Maria Amelia Lopez (1911-2009): R.I.P.

The matriarch of Spanish language blogging has died at age 97 in the northern Spanish province of La Coruna.

Maria Amelia Lopez charmed readers with reminiscences and folksy chat at A mis 95 años/95 years old blogger, including stories about Spain's Civil War and life under the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco.

Doña Lopez, who dictated her entries to her grandson Daniel because she suffered from cataracts, became a beloved figure in Spain and across the globe.

"My grandson gave me this blog when I was 95 on December 23 2006 and my life changed. Since that day I've had 1,570,784 visits from bloggers from 5 continents who have cheered up my old age." Maria Amelia Lopez

Part of Doña Lopez' purpose was to inspire other seniors to connect with people via the internent, share stories and to continue learning.

May she continue blogging from heaven.

A Merry Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year

Let's hope it's a good one -- without any tears. War is over. If you want it.

Thanksgiving: The National Day of Mourning - Text of 1970 Speech by Wamsutta, an Aquinnah Wampanoag Elder

Frank James (1923 - February 20, 2001) was known to the Wampanoag people as Wamsutta. In 1970, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts invited him to speak at Plymouth's annual Thanksgiving feast. When the text of Mr. James’ speech was revealed before dinner, Massachusetts "disinvited" him.

Wamsutta refused to revise his speech and left the event. He went to the hill near the statue of the Massasoit, the Wampanoag leader during the Pilgrims' arrival in 1620. There, overlooking Plymouth Harbor and the replica of the Mayflower, Frank James recited the speech that Massachusetts Commonwealth had refused to hear:

I speak to you as a man -- a Wampanoag Man. I am a proud man, proud of my ancestry, my accomplishments won by a strict parental direction ("You must succeed - your face is a different color in this small Cape Cod community!"). I am a product of poverty and discrimination from these two social and economic diseases. I, and my brothers and sisters, have painfully overcome, and to some extent we have earned the respect of our community. We are Indians first - but we are termed "good citizens." Sometimes we are arrogant but only because society has pressured us to be so.

It is with mixed emotion that I stand here to share my thoughts. This is a time of celebration for you - celebrating an anniversary of a beginning for the white man in America. A time of looking back, of reflection. It is with a heavy heart that I look back upon what happened to my People.

Even before the Pilgrims landed it was common practice for explorers to capture Indians, take them to Europe and sell them as slaves for 220 shillings apiece. The Pilgrims had hardly explored the shores of Cape Cod for four days before they had robbed the graves of my ancestors and stolen their corn and beans. Mourt's Relation describes a searching party of sixteen men. Mourt goes on to say that this party took as much of the Indians' winter provisions as they were able to carry.

Massasoit, the great Sachem of the Wampanoag, knew these facts, yet he and his People welcomed and befriended the settlers of the Plymouth Plantation. Perhaps he did this because his Tribe had been depleted by an epidemic. Or his knowledge of the harsh oncoming winter was the reason for his peaceful acceptance of these acts. This action by Massasoit was perhaps our biggest mistake. We, the Wampanoag, welcomed you, the white man, with open arms, little knowing that it was the beginning of the end; that before 50 years were to pass, the Wampanoag would no longer be a free people.

What happened in those short 50 years? What has happened in the last 300 years? History gives us facts and there were atrocities; there were broken promises - and most of these centered around land ownership. Among ourselves we understood that there were boundaries, but never before had we had to deal with fences and stone walls. But the white man had a need to prove his worth by the amount of land that he owned. Only ten years later, when the Puritans came, they treated the Wampanoag with even less kindness in converting the souls of the so-called "savages." Although the Puritans were harsh to members of their own society, the Indian was pressed between stone slabs and hanged as quickly as any other "witch."

And so down through the years there is record after record of Indian lands taken and, in token, reservations set up for him upon which to live. The Indian, having been stripped of his power, could only stand by and watch while the white man took his land and used it for his personal gain. This the Indian could not understand; for to him, land was survival, to farm, to hunt, to be enjoyed. It was not to be abused. We see incident after incident, where the white man sought to tame the "savage" and convert him to the Christian ways of life. The early Pilgrim settlers led the Indian to believe that if he did not behave, they would dig up the ground and unleash the great epidemic again.

