Category: Uncategorized

And the Rights of Any Human Being

Citlalmina y nuestra gente Mexicana: "I covered my face
with my hands and sat still, in pure unconsciousness, neither hearing
nor feeling nor knowing, in the darkness of the dungeons of America,
like the deep of the sea. With no time and no world, in the deeps that
are timeless and worldless.
It was then that our spirituality of our ancient Mexicano ancestors
reached into the depth of my heart."– Tezcatlipoca (R. Muñiz)

By Ramsey Muniz

The entire United States of America has finally come to understand
and realize that our people, nuestros Mexicanos / Mexicanas, have
fulfilled our ancient destiny of returning to our land. It is written
in our ancient Mexican history that one day we as a people would return
to our land, which by law of God and nature was ours from the time of
its creation. At this point I’m not here to question or to share the
truth of whose land (Aztlan) is, or to prove the ownership. The latter
is and has been a question or matter of ownership from the beginning,
and by the preponderance of the evidence, we are rightful heirs.

At this point we are deeply concerned about the drastic laws and
American legislature which corrals our people like livestock.
Hispanics, Latinos, Chicanos, whatever nuestra raza decides to call
itself, it is our duty and obligation as Mexicanos to protect the human
rights of our people regarding the devastating and panicking
legislation against us throughout the United States.

Those of us Mexicanos who were born here in the United States must
provide the necessary assistance as if we were aiding our sisters and
brothers. We are not different; we are all the same. Nosotros somos
uno. Our sisters and brothers from our Holy Land of Mexico are not
criminals. In seeking a better life for our families our sisters and
brothers crossed into Aztlan
(Southwest) not only for job opportunities or careers, but fulfilling
the consciousness of reuniting once again in Aztlan.

The oppressed, regardless of race, have forever risen from their
oppression and have embraced liberation. After so many years, we, Los
Mexicanos del Sexto Sol, have become advocates of liberation, justice,
and eventually the ultimate
return of Aztlan. Regardless of how many laws and/or legislation are
passed to oppress our people, we shall overcome that oppression with
our ancient history and writings in our hands.

As a raza, as a people we cannot continue to permit the oppressor
(United States immigration laws) to violate the
God-given human rights of the masses of our people.
Mexicano organizations, Latin Americans, and others must come forward
and be advocates for our sisters and brothers who carry in their
possessions all their worldly property in one small paper sack. We must
protect the human rights of nuestra raza regardless of how they crossed
the river.

"We will collectively realize that there is more to us
as a people than the conquest. That we are not savages, and it is very
important to gaze back at our history, however much it hurts, and go
beyond that, and look at our magnificent Mexicano indigenous past. As
we decolonize our minds, we will realize that we are heirs to a
magnificent culture as well as
architects of our own future."–Oscar Benavides (Carrizo Springs, Texas)

The youth of today and tomorrow must now fully
understand our ancient Mexicano history and how within the last 500
years we have finally come into the passage of our cosmic future in all
America. We must protest against the structure of any wall or fence
(Mexicano Berlin wall) to be structured at the border.

Even if America decides to take such devastating inhumane action,
within a certain period of time we, Los Mexicanos, will be able to
overcome such actions. Scholars and those who have studied our history
as a profession, will share that history will provide the necessary
intellectual elements of arriving to the
conclusion that to begin with the entire Southwest of America (Aztlan)
was ours as a land at one time, and it was prophesized during times of
hardship and turmoil that we would rise once again.

A race who has no conception or knowledge of its ancient history or
past will be in a stage of non-existence. We are the 21st century proud
race, reclaiming that which was ours from the beginning.

"As I embrace our ancient Mexicano sacred indigenous
spirituality into the present, I’m transformed by a passion I have only
heard in our past; now I feel it in my own Mexicano soul. I have been
given access to a great and profound secret. Now I know the suffering,
sadness, sorrow and sacrifices of my Mexicano ancestors, and it has
become my own."– Tezcatlipoca (R. Muñiz)

National, state, and local Hispanic /Latino civil rights
organizations must come forward and protect the rights of our people.
We cannot continue to deny ourselves. We are all the same. We are one,
and the sooner we are able to accept that, then we will be able to
liberate all our people. It is a national/international political
disgrace to view on television the American minutemen organizations are
now patrolling the borders of America.

