Plan Espiritual de Aztlan: El Plan Espiritual de Aztlan In the spirit of a new p
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Question
Plan Espiritual de Aztlan:
El Plan Espiritual de Aztlan
In the spirit of a new people that is conscious not only of its proud historical heritage but also of the brutal "gringo" invasion of our territories, we, the Chicano inhabitants and civilizers of the northern land of Aztlan from whence came our forefathers, reclaiming the land of their birth and consecrating the determination of our people of the sun, declare that the call of our blood is our power, our responsibility, and our inevitable destiny.
We are free and sovereign to determine those tasks which are justly called for by our house, our land, the sweat of our brows, and by our hearts. Aztlan belongs to those who plant the seeds, water the fields, and gather the crops and not to the foreign Europeans. We do not recognize capricious frontiers on the bronze continent.
Brotherhood unites us, and love for our brothers makes us a people whose time has come and who struggles against the foreigner "gabacho" who exploits our riches and destroys our culture. With our heart in our hands and our hands in the soil, we declare the independence of our mestizo nation. We are a bronze people with a bronze culture. Before the world, before all of North America, before all our brothers in the bronze continent, we are a nation, we are a union of free pueblos, we are Aztlan.
Por La Raza todo. Fuera de La Raza nada.
Program
El Plan Espiritual de Aztlan sets the theme that the Chicanos (La Raza de Bronze) must use their nationalism as the key or common denominator for mass mobilization and organization. Once we are committed to the idea and philosophy of El Plan de Aztlan, we can only conclude that social, economic, cultural, and political independence is the only road to total liberation from oppression, exploitation, and racism. Our struggle then must be for the control of our barrios, campos, pueblos, lands, our economy, our culture, and our political life. El Plan commits all levels of Chicano society - the barrio, the campo, the ranchero, the writer, the teacher, the worker, the professional - to La Causa.
Nationalism
Nationalism as the key to organization transcends all religious, political, class, and economic factions or boundaries. Nationalism is the common denominator that all members of La Raza can agree upon.
Organizational Goals
1. UNITY in the thinking of our people concerning the barrios, the pueblo, the campo, the land, the poor, the middle class, the professional -all committed to the liberation of La Raza.
2. ECONOMY: economic control of our lives and our communities can only come about by driving the exploiter out of our communities, ourpueblos, and our lands and by controlling and
developing our own talents, sweat, and resources. Cultural background and values which ignore materialism and embrace humanism will contribute to the act of cooperative buying and the distribution of resources and production to sustain an economic base for healthy growth and development Lands rightfully ours will be fought for and defended. Land and realty ownership will be acquired by the community for the people's welfare. Economic ties of responsibility must be secured by nationalism and the Chicano defense units.
3. EDUCATION: must be relative to our people, i.e., history, culture, bilingual education, contributions, etc. Community control of our schools, our teachers, our administrators, our counselors, and our programs.
4. INSTITUTIONS: shall serve our people by providing the service necessary for a full life and their welfare on the basis of restitution, not handouts or beggar's crumbs. Restitution for past economic slavery, political exploitation, ethnic and cultural psychological destruction and denial of civil and human rights. Institutions in our community which do not serve the people have no place in the community. The institutions belong to the people.
5. SELF-DEFENSE: of the community must rely on the combined strength of the people. The front line defense will come from the barrios, the campos, the pueblos, and the ranchitos. Their involvement as protectors of their people will be given respect and dignity. They in turn offer their responsibility and their lives for their people. Those who place themselves in the front ranks for their people do so out of love and carnalismo. Those institutions which are fattened by our brothers to provide employment and political pork barrels for the gringo will do so only as acts of liberation and for La Causa. For the very young there will no longer be acts of juvenile delinquency, but revolutionary acts.
6. CULTURAL values of our people strengthen our identity and the moral backbone of the movement. Our culture unites and educates the family of La Raza towards liberation with one heart and one mind. We must insure that our writers, poets, musicians, and artists produce literature and art that is appealing to our people and relates to our revolutionary culture. Our cultural values of life, family, and home will serve as a powerful weapon to defeat the gringo dollar value system and encourage the process of love and brotherhood.
7. POLITICAL LIBERATION can only come through indepen-dent action on our part, since the two-party system is the same animal with two heads that feed from the same trough. Where we are a majority, we will control; where we are a minority, we will represent a pressure group; nationally, we will represent one party: La Familia de La Raza!
Action
1. Awareness and distribution of El Plan Espiritual de Aztlan. Presented at every meeting, demonstration, confrontation, courthouse, institution, administration, church, school, tree, building, car, and every place of human existence.
