“It’s not fair that you get to go to San Diego“
Monthly Archives: March 2006
Remembering César – Continuing the Legacy
Today marks the anniversary of the birthday of one of America’s greatest civil rights leaders, César Chávez (1927-1993). Across the world, the legacy of a man who spent his entire life fighting against the injustices saddled on the shoulders of hardworking people will be celebrated and honored.
He was a posthumous recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994 under the Presidency of Bill Clinton and was nominated for a Congressional Gold Medal in 2004 by leaders of the Democratic Party. Buildings, schools and streets across the United States have been renamed in his honor.
Here in Tucson, the city government is considering an official holiday to commemorate and honor his mission. Even the U.S. Congress has a bill calling for a federal holiday, which is probably collecting dust somewhere in Speaker Hastert’s office.
So who was this humble man on a mission of justice?
Born in 1927, César learned at a young age what it was like to be a victim of society. From his Wikipedia entry:
Cesar grew up in Arizona; the small adobe home where Cesar was born was swindled from them by dishonest white businessmen. Cesar’s father agreed to clear eighty acres of land and in exchange he would receive the deed to forty acres of land that adjoined the home. The agreement was broken and the land sold to a man named Justus Jackson. Cesar’s dad went to a lawyer who advised him to borrow money and buy the land. Later when Cesar’s father could not pay the interest on the loan the lawyer bought back the land and sold it to the original owner. Cesar learned a lesson about injustice that he would never forget. Later, he would say, “The love for justice that is in us is not only the best part of our being, but it is also the most true to our nature.”
Known primarily for his work in organizing the United Farmworkers Movement, César followed in a long line of historical figures who adhered to the nonviolent method of protest and activism. He empowered everyday workers to take a stand for their rights, organizing widespread marches and boycotts that allowed their calls for justice to be heard and joined across America. He also showed the corporate masters that he believed in his mission by engaging in multiple hunger Fasts for Life.
Cesar was willing to sacrifice his own life so that the union would continue and that violence was not used. Cesar fasted many times. In 1968 Cesar went on a water only, 25 day fast. He repeated the fast in 1972 for 24 days, and again in 1988, this time for 36 days. What motivated him to do this? He said, Farm workers everywhere are angry and worried that we cannot win without violence. We have proved it before through persistence, hard work, faith and willingness to sacrifice. We can win and keep our own self-respect and build a great union that will secure the spirit of all people if we do it through a rededication and recommitment to the struggle for justice through nonviolence.
Thirty-six days. A testament to the power of the human will when the entire “body, mind and soul” are united for a common cause – or causa, as it is known in the Xicano community.
Seeing images and video of hundreds of thousands of people marching and students walking out of their classrooms to join in solidarity the past few weeks has been breathtaking. Much hay has been ordered by conservative talking-heads to water down the power of these demonstrations of unity and comunidad by their touting of César’s opposition to illegal immigration during his years of activism. From the 3/27/06 transcript of CNN’s Lou Dobbs Tonight:
And there is horrible symbolism, at least in my opinion, that these students would be leaving their schools to demonstrate, and particularly on a day that is Cesar Chavez Day by the way, a man who fought fiercely for the rights of migrant workers and Hispanics in this country and who objected to illegal immigration with all of his heart and all of his energy, because he understood that the people who would be most victimized by it would be the very people he sought to help and that is the Hispanic community.
By the way, The Pew Hispanic Center bore out Cesar Chavez’s views last year with a study that showed that of two million Hispanic illegal immigrants into this country, those who lost their jobs as a result, were the most recent Hispanic immigrants into this country. A difficult, difficult complex issue. In one that, could it seems to me, be far better represented by the elected officials, certainly in Los Angeles.
Now would be a good time to mention that L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa joined his people in the march for justice last Saturday. He has also met with students this week to address their concerns at seeing the U.S. Congress consider making their friends and family members felons overnight; finishing with a stern plea for them to return to their classrooms to discuss the issue.
People like Lou Dobbs and Michelle Malkin have no credibility to dictate what Latino leaders believe. To get the facts, it’s best to go straight to the source. In this case, The Cesar E. Chavez Foundation should be a good starting point.
Following huge marches & student walk-outs, the Cesar Chavez Foundation and United Farm Workers have created a special immigration curriculum to further engage students in taking action on Justice for Immigrants.Download it Today! (.pdf file)
The curriculum activity found at the download link should put that particular right-wing talking-point to a quick death.
