Recently, right wing groups and commentators in the United States have resurrected the concept of Aztlan to dramatize a supposed terrorist plot by Xicanos, Mexicanos, and Centroamericanos to take over America. Even CNN’s Lou Dobbs, perennial anti-undocumented immigrant pundit, had bizarre reports on his show with maps of “Aztlan” and harried warnings of the growing threat of “reconquista” (reconquest).
Most of us who have been Xicano activists for years have looked at this hysteria with incredulous shrugs. What has come over some of these conservative, right wingers? We’ve always known they weren’t the sharpest pencils in the box, but they seem to be getting nuttier by the minute (maybe that’s why some of them are called “minutemen”).
Aztlan is based on old Mexika (the proper name for the Aztec) stories about their land of origin. It means, more or less, “Land of White Herons.” The term Aztecs was derived from Aztlan later by European-based archaeologists.
In the late 1960s, Xicano poet Alurista referred to Aztlan in his works to evoke our ancient ties as indigenous people to these lands. The concept grew rapidly among activists fighting racism, injustice, poverty, and war (the Vietnam War at that time). There’s no consensus about where Aztlan is, but investigative journalists Roberto Rodriguez and Patrisia Gonzales (columnists for many publications around the country) have done films and talks on old Spanish maps that indicate the four corners region (Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah) as the “Aztec” homeland.
The point of evoking Aztlan is to show as indigenous people that Mexicans and Central Americans have ties to this land as old as anybody. While we may also have Spanish, African, and Asian blood, most of our DNA and history are with the native peoples of both North and Middle America. There are around 240 different native idioms spoken in Mexico alone. Millions of people in Mexico and Central American still speak the Nahuatl language (the one linked to the ancient Mexika). There are dozens of other indigenous languages as well, including various Mayan dialects. Mexico, for all its history of conquest, “Hispanicization,” and US economic and political dominance, has remained as the land with more native peoples than any other on the continent. When you look at the poor, the peasants, the rural laborers, you’re looking at mostly brown-skinned native peoples (although most have lost their tribal ties). Many of them are entering the United States for work. Close to 10 million Mexican nationals live and work in the US, among 35 million people of Mexican descent.
These are not your “usual” immigrants and foreigners. They are following migrant routes between North and South that have been in existence for tens of thousands of years.
It’s odd how things have turned around in this country—where the red-brown native peoples are now considered the “illegals,” “strangers,” and “foreigners.” Most of the Minutemen and anti-immigrant groups are made up of European-descended people who’ve only been on this continent some 500 years (their time in the United States is far less than that). They’ve even captured the attention of some so-called Latinos, Asians, and other “immigrants” who’ve joined in the attack against Mexican migrants.
Aztlan—what does this really mean? First of all, most Mexican and Central Americans coming to the US have no idea what Aztlan is? At least most have no idea they are part of a conspiracy to recapture the lands of this country. The vast majority come here to work and help their families and villages back home. A large number end up staying in the US; and many of them accept the laws, cultures, language, and even ideas of this country. Mexicans have fought in every major war of the last century and the current one (in World War II, Mexicans garnered more Medal of Honors than any other ethnic group; they are among the 30 percent Latinos stationed in Afghanistan and Iraq). They have bought homes, set up businesses, and organized into political parties. Most of them are extremely patriotic and even conservative in politics.
The Republicans and those who attack Mexican migrants end up hurting one of the best resources this country has. Racism plays a big role in this – racism is always a blinding and sidetracking concern for anyone caught up in it.
Many conservatives have linked Mexican and Central American immigration (and people of color in general) to terrorism. However, there is no known terrorist act linked to Mexican or Central American migration. The worse terrorist act on US soil was the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. They were done mostly by Saudi nationals who manipulated and lied to obtain their visas (we didn’t go after the Saudis, long-time US “friends,” although we overthrew two regimes that had no direct ties to the terrorists). The Oklahoma City Bombing in the mid-1990s was the second worse terrorist act, orchestrated by Caucasian males, including war veteran Timothy McVeigh.
Other terrorist acts like the slaughter of innocents in various middle and high school campuses in the 1990s, culminating in the 15 deaths at Columbine High School in Colorado, were mostly led by disaffected all-American white youth.
The one area where troubled youth in Mexican, African American, Native American, Asian, and poor white neighborhoods seem to converge is among violent street gangs. Not to take away the importance of addressing this, most of these gangs are not politically motivated – it’s usually survival, economic gain, and fear that motivates them.
The vast majority of the 12 million undocumented people in this country (although Mexicans make up around 60 percent of these, there are people from all over the world among them) are law-abiding, hard working, and fairly quiet people.
It hurts this country to divert monetary and military resources from the real terrorism in this country to brown-skinned people who will have nothing to do with Middle East terrorist groups. Just because one is brown-skinned does not link him or her with brown-skinned terrorists.
Should we go after white, US raised, ex-Vets since Tim McVeigh was responsible for the Oklahoma City Bombing? Of course not. Yet, brown-skinned terrorists in three planes have allowed the government to target innocent Middle East people (including non-Muslims), Latinos, Blacks, and even some Asians.
The simple fact is this: There is no plot to “re-conquer” this land. There is no organized campaign or mass movement for establishing Aztlan anywhere among Xicanos, Mexicanos, or Central Americans. Aztlan is a story that connects us to this land, to traditions, to vital roots. It is mostly used as a metaphor and image to encourage Xicanos to educate themselves, get skills, become writers, artists, politicians, leaders, and thinkers.
Nothing violent is being advocated. Nothing anti-White is behind this (although we are against a racist white power structure). Nothing anti-American, for that matter (unless “American” is linked to the racist white power structure).
We’ve been clear about this for decades. Talk to us Xicanos, the young as well as the veterans who’ve been part of this movement for more than 40 years (and even longer).
Aztlan means cooperation, peace, community, creativity, and our indigenous roots. What does this have to do with terrorists, especially from the Middle East?
One thing right-wingers are good at is creating a bogey man, or a scapegoat, and lying, manipulating, and misdirecting our righteous rage as workers and artists and thinkers of all races, genders, and communities against the real roots of our misery and insecurity: the economy and the disempowering political process.
That’s the real reason anyone would make “Aztlan” part of an international terrorist plot – to get the rest of us to turn away from what can unite us as a people with real economic, health and environmental concerns (including the invalidity of the war in Afghanistan and Iraq).
It’s all about diversion and division. Something the Republicans are good at.
We are Aztlan – poets, scientists, businesspeople, mothers, workers, activists, students, and others. I’ve been involved with this concept for more than 40 years. Nobody I know has anything to do with illegal, violent or terrorist actions. We are about ideas, cosmologies, expressions, and truths. Many of us have incorporated complicated spiritual, political, and culturally enriched aspects to this. Aztlan is not a religion or war cry; those who acknowledge this may not even agree with one another.
We are Aztlan – including whites, African American, Asians, and our Native relatives on this side of the border. Aztlan is about the imagination of a world without borders, without division, without injustice, without war. To literalize it is to make it something it’s not. It’s a dream, it’s the past, and it’s one of many possible, viable, and truly inclusive futures.
