LIBROS Y MÁS.

Every year in the Spring, the New Mexican writer and activist, Denise Chavez holds her Border Book Festival in Mesilla, New Mexico, near Las Cruces; and every year it turns out to be more successful than the previous year. She invites celebrated writers to talk about their works and the craft of writing, always show-casing, however, a Latina or Latino writer. Not too long ago she moved her well-known bookstore from its location near the Mesilla Plaza to a new location, The bromide about “Location! Loction! Location!” may be true, but not for Denise Chavez’ book-store. Wherever her bookstore, la gente finds it. That’s because of Denise Chavez. Como Denise no hay dos (there’s no one like Denise).

A couple of years ago, the Big Read Program at Western New Mexico University in Silver City tucked in the southwest corner of the state at the edge of the Gila Wilderness and right on the Continental Divide invited her to talk about her work and her craft as a stellar Chicana writer. The auditorium was filled to over-flow capacity. She is relentless in championing Latin@ writers.

As a professor of Library and Information Studies at Texas Woman’s University in Denton, I used to teach a course on “The Future of the Book” polemicizing the death of the book just to rile up the graduate students pursuing Master’s and Doctoral degrees in the field. This was in the early days of the Sony Bookman and what has now become the world of IPads and Tablets. The book is very much with us and will remain so, I’m sure. Screens have replaced the clay tablets of Ashurbanipal’s Royal Library in Ninevah and the parchment scrolls of the great library of Alexandria. Like human evolution, the evolution of the book will change our relationship to the content in terms of its packaging. We can’t dog-ear the page of a kindle to mark our progress in the book.

No matter, the 2013 Tucson Book Festival was bigger and better than last year’s. In September, Silver City will launch its first book festival entitled Festival of the Written Word, attracting literary luminaries like the Tony-Award Playwright (Children of a Lesser God) Mark Medoff with whom I collaborated on Elsinore, a musical version of Hamlet in 1968, years before the rise of his star. The shelves of the bookcases in my office at Western New Mexico University are over-flowing with books on popular and arcane topics. At the Festival of the Written Word I shall talk about my life as a Chicano/Latino writer (see “Tools of the Trade: Reflections on Writing and the Pursuit of a Chicano Presence in American Life,” Historia Chicana, May 3, 2012).

In the last week of April, our university was invaded by folks from throughout the state attending a childrens’ book event touted as “The Battle of the Books.” Hijole! There were esquincles (kids) all over the place. Back to back, the university hosted a companion book event entitled Literacy Alive a program that encourages writing by high-school students. And on April 30, Western New Mexico University staged a Student Academic Symposium that highlights student research. Our rinconcito (corner of the state) is basking in the spotlight.

Important to note is that all of these events at our university included Hispanic kids, demonstrating their reading prowess and creativity with the written word. Looks like our progeny is going to handle the future well. While our kids are enthusiastic about writing, the states of Arizona and Texas are desperately whiting-out references of Hispanic contributions to the nation. The Texas Textbook Massacre is going at full-throttle in emasculating those contributions from the social science textbooks used in the Texas public schools. In Arizona, the Attorney General is dead set in eliminating Mexican American Studies from the public schools and universities. Hispanic push-back is there but slow. Perhaps a day of national outrage is needed.

At the moment, Libros Traficanes, out of Houston, is the major voice of protest to what is tantamount to demographic vilification, but in every sense of the word: censorship. This is certainly an issue for MALDEF (Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund), but it is an incumbent issue for all of us. The essence of our past is in these duels that imperil our future. Elsewhere I’ve asked: What are white mainstream Americans afraid of? They’re afraid of us and the “browning” of America as Samuel P. Huntington exhorted in “The Hispanic Challenge” (Foreign Policy, March 4, 2004). I’m not surprised by Samuel P. Huntington’s rant about immigration  and his contention that American Hispanics will succeed in this country only if they dream in English.