Hispanic/Latino leaders cannot avoid this racist issue of having
American citizens, without duly authorized jurisdiction, hunting down
our people like animals. Latino and Hispanic leaders cannot continue to
turn their faces as if our people were
in the wrong to begin with. We as Mexicanos cannot permit for American
minutemen or any other vigilante group to hunt our people in the
wilderness. Latino/Hispanic organizations should
also protest to our Holy Land of Mexico in order that they respond to
the illegal actions of policing forces at the borders. It is late into
the night, but for the last couple of days my heart has
searched for words to share with my people.

In conclusion, I urge all newcomers and those who seek to relocate
in the Southwest to move to the state of Arizona. It is a strong
Republican, ultra conservative community. We must move into that state
before they structure walls all around us. Arizona should be our future!

There is no question in my mind that all our destinies as a race
will be fulfilled. The future shall be ours and we must prepare for it
not only intellectually, but most importantly
spiritually. We must not be impatient with ourselves during times of
conflict and differences. The time has come for us to step forward as a
proud race and let the world know that finally we will be a free raza
in this universe.

In exile,
Tezcatlipoca (R. Muñiz)

"We want only to show you something we have seen and
tell you something we have heard….that here and there in the world and
now and then in ourselves is a new spiritual Mexicano."–Tezcatlipoca

Note: Received via emai from Irma L. Muniz on May 25, 2005. Ramsey’s message is dated May 2.–gm

A Report on the Texas Secretary of State “Listening Tour”

By Greg Moses

Texas Secretary of State Roger Williams calls himself a retail man: “and you’re my customers,” he told the Travis County Commissioners Court on Tuesday morning. Indeed, by the time he’d left the room, you might have wondered if he’d sold them all tickets to a show he improvised while standing on their stage.

The pure political theater that the Secretary brought to Travis County has been repeated at several County Commissioners Courts throughout the state, often with the desired results: next day news in the local paper reporting that the Secretary is working hard and helping out. In order to keep from getting stuck in all the sap, however, you have to pay close attention to the quips. That’s how Gainesville Daily Register reporter Andy Hogue handled the story of the Secretary’s visit to Cooke County.

In Travis County, the role of lead quipster went to County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir who still runs the elections around here. She introduced the Secretary with cheer in her voice, while handing him a Lounge Lizards CD. It was a clever joke after all. The Secretary was on a “listening tour” was he not?

“But I didn’t offer him a flak jacket this time,” said DeBeauvoir in the first telling quip of the day. And without taking another breath she joyously introduced the Secretary to the “nicest, smartest court” he’d ever know.

“I’ll get the flak jacket when I come back,” said the Secretary, in the second telling quip of the day. He explained that his “listening tour” started about thirty days ago, listening to “how some of you converse about HAVA.” That’s the Help American Vote Act, which is either reforming or uprooting voting as we know it in America, and is the only reason why the Secretary of State this year has no choice but to tour the County Commissions.

Williams has been tourning commissions with this same show since at least early March. He calls it a listening tour, but everywhere he goes the pattern is repeated with local papers reporting presentation of “a check” to help purchase new electronic voting machines.

“It’s a federal mandate Judge,” says the Secretary with all the stock inflections that signify political bidness in open court. “And I’m not sure how we like federal mandates.” Travis County Judge Samuel T. Biscoe is African American, so his political life has been pretty much defined by federal mandates on the one hand and those who aren’t sure how they feel about them on the other.

“Come January first the HAVA requirements must be met,” says the Secretary, “and Texas will be a leader, a model in meeting those requirements.” What that means is that by January first, HAVA requires all states to: replace punch cards and levers with electronic systems, have new voting system standards, and implement statewide voter registration.

What the Secretary has been dealing with on his county by county tour is that the new voting system standards haven’t been handed down by the federal government yet, and neither has the cash that was supposed to help with all the replacing. To fix these problems, the Secretary has brought a promise and a promissory note.

The Secretary’s promise is that he will make all the private contractors for voting systems eat the costs of modifying equipment if the federal standards cause further changes. And his promissory note is a nice poster-sized image of a check freshly unwrapped from a Kinko’s/FedEx plastic bag.

Get ready for more quips here, because the big camera-friendly poster of a check is supposed to represent the Secretary’s commitment that all bills incurred by HAVA will be paid by the Secretary in thirty days or less.

