Message to the Migrant Rights Movement Part 1: On Colonial Occupation

By Raúl Alcaraz, from Tohono O’odham lands

Southern Arizona

26 February 2010

www.antifronteras.com

With Arizona state-sponsored anti-Raza, anti-migrant bills being seriously proposed left and right, increasing militarization and genocide at the U.S./Mexico border-murderlands, kidnappings, disappearances and separations of families through the form of raids, detentions and deportations, times are proving that “government is best which governs not at all.”

We are living under siege in “low-intensity” warfare that has the potential to escalate. Modern-day government sponsored legal segregation terrorism is at its finest. Despite the differences, countless folks have already compared the current migrant struggle to that of U.S.-based African folks during the Civil Rights and Black Liberation movements of the 1960’s and 70’s. There are many parallels in the oppression we face but not in resistance tactics. (Let me save that point for another “message”!)

But today, the Right Wing is right, very right! This is NOT our country, this is not our government, and these are not our institutions. I know it’s a slippery slope so don’t get it twisted, I am NOT proposing that we all get deported! But let’s take a look back at herstory. This country, this government, these institutions were not built by “immigrants” alone (as many signs declare in street marches), they were built on the bloodshed of our Native, African and migrant ancestors combined. Our blood still stains capitol and Wall Street towers, our sweat, blood and tears can be found in southwestern railroads, modern highways and endless agricultural fields across the land; bloodshed is splattered on concrete, on asphalt, on land, on dirt, on the very earth that sustains the riches of this country called the United States of America. So the Right is right: the KKK, the Minutemen, the politicians, la Migra, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Joe Arpaio—they’re all right, none of this is ours; it was never meant for people like you or me to begin with. So why are we begging to get our share of the American apple pie? Why are we trying to reform colonization/slavery/capitalism? As W.E.B. Du Bois would ask us, do we really believe we can reform the same systems that were created to oppress us?

What is ours is ancient and thousands of years old. Our indigenous ancestors migrated throughout these lands WITHOUT BORDERS thousands of years before any Niña, Pinta, Santa Maria or Mayflower ever dreamt of crossing the Atlantic Ocean. Colonization crossed us, the border crossed us and now we are living on occupied lands. The occupation is their dream; it’s a colonial dream. European settlers landed, invaded, took over lands and set up their own systems. Occupation is a bloody thing as it imposes a foreign system on Native people. This is why today in 2010 Native land is still filled with their systems of oppression: their school system, their universities, their history books, their city councils, their supervisors, their mayors, their governors, their president, their congress, their senate, their constitution, their electoral system, their Democrat and Republican parties, their stores, their malls, their corporations, their CEO’s, their jobs, their money, their economic system, their hospitals, their religion, their churches, their marriage institutions, their real estate, their media, their police, their courts, their jails, their migra, their detention centers, their checkpoints, their immigration system, their citizenship papers, their borders, their army, their weapons, their tanks, their wars. The list can go on of things THEIRS NOT OURS. This country was/is built by us but NOT for us. That’s why hundreds of years later, poor people and people of color are still segregated, still discriminated, still terrorized, still left on the margins of great white wealth.

Yes, we still live here and participate in this system, mostly because there is no other alternative, right? So what do we do? The question is overwhelming with over 500 years of political, economic and social context. Malcolm X and Zapatista principles come to mind: self-respect, self-defense and self-determination… But a proposal more specific and concrete than that? That is our responsibility to figure out as a community. We need to get creative, innovative and consult with community and seek guidance from elders and other liberation social movements that have used different methods of struggle. For now, all I propose is that we recognize the historical and current context of occupation and that we not become trapped or limited within colonial frameworks when developing visions and strategies for social change. Their system should not be the “end all/be all” of our visions for a better world. If we limit ourselves to the confines of their system, we have already lost from the very beginning and we ourselves will continue upholding the very same colonial structures we proclaim to defy. Like Audre Lord once declared: “We cannot take down the Master’s house with the Master’s tools.” We must stop defining ourselves and the Migrant Rights Movement on foreign ways of being, on their system, on the continuing occupation of our minds, bodies, hearts and souls.