Loathe as I am to say it, the shadow of an angry god is darkening the American landscape, spreading its venom of white supremacy to an already skittish and xenophobic American public. It’s this fear of “the other” that is creating so much anxiety in the wake of 9/11. And it’s this fear that is impeding congressional progress on immigration reform . This fear, however, is all the more reason why American Hispanics need to bruit their history in the United States so that our non-Hispanic fellow Americans can know who we are and that we are not nemesis to the American dream and its ideals. Our history needs to be part of American history. Y por esa razon necesitamos libros y mas (That’s why we need books and more).

At the moment, Arte Publico with Nicolas Kanellos at the University of Houston is leading the way in recovering the Hispanic literature of the United States. In Albuquerque, the Hispanic Cultural Center is doing yeoman’s work in forging an Hispanic image as part of the American character. A recent work of mine La Leyenda Negra/the Black Legend traces the history of anti-Hispanic prejudice and discrimination which is far more widespread and virulent than most of us suspect or are willing to concede.

Hasta la próxima!

Copyright 2013 by Dr. Philip De Ortego y Gasca

PASARON POR AQUÍ.

New Mexico reminds me a lot of Spain, especially northeast Spain going towards Asturias. Maybe that’s why the early Spanish explorers and settlers sought to make New Mexico into New Spain. In many ways they succeeded. In many ways they were heavy-handed and brutal with the Native Americans.

Nevertheless, as Edward Rutherford points out in Sarum, his novel of England, out of necessity the hunters and settlers of Neolithic England determined that their future lay in cooperation while respecting each other’s ways and mores. We are not yet there in New Mexico, but Rutherford’s novel of England covers thousands of years, time enough to establish cooperation and respect. In my language and linguistic classes over the years I ask students to comment on language as the glue of unity among disparate peoples in a nation. Invariably the conclusion is “no,” language is not the glue of unity, settling instead on “respect” (Aretha Franklin’s R-E-S-P-E-C-T) as the glue of unity.

What remains of the Spanish entradas into New Mexico and what is readily visible is the historical blending of people and the place names they left behind, reminding us que pasaron por aqui—they passed this way. The indigenous peoples of New Mexico did not disappear upon arrival of the Spaniards. Descendants of those people are everywhere in New Mexico. My maternal grandfather Atilano Geronimo Campos was an Apache, and he is with us today in the homologous presence of his grandchildren and their children. His wife Eufracia Gasca, my maternal grandmother, was of Basque origins and she is with us today in the blended presence of her grandchildren and their children in their mitochondrial DNA. Philosophically we can say “this was their future”—their immortality, so to speak.

Their progeny was perhaps their greatest legacy. In New Mexico that progeny has scaled the heights of success in all the professions and disciplines. Les debemos mucho a los quien pasaron por aqui—we owe a lot to those who came before us. This is quite clear in the documentary film North From Mexico  which I narrated. Based on Carey McWilliams’ monumental work of 1948 on Mexicans in the United States, the film was produced by Sumner Glimscher for Greenwood Press in 1971. I was privileged to work on the script adaptation of the book with Harold Flender who wrote the script for Paris Blues with Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. More importantly, perhaps, is that Carey McWilliams recommended me specifically as a consultant to the documentary. My principal role in that effort was to establish and maintain fidelity to the facts of that historical encounter between Spaniards and Indians in New Mexico.

Notwithstanding the politics of her success, Susanna Martinez, the present governor of New Mexico, achieved a stunning victory in her election to the governorship of the state. She is indeed the first Hispanic woman to be governor of a state in the United States. That is an accomplishment of major proportions, no matter the ideology of her politics. How long her tenure will be depends on the color of the state—that is, red or blue. At the moment, New Mexico is a Blue State. Nevertheless, like the rest of us in New Mexico, Governor Martinez is the legatee of those quien pasaron por aqui.

A group spurred by Dorinda Moreno has been busy organizing the 60th anniversary of the film Salt of the Earth shot in Hanover, New Mexico (near Silver City), released in 1954 starring Will Geer and Rosaura Revueltas. While the film is ostensibly about the miners and their strike against the Empire Zinc Company, the film has emerged as a testament to the power of women in the American labor movement. The film was branded “subversive” and was “blacklisted” because it was backed by the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers and backed by blacklisted Hollywood professionals who helped produce it. Writers like Dalton Trumbo worked on the script and was blackballed for his efforts by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and denounced as a Communist propaganda film by Senator Joseph McCarthy during the dark days of that American Inquisition in ferreting out communists.

