they’ve found an imperial burial chamber - then there are certainly many staggering discoveries that will soon come to light [ Read more about this story. ]

Leaders from 24 Latin American countries, including Spain and Portugal, criticized the U.S. for plans to build a 700-mile wall along the Mexican border. The Ibero-American summit expressed “deep concern” about the wall, and urged Washington to reconsider. [Read the full story here]