The white man used the Indian's nautical skills and abilities. They let him be only a seaman -- but never a captain. Time and time again, in the white man's society, we Indians have been termed "low man on the totem pole.

Has the Wampanoag really disappeared? There is still an aura of mystery. We know there was an epidemic that took many Indian lives - some Wampanoags moved west and joined the Cherokee and Cheyenne. They were forced to move. Some even went north to Canada! Many Wampanoag put aside their Indian heritage and accepted the white man's way for their own survival. There are some Wampanoag who do not wish it known they are Indian for social or economic reasons.

What happened to those Wampanoags who chose to remain and live among the early settlers? What kind of existence did they live as "civilized" people? True, living was not as complex as life today, but they dealt with the confusion and the change. Honesty, trust, concern, pride, and politics wove themselves in and out of their [the Wampanoags'] daily living. Hence, he was termed crafty, cunning, rapacious, and dirty.

History wants us to believe that the Indian was a savage, illiterate, uncivilized animal. A history that was written by an organized, disciplined people, to expose us as an unorganized and undisciplined entity. Two distinctly different cultures met. One thought they must control life; the other believed life was to be enjoyed, because nature decreed it. Let us remember, the Indian is and was just as human as the white man. The Indian feels pain, gets hurt, and becomes defensive, has dreams, bears tragedy and failure, suffers from loneliness, needs to cry as well as laugh. He, too, is often misunderstood.

The white man in the presence of the Indian is still mystified by his uncanny ability to make him feel uncomfortable. This may be the image the white man has created of the Indian; his "savageness" has boomeranged and isn't a mystery; it is fear; fear of the Indian's temperament!

High on a hill, overlooking the famed Plymouth Rock, stands the statue of our great Sachem, Massasoit. Massasoit has stood there many years in silence. We the descendants of this great Sachem have been a silent people. The necessity of making a living in this materialistic society of the white man caused us to be silent. Today, I and many of my people are choosing to face the truth. We ARE Indians!

Although time has drained our culture, and our language is almost extinct, we the Wampanoags still walk the lands of Massachusetts. We may be fragmented, we may be confused. Many years have passed since we have been a people together. Our lands were invaded. We fought as hard to keep our land as you the whites did to take our land away from us. We were conquered, we became the American prisoners of war in many cases, and wards of the United States Government, until only recently.

Our spirit refuses to die. Yesterday we walked the woodland paths and sandy trails. Today we must walk the macadam highways and roads. We are uniting We're standing not in our wigwams but in your concrete tent. We stand tall and proud, and before too many moons pass we'll right the wrongs we have allowed to happen to us.

We forfeited our country. Our lands have fallen into the hands of the aggressor. We have allowed the white man to keep us on our knees. What has happened cannot be changed, but today we must work towards a more humane America, a more Indian America, where men and nature once again are important; where the Indian values of honor, truth, and brotherhood prevail.

You the white man are celebrating an anniversary. We the Wampanoags will help you celebrate in the concept of a beginning. It was the beginning of a new life for the Pilgrims. Now, 350 years later it is a beginning of a new determination for the original American: the American Indian.

There are some factors concerning the Wampanoags and other Indians across this vast nation. We now have 350 years of experience living amongst the white man. We can now speak his language. We can now think as a white man thinks. We can now compete with him for the top jobs. We're being heard; we are now being listened to. The important point is that along with these necessities of everyday living, we still have the spirit, we still have the unique culture, we still have the will and, most important of all, the determination to remain as Indians. We are determined, and our presence here this evening is living testimony that this is only the beginning of the American Indian, particularly the Wampanoag, to regain the position in this country that is rightfully ours.

The Coming Collapse of the Middle Class

In this video lecture, distinguished law scholar Elizabeth Warren contrasts today's families to their counterparts of the '70, and finds that changes in the economy are undermining, constricting and bankrupting America's political, social and economic foundation: the Middle Class.

"I fear we're moving from a three class society to a two class society...threaten[ing] the fabric of our country. We have a middle class that's weakened. And...it's time to realign our academic and political alliances to talk more about what's happening with these families."