What is surprising is that after more than 60 years the strike against the Empire Zinc Company in Hanover, New Mexico, still wields such interest and fascination. This is simply proof of the power of the enduring spirit in the face of adversity. Los mineros (the miners) of the Empire Zinc Company are an important part of our New Mexico heritage—pasaron por aqui—they left their mark here. Since I use the film in my course on The Chicano Experience in the United States I’ve been asked to be a keynote speaker at the 60th anniversary event.

What is spurring my interest these days is the rising use of social media by Latinos not just in the United States but hemispherically. Everywhere around the state ubiquitous cell phones and iPads are communicating with each other. This is not a white/black or ethnic driven phenomenon; it’s part of the human evolution of communication, made all the more significant because it augurs possibilities for a unity of Latinos. The use of social media, according to the pundits, was the winning element in the re-election of President Obama. The trick now is how to make it work for the aspirations of Latino Americans.

One way, evident at the moment, is the instantaneity of the media. Whoever we want to talk to no matter the distance—hay ‘tan, there they are. Electronic mail hastens that process as well. As does facebook and twitter. That part of the media over which we can exercise some measure of control is advantageous to the amelioration of Latino Americans. Mainstream media, however, is a horse of a different color. On Cesar Chavez Day not one mainstream network featured anything about him. Que hacemos? Manos a la obra! What shall we do? Let’s get to work!
____________________________________________________________________

Dr. Felipe de Ortego y Gasca, Ph.D. (English, University of New Mexico, ‘71) is
Scholar In Residence and Past Chair of the Department  of Chicana/o and Hemispheric Studies,
College of Arts and Sciences, Western New Mexico University and was founding Director of the
Chicano Studies Deaprtment at the University of Texas at El Paso. He is Editor-in-Chief of the
Greenwood Encyclopedia of Latino Issues Today (2 Vols.) forthcoming.

AQUI Y ALLA.

Some year ago I wrote about “Demography and Destiny: American Hispanics in the 21st Century” which was met with mixed reactions, more  negatively than positively. The Texas demographer Stephen Murdock was the most incandescent in his reaction despite his projections about the growth of Tejanos in the state. It turns out that for American Hispanics demography may be destiny based principally on fertility and motility, though there are signs that the American Hispanic birth-rate may not hold as has been projected. Indeed Latino population growth is not a singularity of infinite density. In the meantime, a lot of work and responsibility attends that growth.

Recently, the Los Angeles Times reported that “Latinos to Surpass Whites for First Time since California Statehood” (2/1/13). And that by the year 2060 “Latinos will make up 48% of the state’s population, compared with 30% for whites.” In the 90’s Texas Demographers predicted that between the years 2020 and 2040 half of the Texas population would be Hispanic, principally Mexican American. One Census forecast indicates that by the year 2095 half the country will be Hispanic (hard to believe). What this augurs was not revealed through that glass darkly. We see now what it all means per the presidential election of this year. American Hispanics drove the winning election for Barack Obama.

The 2010 Census data for New Mexico indicates 46.3% Hispanic and 40.5% white. The other 13% are principally Native Americans (8.5%). The African American population of New Mexico is small (1.7%). From its earliest days as a Spanish colony, New Mexico has had proportionately larger Hispanic populations except at the beginning when Indians outnumbered Hispanics. In 1912 Anglos outnumbered Hispanics, a situation that made it possible for New Mexico statehood. Senator Albert Beveridge of Indiana was the principal gatekeeper in keeping New Mexico at bay from statehood until the Anglo population exceeded the Mexican population.

Despite numerical superiority, New Mexican Hispanos have not fared well in the state though they have maintained a modicum of political presence in state and federal governments. When the state was a territory, Miguel Antonio Otero (appointed by President McKinley) served as the first Hispanic governor of the Territory of New Mexico (1897-1906). “In 1853 the New Mexico territory elected Democrat José Manuel Gallegos as its Delegate to Congress” (Hispanic Americans in Congress, 1822-1995, http://www.loc.gov/rr/  hispanic/congress/introduction.html .