“But it’s been more than thirty days!” chuckles the Travis County Clerk. And some folks in the room take this chance to chuckle with her.

“I brought you a check Judge,” says the Secretary trying to stay on message. “And I hope when we present the check, we’ll get our picture taken.”

To which, quips the Judge: “We won’t talk about how long it took to get the check. The check is here.”

Actually, I don’t think the check was there, although the pictures did get taken. According to the press release dated Tuesday from the Secretary’s own office, he wasn’t there to hand over a check. He was there “to discuss ways to facilitate a grant worth over $4.5 million to the county resulting from new federal voting requirements.” If the secretary had actually brought a check, I think his press release would have said so. A plainer reading of facts would suggest that the Secretary had put $4.5 million within thirty days reaching distance, provided that proper procedures are duly followed, etc.

Commissioner Karen Sonleitner had only one question for the Secretary after all the pictures had been taken. She asked him to help pass HB 2759, an election reform bill that would lift the cap on the size of voting precincts. Under current law, a precinct can serve no more than 2,000 voters. HB 2759 will raise the limit to 5,000.

Sonleitner explained that growing precincts get expensive when they require new precincts to be drawn and managed. Tell me about growth said the Secretary. Last week he was in Fort Bend County, which is growing at the rate of one or two new precincts per month. There he was also urged to support larger precincts, reports Stephen Palkot of the Herald-Coaster.

Readers of the Texas Civil Rights Review will recall that voters were pouring into Fort Bend County so fast that last November some of them came back to their old Harris County neighborhoods to vote. Republican lawyers called that fraud. Now we also know that Fort Bend County is under stress to accoomodate all its voters anyway.

As for HB 2759 said the Secretary, “I don’t see any issues against that. It sort of streamlines it.”

Lines that are streaming we can easily visualize here at the Texas Civil Rights Review whenever voting precincts are more than doubled in size. But probably that’s not the kind of streamlining backers of the bill have in mind. So it will be our last quip of the day, we promise.

Note: revised from original Mar. 29 version to include links to earlier reports from the tour–gm.

Here we find two emails that are a perfect match. First, from a reader who has “no interest in ‘black movies’ “:

You said: “one must choose between racism and
economics.”

As a business man, I’ll chose economics every time.

Sincerely,

A finacially secure white dude from Oklahoma who only
spends my hard earned money on white movies. It’s not that I’m racist, I just have no interest in “black movies”.

Second, from a reader who asks, is there such a thing as racism of indifference?

Hi Greg,

I enjoyed your article in todays Counterpunch & also
enjoyed the article “Reject the Language of White
Supremacy.” in Black Commentator. And I agree with you
that we should not buy into the easy convenient
separations.

As you well know, 25% of young African American men
are either incarcerated or under the supervision of
the judicial system at any time. Also, one in every
eight humans in jail on this planet is an African
American.

THE INTENT being, in the name of crime-prevention, as
we are told. No need to re-state here the impact THE
EFFECT on the Black community/family.

Where this leads the Black community over time is
scary to comtemplate as no society can remain healthy
or viable in this condition. In any society
experiencing such a sociological disaster, there would
be massive INTENT to correct the situation. Or the
society would degenerate otherwise.

But there is little or no such intent in this country.

Is this racism or is it not ?

Is this racism via “NON-INTENT” ?

One way to look at this is to study the class
dynamics. America has come a long way from when Blacks
were treated as a sub-human class. African-Americans
now enjoy a place (sometimes priviledged) in the
mainstream American class tree. But our nominal spot
is still at the bottom. We can rise above it but loss
of priviledge (or plain lack of it) drops us right
back to the bottom faster than any other ethicity
because the bottom remains our nominal in this
country. The White being the normative against which
we (like all other ethnics) are measured.

The reason I mention class is two-fold. First is to
explain why there is little or no intent to correct
the over-excessive incarceration of the Black-class
young male. And we as African-Americans are well
guilty of apathy/neglect (or even self-loathing) on
this one because we have also bought into the
“SELF-EVIDENCE” of the class structure. In other words
we have bought into the White Supremacy that makes
this an acceptable outcome of the comtemporary class
structure.

