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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Politico reports: ‘Mr. Independent’ mulls White House bid — Former CNN host Lou Dobbs fueled already rampant speculation about his political future Monday, sending the clearest signals yet that he’s mulling a bid for president–and leaving third-party political operatives salivating over the possibility of a celebrity recruit for the 2012 campaign.

Less than two weeks after announcing his departure from the cable network–and following a series of interviews in which Dobbs encouraged speculation about his political plans–the anchorman known to fans as “Mr. Independent” finally made his presidential ambitions explicit on former Sen. Fred Thompson’s radio show Monday.

Asked if he might make a run at the White House in 2012, Dobbs answered flatly: “Yes is the answer.”

“I’m going to be talking some more with some folks who want me to listen in the next few weeks,” Dobbs told Thompson. “Right now I’m fortunate to have a number of wonderful options.” [ READ MORE ]

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Dobb’s Road To Dismissal

Update: HuffingtonPost — In a recent interview with Spanish-language network Telemundo, Dobbs softened his anti-immigrant/anti-Latino message, as he attempted to position himself “as a champion of that fast-growing ethnic bloc.” “Whatever you have thought of me in the past, I can tell you right now that I am one of your greatest friends and I mean for us to work together,” he said in a live interview with Telemundo’s Maria Celeste. “I hope that will begin with Maria and me and Telemundo and other media organizations and others in this national debate that we should turn into a solution rather than a continuing debate and factional contest,” said Dobbs. [ READ MORE ]

Talk of a HYENA in a hen-house! You have gotta be kiddin’, Señor Dobbs!

Here is Dobbs in his TRUE Colors — A History of HATE and BIGOTRY

Notes: | President Dobbs: The First Tell-All Memoir | CNN’s Lou Dobbs – The Minister of ‘Propaganda and Enlightenment’ – An Anti-Immigrant Bigot. A Racist, Xenophobic Extortionist

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Having it Both Ways — CNN wants us to watch “Latino in America,” but they’re still broadcasting Lou Dobbs?

From Presente.ORG:

In just one week, CNN will launch its “Latino in America” series, which tells the stories of Latinos from across the country. There’s just one thing missing: Lou Dobbs. That’s right. Four hours about the Latino experience in America, and not a word about the man who spends every weeknight telling lies about immigrants, and spreading hatred and fear about Latinos.

Together with award-winning filmmaker Arturo Perez, we’re calling out CNN’s hypocrisy with a powerful new video: “CNN: Lou Dobbs or Latinos in America?” Please watch the video and add your voice to the more than 50,000 others already demanding that CNN dump Dobbs. And then spread the word to your friends and family.

Our campaign against Lou Dobbs is clearly getting to him – he’s railed against us on his radio show, and rumors are now swirling that he’s looking for other jobs at more conservative networks. Now is the time to keep the pressure on. We’re trying to gather as many signatures as we can before “Latino in America” airs on Oct. 21-22. Will you join us, and share this action with your friends and family? It only takes a moment:

Take Action Against Dobbs — http://bastadobbs.com/video/?mid=1751-27240

Thank you and Adelante!

Favianna, Roberto, Laurie and the rest of the Presente.Org team

References

1. “Dobbs Takes Aim at HuffPost Critic,” Huffington Post, 9-23-2009: http://tinyurl.com/lrnbdx
2. “Fox’s Volley With Obama Intensifying,” New York Times, 10-11-2009: http://tinyurl.com/yg5qf9w

Jon Stewart Eviscerates CNN

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Politico: In a direct address to black America, President Barack Obama said that while “there’s probably never been less discrimination in America than there is today… the pain of discrimination is still felt” by Latinos, Muslims and gays, as well as African-Americans.

In New York on Thursday to mark the centennial of the NAACP, Obama delivered a sweeping speech outlining his domestic policy, and recalling America’s journey from slavery to freedom. He praised civil-rights activists, saying, “because of what they did, we are a more perfect union.”

Yet, he said, in spite of the many strides, there is still work to be done in ending discrimination and closing the racial gaps in employment, education, health care and incarceration rates. [ READ MORE ]

FULL SPEECH

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