Let’s be real folks, the only reason we claim today as El Día de la Raza is because they claimed it first as Columbus day, which means that really, today is not just a celebration of us but of nuestra resistencia.
I’m back here in Brooklyn, trying to decide whether or not I want to spy on the Christopher Columbus Day Parade on Monday (after 516 years this country still flagrantly celebrates colonization like it’s a good thing). In the meantime, I am reminded of all the indigenous peoples around the world who today fight for the right to their land, their culture, their language, their traditions, and their economic and political sovereignty. I am reminded of Palestine and Iraq and Chiapas and Bolivia and migrants here in the U.S., especially those from Southern Mexico and Guatemala who still maintain tribal identities. I am reminded of the struggle of First Nations north of those borders, too, especially the ones with ongoing struggles to save their sacred sites from the reaches of mining companies and ski resorts.
You must die - Quetzal
So, as we go about our active resistance today, may Quetzal’s music go before us:
“Killing of millions of people, now you must die.
Genocide missions no longer justified.
Die, die! Cowboy, die, die!
Die, die! Cowboy, die, die!
Die, die! Cowboy, die, die!
Die, die! Cowboy, die, die!
Cracker.”
Posts
2 comments:
Was in Mexico City years ago and caught a radio talk show on the subject of Cortez, the Conquista, La Malinche and related topics. It had a call-in segment and some argued about the brutality of the conquest etc. and about half saying
"but if it never happened we would not be not be "mexicans" or "Meztizos." I write about often and celebrate the Meztizo/Chicano experience.
True! What Quetzal is saying is not to go kill white people but rather that the SYSTEM that enables genocide and imperialism and other such crimes against humans--in other words, the cowboy mentality--needs to die.
Post a Comment