2. September 16, on the birthdate of Mexican Independence, a national walk-out by all Chicanos of all colleges and schools to be sustained until the complete revision of the educational system:
its policy makers, administration, its curriculum, and its personnel to meet the needs of our community.
3. Self-Defense against the occupying forces of the oppressors at every school, every available man, woman, and child.
4. Community nationalization and organization of all Chicanos: El Plan Espiritual de Aztlan.
5. Economic program to drive the exploiter out of our community and a welding together of our people's combined resources to control their own production through cooperative effort.
6. Creation of an independent local, regional, and national political party.
A nation autonomous and free - culturally, socially, economically, and politically- will make its own decisions on the usage of our lands, the taxation of our goods, the utilization of our bodies for war, the determination of justice (reward and punishment), and the profit of our sweat.
El Plan de Aztlan is the plan of liberation
El Plan de Santa Barbara
Manifesto
For all peoples, as with individual, the time comes when they must reckon with their history. For the Chicano,
the present is a time of renaissance, of renacimiento. Our people and our community, el barrio and la colonia, are expressing a new consciousness and a new resolve. Recognizing the historical tasks confronting our people and fully aware of the cost of human progress, we pledge our will to move. We will move forward toward our destiny as a people. We will move against those forces which has denied us freedom of expression and human dignity. Throughout history the quest for cultural expression and freedom has taken the form of a struggle. Our struggle tempered by the lessons of the American past, is an historical reality.
For decades, Mexican people in the United States struggle to realize the ''American Dream''. And some, a few, have. But the cost, the ultimate cost of assimilation, required turning away from el barrio and la colonia. In the meantime, due to the racist structure of this society, to our essentially different life style, and to the socio- economic functions assigned to our community by Anglo-American society - as suppliers of cheap labor and dumping ground for the small-time capitalist entrepreneur- the barrio and colonia remained exploited, impoverished, and marginal.
As a result, the self-determination of our community is now the only acceptable mandate for social and political action; it is the essence of Chicano commitment. Culturally, the word Chicano, in the past a pejorative and class-bound adjective, has now become the root idea of a new cultural identity for our people. It also reveals a growing solidarity and the development of a common social praxis. The widespread use of the term Chicano today signals a rebirth of pride and confidence. Chicanismo simply embodies and ancient truth: that a person is never closer to his/her true self as when he/she is close to his/her community.
Chicanismo draws its faith and strength from two main sources: from the just struggle of our people and from an objective analysis of our community's strategic needs. We recognize that without a strategic use of education, an education that places value on what we value, we will not realize our destiny. Chicanos recognize the central importance of institutions of higher learning to modern progress, in this case, to the development of our community. But we go further: we believe that higher education must contribute to the information of a complete person who truly values life and freedom.
The destiny of our people will be fulfilled. to that end, we pledge our efforts and take as our credo what Jose Vasconcelos once said at a time of crisis and hope: "At this moment we do not come to work for the university, but to demand that the university work for our people.''
Political Action
Introduction
For the Movement, political action essentially means influencing the decision-making process of those institutions which affect Chicanos, the university, community organizations, and non-community institutions. Political action encompasses the elements which function in a progression: political consciousness, political mobilization, and tactics. Each part breaks down into further subdivisions. Before continuing with specific discussions of these three categories, a brief historical analysis must be formulated.
Historical Perspective
The political activity of the Chicano Movement at colleges and universities to date has been specifically directed toward establishing Chicano student organizations (UMAS, MAYA, MASC, M.E.Ch.A., etc.) and institutionalizing Chicano Studies programs. A variety of organizational forms and tactics have characterized these student organizations.
One of the major factors which led to political awareness in the 60's was the clash between Anglo-American educational institutions and Chicanos who maintained their cultural identity. Another factor was the increasing number of Chicano students who became aware of the extent to which colonial conditions characterized their communities. The result of this domestic colonialism is that the barrios and colonias are dependent communities with no institutional power base and significantly influencing decision-making. Within the last decade, a limited degree of progress has taken place in securing a base of power within educational institutions.
Other factors which affected the political awareness of the Chicano youth were: the heritage of the Chicano youth movements of the 30's and 40's; the failure of the Chicano political efforts of the 40's and 50's; the bankruptcy of the Mexican- American pseudo-political associations; and the disillusionment of Chicano participants in the Kennedy campaigns. Among the strongest influences of Chicano youth today have been the National Farm Workers Association, the Crusades for Justice, and the Alianza Federal de Pueblos Libres, The Civil Rights, the Black Power, and the Anti-war movements were other influences.