Dr. Warren teaches contract law, bankruptcy, and commercial law at Harvard Law School. She is an outspoken critic of America's credit economy, which she has linked to the continuing rise in bankruptcy among the middle-class.

Eugene Robinson: The GOP Is a Mess and a Fraud

Time to Be Outward Bound is the title of Eugene Robinson's withering assessment of Conservative Republican governance under of Bush/Cheney. His conclusion? Today's GOP Is a Mess and a Fraud.

Since George W. Bush became president, the Republican Party has presided over massive, out-of-control government spending, converted a federal budget surplus into a half-trillion-dollar deficit, and looked the other way while Wall Street's greed and stupidity turned the hallowed free market into scorched earth. Now the party has to watch as a Republican president orchestrates the biggest government intervention into the workings of the private sector since the New Deal.

Robinson rightly points out that it's laughable for Republicans to claim that they are for small government; and he skewers "right wing radio blowhards" -- Sean Hannity, Michael Savage, Rush Limbaugh, Bill Cunningham, Laura Ingraham, et al. -- for trying to paint Obama and the Democrats as big government Socialists.

It's pathetic to hear right-wing talk radio blowhards try to associate Barack Obama with "radical" or "socialist" views when a Republican administration is tossing aside "Atlas Shrugged" and speed-reading "Das Kapital."

Robinson's prescription?

When a political party reaches the point of lurching incoherence, the most effective cure is a good, long spell in the wilderness. Americans should help Republicans out by sending them home to get their act together.

Robinson is, of course, right -- and even sensible Republicans agree. It is painfully obvious to them that their party needs a time out to rehab, gather itself and figure out what it stands for in a post Ronald Reagan World.

In the meanwhile, Conservative Republican politicians should not be allowed anywhere near 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and right-wing radio blowhards ought to seek treatment for their rage, hate and racism.

Jim Hightower: failed conservative values = ethic of greed

James Allen "Jim" Hightower is a populist activist, former Texas Agriculture Commissioner, radio commentator, public speaker, prolific author (including Let's Stop Beating Around the Bush, Swim Against the Current, There's Nothing in the Middle of the Road but Yellow Stripes and Dead Armadillos, Thieves in High Places, and The People Are Revolting!), and truth-teller.

Americans Who Tell the Truth: Carlos Muñoz Jr.

"As Latinos, we are not islands unto ourselves. Our past and present struggles for social and economic justice have been directly connected with those of all oppressed peoples.

We know we are an indigenous people. But we must also know that we are African, Asian, Middle Eastern, and European.

We are of all faiths. We are America!"

Americans Who Tell the Truth

Americans Who Tell The Truth: Winona LaDuke

“The essence of the problem is about consumption, recognizing that a society that consumes one third of the world’s resources is unsustainable. This level of consumption requires constant intervention into other people’s lands. That’s what’s going on.” Winona LaDuke

Americans Who Tell the Truth

Americans Who Tell The Truth: W.E.B. DuBois

"Back of the problem of race and color lies a greater problem and that is the fact that so many civilized persons are willing to live in comfort even if the price of this is poverty, ignorance, and disease of the majority of their fellowmen, [and] that to maintain this privilege men have waged war until today war tends to become universal and continuous." ~ W.E.B. DuBois

Americans Who Tell the Truth

Bartolomé de las Casas: Witness to Evil

Bartolomé de las Casas (1484-1566)

Bartolomé de las Casas, a Spanish colonist, a priest, founder of a Utopian community and first Bishop of Chiapas, was a scholar, historian and 16th century human rights advocate. Las Casas has been called the Father of anti-imperialism and anti-racism. Others take a more guarded or modest view of his achievements. What there is little or no dispute about is that Las Casas was an early and energetic advocate and activist for the rights of native peoples.

Las Casas came to the Indies early, he knew Columbus and was the editor of the Admiral's journal. He knew conditions in the Americas first hand. As the reading in our packet indicates, he was present during Spanish genocidal attacks on the native population of Cuba.

