Acuna, Rodolfo F <rudy.acuna@csun.edu>
On 4/18/2024 1:01 PM, rudy acuna wrote:
I have spoken at length on the notion of
principios.Indeed the purpose of education has always been the learning of
common values that are good and often without education lack
cohesion. Nahuatl education has existed for hundreds of years. As society has
become more complex those principles have often been confused. In the
beginning it took the form of schools for the elite and home education for the
commoner. However, with the growth of society the notion of equality conflicted
with the caste system that was designed to control the different classes.
Public education has become a stairway out of the caste that one finds him or
herself. There can be no democracy without the means to move up. In order
to keep unwanted groups from sharing the rule are and definitions are confused
in favor of those pecking down/ Two obvious opposites are schools and prisons.
A caste controls movement. This struggle has been going on for thousands
of years, As of late Netflix has produced specials of the castes. the
oldest being those in India. However, colonialism has marked a revival of
elements although the terms differ. My view is that it all comes down to
principios. Neoliberalism is an ongoing version of colonialism. Rules that
keep Mexicans, middle Americans and the rest of the continent in their
places. Keeping the continent under the control of the U,S. depends on
controlling the little brown brothers and sisters in the U.S. under control.Education,
language are key. That is why the motto schools not prisons is so vital.
in this process understanding the role of politics is important. A group
does not break out of a caste by becoming brokers but by grabbing power
electorally.
Rudy Acuña .
Comes Down to Principios
Principios
(Values)
By
Rudy Acuña
What
we hold dear comes down to the principles or values we have are
forged, the axis is our schools that were at first were controlled by ruling
elites that controlled society. These buildings stand many like toe pyramids
paid homage to the ruling families. These buildings were great to look at but
controlled by a few individual families. Society was controlled by the ruling
families that controlled the public sector. The private and public sectors were
one. What I admire most about the Native
Americans is not their great buildings, art and writing systems but their
mastery and care of the land. They were among the world’s great botanists. At
first glance, many fail to appreciate the challenge of living in the Southwest,
Mexico, and Central America. Many American scholars do not appreciate the First
Peoples’ contributions and often attempt to erase them. It is only until
recently motivated by the reality of climate change view that things are seen
in a different light. The land has relatively little water; it is arid,
mountainous, and given to extremes. For many Europeans it was worthless, a
Great American Desert. That is until recently with the sun becoming
a commodity that they are attempting to privatize.
Increasingly
historians are realizing the genius of the First Peoples. The nomads were not
vagrants, they were among the world’s great botanists. They cultivated the
abundant variety of flora there and through trial and error learned which were
edible and which contained water. Today many of these plants have become
healthy food. The Native American also mapped the land finding the shortest and
best routes.
Communities
are under siege and their survival depends on their memories. The word
“community” comes from the Latin communitas (communis). It is defined as “a
group or network of persons who are connected to each other by social relations
that extend beyond immediate genealogical ties, and who mutually define that
relationship (subjectively) as important to their social identity and social
practice.” It builds upon the truism “We Become What We Think About.”
The
communities’ survival depends on their histories and identities, that are being
erased by gentrification and dispersal, neoliberalism, and privatization.
Remembering what happens to empower communities to collectively identify and
resolve important problems and issues. It focuses attention on power structures
and on processes such as institutionalized racism. Memory allows us to see and
distinguish the similarities between the genocide of the Native American,
Manifest Destiny, urban renewal, and privatization.
A
community allows us to build strategies for analysis, for action and for
change. Examining political and economic factors from the concrete base of the
community allows for the development of more effective strategies for change.
Communities
are being erased gentrification and dispersal by neoliberalism and
privatization. Memory empowers communities to focuses attention on power
structures and on processes such as institutionalized racism. Memory allows us
to see and distinguish the similarities between the genocide of the Native
American, Manifest Destiny, urban renewal, and privatization.
When
I was a graduate student, I was told that for the historian to learn the truth
she/he must be a skeptic. History is a search for the truth when I read Henry
Steele Commager, Arthur Schlesinger Jr., and other prominent American
historians I was disappointed, they were not critical of Thomas Jefferson,
Andrew Jackson or of most former American presidents. I wondered how the future
would treat Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, and most American Presidents. There are
few lessons from these historical biographies because they are built on lies or
inventions. To learn from them, we have to be critical without demonizing them.
In
many ways Chicana/o and Latino history are inventions beginning with labels
such as Hispanic, Latino or whatever is politically convenient. The truth is
that there were no Hispanics in the Alamo just as there were few or many
Mexicans on the contemporary Central American caravans. Some of us are in
solidarity, but as people were not part of caravans. The truth must be exact
and cannot or should not be distorted or diverted. The result of basing
conclusions on falsehoods represents a loss of reality and a mystified
consciousness that is not based.
Unfortunately,
Chicana/o history like the Catholic Church today venerates the past and makes
colonial agents such as Fray Junipero Serra saints or heroes. My
disillusionment with Church history came after reading the Gnostic Bibles,
especially the works of Elaine Pagels. She exposed the lies I had learned in
theology classes and demonstrated how church traditions were invented by male
leaders to eliminate the challenge of women members. Learned the pitfalls of
building history on inventions, they are too easily unraveled.
