Proposition 227 And What it Represents:

ENGLISH FOR THE CHILDREN; PROPOSITION 227 IN CALIFORNIA: ONE MORE ATTACK ON OUR GENTE’S CULTURE, RIGHTS AND DIGNITY

Since Uncle Sam stole over half of Mexican National Territory in 1848 and subjugated our gente to second-class status on our own land, the attacks on us have come fast and furious. During the last 150 years, our people have been lynched, shot, raped, exploited, and had to suffer the worst kind of human degradation at the hands of U.S. settler colonialism. Every imaginable crime has been committed against the mexicano people by the U.S. imperialist government, our dignity has been crushed with slanders of inferiority and justified through every aspect of this racist society. This is the mark of a colonial situation; a situation where the prosperity and the privilege of the colonizer (white settler population) are directly based on the exploitation and pauperization of the colonized (indigenous, Mexicano people). This is why the occupying gringo white settler has gladly participated in the exchange for a chance to share the stolen resources.

The oppression of a colonized people takes place on two levels. First, (the most obvious level) manifests itself within the physical, representative by the military power of the colonizer. In the case of the Mexicano people, this takes the form of the military (army, navy, national guard, etc.), police, migra and is brought forth to crush any hint of resistance.

Secondly there is the equally, if not more, important of any colonial situation, the psychological subjugation of a people. The colonizer must break, crush and destroy the will of the colonized to fight; they must destroy the very concept the people have of their values and own self worth. The colonizer must separate the colonized from its history, its language, its mores, its culture, its beliefs - utilizing those beliefs that serve to maintain colonialism in its own way (i.e religion, historical icons, etc.) to its advantage.

The most elemental way in which the colonizer is able to subjugate the colonized is through the educational system. The colonizer alternately (depending on what is most convenient at the time) denies outright or carefully regulates the education colonized children receive. The way this comes down in modern times is that the oppressor gives the oppressed just enough education to be able to follow simple directions for a menial job and to be indoctrinated with the doctrines of the oppressor (i.e Manifest Destiny, “America is the Land of the Free,”etc.) Beyond this, the oppressor maintains strict control on those few members of the colonized nation to receive an “advanced” education. Of those that willing complete the indoctrination process, the system hand picks those few individuals to become neo-colonial servant of the state and help the cause of imperialism and colonialism in every way possible.

It is with this basic understanding that we can begin to analyze the recent “bilingual education” debate in Califas as well as throughout Aztlán/Occupied México. We must penetrate the rhetoric thrown back and forth by the hispanic petty bourgeoisie “bilingual lobby” more into protecting their jobs than struggling for Mexicano liberation and the racist pronouncements of the white settler population, in general, and by the fascist Silicone Valley right-wing millionaire Ron Unz in particular. The task of our Movimiento is to wage a struggle, not against the Unz Initiative (Prop. 227) per se, but, for real control of the education of our youth on our own land.

THE UNZ INITIATIVE (PROP. 227) IS PART OF A LAUNDRY LIST OF ASSAULTS ON OUR GENTE OVER THE PAST YEARS

Proposition 227 can not be looked at outside of a historical context. If we analyze recent history- over the past years- Prop. 227 is part of a series of attacks that Raza have faced as a people since the early nineties. We can look back at the past several years and we see that there is an open and declared war being waged against our gente. One only as to look at the militarization of the border, the Immigration Reform Act Proposition 187, Proposition 209, English Only initiatives in Arizona and other states, and the pattern is clear: the war being waged against our gente has become more blatant, more open and more vicious by the day.

Proposition 227 (contrary to all of Ron Unz’ denials) is no different. It is true that this proposition- written by Ron Unz a Silicone Valley millionaire- has gone to great lengths to confuse people about the true intentions of this initiative. He has put forth an initiative he calls “English for the Children;” whose goal, he says, is to teach English and not to force “our children” to be taught in “foreign languages” in “American Schools.” He is aided by a vendida teacher in Orange County named Gloria Tuchman (her married name). Gloria and other sellouts, such as Jaime Escalante of “Stand and Deliver,” have been able to confuse enough of our gente and the general public about the bilingual education issue to put this assault on our language and culture on the November ballot. Their propaganda (which was distributed heavily in front of supermarkets throughout our barrios during the drive to put the measure on the ballot) told misleading information and outright lies.

In a sort of testimonial letter to “the public” Unz appeals to his “dear friends” to help him stop the erosion of the English language in the schools. He goes on to say that children are being taught foreign languages in the schools of California. Unz states that his grandparents were “immigrants” who came from Europe and became productive members of society without “becoming a burden” to anyone. Unz pleads his case that he is only interested in the well-being of all children and that if “English for the Children” is approved, all children will be able to share in the “American dream.”