As political consciousness increased, there occurred a simultaneously a renewed cultural awareness which, along with social and economic factors, led to the proliferation of Chicano youth organizations. By the mid 1960's, MASC, MAYA, UMAS, La Vida Nueva, and M.E.Ch.A. appeared on campus, while the Brown Berets, Black Berets, ALMA, and la Junta organized the barrios and colonias. These groups differed from one another depending on local conditions and their varying state of political development. Despite differences in name and organizational experience, a basic unity evolved.
These groups have had a significant impact on the awareness of large numbers of people, both Chicano and non-Chicano. Within the communities, some public agencies have been sensitized, and others have been exposed. On campuses, articulation of demands and related political efforts have dramatized NUESTRA CAUSA. Concrete results are visible in the establishment of corresponding supportive services. The institutionalization of Chicano Studies marks the present stage of activity; the next stage will involve the strategic application of university and college resources to the community. One immediate result will be the elimination of the artificial distinction which exist between the students and the community. Rather than being its victims, the community will benefit from the resources of the institutions of higher learning.
Political Consciousness
Commitment to the struggle for Chicano liberation is the operative definition of the ideology used here. Chicanismo involves a crucial distinction in political consciousness between a Mexican American (or Hispanic) and a Chicano mentality. The Mexican American or Hispanic is a person who lacks self-respect and pride in one's ethnic and cultural background. Thus, the Chicano acts with confidence and with a range of alternatives in the political world. He is capable of developing and effective ideology through action.
Mexican Americans (or Hispanics) must be viewed as potential Chicanos. Chicanismo is flexible enough to relate to the varying levels of consciousness within La Raza. Regional variations must always be kept in mind as well as the different levels of development, composition, maturity, achievement, and experience in political action. Cultural nationalism is a means of total Chicano liberation.
There are definite advantages to cultural nationalism, but no inherent limitations. A Chicano ideology, especially as it involves cultural nationalism, should be positively phrased in the form of propositions to the Movement. Chicanismo is a concept that integrates self-awareness with cultural identity, a necessary step in developing political consciousness. As such, it serves as a basis for political action, flexible enough to include the possibility of coalitions. The related concept of La Raza provides an internationalist scope of Chicanismo, and La Raza Cosmica furnishes a philosophical precedent. Within this framework, the Third World concept merits consideration.
Political Mobilization
Political mobilization is directly dependent on political consciousness. As political consciousness develops, the potential for political action increases.
The Chicano student organization in institutions of higher learning is central to all effective political mobilization. Effective mobilization presupposes precise definition of political goals and of the tactical interrelationships of roles. Political goals in any given situations must encompass the totality of Chicano interests in higher education. The differentiations of roles required by a given situation must be defined on the basis of mutual accountability and equal sharing of responsibility. Furthermore, the mobilization of community support not only legitimizes the activities of Chicano student solidarity in axiomatic in all aspects of political action.
Since the movements is definitely of national significance and scope, all student organizations should adopt one identical name throughout the state and eventually the nation to characterize the common struggle of La Raza de Aztlan. The net gain is a step toward greater national unity which enhances the power in mobilizing local campus organizations.
When advantageous, political coalitions and alliances with non-Chicano groups may be considered. A careful analysis must precede the decision to enter into a coalition. One significant factor is the community's attitude toward coalitions. Another factor is the formulation of a mechanism for the distribution of power that ensures maximum participation in decision making: i.e., formulation of demands and planning of tactics. When no longer politically advantageous, Chicano participation in the coalition ends.
I Am Joaquin
by Rodolfo Corky Gonzales?
I am Joaqui?n, lost in a world of confusion, ?
caught up in the whirl of a anglo society, ?
confused by the rules, scorned by attitudes, ?
suppressed by manipulation, and destroyed by modern society. ?My fathers have lost the economic battle ?
and won the struggle of cultural survival. ?
And now! I must choose between the paradox of ?
victory of the spirit, despite physical hunger, ?
or to exist in the grasp of American social neurosis, ?sterilization of the soul and a full stomach. ?
Yes, I have come a long way to nowhere, ?
unwillingly dragged by that monstrous, technical, ?
industrial giant called Progress and Anglo success.... ?
I look at myself. ?
I watch my brothers. ?
I shed tears of sorrow. I sow seeds of hate. ?
I withdraw to the safety within the circle of life -- ?
MY OWN PEOPLE ?
I am Cuauhte?moc, proud and noble, ?
leader of men, king of an empire civilized ?
beyond the dreams of the gachupi?n Corte?s, ?
who also is the blood, the image of myself. ?
I am the Maya prince. ?
I am Nezahualco?yotl, great leader of the Chichimecas. ?
