Författare: xikano_2

Wow. There is a Xicagoblogsphere. Gotta love that X. Bloggeros Xicagoenses. Gone are the days when our good friend, now proud mother of one, http://www.injust-spring.com/ was a loner on the Chicago blogsphere denoting herself as Xicana.

Now they are 12 of them. Hell, when a good writer like Sandra Cisneros comes out and writes her Americana lifestyle to the acclaim of the nation you know that something is brewing and sprawling.

There is something about Chicago that mexican americans there are not that repressed when it comes to their cultural identities. That is, they readily seem to embrace their mexicanness as opposed to Californios such as the writer at hand. Californian mexicanos have a ready made grab bag of repression stories. We were forbade to speak Spanish and that is one theme that includes corporal punishment. Mexican americans from Chicago don’t seem to have grown up deploring the one end of their cultural mestizaje. This could have an easy explanation such as the constant fientlighet atmosfí¤r som rí¥der i Kalifornien, je, couldn’t resist saying that in Swedish. What I just said that that could be partly due to the constant animosity that tends to pervade in California between the two cultures.

It’s as if its not dirty to be mexican or an able spanish speaker in Chicago though I could be very wrong.

I wrote this on my blogspot blog in 2003:

When it comes to languages it seems to me rather curious the stance some people take. I remember as a child how embarrassed I was to speak spanish. I recall how one day we came to my grandmother’s in TJ and how, inspite of being raised by her, and just only two years before all I spoke was spanish I claimed not to. English was my de facto lingua. Later, as I grew I did everything in my power to disguise my spanish accent to the point of only thinking, eating, walking and peeing in english.

However, we are products of our environment and the oppressive years in California, oppressive for me because I lived in such an environment, spanish was worst than the black plague, it gave you away as a foreigner, in your own country.

That’s why I get goose bumps whenever I come across blogs that blend in spanish and english as if that is the most natural thing in the world to do. Blogs like Fernando Graphicos who not only embrace spanish but you can see that it is an integral part of their lives.

I think it is natural for the development of the Xicano community to start embracing their cultural roots more and more. I think that Xenophobia is a bad thing for America and that it doesn’t allow for real democracy to bloom in America. English speakers will now have to give leeway for the other native tongues to start making inroads in the conscience of Americans. Spanish speakers have a long tradition in the legal framework of the nation that spells right out that Spanish is a language which is part of America. Spanish is american and it will not deteriorate English speaking America just as French didn’t ruin Canada either. English speakers really need to stop bullying bilinguals or native american speakers because in order for America to move forward it needs to start embracing not only other languages but its native population as as well.

And Xicanos are as native as you get.

I have been in Europe long, really long. Though most scandinavians would wonder that thing about Europe. In fact, most scandinavians, were one to trust my infallible judgement, seem not to consider themselves all that European.

I notice this when I watch tv, that I have been in Europe too long and not that thing about scandinavians … erhm … you get what I mean.

Specially shows that are Law and Order related. I hate the smart guy. This is exactly the kind of mentality that those shows ought to avoid but no, here in Europe, if you are an American, and with several years in Europe, those are the very kind of shows that exact a My God, what is that ghastly behaviour doing on my tv? Are those my people is the second thought right after the first one.

I suppose that the West never really stopped being the West, it just changed clothes and artilugios, erhm, gadgets in english.

I do loath the smart, determined will get you if it is the last thing I do Joe on those tv shows.

Worse yet, one really does wonder why do they put so many intelligent people at the service and behest of brutes whose groal is enough to make King Kong jump up out of fear.

There are many case in point but CSI is a classic one. I mean, these guys do really need a life. They are so obssesed with their case load that entire institutions are crawling behind them like some wacko sycophant who thrives in feeding the ego of others and the more it does it the more determined their host gets. They do love seeing a fat ego grow.

I once read in a newspaper or some kind of media thrash somewhere, you know, one of those media byte size news that sticks like goo for the rest of your life, regarding the dumbing of America. This in the 80’s ok?

It is still going on.