Unz, and his fifth column in our community point to our gente’s dismal test scores, drop out (really push out) rate from schools etc. and conclude that the problem must be bilingual education. Reverting back to the same idiotic, racist nonsense that has plagued our people since this land was stolen from us by the U.S. sistema. They maintain that our problem is that we speak too much Spanish. If we could only assimilate- that is reject our history and culture and adopt the colonizers history and culture- our children would do better in school. They claim that we would have better jobs, our barrios would be less poverty stricken, and we would be looked upon as “contributing members of society.” Therefore, according to Unz and his band of coconut traitors, the solution to the problems that face our gente is to be more white, forget our language and culture, and to “integrate” into this racist society. In fact Unz would like so much for our people to become anything but Mexican that he was a member of a public policy think tank in Washington that studied the strategies and tactics of assimilationist politics. He also financed a book entitled Assimilation American Style,written by Jack Heights published in 1997. (see The Sacramento Bee, Jan. 19, 1998)

THESE MYTHS HAVE BEEN USED TO CONFUSE OUR GENTE AND TO COVER UP THE REAL REASON FOR OUR CONDITIONS AS A COLONIZED PEOPLE

These myths are nothing new to our people. Even before the height of the Chicano Power period of the sixties and the seventies. During the 1940’s and 50’s under the YMCA’s Americanization Program our people were coerced by school authorities to never speak a word of Spanish to our children in the home. (see Occupied America, Rodolfo Acuña and Youth Identity and Power, Carlos Muñoz Jr.) Racist school authorities told our gente that if we spoke to our children in Spanish, they would never learn and would never have a chance at any but the most menial jobs.

This condition led to an inferiority complex and made our people ashamed of being mexicano. This slander of inferiority resulted in the mutilation of our cultura on our own land and has served to cut us off from our Raza throughout the rest of the continent. Franz Fanon (great Algerian Revolutionary psychologist) summed up this situation as a way that the colonizer uses to degrade the colonized by suggesting that the closer the colonized are in adopting and speak good diction of the colonizers language, the closer the colonized are to becoming human.(Frantz Fanon: Colonialism and Alienation, Renate Zahar) The long and short of the assimilation process was that Mexicanos were cheated in all ways: since the U.S. government maintains us as a colonized people, there is no way we will ever gain power by assimilating into this racist society as it exist today. The system attempts to practice a total control over our intellectual, political and cultural development as a people- assuring that we never struggle to get our dignity, land and freedom back.

We must understand that our people have been marginalized, oppressed and attacked not because we cannot speak English, but because for the past 506 years we as Mexicans have had our history destroyed by the colonizing spaniards, then by the Yankee imperialists. The U.S. government knows it stole our land and that it must do whatever is necessary to first convince our people that we came to their country, by using terms such as “foreign languages”; then they must do what ever is necessary to keep us from gaining it back. Denying us our language and culture- which psychologically cuts us off from understanding our history- is a primary step toward this objective.

We must also see that the idea that English is the key to upward mobility is a myth. We have large percentages of our gente in the Occupied Territories (and all over the U.S.) who speak limited or no Spanish, whose first and only real language is English, and who are living the same marginalized conditions that our people who speak no English live. Again, its not about learning English, its about political power and about maintaining colonialism over our people on our own land.

THE UNZ INITIATIVE IS A DIRECT VIOLATION OF THE TREATY OF GUADALUPE HIDALGO

It is quite ironic that this initiative would be brought forth in California in 1998, the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the treaty that ended the U.S. war of aggression against México and turned over more than half of our national territory to U.S. imperialism. The fact is that this treaty does guarantee certain rights to our people (which have never been honored) who live in the area called the south western United States (Occupied México). One of these guarantees is full equality of our cultura and language. What has in fact, happened since the signing of this wanna-be “peace treaty,” is that our language (like all other guarantees under this treaty) has been trampled on and every effort has been made to wipe out our culture. It is important to recognize that Texas, and everywhere else Raza went to school- including California, Nuevo México, Arizona, etc., is famous for whipping students who spoke Spanish in school.

It is looking at this problem under the lens of dialectical/historical materialism towards the creation of national liberation movement and self-determination for the mexicano nation, that we can understand the true nature of the disinformation campaign to get Prop. 227 passed. This disinformation is aimed not only at the white settler population, but, at many sectors of our own gente who are being duped into supporting this initiative. The vendidos who are for the Unz initiative (not to mention the main organizers) are pushing the line that “hispanics” are immigrants just like Italians, Greeks, Russians and Irish- also known as white ethnics within the settler population who came to Occupied America at the turn of the 20th century. They argue (Unz uses his own family as an example) that they were able to “become part of the American dream and not be a burden to anyone.” He says he wants the same for today’s “immigrants.”

