Mexica Movement
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Mexica Movement is the name of a group in the United States who claim their ancestry from Indigenous people of North America as the basis for "liberating" the North American continent from people of European-descent. Their organization views Mexicans, Central Americans, Native Americans, and Canadian First Nations as one people who are falsely divided by "European-imposed borders." The group states that European-descent people have committed massive genocide and occupied the Western Hemisphere since 1492.
Their ultimate objective is the civilized, non-violent, democratic "liberation" of the North American continent from European-descendants. The organization seeks to create a future nation called Anahuac. This nation will be comprised of North and Central America, fused into a single super-state, the democratic control of Indigenous people. The group possesses a large library of indigenous manuscripts and academic research materials which serve as their inspiration for recreating a future indigenous civilization, culture and language (independent of European control).
The group views White people as "Europeans" who squat on Indigenous lands. This liberation would take place over multiple generations and involves marshaling massive media and educational resources in order to change the way people understand the history of the continent and its people.
The majority of the group's members were born in the United States. The group rejects the "Aztlan ideology" as being too limited, seeking instead to unite the entire North American continent under indigenous control. The movement also supports the preservation of the U.S. Constitution as a transitional legal framework during the multi-generational process of "liberation.".
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[edit] Name and origin
The Mexica Movement was founded in 1993 as the Chicano Mexicano Mexica Empowerment Committee (CMMEC) by the poet and writer Olin Tezcatlipoca (who legally renamed himself in the Nahuatl language as part of the reclamation of his indigenous identity). The group's name is derived from the Nahuatl word Mexica (/mesheeka/), the name the Aztecs used for themselves. (They never referred to themselves as "Aztecs"). The group has a collective leadership structure, with a few members forming the core of the group's intelligentsia in Los Angeles.
[edit] Logo Symbolism
Mexica Movement's flag features indigenous Mesoamerican symbolism. The black-and-white design in the center represents the Mayan depiction of duality (life and death, male and female, matter and spirit, etc.), which is called Hunab Ku in the Mayan language and Ometeotl in the Nahuatl language. The two dualities complement one another and are unified in balance.
The four colors of the flag represent the Nahua version of the four directions which are common to almost all indigenous cultures of the Americas, albeit with regional variations. The four directions represent the astronomical phenomena of the two solstices and two equinoxes during the cycle of one solar year, which thereby "frame" the cosmological realm of indigenous people. These astronomical events have long been considered important astronomical events in almost all indigenous cultures of the continent, especially as temporal markers for agriculture. The four directions, therefore, symbolize of the spatial area of the continent in direct interaction with the cycles of time. The colors represent indigenous deities (which the organization characterizes as qualities and functions of a single Creator): red for Tlaloc, white for Quetzalcoatl, black for Tezcatlipoca and blue for Huitzilopochtli. The flag is oriented with east at the top, as opposed to north, as European map models are oriented. East is the direction of the rising sun and is of immense significance to indigenous peoples.
The flag was created by Olin Tezcatlipoca, founder and director of the Mexica Movement.
[edit] Activism
The Mexica Movement is based in Los Angeles, California. The group is active in the Southern California protest scene and has been highly visible in all of the Southern California "immigration rights" marches. Their bold signs and literature frequently state that "All Europeans Are Illegal Since 1492" and "Mexicans, Central Americans, Native Americans, and Canadian First Nations are One People." Their signs have been shown on national media shows, such as CNN's Lou Dobbs and Glenn Beck.
Members also host regular teach-ins at East Los Angeles College and have delivered lectures to university crowds across the nation. The organization's position is to support the land ownership rights of Indigenous peoples of North America. It recognizes none of the current governments of the Americas as legitimate, calling them all "colonial" and "European-imposed". Their style is intellectually confrontational but non-violent. The organization has protested the Minuteman Project, Save Our State, Universal Studios and The Walt Disney Company [1].
[edit] Issues
[edit] Land ownership
The Mexica Movement asserts that the entire continent of North America, which they refer to as "Anahuac", belongs collectively to the indigenous people of North America: Mexicans, Central Americans, Native Americans, South Americans, and Canadian First Nations. The entire Western Hemisphere is referred to as Cemanahuac. People of European descent, the movement holds, are "illegal aliens" who have been trespassing on indigenous lands for over 500 years.[1] A Mexica Movement advocate summarized their position, "America is a murder machine... We want the whole continent... All you guys belong in Europe." he told the people participating in the Minutemen and Save Our State organizations.[2]
[edit] Claims of Genocide
The Movement asserts--based primarily on the writings of David Stannard, Ward Churchill, James Blaut, and Charles Mann--that beginning in 1492, Europeans and their descendants committed a genocide that killed 95% of Indigenous people[3] (a claim that is hotly debated by modern historians), stole their lands and mineral resources, destroyed their cities and towns, denied them access to Indigenous cultural knowledge, and terrorized the Indigenous people with intense racism. This, they assert, allowed Europe and European-descent people to prosper materially and to develop themselves at the expense of Indigenous people.
