The following is a forward to
By Heidi at Euphoric Reality
From Spanish-speaking illegal workers, to angry tenured professors and arrogant politicians, we are hearing more and more tenets and demands from a movement called Reconquista. The movement, once dismissed as extreme racist rhetoric, has rapidly gained traction and momentum among millions of ill-educated illegal aliens and well-established Mexicans alike. Reconquista gives voice to the angry demands of present-day Mexicans who mistakenly think they have indigenous rights to the land of the Southwestern United States – which they claim was “stolen” by an imperialist American government. The centerpiece of their agenda is the mythical Aztlan.
In the spirit of a new people that is conscious not only of its proud historical heritage but also of the brutal “gringo” invasion of our territories, we, the Chicano inhabitants and civilizers of the northern land of Aztlan from whence came our forefathers, reclaiming the land of their birth and consecrating the determination of our people of the sun, declare that the call of our blood is our power, our responsibility, and our inevitable destiny.
“From whence came our forefathers…?” Nothing could be further from the truth – not that the facts matter much in their efforts to further “La Raza” – or The Race. Using racially-charged arguments to batter at the traditional guilt mentality of Americans, proponents of Aztlan aim to “reconquer” the Southwestern United States as their due. Apparently, they fail to understand that the tribes of present-day Mexico never inhabited the Southwest U.S., nor for the most part did Mexicans themselves – it was mostly open land [frontier] except for northern Native Americans (as you will see below).
A manifest destiny has been embraced by many within mainstreamed advocacy groups in America such as La Raza, LULAC, and most commonly MECHa, the radical student organization which has specifically embraced the tenets of Atzlan. “Por La Raza todo, Fuera de La Raza nada,” is translated as “For the Race, everything, for those outside of the Race, nothing.” Though that singular statement seems to sum up the demands of today’s angry illegal Mexican aliens, there is much more to their Plan to restore Aztlan:
Aztlan belongs to those who plant the seeds, water the fields, and gather the crops and not to the foreign Europeans. We do not recognize capricious frontiers on the bronze continent
Love for our brothers makes us a people whose time has come and who struggles against the foreigner “gabacho” who exploits our riches and destroys our culture … Economic control of our lives and our communities can only come about by driving the exploiter out of our communities, our pueblos, and our lands and by controlling and developing our own talents, sweat, and resources.
Education must be relative to our people, i.e., history, culture, bilingual education, contributions, etc.
Self-defense of the community must rely on the combined strength of the people … For the very young there will no longer be acts of juvenile delinquency, but revolutionary acts.
A nation autonomous and free – culturally, socially, economically, and politically- will make its own decisions on the usage of our lands, the taxation of our goods, the utilization of our bodies for war, the determination of justice (reward and punishment), and the profit of our sweat.
So there is a Plan for Reconquista. But do these emotional and racial claims have any historical basis?
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