Category: Uncategorized

By Ramsey Muniz – Tezcatlipoca

There is a day that pertains to our religious culture
which connects the earth, heaven, and nature. It is
a day when we realize the true essence of cosmic visions
which prove that we are truly a part of Mother Earth,
heaven, and the spiritual realm. On that day, the veil
that separates the living from the dead is removed,
and we are reunited with the loving spirits of our
ancestors, forefathers and deceased family members.
It is a day of rejoicing, communing, sharing, praying,
fasting, and meditating with our ancestors and family
members that now reside in Ilhuicatlitic (the heavens),
because once again we share our ancestral spirituality
on earth. It is a day that truly brings us together
with our past in worship to our gods and rejoicing as
one world, one people one nation in our minds and hearts
for the past, present and future. It is a day so
religious and spiritually powerful, that even five
hundred years ago, priests like Sahagun, Torquemada,
Molina, Duran, and others realized the power of
Teotleco — the arrival of the gods. They repeatedly
witnessed the spiritual ancestral power granted from
the past to the present and future raza on El Día
de los Muertos.

History reveals that the invaders and present
society began to taint the meaning of this day and
month with ominous misconceptions, stripping us
of our cultural foundation — the spiritual sharing
between the heavens and earth. The destruction of
our cultural beliefs on this day deteriorated to the
point that eventually this country, the United States
of Amnesia, displaced the importance and value of
Teotleco and El Dia De Los Muertos, and made it a
day embedded with monsters, goblins and appearances
of evil omens. It replaced the day of remembrance
of our ancestors, family members and friends who have
passed away into our cultural heavens.

Hermanos y hermanas, was it by choice, or
ignorance? Do we continue to permit the devious
subtle destructive strategy of the European invaders
and this present day society to destroy the truthful
and spiritual meaning of this day? The destruction
of our cultural knowledge and remembrance of that
special time was replaced with a prank filled
celebration — a day now commercially referred to
as "Halloween." It is now a night spent in the
wearing of masks immortalizing European pagans, evil
omens, celebrities and presidents of the United States.
They can have their "Halloween," and its European
concepts. The time has come for us as a raza of
impregnable beliefs and Nahuatl faith to remove
the masks of misconceptions and ruses, and once
more behold the glorious days of Teotleco — the
arrival of our gods, and to continue this celebration
of remembrance for our future Mexika generations.

El Día De Los Muertos will destroy the evil
spirits that have strived to separate us. This
day has the power to destroy the evil mindset that
invaded us five hundred years ago, attempting to
oppress, exploit and dehumanize our brothers and
sisters.

Rejoice with honor and courage, and celebrate
El Día de los Muertos with your ancestors, family
members, and friends. Pray, sing and dance the ancient
dance of joy. With the spirits of those beloved in
heaven and on earth, acknowledge that this gift
bestowed upon us will give us the ancient warrior
spirit of the land — the spirit of Mexicayotl!
Rise with the spirits to the battle for the liberation
of our God-given rights. We, the flowers of ancient
indigenous roots, are the true heirs of Aztlan and
of the land of Cem-Anahuac.

"With joy and honor, I walk in communion with the
ancient spirits. For tomorrow rises the Sixth Sun
of the Mexika. We many not all be Mexika, but we
can certainly claim a Mexika consciousness."

Note: circulated via email by Irma L. Muniz (Oct. 25, 2005)
******************
Editor’s Comment: I hear Muniz speaking as a shaman, rattling spirits
with old eyes. He speaks to everyone of a real difference between
a night of fright and a night of rejoicing, between a night where we
run run run from death and a night when we celebrate the vast dead
kingdom. To the extent therefore that I am able to laugh as
deeply as the fright before me, I think Tezcatlipoca helps me to
connect with the balancing act that the day of the dead calls
out. To do that in the company of my own dead kingdom seems
like good advice to take. To insist that nobody lose touch with
one’s most authentic dead kingdom is not just cranky talk among the
old. We have to find healthy ways of living with our own dead,
but the health will do little good if none of the dead we learn to live
with
are our own.  On the other hand, wouldn’t it be worthwhile to
welcome Aztec dead to the pagan party where we learn to fear and laugh
together.

Note: Angela Valenzuela is an education activist with values that we
respect. Here is a Thanksgiving note she recently shared with her list.
Posted by permission of the author.–gm

Dear Friends and Colleagues:

I want to take this opportunity to share with listserv subscribers
a little bit about me. This may be conveyed through a story that
appeared today in the San Angelo Standard Times about my recently
deceased mother, Helen Rios Valenzuela. (I’m from San Angelo, Texas).
My Mom passed away last week and here’s the link to today’s story that I think is well done:

There is only one error in the story. It says that my Mom is from
Phoenix, Arizona, when she’s actually from Superior, Arizona. However,
as a five year old, she did spend half a year alone in Phoenix in a
children’s hospital specifically for polio victims. She definitely beat
the odds. She wasn’t supposed to have ever walked and she did. She
wasn’t supposed to have had any children and she had three. And as a
female, Mexican American high school dropout who grew up during the Jim
Crow segregation era (de facto segregation, for Mexican Americans), she
was not supposed to have succeeded in life. In fact, my Mom graduated
from college with very high honors. There’s a part of the story about my Mom deciding to go to college
that I want to add. I was a senior in college when my Mom decided to go
(she had already taken and passed her GED). Incidentally, it was really
neat for me to cross paths with her daily during my senior year in
college. She was always surrounded by young college people who sought
her out. And I remember her bringing them home since our home was
already a social and intellectual center where we discussed and
questioned everything. And anyone who entered that space participated.

