We Done Did It ! The mangled words of Jan Brewer

“So much attention is paid to the aggressive sins, such as violence and cruelty and greed with all their tragic effects, that too little attention is paid to the passive sins, such as apathy and laziness, which in the long run can have a more devastating effect.” - Eleanor Roosevelt

Oh yes, it has been very quiet at True Mexican these days. We have been licking a few wounds, taking some well deserved R and R and been plotting new and interesting strategies to keep you informed, stimulated and politically active.

Are you Afraid?

It has been extremely quiet on our website after Vivi’s article on “Uncovering the Truth about the Santa Rita Center” What’s up? What’s going on? Are people having shame? Are you afraid? Well I am angry. We are getting no response from Democratic leadership. No response from Chicanos por La Causa. Vivi and I are going to take our next moves from the Zapatista playbook. Be watching for two extremely attractive women wearing brown sequined bandanas covering their faces putting up signs in your neighborhood. God forbid that you are an elected official with a big picture of Cesar Chavez covering your office walls or an agency with a mural of Cesar smiling down on you. Please respond to our request to call your US Representatives and others to complain about this. Please let us know if you get a response!

Your Stories: Papers Please, a Poem by Donald Larkin

Papers Please

Burning crosses and the canyon state
Brown eyed children and the laws of hate
There’s a bridge in Selma over deep deep waters.
Arizona, do you hate your sons and daughters?

Thought for the Day: Read SB1070

Well, I got stimulated to thoroughly read this piece of legislation after seeing old Johnny McCain grilling Janet Napolitano in a Senate hearing the other night. I know Senator McCain and stimulating in the same sentence is an oxymoron. Well Janet admitted she was not thoroughly familiar with the legislation. I just wanted to be ready when he called True Mexican and asked if Vivi and I had read the bill. Hell yes! We have read it. You really wouldn’t have to read it. If Arizona State Senator Russell Pearce was saying it was good for us, and he is the same guy who gets his picture taken with Nazi skin heads and hired the Tea Bag expert to actually write the bill, then you know its not going to be friendly for human consumption.

Shame on Who?

Reading Vivi’s excellent article on racism stimulated lots of pain and shame in me. I feel our culture and our people are trying to be shamed in Arizona. Shame has really been part of our history since the earliest days of the Spanish conquest. Our mestizo ancestors were seen as a “bastard” race. That does not go a long way toward instilling pride and nurturing self-esteem! We have carried that in our generational programming for the last 500 plus years. Such programming about shame keeps us from our greatness. It keeps us back. We must reverse this or we will not be able to stand up to the Civil Rights assaults that are being thrown at us now.

If Only I Could Wipe Racism from My Child's World and My Memory

When I was a little girl, I remember laying on my grandma's floor watching the news. There was a story where a group had attacked a group of Mexicans. The idea was crazy to my naive and trusting mind. Why would anyone beat someone up just because they were Mexican? I had to ask my grandmother. The conversation opened up a treasure chest of stories of racism and hate that my grandmother had endured all her life. At the time, as a five-year-old, my world spun out of control learning that people were going to hate others simply because of their culture. You see, as I stood there looking up at my grandmother, with her beautiful auburn hair and fair, porcelain-like skin, I realized it didn't even matter if we didn't look Mexican. My relationship with racism would soon grow.