[edit] Borders
All current borders across the Western Hemisphere are regarded as "colonial" and are rejected by the group. The only true border for Europeans, the group asserts, is the Atlantic Ocean seaboard. The group maintains that indigenous people have the right to move freely among their own people of the continent, with whom they may share bloodlines, culture.
[edit] Liberation
The Mexica Movement states that it has a strict non-violence policy because they believe they would be unable to achieve their goals through the use of violence.[4] The group is committed to a long-term liberation-by-education methodology which seeks to "change hearts and minds" by educating people of the civilized achievements of Indigenous people before 1492, and of the genocide and land/resource thefts committed by Europeans since that date. The group supports the preservation of the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights as a legal framework to protect both Indigenous and European peoples' rights during the multi-generational process of liberation.
The movement consciously seeks to promote indigenous demographic increases that will lend themselves to a stronger population counterweight to the European-descent population.
Given this new majority status, the organization seeks to have "white supremacist European settlers" become the first to return to Europe. The next phase, the groups advocates, should be a civilized negotiation to repatriate the remaining white population back into Europe, over the course of a few generations. Also to be addressed will be discussions of how Europe and European-descent people will collectively deliver reparations to the peoples of the Western Hemisphere.
[edit] Media
The Mexica Movement insists that people with at least partial indigenous ancestry should play indigenous people in movies, given Hollywood's track record of employing non-Mexicans to portray Mexicans on film. The organization has rallied to stop actors of European background from playing Mexican leaders like Emiliano Zapata and claims success in derailing Disney's $20 million movie production for the never-released film, "Zapata", which was to star Antonio Banderas, who is from Spain.
[edit] Criticism
The Conservative Voice and WorldNetDaily have both done critical articles on the organization.
WorldNetDaily characterizes the Mexica Movement as being a "radical" group with " activists calling for the expulsion of most U.S. citizens from their own country."[5] WorldNetDaily claims the Mexica Movement wants to "expel the invaders of the last 500 years". WorldNetDaily claims the Mexica Movement wants "'non-indigenous,' white, English-speaking U.S. citizens of European descent who have to leave what they call 'our continent.'"
WorldNetDaily states the Mexica Movement has some members who want to reconquer the American Southwest. WorldNetDaily lists the following quotes to characterize the Mexica Movement's ideology: "This is our continent, not yours!", "We are indigenous, the only owners of this continent!" It would seem that the Mexica Movement is not limited to the "American Southwest", but to the entire continent of what is now called North America.
On the May 1, 2007 edition of his CNN television program, Glenn Beck referred to the Mexica Movement as a racist group for their desire to exclude all Americans of European descent from the North American continent.[6]
[edit] See also
- Mexica
- Maya peoples
- Indigenous peoples of the Americas
- Pipil
- Western Hemisphere
- Zapotec
- Mixtec
- Purepecha
- Inca
- Aymara
- Aboriginal land claims
[edit] References
- ^ Press Release "Illegals"
- ^ ? (WMV). Vidilife.com (April 16, 2006). Retrieved on 2007-05-01.
- ^ Untitled Document
- ^ Associate Press Supports White Supremacy
- ^ Marchers say gringos, not illegals, have to go
- ^ CNN.com - Transcripts
[edit] External links
[edit] Support
- Official site
- Mexica Movement Policy Statements Official policies of the organization.
- Indymedia.org: Mexica Movement Launches Disney Boycott
- Indymedia.org: Mexica Movement Turns Tables on Save Our State
- CNN: Mexica Movement and other activists attend Riverside, CA summit on immigration issues.
[edit] Criticism
- Lou Dobbs: Europeans to Be Expelled? Lou Dobbs Tonight Video segment showing Mexica Movement at Maywood, CA confrontation with Pro-Borders group.
- MinutemanProject.com Claims the Mexica Movement is central to the "Reconquista movement" (note: Mexica Movement does not advocate the notion of "Aztlan".)
- Immigration Watchdog, which has videos of Mexica Movement activists
- The Nation of Aztlan (Google video) Note: Mexica Movement does not advocate the notion of Aztlan.
- Aztlan Rising (Google video) Note: Mexica Movement does not advocate the notion of Aztlan.
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