I am the sword and flame of Cortes the despot ?
And I am the eagle and serpent of the Aztec civilization. ?
I owned the land as far as the eye ?
could see under the Crown of Spain, ?
and I toiled on my Earth and gave my Indian sweat and blood ?for the Spanish master who ruled with tyranny over man and ?beast and all that he could trample ?
But...THE GROUND WAS MINE. ?
I was both tyrant and slave. ?
As the Christian church took its place in God's name, ?
to take and use my virgin strength and trusting faith, ?
the priests, both good and bad, took-- ?
but gave a lasting truth that Spaniard Indian Mestizo ?
were all God's children. ?
And from these words grew men who prayed and fought ?
for their own worth as human beings, for that ?
GOLDEN MOMENT of FREEDOM. ?
I was part in blood and spirit of that courageous village priest ?Hidalgo who in the year eighteen hundred and ten ?
rang the bell of independence and gave out that lasting cry-- ?
El Grito de Dolores ?
"Que mueran los gachupines y que viva la Virgen de Guadalupe...." ?
I sentenced him who was me I excommunicated him, my blood. ?
I drove him from the pulpit to lead a bloody revolution for him and me.... ?I killed him. ?
His head, which is mine and of all those ?
who have come this way, ?
I placed on that fortress wall ?
to wait for independence. Morelos! Matamoros! Guerrero! ?
all compan?eros in the act,
STOOD AGAINST THAT WALL OF INFAMY ?
to feel the hot gouge of lead which my hands made. ?
I died with them ... I lived with them .... I lived to see our country free. ?Free from Spanish rule in eighteen-hundred-twenty-one. ?
Mexico was free?? ?
The crown was gone but all its parasites remained, ?
and ruled, and taught, with gun and flame and mystic power. ?
I worked, I sweated, I bled, I prayed, ?
and waited silently for life to begin again. ?
I fought and died for Don Benito Juarez,
guardian of the Constitution. ?
I was he on dusty roads on barren plains
as he protected his archives ?
as Moses did his sacraments. ?
He held his Mexico in his hand on ?
the most desolate and remote ground which was his country. ?
And this giant little Zapotec gave not one palm's breadth ?
of his country's land to kings or monarchs or presidents
of foreign powers. ?
I rode with Pancho Villa, ?
crude and warm, a tornado at full strength, ?
nourished and inspired by the passion and
the fire of all his earthy people. ?
I am Emiliano Zapata. ?
"This land, this earth is OURS." ?
I ride with revolutionists ?
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against myself. ?
I am the Rural, ?
coarse and brutal, ?
I am the mountain Indian, ?
superior over all. ?
The thundering hoof beats are my horses.
The chattering machine guns ?
are death to all of me: ?
Yaqui ?
Tarahumara ?
Chamula ?
Zapotec ?
Mestizo ?
Espan?ol. ?
I have been the bloody revolution, ?
The victor, ?
The vanquished. ?
I have killed ?
And been killed. ?
I am the despots Di?az ?
And Huerta ?
And the apostle of democracy, ?
Francisco Madero. ?
I am ?
The black-shawled faithful women ?
Who die with me ?
Or live ?
Depending on the time and place. ?
I rode the mountains of San Joaqui?n. ?
I rode east and north ?
As far as the Rocky Mountains, ?
And all men feared the guns of Joaqui?n Murrieta. ?I killed those men who dared ?
To steal my mine, ?
Who raped and killed my love ?
My wife. ?
I stand here looking back, ?
And now I see the present, ?
And still I am a campesino, ?
I am the fat political coyote– ?
I, ?
Of the same name, ?
Joaqui?n, ?
In a country that has wiped out ?
All my history, ?
Stifled all my pride, ?
In a country that has placed a ?
Different weight of indignity upon my age-old burdened back. ?Inferiority is the new load . . . . ?
The Indian has endured and still ?
Emerged the winner, ?
The Mestizo must yet overcome, ?
And the gachupi?n will just ignore. ?
I look at myself ?
And see part of me ?
Who rejects my father and my mother ?
And dissolves into the melting pot ?
To disappear in shame. ?
I sometimes ?
Sell my brother out ?
And reclaim him ?
For my own when society gives me ?
Token leadership ?
In society's own name. ?
I bleed in some smelly cell from club or gun or tyranny. ?
I bleed as the vicious gloves of hunger ?
Cut my face and eyes, ?
As I fight my way from stinking barrios ?
To the glamour of the ring ?
And lights of fame ?
Or mutilated sorrow. ?
My blood runs pure on the ice-caked ?
Hills of the Alaskan isles, ?
On the corpse-strewn beach of Normandy, ?