César was indeed an opponent of illegal immigration, but he was also vehemently opposed to the enslavement of workers by corporate greedmongers who worship at the altar of the Almighty Dollar. To suggest that he would support draconian bills like HR4437 if he were alive today shows a gross disconnect to understanding the legacy of Chavez’s mission, summed up today by Senator Ken Salazar (D-CO)’s reciting of one of César’s personal prayers on the floor of the Senate.
Show me the suffering of the most miserable;
So I will know my people’s plight.
Free me to pray for others;
For you are present in every person.
Help me take responsibility for my own life;
So that I can be free at last.
Grant me courage to serve others;
For in service there is true life.
Give me honesty and patience;
So that I can work with others workers.
Bring forth song and celebration;
So that the Spirit will be alive among us.
Let the Spirit flourish and grow;
So that we will never tire of the struggle.
Let us remember those who have died for justice;
For they have given us life.
Help us love even those who hate us;
So we can change the world.
Take some time today to remember César’s long legacy of promoting justice and human dignity. He was able to reawaken the conscience of the people through a combination of organizational power and personal humility that can easily be replicated today if we believe and hope in the collective strength of la causa de paz y justicia. It can be done. ¡Sí, Se Puede!
Crossposted at BooMan Tribune and Daily Kos
Tags: cesar chavez, immigration, hr4437
You are on Indian Land
Many mainstream Americans, all along the political spectrum, have been surprised in recent weeks to see large numbers, extremely large numbers, of migrants demonstrating in cities around the US.
While the media did not mention it, in all those millions, and yes, the sum of all the demonstrators went into the millions, there was not one, zero, “incidents,” or acts of violence. I’m not sure that can be said of any demonstration of comparable size in the US or anywhere else. Ever.
What were they demonstrating about? Ostensibly, a hate law proposed to the US legislature by a popular politican, who sadly will be even more popular with the American political class because of his proposal. It was about the indigenous people of the Americas exercising their inalienable right to move from one part of their continent to another.
But it went deeper than that.
In an offline incident that was recounted to me, a man from India asked a man from Honduras, why are you at work today? I thought all the Mexicans were on strike. Why are they doing that, anyway?
The Honduran, not bothering to correct the common but annoying assumption about his national origin answered, Everyone who can is on strike today. They are doing it to get human rights for you and your family.
And indeed, it is something of a disappointment not to see migrants from other regions in the marches, however, taking the forest view, that is a trifle. There were not a lot of migrants from anywhere marching with Dr. King, back in the day when so many Afro-Americans marched, to get human rights for the father of the man from India, the grandfather of the man from Honduras.
The demonstrations we see now however, these millions of sons and daughters of the indigenous people of the Americas, go even deeper than that. Many pundits have labeled the events as a wakeup call. What they mean by that will differ according to their point of view.
But regardless of what their interpretation may be, they are right. It is a wakeup call.
It is a complimentary, peaceful wakeup call from those sons and daughters of the indigenous people of the Americas to the sons and daughters of the European invaders that they are on Indian Land.
You are on Indian Land, I am on Indian Land.
One of the unintended consequences of the concerted efforts at genocide, culturecide, and linguacide perpetuated by the invaders is that today, all those Indians whose ancestors survived, including all the millions who, like their Afro-American brothers, do not know their tribe, do not know their real names, are now one tribe, from the Arctic Circle to Tierra del Fuego, and everything between.
And it is all Indian Land.
When the first march occurred in Chicago, the first march of March, something both long-awaited and unexpected leapt in some hearts – a whisper of hope, a breath of spring.
Hope that that soft breeze might be a harbinger, that perhaps what had lain in wait, head buried for half a millennia under the earth of Indian Land, might emerge a jonquil.
Subsequent marches have watered that hope.
I ask people of goodwill, if indeed from that hard dry earth of Indian Land, there is emerging a jonquil, let us work together to water it, that it may flourish and grow, and bring at long last justice, human rights, prosperity and peace, in the Great Reclaiming, in this coming of the Eighth Generation, let the jonquil bud, and bloom, and the spirit of the eagle fly free, over this Indian Land.
crossposted to my unforgivably pompous and arrogant blog, and probably some other places as well, eventually.
The Money Quote: What is Home?
Say what you will about South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham … Lord knows over the years I have … but on Monday afternoon during the Senate Judiciary Committee’s deliberations on immigration reform he made a statement that most eloquently summed up the whole debate … What constitutes someone’s “home”.