Also on class, the original ideas behind the great
epic saga of Western Civilization was not geared
towards creating a class system that included
non-Whites. The class re-oragnizations that occured in
Europe were primarily internal, native & indigenous.
We (African Americans, Africans, Native Americans,
Asians …) just got roped in along the way. And the
notion of White Supremacy & Manifest Destiny were
concocted along the way to provide justification.
Today the “SELF-EVIDENCE we see in the media & other
monuments (both mental & physical) serve to sustain
the status-quo.

Sometimes I wonder how well Whites understand or
perceive the nature of their class re-organizations.
It may be difficult as it challenges the notion of
SELF-EVIDENCE.

Fortunately, the rest of the world including the
Chinese, Africans & South Americans are gradually
seeing through. The SELF-EVIDENCE of the Western saga
is being scrutinized, and we are learning that we as
non-Whites have many choices.

Please keep up the good work.

Thanks.

Beyond the obvious answer provided by email number one — that there can be a racism of indifference — email number two suggests that it is the indifference itself which must be categorized as racist, regardless of the skin color of the believer. The usual term for such racism on the darker side of the color line is “internalization.”–gm

By Greg Moses

To try to remember a dream. What could such an effort be worth? In
the end one would only have a memory of a dream to show for it. And so
what? Could the time taken to remember a dream be better spent
forgetting it?

So we forget our dreams right away. Up in the morning and after it
— after something anything more solid than a memory of a dream could
be.

But something curious happens to memories and dreams when locked
into thick prison walls. In prison, dreams never dare to escape. Humans
spirits deprived of any spiritual refreshment from paint chipped blocks
and bars will have their fountains, so up through the night come the
dreams.

In the spiritual landscape of the order of things, prisons
therefore are a society’s dream reservoirs. If the walls aren’t built
thick enough, dreams would come flooding out like a tsunami and drown
every bullshit idea in the way. That’s why we have so many thick prison
walls in America.

According to statistics released on Sunday (why Sunday?) the USA
once again ranks top in the world for the dream dams we call prisons.
More than 2.1 million folks jammed into a system that includes federal
prisons (139 percent full); state prisons (116 percent full); and jails
(94 percent full). Nearly 100,000 of those prisoners serve time in
prisons that have been privatized to make some profit which just goes
to show you there is nothing that money will refuse to buy.

In the dream of April 16 that we copy below, Ramsey Muniz is visited
by memory of ancient land, imaginary kingdom Aztlan, where the Aztec
dance unconquered, and every step they take is upon land they never
have to apologize for walking.

We read the dream of Ramsey Muniz in the context of April 11, when
Harvard Professor of Divinty David Carrasco, as the 19th Annual Americo
Paredes Lecturer speaking to a full house in the Santa Rita Room on
Guadalupe St. showed slides of some of the dreams of Aztlan painted during 16th Century land negotiations. As the dreams of Muniz remind us, those negotiations are still under way:

‘We are One’

Enclosed are words received in a dream…

4/17/05
10:45 PM

Mi Citlalmina y mi gente de Aztlan:

As I shared with you on the telephone, I had
a dream – was it a dream, or was it reality of life
and heart, which only seeks justice, love, and the
freedom of all humanity? It is written in our ancient
Mexicano history that dreams, visions, and appearances
of our ancient council of elders would be recorded
for our future. The writings, dreams, and visions
were all so powerful and connected to nature, that
even modern day scholars cannot comprehend. From
the beginning of our creation we have been in tune
with universal nature, stars, moon, sun, and Mother
Earth.

During the last eleven years confined in the
prisons of America, as a Mexicano political prisoner
in exile, I have prayed extensively in the steel,
cold darkness of oppression – not for myself, but for
a symbol, a sign, a message of enlightenment of hearts
in order to share the journey and direction that we
must take as a race, as a people, in order to obtain
justice, liberation, and in due time, land.

Before I proceed any further, I will share with everyone in
Aztlan and the Holy Land of Mexico that on
April 16, 2005, I awoke from a dream within the midst
of our ancient past. Immediately I sat on the chair
next to my writing table, and wrote an entire
page — with such foresight — then returned to
bed and immediately fell asleep. When I awoke in
the morning, after more than thirty minutes, I
glanced at the page that I had written. I will share
the first part of what came from my dreams:

Cultura/Nuestra Cultura Espiritual Primero
"The Mexicano cultural ancient beginning and/or its
creation will eternally and ultimately bequeath the
manifestation of us to fulfill our spiritual prophesy
of once more becoming one. Nosotros somos uno. This
is the beginning of our ancient cultural Mexicano
spiritual mandate for the 21st century."

