And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 23:50:41 EDT
Subject: Chihuahuas, War & Indian Slayers
FROM UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE
FOR RELEASE: WEEK OF JUNE 11, 1999
COLUMN OF THE AMERICAS by Patrisia Gonzales and Roberto Rodriguez
OF CHIHUAHUAS, INDIAN SLAYERS AND WAR
First, there's actor Ricardo Montalban doing Taco Bell commercials.
Now, Luis Caldera, Secretary of the Army, is mounting a national Latino
recruitment campaign by exploiting the image of the three recent prisoners
of "war" in Serbia. Meanwhile, Spike Lee, director of "Malcolm X," is set to
do commercials for the Navy. And then there's the town that wants to
re-erect a statue to an "Indian slayer."
The question "What's wrong with this picture?" is appropriate here.
For some, images, like jokes, are at worst meaningless. For others,
they have the subliminal power to influence minds. In advertising, a
powerful image is worth millions, even billions. For us, their manipulation
has to be viewed in context and can't be separated from reality.
Take Dinky. He's a cute, bilingual Chihuahua. Nothing more, nothing
less. Maybe so. However, his heavy accent takes us back to the movies of the
1950s when every Hollywood south-of-the-border type spoke similarly ("Hey,
Cisco). If one grew up being insulted for not knowing English, one would
understand why this is bothersome.
Montalban, who starred in "Fantasy Island," founded NOSOTROS (an
entertainment organization) in the 1970s to combat negative images of
Latinos in Hollywood. One of those persistent negative images was that of
actors speaking in mocking and demeaning accents.
Many people are not bothered by seeing a Chihuahua become what
Montalban used to be: the most recognizable Latino actor on television. What
bothers many is not the canine, but that his closest competitor in Hollywood
on the recognition index is Juan Valdez, the Colombian coffee peddler.
As for the Spike Lee Navy ads, they'll probably be quite hip, and no
doubt more urban youngsters will flock to the armed services. The Navy
should get a lot of bang for its buck.
Meanwhile, Caldera, while touting the "tremendous opportunities"
available in the armed services, is busy exploring ways to lower entrance
standards in his efforts to recruit Latinos. They are, he notes, 11 percent
of the population, but only 7 percent and 4 percent of the Army's enlisted
forces and officers' corps, respectively.
In his recruitment drive, Caldera recently mentioned the "brown
ones" who were captured by Serbian forces, but didn't mention that the
Army's "tremendous opportunities" include the ability to participate in
bombing countries back to the stone age. No need to sugar-coat reality.
Regarding the Indian slayer re-erection, it's most disturbing.
Milford, Pa., put up a statue in the 1800s to Tom Quick, reputed to have
killed 99 Indians. Elaine Van Raper, of the Native American Historical Truth
Association, recently said that Quick "begged for one more on his deathbed
to make it an even 100." He's credited as being the first to conduct germ
warfare against native people (through the use of blankets infected with
smallpox). In 1997, the statue was vandalized, and city officials are
contemplating re-erecting it.
"To have a monument re-erected that condones racism and violence is
an atrocity," Van Raper said. City officials apparently believe that
statues, like images, are harmless.
Charlene Teters, renowned for her struggles against racist logos in
sports, commented to us about the relationship between images and reality:
"When culture and identification are held hostage by the media, it can
create hopelessness," she said. Among native people, this can contribute to
situations such as what has recently occurred in South Dakota, where there
were 40 attempted suicides by youths, she said.
The exploitation of racist images "tells us that there must be
something wrong with us," she added.
Images are not innocuous. We've long maintained that when you reduce
images of people to illegal and outsider status, society acts accordingly.
For example, people are horrified at the concept of "Driving While Black,"
whereas they seem to believe that pulling people over for "Driving While
Brown" is perfectly acceptable. Bucking the trend against "racial
profiling," a recent federal appeals court decision said that in pulling
people over, the U.S. Border Patrol can use racial/ethnic factors ("Hispanic
appearance"). This is a go-ahead for singling out red-brown people. In other
words, thumbs up for "Indian removal." Without a change in attitude,
President Clinton's recent order to keep statistics on federal arrests will
not actually stop racial profiling.
How did we get here? Perhaps even the courts have succumbed to the
propaganda and have become convinced that these red-brown populations indeed
must deserve less respect than a dog. "Ay Chihuahua!"
COPYRIGHT 1999 UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE
* Both writers are authors of Gonzales/Rodriguez: Uncut & Uncensored (ISBN
0-918520-22-3 UC Berkeley, Ethnic Studies Library, Publications Unit.
Rodriguez is the author of Justice: A Question of Race (Cloth ISBN
0-927534-69-X paper ISBN 0-927534-68-1 Bilingual Review Press) and the
antibook, The X in La Raza II and Codex Tamuanchan: On Becoming Human. They
can be reached at PO BOX 7905, Albq NM 87194-7904, 505-242-7282 or
[EMAIL PROTECTED] Gonzales's direct line is 505-248-0092 or [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Reprinted under the fair use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html
doctrine of international copyright law.
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Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit)
Unenh onhwa' Awayaton
http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/
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