“…Most of us here believe that the 11 million undocumented people are also workers.
We couldn’t get by as a nation without those workers and those people.
And the question is … sending them ‘home’.
I would just throw this out for some consideration…
What do you mean by ‘home’?
There’s domicile, and there’s legal residence …and for some …they’ve been here so long that they can’t imagine where they live is not home.
And that’s the real debate here.
Where is home ….and where would you want home to be?
…The President says he wants a guest worker program, but doesn’t want amnesty.
All the guest worker programs allow people to stay here a long period of time and work, some would have a group within the group to go back … home.
And I would argue that for someone who’s been here three or four generations … they don’t know where to go.
Cause their home is where they’ve raised their children, their home is where they’ve lived their married lives.
And we have allowed, rightly or wrongly, for that home to be established.
And we as a nation have sat on the sidelines since at least the eighties and allowed this situation to build up.
…There are generations who’ve been in America …who came across undocumented …and they set up roots and… they’ve led very noble lives.
They have a home.
And if you told them to go home they’d go right back to where they’ve been for thirty four years…. Cause they don’t know any other place.
…for several generations people have made America home.
And we’ve accepted the benefit of their labor and we’ve accepted the benefit of their work … and I’m trying to come up with a solution within American values.
…The law is about justice … How do we render legal justice …I would argue that if your breaking up families, and your sending people to some place that they don’t know to be home after forty years.
That is not a just result.”
you can view the whole statement :
Afternoon sessions at 2hr 44min 25sec here
Lo barato sale caro
What’s cheap ends up expensive
Reuters has an article that addresses the underlying issue to the mass re-migration of people from Central and South America to the United States.
Roughly half of Mexico’s population lives on less than $5 a day, according to government figures. The U.S. minimum wage is $5.15 an hour. Annual Mexican Gross Domestic Product per capita is just under $7,000. It is almost $44,000 in the United States.
The gap is now wider than it was when Mexico, the United States and Canada signed the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1992.
The treaty took effect two years later and was supposed to generate more jobs in Mexico, raise incomes and, as a consequence, reduce the number of Mexicans crossing the 2,000-mile border with their superpower neighbor, legally or illegally.
[snip]
An investment of $20 billion a year over the next 10 years in Mexico in roads and communications connecting the poor southern part of Mexico to the North American market, Pastor says, would attract new companies to invest in Mexico and encourage many Mexicans to stay home and others to return.
“The idea of funding development in Mexico may sound ludicrous to many,” Pastor said, “and it would not end illegal immigration overnight. But it would end it eventually. And besides, it would benefit the U.S. economically.”
That “ludicrous idea” is one that is being echoed by former deputy assistant secretary of Commerce, Karl Reiner, who was snagged for an interview by Blog for Arizona.
Here’s a snippet:
American economic policy has long touted the benefits of free enterprise, open markets and the rule of law. As such, we must put emphasis on helping our southern neighbor get its economic house in order. Of the $8 billion spent on foreign economic assistance annually, only $30 million currently goes to projects in Mexico. We need to change that policy to ensure Mexico becomes an economic success. There is no reason why it can’t become an example for other developing nations. As Congress debates the illegal immigration issue, it should also review the old programs that rebuilt Europe and Japan after World War II and consider doing some of the same for Mexico. A booming Mexican economy would do a lot ease the pressure on workers to migrate. An economically successful Mexico would also be a larger market for U.S. goods and services in the future.
Go read the whole thing. It is provocative, to say the least, but takes notice of the elephant in the room: the United States has been touting economic stabilization while grossly underfunding initiatives that could bring it to fruition.
Sound familiar? Of course it does, this government is “All Hat, No Cattle.” They sold the American public a gold brick that ended up being iron pyrite.
Senate Debate on Immigration Reform
Duke1676 has this update from yesterday posted over at Migra Matters:
The Senate Judiciary Committee this afternoon passed an immigration reform bill that will now move on to the floor for further debate tomorrow morning.
The bill, which incorporates most of the provisions of the bill originally sponsored by Sen.Kennedy(D-Ma) and Sen. McCain(R-AZ) calls for the most massive reform of the immigration system in twenty years. It contains the comprehensive measures to allow for a path to citizenship for the 12 million undocumented immigrants living and working in the US. It also has provisions for a guest worker program and a plan to allow for 1.5 million agricultural workers and their families to work legally. Additionally an amendment was added to the bill that guaranteed that humanitarian aid workers and others providing services to immigrants would not be subjected to criminal penalties.
