By: Roberto Dr. Cintli Rodriguez
Throughout the years, to prove to government officials the indigeneity of Mexican and Central American peoples, I have had to resort to using the imagery of ancient pyramids. Unquestionably, it was the ancestors of Mexicans and Central Americans who built them – and who built them were Indigenous peoples, not Caucasians.

Try telling that to Jesse Acosta, chairman of the El Paso Complete Count Committee, who in a recent story in the El Paso Times, estimated that about 98 percent of Hispanics in El Paso are Caucasian. This is perhaps evidence that this misinformation has not yet been consigned to the pages of history. Either that or perhaps there is an acute shortage of mirrors in that part of the country.

I have had to use this imagery of pyramids because nothing else seems to work. Rather than use something ancient, I would rather use something living. But even before that, the good news is that this year, for the 2010 Census, if these peoples check the American Indian racial category (question #9), the Bureau will not interfere with the answer.

But back to the question as to whether these peoples are Indigenous, native or American Indian? The obvious answer is that the vast majority of Mexicans, Mexican Americans and Central Americans and most “Hispanics/Latinos” are not white. Among these populations, there indeed are a small minority of Caucasians, but the vast majority of Mexicans, Mexican Americans and Central Americans are either Indigenous, or “Indigenous-based mestizos” (relative to the Indigenous and African populations, not that many Europeans have historically migrated to the Americas). Some scholars refer to these populations not as mestizos but as “de-Indigenized” Indigenous peoples. Because most have never been given the choice or opportunity to make these choices, many have historically checked “other race,” only for census officials to redirect them into the white category.

The image I would like to utilize to better illustrate this answer is the following:

A few years ago, Julieta Villegas, a visiting elder at Nahuatl University in Morelos told some Mexican American educators that were there to learn the Nahuatl language this: “Most of you have lost your original [Indigenous] language, culture and ways, but do not for one second doubt that you are Indigenous. If you ever do, eat a tortilla.”

So how did Mexican and Central American peoples “become white” upon entering into the United States? They didn’t. This happens only on paper, including census forms and birth certificates, etc. It also happens when they are lumped into a broader category known as Latinos/Hispanics. In some parts of South America, there are higher concentrations of whites, but even there, several countries such as Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, etc have even higher concentrations of Indigenous peoples. Many Caribbean countries have higher concentrations of Black or African ancestry.

Historically, government officials have steered peoples from these backgrounds – despite their heavily Indigenous backgrounds – away from the American Indian or “other” race categories and into the white categories. A smaller percentage are steered into the Black categories.

Not this year and not this 2010 Census says Nicholas Jones, chief of the racial statistics branch of the U.S. Census Bureau. Unlike previous census counts, he stated that Mexicans, Central Americans or Hispanics/Latinos who check the American Indian racial category will be counted as American Indians.

End of debate. The Census asks an ethnicity question (#8) and a racial question (#9). It does not ask a cultural question. Thus, if Chicanos, Mexicans, Central Americans, Puerto Ricans or peoples from South America feel like acknowledging their Indigenous racial roots, they now have that right.

If they are de-Indigenized or far-removed from their Indigenous culture, that is not of interest to the bureau. For those who have a direct connection, they can check American Indian and write in their affiliation, such as: Aymara, Quechua, Mixtec, Maya, Huichol or Yaqui, etc. If they don’t know their affiliation – which is perhaps the case for most Mexicans/Chicanos and Hispanics/Latinos, the bureau will accept “unknown,” “detribalized, “de-Indigenized” or “mestizo” or any other term that indicates or connotes Indigenous or American Indian ancestry.

Jones agrees that if done right, this will not affect the allocation of resources to the nation’s American Indian tribes or members of recognized tribes.

For those previously unrecognized as Indigenous peoples, this is not about resources, but about something very simple: respect and dignity and an acknowledgement that their roots indeed are ancient on this continent.