Ever noticed how Hollywood always put the smart ones in roles that resemble an idiot savant? Well, you observed right, they are real idiots because they allow their thinking to be used by brutes who keep and swallow all the glory for themselves erstwhile the real thinkers get a woof and groal as a thanks.

Wouldn’t be surprised if twenty years from now Hollywood is confronted by these idiot savants for treating them like crap on the screen. I can imagine a bourgening business around them too, psychiatrists, psychologists and the like trying to comfort them for having being used in that fashion. It won’t happen today though, those idiots think they are being chic and the latest fashion models of some sort. And until then, the show must go on.

Oh, this is just damn dandy, hilarious and outrages. Another year, as if. You know that saying about a hole and a head, you get the drift. Am on my second day of it and am already feeling old and tired of it. Where is my mojo? Who knows.

On the first of what we are made to believe is a new year, I woke up and looked outside my window, gaddamn, it looks just like the one before, I swear to God.

Abject New Year. It’s gonna be the same fucking shit as always in the english world.

The military industrial complex of the USA will keep shoving us lies up our ass like there is no tomorrow so they can kill more people and have more fun inventing more ways to anihilate the human race as fast as they can erstwhile calling it protection of our life style. They will still concoct ways to convince us that because other poeple of other thinking and other ways of seeing how the world runs is bad for us and good for them because that way their power hierarchy basically remains unscathed adn they get to make a pretty penny while at it.

Christians will still keep shoving their doomsday crap and cultural assasination in the name of God over and over again for 363 days. Christians will still not find it contradictory that God has chosen tribes for when He comes to our rescue and takes us to his Paradaise while millions upon millions still don’t believe in Jesus or God and hence making Christians nothing more than charter agents for a paradaise trip to heaven for the few selectee. Christians will still believe that other cultures are an afront to Jesus Christ God the Trinity and will stop at nothing to eradicate them in the name of Love and the Word while their churches and ministers smile and laugh all the way to the bank.

White people in the US will still be in denial saying they are not racist while they hoard the best they can for themselves calling whatever crumbs happen to fall down the ground good deeds. White people will still be unable to see that people of color are not a threat to no one. White people will still be unable to understand that they are more favored because the people that best resemble themselves tend to favor those they resemble most and since white people are the majority and never the problem they will never see the solution.

Rich people will still call poor people lazy.

Children all over the world will suffer hunger and die of starvation.

US citizens will still be in denial that they finally have a president that is honest, truthful, and open. They will be unabe to see that George W. Bush at the very least hasn’t tried very hard to hide from the rest of the world and them what the rest of the world knew already for decades before they did, namely, that the US engages in Big Brother activities all over the world, tortures people of all walks of life in the name of democracy and that they will stop at nothing to comply with the law even if that means breaking the law.

Race will stll be race and people of all walks of life will loose their life because they are either the wrong color of skin, they have a difference of opinion or because, worst yet, they adore a different God than yours.

The incessant hot spot Israel-Palestine will still keep the world holding their breath.

The citizens of Israel will still be pounding the living crap out of the palestinians with their superior military power. They will still prevent any democracy in Palestine because, in essence, that is not in the interest of Israel, no matter what you hear in the news, Israel is run by a conservative line of thinkers who actually are on record for hating palestinians and anything to do with palestinians. [and they will still act surprised whenever Iran says anything bad about them] The jews will still remember nazi Germany reminding us how awful the human race can be everyday of the year while other genocides by other people in the world will go largely unnoticed by the world leaders. The jews will cry out that what I am saying is unfair, antisemitic and call me, a mexican who writes english, antisemitic though am barely 37 and have nothing to do with Europe, Germany, Jews, Israel and basically, try and keep my opinion out of the great ideas of the world because I so happened to have an opinion on the jewish state of affairs of the year 2006 and that is bad enough for some ultra jews who will stop at nothing so that no one speaks ill of Israel because they do loath a good comment resembling anything to the truth. I will still not see a black or arab jew run for any government office in Isreal on television in 2006. Nor will I see Ariel Sharon brought to justice for the crimes against humanity like we saw Pinochet before a court of law.