In 1928 Republican Octaviano Larrazolo, became the first Hispanic Senator from New Mexico. In 1936, Democrat Dennis Chávez became the first Hispanic to serve a full term in the U.S. Senate, following two terms as a Representative. He served until his death in 1962. In 1964 New Mexico elected Senator Joseph Montoya (D), who served until 1977. In 1969 Republican Manuel Lujan was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. In more recent times, Jerry Apodaca was governor from 1975-78, Tony Anaya from 1983-86, and Susanna Martinez since 2010.

At times, New Mexicans have been divided over identity—norteños as Hispanos; and “surteños” as Chicanos. But that’s of minor import in the larger scheme of Hispanicity. What is truly startling in the matrix of identity is the presence of “cryptojews” (mostly Sephardim) in New Mexico. New Mexico provided safer asylum for Spanish Jews escaping or evading the Spanish inquisition. New Mexico is replete with contradictions of identity. Therein lies the lure of the state.

What is little known and less bruited is information about the Singularity of the Latino population growth in the United States. It all started, of course, with the arrival of the Spaniards in the Americas—I’m loathe to use the word “New World.” The families of those Spaniards and their descendants built communities in the American lands they explored. In lands now the United States they built communities like San Antonio, El Paso (del Norte), Santa Fe, Tucson, San Diego, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Monterrey, San Luis Obispo, San Francisco, and hundreds of smaller settlements in between. The land of the Mexican Cession was not devoid of people as is commonly reported in American history books.

In the United States proper, the first Hispanics to become Americans were the Hispanic Jews of New Netherlands (New Amsterdam which later became New York). Ethnic cleansing and Jewish pogroms were commonplace in 17th century Europe, having started with the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492.The Jews in the Netherlands of the early 17th century were expelled English Sephardic Jews. When the Romans dispersed the Jews after destroying their temple in Jerusalem in 73 AD, the Jews were dispersed to Germany, Spain, and elsewhere. Eventually the German Jews became identified as Ashkenazi Jews and the Jews of Spain became known as Sephardic Jews. This was the beginning of the Jewish Diaspora. The Sephardic Jews of New York (formerly New Amsterdam) played significant roles in the American Revolution.

With purchase of the Louisiana Territory in 1803, the United States acquired its next population of Hispanics who had settled in New Orleans, followed in 1819 with the Hispanics of Florida purchased from Spain. The largest acquisition of Hispanics by the U.S. came with the victory over Mexico, 1846-1848, The Hispanic Southwest was larger than Spain, France, and Italy combined. The last group of Hispanics acquired by the U.S. a re the populations of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam (and the Philippines). These Hispanics constitute the “core population” of U.S. Hispanics whose descendants are the major population of Hispanic growth in the nation.

This history bears importantly on the history of New Mexico and the United States. Paraphrasing Santayana, those who do not know the history of their country are condemned to repeat the mistakes of their history. Finally, the United States is not a nation of immigrants. Ask a native of Hawaii if he or she is an immigrant. Ask the Aleuts of Alaska. Ask the Native Americans. Ask the Puerto Ricans. Ask the Chicanos.

Copyright 2013 by Dr. Felipe de Ortgo y Gasca

The country is beset these days with controversies of opposition—guns, immigration, abortion, national debt, profiling, civil rights, freedom of speech anent book banning, environmental justice, global warming, poverty, reproduction rights, food production and security. Some shrill voices cry that the country is going to hell in a handbasket. Others alert us that we’re on the wrong road to the future. Despite the gravity of these issues individually and more so collectively, American Hispanics are rarely if at all at the discussion table. They are certainly absent on the ubiquitous talk shows that hawk mainstream views on these issues—oftentimes ad nauseam (inanely) with little or no thought for Hispanics impacted by these issues In effect all these issues are Hispanic issues as well.