* For more info on this topic, please contact Maria Rocha & Mario Garza at the Indigenous Culture s Institute at: maria.rocha@indigenouscultures.org or mario.garza@indigenouscultures.org

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It was when I first stood atop the Pyramid of the Sun in Teotihuacan, Mexico in 1976 that I was finally able to grasp something my parents first communicated to me when I was five years old; that my roots on this continent are not simply Mexican, but both ancient and Indigenous.

My red-brown face should have been enough to teach me this. However, that was not the message I received in school at the time, nor is it the message little red-brown kids receive today.

I experienced a similar kind of reaffirmation this past month when I stood in front of the world-renowned, ancient Mayan observatory at Chichen Itza, on Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula.

Upon my return to the United States, I received a message from a colleague regarding the U.S. Census Bureau. My mouth soured; another decade and another story about how the bureau paradoxically insists that Mexicans are Caucasian. I will have to explain to them again that Mexicans are the descendants of those who built the pyramids at Teotihuacan and Chichen Itza – that it was not Caucasians who built them.

The genesis of this nonsensical “misconception” goes back to the era when the United States militarily took half of Mexico in 1848. At that time, the Mexican government attempted to protect its former citizens by insisting that the U.S. government treat them legally as “white,” so they would not be enslaved or subjected to legal segregation. That strategy only partially worked, because most Mexicans in this country have never been treated as “white,” or as full human beings with full human rights.

That era is long over, yet the fear, shame, denial, and semi-legal fiction of being “white” remains, perpetrated primarily by government bureaucrats.

Despite the bureau policy of racial categorization, the Indigenous Cultures Institute in Texas, a Census 2010 partner, has advanced an alternative: It asserts that Hispanics, Mexican Americans, and Indigenous people of Mexico are native or American Indian. After answering Question 8, regarding whether one is Hispanic or not, the institute suggests: “If you are a descendant of native people, you can identify yourself (in Question 9) as an American Indian in the 2010 Census? If you don’t know your tribe, enter “unknown” or “detribalized native.” If tribe or identity is known, fill it in, i.e., Macehual, Maya, Quechua, etc.

This may not be the best option, but the bureau has never made it easy to recognize the indigenous roots of “Mexican Americans/Chicanos” or “Latinos/Hispanics.” The long and sordid history of the census has been to direct or redirect them into the white category, even–and especially–when they have asserted their indigenous roots or when they have checked the “other” race category. (Since 1980, about half of Hispanics/Latinos have checked the “other” race category and are virtually the only group that chooses this category.) This has been a standard practice of the bureau since the second half of the twentieth century. Coincidentally, this is also when government bureaucrats imposed the term “Hispanic,” a tag that generally masks the existence of indigenous and/or African roots in many peoples of the Americas.

In 2000, the Census Bureau finally recognized a Latin American Indian category, but it did not create an educational campaign to go with it.

The bureau now recognizes peoples who are traditionally viewed (using arbitrary criteria) as indigenous in Mexico, Central and South America, but it does not recognize those who are considered “mestizo” — peoples who are at least part, if not primarily, native. The mestizo category, borne of a dehumanizing racial caste system in the Americas, is also a troublesome category, yet it is how most people of Mexican and Central American descent identify, comprising approximately 75 percent of all “Latinos/Hispanics.”

The Indigenous Institute promotes its idea as a means by which Mexican Americans or Latinos/Hispanics can honor their indigenous ancestry. If this option is widely embraced, it remains to be seen how the bureau will count this information. The same question arises if people choose the American Indian category and write in “mestizo.”

Traditionally, the bureau has taken a narrow view of who is indigenous, because the “American Indian” category was designed not to ascertain indigeneity, but to count “U.S. Indians.” If a more expansive view is embraced widely — as advocated by the institute — it would result in an increase from 5 million (the 2009 census estimate) to perhaps 30 to 40 million people. (Not all of the nation’s close to 50 million Hispanics/Latinos can or would claim indigenous ancestry.)