After coming to the realization that the Spanish treatment of the native population was unconscionable, Las Casas became a Dominican priest, and began travelling back and forth accross the Atlantic. He was in part responsible for the repeal of the laws which allowed the Indians to be used in what amounted to slave labor gangs. This was the econmienda system. Government officials were willing to go along with this attempt to end the system for they feared that a new class of feudal lords would arise in the colonies. The Spanish colonists were outraged at this interference. Las Casas attempted to set up a colony on the coast of Venezuala where the native people would be treated properly. It failed largely because of the bad example set by the colony's neighbors.

Because of preassures from the colonists, the encomienda system was restored. Las Casas returned to Spain and was eventually able to bring about the great debate of 1550 in the Spanish capital of Valladolid between Las Casas and the advocate for the colonists Juan Gines de Sepulveda. The excerpt in our packet is from Las Casas' account of the debate.

The advocates of the encomienda system eventually triumphed. When the government realized that it might lose Peru to colonists revolting over this issue, it gave in. Still, Las Casas is a shining example of resistance to the ill treatment of native peoples. His works were translated accross Europe. He likely influenced the French essayist Montaigne's views about the new world.

Las Casas Time Line

1484 Born in Seville to Pedro de Las Casas, a small merchant wealthy enough to send his son to learn Latin in the academy at the cathedral of Seville in 1497. Many older sources give 1474 as the year of his birth.

1502 Leaves Spain for Hispaniola in the West Indies with the governor, Nicolas de Ovando. He earns an encomienda for his participation in several expeditions and then proceeds to evangelize the Indians.

1506 Returns briefly to Europe where he is ordained a deacon in Rome.

1511 On August 15, Pentecost Sunday, listens to a sermon by a Dominican priest, Father Antonio de Montesinos on the text "I am a voice crying in the wilderness," denouncing Spain's treatment of the Indians. As a result Las Casas returns his Indian serfs to the governor and the rest of his life is to be spent in defense of the Indian.

1512 Becomes first priest to be ordained in the New World.

1513 Takes part in the violent and bloody conquest of Cuba and receives Indian serfs for his efforts.

1515 Returns to Spain to plead the Indian cause before King Ferdinand. With the support of the archbishop of Toledo, Francisco Jimenez de Cisneros, is named priest-procurator of the Indies.

1516 In November returns to America as a member of a commission sent to investigate the treatment of the Indians.

1519 Returns to Spain once more.

1520 Presents a defense of the Indian to King Charles I (Emperor Charles V) arguing that the time of military conquest of the Indians has passed and that they could be converted by more peaceful means. After much debate the king sides with Las Casas and supports his plan to build a colony of farm communities in present-day Venezuela inhabited by both Spanish and free Indians. Las Casas sets sail in December.

1522 In January, after more than a year of continuous opposition of local encomenderos who incite Indian attacks on the farmers, the experiment fails.

1523 Disappointed in the results of his political activities, Las Casas joins the Dominicans in Santo Domingo and focuses his energy on writing. Over the next several years he will write several works including the treatise "Concerning the Only Way of Drawing All Peoples to the True Religion" and the beginnings of both Apologetica historia de las Indias and Historia de Las Indies.

1530 Returned to Spain and obtained a royal decree prohibiting the enforcement of slavery in Peru which he delivered personally.

1537 Receives some support from the Pope in the form of Paul III's bull Sublimis Deus which declared the American Indians as rational beings with souls and that their lives and property should be protected.

1542 Returns to Spain where he convinced Charles I to signs the "New Laws" which prohibited Indian slavery and attempted to put an end to the endomienda system by limiting ownership of serfs to a single generation. Writes his most influential and best known work, "A brief report on the Destruction of the Indians," which horrifies the court.

1544 To ensure enforcement of the laws he is named bishop of Chiapas in Guatemala and sets sail in July. Upon arrival meets immediate opposition. He declares in his tract Confesionario that any Spaniard who refuse to release his Indians is to be denied absolution. Many members of his clergy refuse to follow this order. A year later the inheritance limitation is rescinded by Charles V.

1547 Returns to Spain and gives up his episcopal dignity. Becomes an influential figure at court and at the Council of the Indies. Begins conflict with Juan Gines de Sepulveda who defends Spain's treatment of the Indians on Aristotelian principles.