The biggest observation I have on the Senate Judiciary Committee’s deliberations from yesterday is the fact that the bill was passed without a majority of the majority. Only four of the committee’s ten Republicans voted in favor of the final measure to be sent to the floor of the Senate (McCain Specter, Graham, DeWine and Brownback). The Democrats remained united, with all eight voting in favor (12-6 final vote).
I think this is the first time something like this, a bipartisan coalition, has formed under the Bush Regime for such a big issue. I’m cautiously optimistic that a moderate bill was advanced, unfortunately it will now be offered up for two weeks of thrashing from Senators like Tom “Lesbianism is so rampant” Coburn and Trent “Strom Thurmond is my hero” Lott.
The markup of this piece of legislation could restore some of the most offensive portions of the House measure (HR4437). It will be on Frist’s head if any arm-twisting or back-alley deals are made in the dead of night, as they did with Medicare reform destruction. It’s up to the people to continue sending their message in the streets. It appears to be working:
Lawmakers central to the immigration debate acknowledged that the televised images of tens of thousands of demonstrators, waving flags and fliers, marching in opposition to tough immigration legislation helped persuade the panel to find a bipartisan compromise.
“All of those people who were demonstrating were not necessarily here illegally,” said Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, who sponsored the legalization measures with Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts. Mr. Kennedy described the people who would benefit from the bill as “our neighbors,” adding: “They’re churchgoers. They’re the shop owners down the street. They’re the people we know.”
La Raza Unida Jamás Será Vencida
The people united will never be defeated
Crossposted at Booman Tribune
Tags: Immigration, HR4437, Senate, John McCain, Ted Kennedy
California Students Carry the Torch
Is it possible to be hopeful and angry at the same time? I’m learning quickly how to do it.
The national media was unable to keep a lid on the big story of the weekend: tens of thousands of people marching and rallying for human dignity.
Today, Monday, is Cesar Chavez Day in California, and students across that state are showing their solidarity with their familias y amigos by staging mass walk-outs. From CNN:
Tens of thousands of students walked out of school in California and other states Monday, waving flags and chanting slogans in a second week of protests against legislation to crack down on illegal immigrants.
On Monday, California’s Cesar Chavez Day, at least 8,500 students marched out of eight Los Angeles-area schools, including the San Fernando Valley and the wealthy coastal enclave of Pacific Palisades, said Monica Carazo, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles school district.
By midmorning, the protests had spread to downtown, where hundreds of students walked the streets and chanted. The boycott had the tacit approval of school officials in some of the heavily Hispanic downtown schools, where word was passed through hall posters and public address systems.
Reading the aftermath of the blog coverage on the protests, I read a term I had never heard before: anchor babies. After figuring out what the goons were talking about, I was utterly disgusted at the spitting hatred shown by some people towards another human being.
An “anchor baby” is a child born from immigrant parents, and is apparently caused-to-be born for the sole purpose of providing leverage to keep the parents here. That pesky XIV Amendment to the Constitution, it causes all sorts of hell…apparently……
That whole notion is not only insulting and degrading, it is reminiscent of days past when the lunacy was coming from the Oval Office.
Over a period of about five years, Reagan told the story of the “Chicago welfare queen” who had 80 names, 30 addresses, 12 Social Security cards, and collected benefits for “four nonexisting deceased husbands,” bilking the government out of “over $150,000.” The real welfare recipient to whom Reagan referred was actually convicted for using two different aliases to collect $8,000. Reagan continued to use his version of the story even after the press pointed out the actual facts of the case to him.
Disgusting. I hope the marches and rallies continue to spread across this country until the bigoted groups still operating in the U.S. are either forced back into their holes to fester and rot or they end up leaving and poisoning some other country with their hate.
Tags: immigration, protests, California
Making Sense of the Soundbites
Today’s the day. The Senate Judiciary Committee has a midnight deadline to hammer out an agreement on an immigration-reform bill that is scheduled for a two-week debate on the floor of the Senate. If the Associated Press is to be believed (I hear those guffaws, Ductape!), the protests of the past several weeks are making an impact.
“If they’re prepared to work to become American citizens in the long line traditionally of immigrants who have helped make this country, we can have both a nation of laws and a welcoming nation of workers who do some very, very important jobs for our economy,” Specter said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”
Senate aides met into the evening Sunday in advance of a Judiciary Committee meeting to debate legislation, but there was no evidence of a breakthrough on the issue most in dispute. Lawmakers have been divided on whether illegal immigrants should be required to return to their home country before they become eligible for U.S. citizenship.