We must reclaim/transform language and our points of view. The current debate on “borders” and “immigration reform” even from the so-called pro-migrant camp comes from a colonial framework that lacks a social justice vision and never challenges borders or citizenship. Instead, the migrant rights movement Hispanic/White liberal establishment negotiates and collaborates with colonization and occupation.

With U.S. government-sponsored immigration raids, detentions, deportations, and genocide of our people and corporate interests increasing unemployment, poverty, imperialist wars and inaccessible health care at global levels, times are proving that “government [and corporations are] best which govern not at all.”

Let’s take it all back! ¡YA BASTA!

¡Un abrazo fuerte a tod@s mis compañer@s en la lucha!
Raúl Alcaraz, from Tohono O’odham lands
Southern Arizona
26 February 2010

A coalition of students from high schools throughout Tucson held their first encuentro — a community meeting — on Feb. 19 to build support and alliances in the struggle against the mounting right-wing attacks on public education.

In addition to enacting extreme budget cuts to public education, the Arizona Legislature has taken up two racist anti-education bills. One would eliminate the ethnic studies program, while the other would collect the identities of all non-documented students.

The Social Justice Education Project student coalition addressed a crowd of 300 people, detailing the dangers of each of the legislative bills. House Bill 2281 states that a school district may not include in its program of instruction any courses or classes that either are designed for pupils of a particular ethnic group or that “advocate ethnic solidarity” instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals. State funds will be withheld from any school district that does not comply with this law. None of the bill’s sponsors has ever set foot in an ethnic/Raza studies classroom.

Senate Bill 1097 states that the Department of Education will collect data on school districts’ populations of non-citizen students and their identities. This bill will force teachers and other school employees to indirectly enforce immigration law by disclosing the identity of students who cannot produce residency documents.

SB1097 will deny many Latino/a youth the right to an education. Moreover, based on the collected data, the state superintendent of instruction can withhold funding from schools in proportion to the non-documented student population of the school.

Ethnic studies teaches Ariz. history before 1848

SJEP also countered the racist lies being made about the ethnic studies program, explaining the importance of oppressed youth learning their own peoples’ history. At least a dozen ethnic studies students and alumni recounted how important the program is/was to their academic success.

Students explained that the ethnic studies program combats the mythology incorporated in euro-centric history books that does little or nothing to portray the lives and history of the Indigenous people of Arizona. Ethnic studies programs teach oppressed youth the true history of how their land was stolen, their lives uprooted and their culture all but destroyed. Studying the rich history of the Indigenous peoples reveals the actual historical events that led to the ceding of one-third of Mexico to the expanding U.S. empire, and the forced removal of peoples from their ancestral homelands. “What we learn is the unique experience of Mexicanos who lived through the circumstances surrounding the defeat of Mexico and theft of Mexican land in 1848,” one student explained.

Another student explained how the classroom was based on the Mayan tradition of “In Lak’ech’,” which means “I am you and you are me.” The students and teachers are equals, each learning from the other. This helps explain why so many graduates of the program remain committed to it long after they graduate from high school. The ethnic studies program teaches culture, which represents the life of the Latino/a people of Arizona. To eliminate the ethnic studies program and deny youth access to their history and culture is a form of genocide.

Organize the community

This encuentro was the first of many meetings planned by these students to organize the Tucson community to fight back against the continuing right-wing attacks. Hated Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio continues his racial profiling and neighborhood sweeps while the Department of Homeland Security spends millions on technology and Border Patrol agents, in order to funnel border crossers into the deadliest part of the desert and then incarcerate those they detain in private prisons.

The 20,000 people who marched in Phoenix against Arpaio in January; the student movement that is now forming in Tucson; and the Tucson May 1st Coalition, which is gearing up for May Day 2010 — all are all signs that the attempts to divide workers based upon an arbitrary possession of documents is not going to succeed. People are uniting to oppose the economic crisis being dumped on their backs. “¡Ya Basta!” Enough!