1550 At the order of Charles I meets Sepulveda in the famous debate at the Council of Valladolid. While Las Casas convinced the theologians who presided over the debate and received official approval it was Sepulveda's teachings which largely prevailed in the Indies.

1552 Without clearance from the Inquisition, publishes The Destruction of the Indies. Spends the next fourteen years writing and appearing at court and councils in defense of the Indians.

1566 Dies in Madrid and buried in the convent chapel of Our Lady of Atocha.

1875 Historia de las Indias first published.

Time Line Sources

"Las Casas, Bartolome de" Encyclopedia Britannica. 1957

Las Casas, Bartolome. Devastation of the Indies. Ed. Bill M. Donovan. Trans. Herma
Briffault. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992.

Hanke, Lewis. Bartolome de Las Casas. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1952.

Related:

Brief Account of the Devastation of the Indies by Bartolomé de las Casas (1542)
How Columbus Day Harms American Indians (by Glenn Morris, Indian Country Today - 10.4.07

Trino's Parting Message to America's Tom Tancredos

Trinidad Sánchez, Jr.--or Trino as he was fondly called--was a special person.

An educator, poet and peaceful warrior for justice, Trino touched souls and ignited imaginations.

Trino died unexpectedly last year after a stroke. He was 63 years old.

And as if to put an exclamation point on America's current period of shame, Trino suffered without health insurance.

Among other works, Trino published two collections of poetry: Why Am I So Brown, and Jalapeño Blues.

A friend of his in life and in spirit sent me what is perhaps Trino's final poem--an anguished cry against the madness and hypocrisy of the anti-Latino racism of people like of Tom Tancredo.

For a glimpse of the man, read the trinity of posts on Trino by Ruth of La Tertulia.

TO BE OR NOT TO BE

For Tom Tancredo

Tom
I want you to know that
I am Illegal,
that my parents were Illegal,
that they came to this country
with a MEXICAN DREAM –
that life would be better
there would be an abundance of justicia!
They raised ten Illegal
children who fought and returned
from those unlawful wars
only to be more Illegal
than when they left.
If that’s not enough,
I want you to know
my siblings have multiplied
and all sobrinos y sobrinas
they are all Illegal.

I want you to know that
I am Illegal,
that we’re the ones who
renovated your home, raise your children,
clean up after people like you
maid your houses, garden your flowers.
work your fields, your orchards
construction sites & restaurant kitchens
doing the cheeeeeap hard labor
your kind refuses to do.

I want you to know that
I am Illegal.
We are all Illegal Americans from
North, Central & South America
we are all proud of being Illegal Americans.

I want to know
with a name like yours
if there are skeletons in your closet . . .
if they are Illegal
& did you ask for their pink cards
after all, people who live in glass houses
need to be extra careful.

Tom Tancredo
I am Illegal,
I’m proud of being Illegal.
Your Gestapo immigration
can’t fuck
with my MEXICAN/CHICANO sueño
for a better life – lleno de justicia
NOT the “just us” American dream
that you look for . . .
a life without people
who are different than you
in color and size and even better than you.

Tom
I want you to know
there are no Illegal people,
there are only Illegal governments.
I’m sure you will say
writing this poem is Illegal.
It’s against the law
because it’s the fashionable thing to be.

I want you to know
you will never understand
being Illegal is fun
being a wetback is cool
being a mojado es la moda
because being Illegal
is being different than you
and is the best thing
I know how to be!

Trinidad Sánchez, Jr.

We're A Speck of Dust in the Universe

I love astronomy and I loved Carl Sagan. His book The Dragons of Eden, Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence is superb, as was his series on the universe called Cosmos: A Personal Voyage.

Brilliant!

His book Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space was a sequel to Cosmos and in it Sagan described what was known about the unverse at the time.

The title came from this photo of the Earth as seen by Voyager 1 on June 6, 1990 from a distance of 4 billion miles.

Of the "pale blue dot," Sagan said, "That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every 'superstar,' every 'supreme leader,' every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there — on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam."

Talk about putting things in perspective. Maybe this will help us get over ourselves.