The Senate will ultimately take a moderate stance on reform, in stark contrast to their rabid colleagues in the House like James Sensenbrenner. I’m optimistic that that they will dismiss suggestions of criminalization, as HR4437 proposes. Can you image what would happen in this country if all-of-a-sudden 11 million plus (that’s the official count, it’s much more) people were considered felons overnight? Not to mention, criminalizing the actions of social workers, ESL instructors, and soup kitchen workers from coast-to-coast? We would enter an era unseen since the days of the civil war.
[Meta-Note]: Corresponding with a few of you over the past couple days made me realize how immersed I’ve been in the details of this debate. I often forget that some of the things we mention may not be common knowledge, so please feel free to ask any questions or clarification if you find yourself saying, “Huh?”
Cliff-Notes version of everything:
- The House passed a horrible bill in December (HR4437), that would make it a felony to be/work in the U.S. without documentation; it also called for penalties towards anyone who aid them, which is why Cardinal Mahoney and other clergy have called for civil disobedience. If those facets aren’t bad news, then consider that it also calls for construction of a 700-mile wall along the southern border and the placement of the military to “protect the homeland.”
- The Senate has four major bills competing at the moment: the bipartisan bill sponsored by McCain/Kennedy, hardline-stance by Kyl/Cornyn, a guest-worker program by Specter, and a bizarre out-of-nowhere offering by Frist.
- George Bush is actually taking the moderate stance on this at the moment. I don’t trust Shrub one iota, so we’ll see if he is being a political opportunist or not if/when the final bills make it out of the Congress and to his desk.
Preguntas? 🙂
Tags: immigration, HR4437
barreling through the barrio
I know we usually meander, but it’s been a bizzy, bizzy day (week, even) for me so far, so I’m still in fast mode!
I hope everyone (or at least their blogs) has on their Sunday Best, cuz here we come to see the day.
First up… DuctapeFatwa updated his blog! And, as usual, it was well worth the wait. Not only has he written (just a ‘lil bit tongue-in-cheek) about how to stop illegal immigration (also posted here on this blog) and the new flower power, but he’s given us one of those incomparable glimpses into the lives of people you’d almost swear you knew, in Insurgent Cleansees: A True Story of Katrina Survivors and Surprise.
This is a joke, right? was my first reaction to catnip’s stories about CMD’s and FMD’s… but no, not only is irony dead, but so is outrageous speculation and “what if’s”! Plus, she’s been on top of the Washington Post right-wing blogger implosion and has also done a round up of interesting news stories.
I think more and more people are realizing what a benefit Eat4Today is, regardless of what it is they are trying to accomplish for the day… the idea of just taking things on just for today is something that anyone can do, and more and more are. Today, katiebird talks about the value of friends and the commitment.
Over at Migra Matters, Duke has the most amazing picture up of the pro democracy/immigration rights march in LA, while xicanopwr covers Houston, as well as information of upcoming events. On the news here they showed busloads of high school kids who were going from school to school attempting to get other students to do a walkout and join the march. We have no idea how many would have, as the schools locked down and would allow no one in or out. (Not really surprising, but still… heh.)
[UPDATE!]Of course we have to see what olivia has been up to – she always has surprises in store. Evening at the Hollywood Bowl could also, quite easily, be A Day at the Air Show. Who knew? And more sneaky stuff… this next one olivia first posted in December, but re-posted it now to see what we thought of it. katie’s mind went off on a predictable path (okay, and mine followed) but for some reason the picture is still not named “Waiting for my Bee“! And speaking of bugs, get a load of this not so little guy saying, So much pollen, so little time.
Oh, and hey… my little corner of the internets is updated as well… thanks to katiebird, actually. How, she probably asks? Well, instead of getting overwhelmed by the huge job it can be, I’ve figured out how to partition it out so that all I have to concentrate is just this one thing, just for today :).
BlogArts News! The first blogarts conspiracy will begin on Monday, April 3. I’ll write up a thingy on how it will work and people can either post that on their blogs, or some sort of thing like it in their own words. We should probably post on bootrib too? We’ll limit the entries to 30, and if we get that many, just have two each day, for a total of 15 days.
Someone needs to come up with 4 interesting and informative (to the reader) questions for the participants to answer, though.
More to come!
LatinoPolítico.com 