If done correctly, the institute’s suggestion need not negatively affect the allocation of resources to specific tribes. Neither should the way people identify be subject to government approval. Yet, the ramifications of exercising such an option should indeed be studied.

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Sarah Palin was the headline speaker at the recent Tea Party Convention, but I won’t risk a migraine by attempting to analyze her drivel. Ya know, what I’m talking about?

Tom Tancredo, the former congressman from Colorado, also spoke at the teabagger convention, and his speech is a fair representation of the mindset of the teabaggers.

Let’s examine a paragraph from that speech in which Tancredo questions the very legitimacy of the 2008 election results:

“People who could not spell the word ‘vote‘ or say it in English put a committed socialist ideologue in the White House – (his) name is Barack Hussein Obama. The revolution has come. It was led by the cult of multiculturalism aided by leftist liberals all over who don’t have the same ideas about America as we do.”

The 2008 election wasn’t a replay of the controversial 2000 campaign, Obama won a clear and decisive victory. At this juncture the only ones who question the legitimacy of Obama’s mandate are racists who can’t accept a black man in the Oval Office. A constant refrain at teabagger events is the illegitimacy of the Obama presidency.

Tancredo is unable to make a speech without taking a swipe at Hispanics in general and undocumented workers is particular. The failed presidential candidate claims that people who can’t even say “vote” in English helped put Obama in the White House. This anti-Hispanic sentiment is rampant at teabagger shindigs, no wonder you won’t find any Latinos at teabagger meetings.

Tancredo like most teabaggers has a European-centric perspective, thus his dig at multiculturism and his mention of Obama’s middle name. Everything European is good, Everything Mexican, Arabian, Chinese, and African is bad — according to the teabaggers. America is a pluralistic society, made up of immigrants not only from Europe, but from everywhere in the world.

Whites will soon be a minority in America, and America will soon be surpassed by China and India in the realms of economics, science and military might.

Sarah Palin, Tancredo and the teabaggers are Neanderthals on the losing side of history, they will soon be overwhelmed by demographics.

Follow Robert Paul Reyes on Twitter: http://twitter.com/robertpaulreyes

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“A Texas woman was given a ticket for being a non-english speaking driver, but after she got a lawyer, she found out there was no such law for ordinary drivers — only commercial truck drivers have to speak English.

Dallas police Chief David Kunkle said he was surprised and stunned when he learned his men had written such a ticket. Records show officers have written 38 similar tickets over the last three years.” — [ READ MORE ]

If Police Chief David Kunkle was unaware that his police officers have for years been issuing tickets to drivers for being unable to speak English, his incompetence knows no bounds.

The mayor of Dallas should immediately fire Chief Kunkle, he needs to empathically show that the city of Dallas doesn’t tolerate racial discrimination.

I would be surprised but not shocked to find out that one Dallas cop was an unabashed racist, but the revelation that several police officers have been issuing these illegal tickets boggles the imagination. There is a systemic problem of racism in the Dallas police department, and it must be seriously dealt with.

The victim Ernestina Mondragon will doubtless sue, and be awarded a huge sum of money. But there must be justice for all Hispanics and other minorities in Dallas. There can be no justice until Chief Kunkle and his racist officers are kicked to the curb, and are replaced by peace officers who are color blind

Reference: Larry Whitten, Hotel Owner, Orders Hispanic Workers To Change Names

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A BIGOT is like a dog infected with Rabies — it won’t stop until you club it to death!

PoliticalArticles.NET joins the Latino community, this morning, in the most honorable act of clubbing a bigot — the biggest and fattest of them all — Rush FAT Limbaugh

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Fear and Loathing By the BIG FAT IDIOT – Rush Limbaugh, and Miscellaneous REAL AMERICANS

| More Limbaugh |

“White Nationalist” Buchanan: “Seems clear” that Sotomayor will “violate … civil rights laws,” “discriminate against white males“

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BONUS: An Uncle-Tom Speaks His Despicable Mind!

Juan Williams: Sotomayor’s “wise Latina” comment was “racist”

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