First, we must expose the outright lie about our gente. We are not immigrants, rather, we are an indigenous people to these lands. The system could afford to let the real immigrants- white settlers- into its “fabric,” precisely because they had not stolen anything from the original settlers of white people. Most of these “immigrants” and their children received little if any formal education due to the language barrier. This forced them to do menial jobs (many of which Raza do throughout Occupied México today) but did not move them to Wall Street as Unz and others of his ilk romantically suggest. In fact, by the late 1800’s the Jews, Italians, Irish and Polacs turned to organized crime or “gangs” for protection as a result of their economic conditions. And therefore it is safe to say that the respectable Americans of the early 1900’s were the bootleggers, mafiosos, and petty criminals.

Another thing those who are pushing this initiative should remember- most of the “immigrants” of the early 1900’s were “illegal” due to strict quotas against eastern and southern Europeans. Also, people like Unz have short memories if they think bilingual education has never existed in Occupied America. In many areas of the U.S., there have been European communities that have existed with minimal use of English and have bilingual education in their schools (often the language of choice in areas such as Pennsylvania and Ohio was German). We have never seen campaigns to annihilate German from their schools. The fact is, Mexicanos could speak whatever language exists, and the fact that we are the largest group of indigenous people in Occupied America would make it necessary for the system to cut us off by force from anything that could lead to our self-determination and our total liberation. Even if we are not aware of this, those pushing it are very aware of it and it is what guides their approach to oppressing our gente.

WHO ARE SOME OF THE MAIN PLAYERS IN THE BILINGUAL EDUCATION DEBATE

To gain an understanding of this particular phenomenon of the “bilingual education debate” and its effect on our community, we must understand who some of the players are and what their interest is around this question. It is safe to say that the discussion that is coming down has nothing to do with emancipatory politics, better education for our children or better conditions for the mexicano people. On the contrary it has everything to do with ingraining a deeper seeded colonial oppression on Mexicans, making loads of feria for the gringo capitalist and politically placing the Hispanics on check to their real position in this society.

On the pro-Unz side of the debate are the Republican party, the Republican extreme right, and a handful of openly collaborationist manso “hispanics” who openly hate their language and culture (example Gloria Tuchman, Fernando Vega). Another example which shows the insidiousness of this campaign and how far some of our people will sell themselves out for a buck is the sad case of Jaime Escalante.

Many remember Mr. Escalante as a romantically depicted East Los Angeles teacher played by Edward James Olmos in the movie Stand and Deliver. In this movie Escalante is portrayed as the savior of our gente where he tells students all they need is “ganas” to succeed. While the film looks inspiring on the surface, its messages represents an old pro-white power position that has been used to convince the white settler population that our people are lazy and stupid.

Throughout his career, Escalante has put forth the idea that “ganas”- or lack of “ganas”- has been the reason our people are poor, in prison, uneducated, don’t have access to health care and are persecuted in this society with anti-Raza legislation. In other words it is not the theft of our land and all its natural resources, the irrelevant education thrown out by the colonial school system or the powerful rich gringo capitalist who see our gente as an abundant cheap source of labor. What this movie does- inspiring as it may seem- is let capitalism/colonialism (white power) off the hook for its crimes against our people. He would have us believe that we should all speak English because it is the language of power, without ever questioning how it got to be that way. The idea that “ganas” is the problem implies that since our people live in poverty, under deplorable conditions, we must be basically lazy and stupid. What looks like love for “his kids” is really contempt- or pity at best- for our entire gente.

Escalante is just one example of “prominent” people who support this proposition and try to distract our gente from the racism and oppression inherent in cutting children off from their language and culture. In fact Mr. Unz has done such a good job in confusing our people, that a Los Angeles Times pole indicated that 84% of Raza in Los Angeles supported this anti-Raza Initiative (see Los Angeles Times, week of October 15, 1997). Unz is also good for this smokescreen because he was one of the Republicans who opposed 187 (because he knew what kind of nationalist response our people would have). But let no one be fooled- this attack is brought to us by the folks that brought us the militarization of the border under Operation Gatekeeper, Prop 187, 209, the Clinton Crime Bill, and other measures against our people and other colonized people.

One of the arguments those who are pushing the initiative have is that bilingual education does not work. They point to Raza’s dismal test scores, the 50% “drop out” rate from schools, the low percentage of our people attending college, etc. and blame it on the bilingual programs.