Controversies of opposition have been with us since the beginning of the nation (perhaps since the beginning of time)—Whigs and Tories, “taxation without representation,” etcetera, bringing to mind Socrates’ exclamation at his trial for heresy that the “unexamined life is not worth living.” Controversies of opposition produce tension. It’s that tension, perhaps, that churns up Henri Bergsen”s elan vital, that vital element that helps us determine whether it’s fight or flight when we encounter challenges or adversity on Bravo Road.

Bravo Road is an ephemeral path, a little like Antonio Machado’s road constructed with each step we take. Though ephemeral, Bravo Road is real for all of us—it’s the road of life. In particular, it’s the weary road Latinos tread every day of their lives in the United States. Not every step is weary. Some steps take us to byways of exultation, of great joy, of discovery, epiphanies and triumphs. For many it’s the road of success. For others like the colonial American Puritans it’s a road to be endured. For me, Bravo Road is the title of my memoir with the subtitle “An American Odyssey.”

Like the road of the Beatles, Bravo Road has been a long and winding road of tears and laughter. At times we are solitary travelers on that road; at other times we are traveling with companions, with mirth and joys of great tidings. Sometimes we can see the light at the end of the road; at other times the elements obscure that light. But like the hordes of Par Lagerkvist, we keep on keeping on.

Here in New Mexico, life keeps on keeping on. My fingers are not on the pulse of all that is going on in the state. Though born in Illinois to itinerant Mexican workers, I grew up in San Antonio, Chicago, and Pittsburgh. Nevertheless, I have a great affinity for New Mexico. I started my university career at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces in 1964, studied for the Ph.D. in English at the University of New Mexico from 1966-1971, culminating my academic career since 2007 at Western New Mexico University in the mountain heights of Silver City in the southwestern portion of the state where the Continental Divide at 6,000 feet above sea level cuts across the Gila Wilderness.

While I don’t know about all that is happening in New Mexico, I’m involved in a number of activities that keep me engaged with the state. I’m co-chair of the Intellectual Freedom Committee of the New Mexico Library Association, a board member of the New Mexico Humanities Council, a board member of the Southwestern New Mexico Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, a member of the Silver City LULAC Council 8003 (named national Council of the year in 2012), and a paid-up-for-life member of the Silver City American Legion chapter. Extramurally, I’m also Editor-in-Chief of the ABC-CLIO Greenwood Encyclopedia of Latino Issues Today (2 volumes, forthcoming), and a member of the Advisory Board of the Mayborn Literary Non-Fiction Conference sponsored by the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of North Texas in Denton. All of this pretty much fills up my time in addition to teaching courses at Western New Mexico University where I’m Scholar in Residence.

I suppose this biographic information is to shore up my bona fides to write this blog reporting and commenting on what is happening in this part of Aztlan–Nuevo Mexico, whose history is vital in the story of the Hispanic presence in the Americas. The Spanish entradas into North America (what is now the United States) could not foresee the future of the region they traversed, though they aptly named one part of that region Nuevo Mexico—New Mexico. Cabeza de Vaca, Andrés Dorantes, Alonso del Castillo, and an enslaved Moroccan Berber named Esteban passed through New Mexico in their search for a way back to Mexico City after an 8 year trek following their 1528 shipwreck on what is today Galveston, Texas. Coronado passed through New Mexico in his memorable journey (1540-42) in search for Quivira. With Juan de Oñate, Gaspar Perez de Villagra (author of La Historia de la Nueva Mexico) chronicled the entrada of Juan de Oñate and his vicious attack of the Pueblos at Acoma—a degüello as brutal as the Roman extermination of the Jews at Masada in 73CE. New Mexico is full of such history—and still making history.

It will be stimulating, pleasurable, and a challenge to report on New Mexico with sallies into national issues for Latinopia’s Notes/ News from Aztlan.

At the moment, the state legislature is meeting in Santa Fe, starting on the 3rd Tuesday in January. As an odd-numbered year, the legislature meets for 60 days. The most pressing issues for the solons at this legislative session are balancing the budget and keeping Governor Susanna Martinez at bay in her efforts to ban issuing driver’s licenses to undocumented workers. Mas en el proximo reporte.