Much
of Chicana/o history today is a product of the invention of the sixties and the
mystification of reality. Let me make it clear that the sixties were incredibly
productive but like all history, it is an onion that must be peeled. Like with
colonialism, we must search for the truth –and correct or cut out the rotten
parts. Not everything was perfect in the sixties. There was sexism, homophobia,
opportunism, and debauchery that remain covered up by diversions and
distortions of the truth. Like in life there were
the essence of the struggle is to never forget. It is the only effective way to
organize against capital that has its own memories and strives for hegemony.
For oppressed peoples, cultural memory engenders the spirit of resistance.
In
many ways Chicana/o and Latino history are inventions beginning with labels
such as Hispanic, Latino or whatever is politically convenient. The truth is
that there were no Hispanics in the Alamo just as there were few or many
Mexicans on the contemporary Central American caravans. Some of us are in
solidarity, but as people were not part of caravans. The truth must be exact
and cannot or should not be distorted or diverted. The result of basing
conclusions on falsehoods represents a loss of reality and a mystified
consciousness that is not based.
Identity
is complex and is at issue. Students in the sixties and seventies accepted the
term Chicano but grappled with whether their degrees should read Chicano
Studies or Mexican American Studies. There is still ambivalence and name still
carries political and personal preferences and baggage. An additional problem
arose with what role of student organizations played and the reaction of
faculty to student oversight. The failure to establish a common sense has
contributed to false conclusions and disorganization.
One
fallout is the lack of consensus among those who are supposed to be searching
for the truth. It has created divisions. Many base their opinions not on facts
but on personal feelings such as embidias, celos, chismes and a lack of
skepticism. Over the years I have heard lies about me, my friends and the CSUN
department that I teach in that are just not true.
For
example, a UCLA librarian started an interview telling me that CSUN CHS only
hired their friends. I asked her what proof she had and asked whether she had
interviewed members of the hiring committees. She had not but she had repeated
the lie up and down the state. I later found out that she was angry because she
had not been hired. I have heard similar rumors about others; views expressed
in dissertations. Some of the authors live in the Los Angeles area and could
have easily verified their hypotheses by visiting me or the twenty-some
professors in the department and interviewing them. In the search for the truth
before something becomes a fact, it must be vetted if not the dissertation
loses validity as do the author and those who supervise the dissertation. In
one case, I got a call from a prospective employer. I told the truth and how my
evaluation could be corroborated. The scholar learned about my negative
evaluation and spread it around that I was chicken shit (again not telling it
to me to my face).
Part
of the search for the truth is using primary, credible sources and determining
what is true. Your word is your bond. Gimmicks such as the intentional high
jacking of the truth distort reality so badly that lying becomes the norm. This
has led to disunity and in many cases further blaming of the victim. It
confuses identity and delays a solution. One such case is the current
controversy that it is difficult to build any kind
of strategy on lies. For example, the invention of the Chicana/o identity any kind
of strategy or unity was necessary but must be tied to reality.
To
learn the truth, we must learn, analyze, and dissect history and correct myths
such as the Doctrine of Discovery through the myths of the American Dream and
Horatio Alger. The myth that Spain and Europe brought culture and progress to
the Indigenous People. Before we can organize, we must correct the distortion
in the layers of the Onion. Nothing can be resolved by escaping to Disneyland.
Superman will not save us.
I
watched a mystery movie last week called Knives Out (2019). It follows a
family gathering where the family patriarch’s death is investigated by a master
detective. The film explores the family members’ interactions, quickly focusing
on their relationship with the family maid Marta, who is from an immigrant
family. Everyone loves Marta but no one knows her nationality. The plot
thickens when the patriarch dies and deprives his sycophant and greedy family
of their inheritance leaving everything to Marta who naively believes that
everyone loves her when they are trying to frame her for the patriarch’s murder
so that they can get their hands on the inheritance.
The
truth is uttered by the master detective when he contradicts Marta’s assessment
that these are nice people. He bellows out, “No they are not nice people.” The
truth is often hard to accept and it hurts.
Nevertheless, the María illusions imprison her, and the lies and myths imprison
us. Life after Trump will be difficult because he did not invent the illusions
and myths in American history. Americans have never liked immigrants, the USA
is not a democracy and Americans are not nice people. Capitalism kills the
truth and prolongs the solution.
A
final note:
The
essay looks for ways that the truth is distorted. It is possible because of
self-interest and wanting to believe something that possibly benefits us. There
are personal benefits that the lie might benefit us. Jealousy and not wanting
to accept that maybe we are not qualified. For example, I have a doctorate but
that does not qualify me as a medical doctor. I follow simple rules, for
example, reducing everything to its common denominator. Opposites cannot be
true. One must be negated. The study of Latin helps you learn a process. The
conjugation of verbs and the declension of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, or
articles changes to indicate number, grammatical case, or gender. These are all
exercises in deduction. Unfortunately, we do not follow these rules in life.
The problem today is that we don’t want the truth but what is convenient for
ME.
The
Return of Jim Crow
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