Unión del Barrio agrees that bilingual education as it is practiced today- with a few exceptions- is a failure. But not for the same reasons that these sin vergüenza racist punk politician/millionaires and their vendido lap dogs say, but because our gente do not control our education. We do not set policy, the curriculum (nothing is done to teach our youth their true history and culture) and most of the time do not teach our own communities. With all of this against us, how could the system not fail our children?

The only solution to the educational crisis that our people face is complete control of our schools in our community; the ability to teach our language to our children in a way that is relevant to our history and culture. This means, among other things, Chicano Studies at all levels of our children’s development run by our own community- and not the social climbing opportunist vendidos and “culturally aware” gabachos. It is the need for a critical pedagogy that Paulo Friere wrote about, that empowers oppressed people to analyze their past, control their present and guide our future. This is the essence of self-determination. We must be clear that these elements do not exist within the current educational system, not by any mistake of the system. Rather, it has been the system who has fundamentally been in opposition to the practice of a critical pedagogical curriculum. But let there be no mistake, that it is the general public, notably the white settler gringo population that has given legitimacy to our people’s oppression, because they were anti-mexicano when they came, they were anti-mexicano when they settled and have been anti-mexicano ever since. It is these gringo settlers who have voted in the oppressor that have since created laws (Prop. 187, 209, Immigration Reform, etc.) to brutalize and oppress our gente.

We must understand that the struggle against the Unz initiative has brought out a variety of tendencies within our community. While not all express the same understanding of our gente’s oppression as we have here, we must recognize that there are honest Raza educators who believe in helping our children, and they understand the consequences of what amounts to cutting our children’s tongue out in the schools. They realize and some have expressed that Tuchman and others are half right, kids will “pick up” English quickly if “immersed” in it- which is what the initiative calls for. But what many educators fail to see is that the children will also experience a lack of intellectual growth that comes from being taken away from the language one comprehends- and is used in the home- and into another. Alienation quickly develops and psychologically denigrates our youth. The result is that they will “pick up” only enough English as is required to get by, only to be good manual laborers, waiters, and servants.

They also must realize that those who “excel” will also end up internalizing the values of this sick excuse of an American culture. Thus, those who “make it” will become tomorrows neo-colonial oppressors of our gente. We respect the work honest Raza educators are doing to organize against these attacks. At the same time, we must recognize that within the movement to defeat the Unz initiative, we have the careerist, opportunist sector of our community whose only goal is to protect their jobs and to play power brokers for their white bosses within the Democratic Party. These forces are part of the ideological counterinsurgency that has been increasingly vocal in its attempts to divert authentic struggle and render it useless, and to discredit organizations and forces struggling for self-determination.

We can see how many of these sellout forces have tried to turn this struggle around a racist attack on our community into a get-out-the-vote campaign for the Democratic Party and a defense of “bilingual education” system as it is (thus justifying their existence and pay raises that seem to correspond with Raza doing worse in school). They tell us that our struggle is to change the minds of “voters,” by appealing to the “good” conscious of white people and to make them understand that bilingual education is “American too” so they will not feel threatened by our people. These careerists say that we must not yell slogans, we must not appear too threatening, we must not carry Mexican flags. They would have us believe that the struggle against the Unz initiative can only be won if we can convince the gringo that the Unz initiative is not good for them, and that they will not lose their privileged, oppressive position over us if we are able to have bilingual education in the schools.

In turning this lie to our people on its head, we must put our struggle in its historical context. Chairman Omali Yeshitela of the African Peoples Socialist Party often reminds us that you will never find a time in the history of the world where an oppressed and colonized people based its strategy of liberation on getting the oppressor to like them. You never saw, for instance, the Vietnamese trying to get the French to like them and not be threatened by their struggle. We must remember the attempts they made to divert and suffocate the struggle against 187 in 1994 with their Democratic Party collaborationist attitude; where these vendidos actually tried to stop the student strikes, organizers of the Los Angeles March in August of 1994 actually tried to stop Raza from waving the Mexican flag by passing out the U.S. flag. We must not let this happen.

THE TRUE STRUGGLE FOR A RELEVANT EDUCATION OF OUR CHILDREN

We call on all honest Raza to struggle against this divisionary tactics used by the vendidos. we must not let a struggle to defend the right of our people to speak our own language to be turned into a struggle to protect a few jobs and make points with the Democrats for the next election year.

There must be a struggle waged in defense our our right to an education that emphasizes our history and culture in our own language in our barrios on our own land. We can settle for nothing less. It is not enough for us to defeat Prop.227 if we return to the same miserable conditions as yesterday. Now more than ever it is time to organize and challenge the very foundation on which our gente’s oppression now rests. We must organize and build political power to challenge and destroy U.S. colonialism and reclaim our national dignity, as an original people on this land.