The foreign land of Korea ?
And now Vietnam. ?
Here I stand ?
Before the court of justice, ?
Guilty ?
For all the glory of my Raza ?
To be sentenced to despair. ?
Here I stand, ?
Poor in money, ?
Arrogant with pride, ?
2
Bold with machismo, ?
Rich in courage ?
And ?
Wealthy in spirit and faith. ?
My knees are caked with mud. ?
My hands calloused from the hoe. I have made the Anglo rich, ?Yet ?
Equality is but a word– ?
The Treaty of Hidalgo has been broken ?
And is but another treacherous promise. ?
My land are lost ?
And stolen, ?
My culture has been raped. ?
I lengthen the line at the welfare door ?
And fill the jails with crime. ?
These then are the rewards ?
This society has ?
For sons of chiefs ?
And kings ?
And bloody revolutionists, ?
Who gave a foreign people ?
All their skills and ingenuity ?
To pave the way with brains and blood ?
For those hordes of gold-starved strangers, ?Who ?
Changed our language ?
And plagiarized our deeds ?
As feats of valor ?
Of their own. ?
They frowned upon our way of life ?
and took what they could use. ?
Our art, our literature, our music, they ignored– ?so they left the real things of value ?
and grabbed at their own destruction ?
by their greed and avarice. ?
They overlooked that cleansing fountain of ?nature and brotherhood ?
which is Joaqui?n. ?
I must fight ?
and win this struggle ?
for my sons,
and they ?
must know from me ?
who I am.
I have endured in the rugged mountains ?
Of our country ?
I have survived the toils and slavery of the fields. ?I have existed ?
In the barrios of the city ?
In the suburbs of bigotry ?
In the mines of social snobbery ?
In the prisons of dejection ?
In the muck of exploitation ?
And ?
In the fierce heat of racial hatred. ?
And now the trumpet sounds, ?
The music of the people stirs the ?
Revolution. ?
Like a sleeping giant it slowly ?
Rears its head ?
To the sound of ?
Tramping feet ?
Clamoring voices ?
Mariachi strains ?
Fiery tequila explosions ?
The smell of chile verde and ?
Soft brown eyes of expectation for a ?
Better life. ?
And in all the fertile farmlands, ?
the barren plains, ?
the mountain villages, ?
smoke-smeared cities, ?
we start to MOVE. ?
Me?xicano! ?
Espan?ol! ?
Latino!
Hispano!?
Chicano! (Power!)?
Or whatever I call myself, ?
I look the same ?
I feel the same ?
I cry ?
And ?
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Sing the same. ?
I am the masses of my people and ?
I refuse to be absorbed. ?
I am Joaqui?n. ?
The odds are great ?
But my spirit is strong, ?
My faith unbreakable, ?
My blood is pure. ?
I am Aztec prince and Christian Christ. ?I SHALL ENDURE! ?
I WILL ENDURE!
Why you think Chicano culture was so important to the Chicano Movement. What role does culture play in uniting people? And is this a good thing? Why or why not??
Explanation / Answer
To justify this we need to first understand the fact of the chicano culture and the chicano movement. according to the chicano it can be defined as it is the identity of the mexican-american in the united states of america.this word is sometime used for the interchangability of the mexican american people. this name is given to the person who belong to the mexican or american community only and within the united states of america. the term chicano was widely spread as well as used during the chicano movement to spread their culture and religion traditions to the all over the nations.
The movement was created to change the opinion and the mental view point of the people outside to their community on them.the people othe than chicano were taken as they are the underprevilage people. before the chicano movement the term chicano was taken as a negative connotations and get the disrespect and rejections in the every social practices. they were taken to be down. this make the people of this community to look forward to form a movement to take their pride, honour and the respectfull status in the society as well as in the nations. this rise to give the formations of the movement which termed as the chicano movement and this improvment of the status of the chicano people in the society is due to this movement and thus the chicano culture was so important for this.
Now there is one question arises that what role these chicano culture played in the uniting of the people. as we have already mentioned this above that the culture was so that they spread their importance and the religion stretegies to the all part of the nations. their culture make the other community people to understand the chicano people properly and regardless to their status in the society and nation they tend to connect their culture to the people of the north america. the people come to understand and familier with the culture of them and this culture and traditon name them understand that these people are also have the same importance for the nation as they have. thus it changed their motive and view towards them and united them.
yes it is a good thing because unity have the power and to make a stronge and developed nation, it play a major role in all aspects like unity power, opportunity of the nations, form a well and developed socety as well as nations and create a high status in the all over the world. thats why today America which is USA is the most wealthy and developed nation in the world with all powers.