My Mom possessed a unique ability to accept, respect, and be open to
each person’s opinion and individuality. Since what always mattered
most to her was the relationship, you could tell her anything. This
certainly played an important role in my own development primarily
because it freed me to follow my dreams.

To continue, my Mom observed how by my junior year in college I was
questioning so much of what I had grown up with and how I was changing
as a consequence. I grew more distant as I felt that my parents could
no longer relate to me as they had previously. All of this saddened my
Mom as we had always had a close relationship. Several months after
enrolling in college, she asked me if I knew why she had decided to go
to college. I told her that I had an idea but wasn’t sure that I really
knew. My Mom then told me that she had always cherished our
relationship so much that she decided to go to college so that she
wouldn’t lose me.

I remember feeling amazed and profoundly flattered by her comment even as I attempted to grasp the strength of her love for me.

We’ll miss my Mom this Thanksgiving, especially since it was her
favorite holiday. We thought that she’d a least make it to
Thanksgiving…. In any case, I’m thankful to my Mother for her
unconditional love and passion for life.

I share all of this because my Mother’s life and death have been
very instructive to me, as well as to so many others. Perhaps this will
be instructive to you as well. Please know that I, too, am well—as is
my family.

Peace,

Angela Valenzuela

P.S. There is a photo, obituary, and additional comments by me about my Mom on my blog at:
http://texasedequity.blogspot.com/

Dear Mr. President:

The undersigned national Latino organizations write to express our
extreme disappointment with the Statement of Administration Policy
(SAP) issued yesterday supporting the "Border Protection,
Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005" (H.R.
4437). This bill defies any attempt at serious or effective immigration
reform, which you yourself acknowledged is urgently needed. Your SAP is
baffling in light of recent statements made by RNC Chairman Ken
Mehlman, which correctly
point out that the House Republican proposal overreaches in ways which
are harmful to the country and which will alienate the Latino
community.
Your support of H.R. 4437 is inconsistent with the very principles for immigration reform that you have put forward.
The impact of H.R. 4437 on the Latino community would be
devastating. This bill is excessively harmful to American
families,
businesses, and communities as well as immigrants. Among its many
appalling provisions: it criminalizes 11 million undocumented workers;
it subjects family members, employers, religious institutions, and
others to criminal penalties under broadened definitions of smuggling,
harboring, and transporting; it expands expedited removal and mandatory
detention; and it creates an unworkable employer verification system
that will
displace millions of workers and disrupt the economy. All of these
provisions will have a far-reaching impact on the entire Latino
community, yet none would solve our very real immigration problems.
H.R. 4437 does not put us on a path toward comprehensive immigration
reform; rather it stymies
constructive debate and is an affront to those who are truly
interested in solutions.

As you know, leaders from both political parties have
acknowledged the need to address our immigration problems in a
comprehensive manner and are working on realistic, rational immigration
reform legislation.

However, House Republicans have provided this shortsighted and
mean-spirited bill which is intended to appear tough on immigration
without resolving our nation’s immigration problems. Only a
comprehensive approach that provides a path to citizenship for current
undocumented immigrants, creates new legal channels for future flows of
needed immigrants, reduces family immigration backlogs, and protects
worker rights will reduce undocumented immigration and bring order to
our immigration system.

We are shocked and saddened by your Administration’s statement of
strong support for H.R. 4437. It is difficult to understand how you
will explain your posture on this legislation to the Latino community,
which is following this debate very closely. We urge you to withdraw
your support for H.R. 4437 and get back on the path toward
comprehensive immigration reform.

Sincerely,

League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC)
Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF)
National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO)
Educational Fund
National Council of La Raza (NCLR)

Talk about criminalization. The Honorable Aaron Pena dragged
up this story from a San Francisco source: After spending $20 million
of our money investigating the life and friends of Henry Cisneros, a
special prosecutor has been ordered by the US Senate to release his
final report already. It has been kept under seal since August
2004.
We used to be among the good rep’s short list of links, but no
more. He’s gone all Quorum Report on us and AP, not even a
PinkDome link anymore. But we understand, he needs voters, not
philosophers on his side. For example, his answer to the border
drug wars is a committee
on substance abuse. That’s how one behaves in front of voters,
nurturing commonsense hypocrisies with warm milk. Apparently, it
can’t be helped. Here at TCRR we say, legalize it all: the drugs
and the people, too. BEFORE the border war breaks out.
Whatcha wanna bet  Quorum Report readers would think about that?