Tezcatlipoca (Ramsey Muniz)
April 16, 2005
U.S.P. Leavenworth

"Nosotros somos uno" is a phrase that should
become part of our daily lives, conversations,
participation, and at the end of the night it should
be a part of our spiritual message to Topan (heaven).
We are one! Regardless of where we find ourselves
this very night, we are all one! To be one from
within thousands of miles going south, east, west
or north is power.

Oppression in our past has managed
to divide our people and eventually conquer all
schools of thought or philosophies, providing
a scheme of labeling us with different names
and brands. It is for these reasons that America
has labeled our people into the 21st century.
American now wishes for all of us to become
Hispanics or Latinos for the sole purpose of
becoming different from our Mexicano sisters and
brothers who have journeyed from the Holy Land
of Mexico into the United State of America. We
should embrace our sisters and brothers who have
given their lives by the thousands in the hot
deserts and in the strong currents of the Rio
Grande River, rather than separating them from
our own heritage and generations.

To argue that we are different is to permit oppression by those who wish to divide and conquer our lives with
false illusions, and control the lives of nuestra
gente in general. For the last thirty years or
more, we have embraced and shared with the masses
of nuestra raza in the barrios, our communities,
our schools, and in state and federal prisons our
cultural revolution in all Aztlan.

The United States has been in wars and/or conflicts in all
the world for the last thirty years. During that
period of time, our sisters and brothers came like
never before in our history into America. They
crossed the borders after 9/11, and homeland security
came into existence. After several census taken
of our raza, they became alarmed by the number of
Mexicanos who came to join the pursuit of justice
and liberation. We will no longer be the minority
in the Southwest of the United States. We will
become the majority and will continue to grow
in numbers. It is written that we will never
stop growing in numbers until the land also
becomes a part of us.

Vigilantes, conservative groups and others have become so alarmed of the number of raza crossing the borders that now
they too guard the borders, which will be crossed
by our people.

The dream and its relationship to the human
crisis at the borders clearly reveals that we
Mexicanos must begin to express how proud we are
to be Mexicanos once more after many hundreds of
years of oppression and imprisonment. We were
one from the beginning of our creation. We must
reach into our cultural past as if were only
yesterday. Our teachings, our philosophies,
our ideals, and our spirituality must all relate
to nuestra cultura.

The time has come to make a
definite commitment to the life of our Mexicano
cultura. A race and/or nation without cultura
will never come into existence. The more that
we reach for nuestra cultura Mexicana the more
spiritual our hearts and minds will become. To
all of our raza in Aztlan I share the following
words of wisdom:

We want only to show you something
we have seen and tell you something
we have heard…that here and there
in the world and now and then in ourselves
is a new spiritual Mexicano creation…

Tezcatlipoca (Ramsey Muñiz)

Yes, without question or doubt, throughout
all Aztlan there is a new spiritual Mexicano
creation. We will now become what we were from
the beginning – a free race, a free nation, a
free land.

Immigration will become the national issue
which United States politicians will use to
blame for all negative results in America. Our
sisters and brothers will be trea

ted as if they
were responsible for the oppression of America.
We must immediately take the political position
that our sisters and brothers from the Holy Land
of Mexico, who find themselves in the United
States, be granted full amnesty.

We will take a strong political position against the
United States trying to pass oppressive procedures
against nuestra raza on the issue of immigration.
Besides, if we were to study history in terms of
to who was here first, we would win immediately.
Our sisters and brothers from the Holy Land will
be blamed for all economical and financial
downfalls. But at the end it doesn’t matter,
because we have more compassion in our hearts
for humanity.

We are one! We must be proud of who
we are. Our history is one of pride, heart,
and intelligence. We must let the world know who
we are, and that we are proud to be Mexicanos. As
a group we must also begin to communicate directly
with other Mexicanos who are in tune with our
cultura and historia.

No longer will our raza hold their heads down
in shame. No longer will we be afraid or fear the
sacrifice for liberation. We will no longer be oppressed.

In exile,
Tezcatlipoca
Mexicano political prisoner

www.freeramsey.com

Note: letter from Ramsey Muniz conveyed via email April 24 from Irma L. Muniz.