The palestinians will still hate the jews and will stop at nothing to destroy the state of Israel though technically that is an imposibility due to Israel’s huge superior military power. Palestinians will not be able to run their lives normally because they too, like the jewish people who want to live in peace, are run by extremists though Israel’s extremists are more acceptable because they look and talk like its western counerparts do and the beown palestinians don’t.

Africa will continue to be raped, be sumerged in misery and suffer many epidemics because the pharmaceutical industry in the West just can’t see any profit in helping the human race there.

México will still continue to be corrupt and the hyper rich will get even more hyper rich. Unless there is a tectonic shift in the hierarchy of power in México no real change will occur this year. Drugs and money will still cause damage around México. Juárez will remain largely unsolved and the judicial system in México will become an extra pawn in the power struggles of the drug dealers and the misery in which the mexican government keeps its employees and its citizens.

The indigenous people of America will not get their due even though their presence is still resounding more and more in the news. They will not inherent this 2006 nor gain their world vision any great strides.

In other words, capitalism, money, wars, hate for each other, complete disregard for other human beings will still be the order of the day all around the world.

So another new year just means more of the same fucking crap over and over again.

Pocho extraordinary and a real spanglish speaker and writer at that, (Recycled) Cholo Knows …, has in his blog directed us to an abomination of sorts. No entiendo. What is it gonna take to convince the commercial aspect of the consuming world that mexicans/latinos deplore having the people they look up to used for commercial purposes?

More at it here and here.

It is disgusting ese.

Teens rounded up in ”gang crackdown”, 1942 Los Angeles Daily News Negatives Collection

http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/special/scweb/slwar9.htm
http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/special/scweb/slwar10.htm
http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/special/scweb/slwar11.htm
http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/special/scweb/slwar12.htm
http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/special/scweb/slwar13.htm
http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/special/scweb/slwar14.htm
http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/special/scweb/slwar15.htm
http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/special/scweb/slwar16.htm
http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/special/scweb/slwar17.htm
http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/special/scweb/slwar18.htm

I have come to realize that monolinguals and bilinguals aproach language in various manners.

Monolinguals just don’t feel the sting of language as much as we bilinguals do.

Language hurts. Bilinguals feel language and we are more sensitive to it. It is something that monolinguals fail to understand.

I suppose it has something to do with the constant correction we ourselves make to our speech, our writing.

It is called with a very fancy name: metalinguistics. It is a monster that it is constantly breathing down ones neck. Shaping it, correcting it and scolding us.

It is, however, one thing that one gets criticized in the privacy of ones own mind and another having it heard from the lips of another person.

That is why it stings.

I suppose that to monolinguals a criticism about language is no more than an objective observation.

To us is an infringement on a privatre conversation.

Though what hursts the most is when we are told that we don’t speak any language right.

People really need to stop saying that. It stunts growth.

Alright, I’ll spill the frijoles de la olla. I have always desired to look more gentlemanly like. You know, GQ like. Tux, cigarr, style and all that. Sometimes I feel I was born into it, damn if I don’t feel like a mill bucks on any damn afternoon in May along the park. It’s like a tranvestite feels except that I have a gentleman buried deep down in me that never gets to be the drag queen. It’s always me that gets the better of this feel.

Me. Jeans that barely fit, wrinkled shirts, months old calzones that only get discarded when the holes in it are bigger than the hole where my two legs need to go in first. And they go painfully, by the time slit gets to them I’ve gotten to know them so well that its like parting from a precious heirloom, though I would be hard press to think that someone in this life would find it appropiate to give calzones as an heirloom. Either way, the story about my wardrove is a failure of historical proportions.

I believe that this can be due to my humble origins where one only gets to dress nice when one partakes in the Catholic rituals of Communion or someone’s wedding somewhere. Otherwise its the same old pair of stinking socks for every other aspect of my social life.

It embarresses me sometimes. I want to look better and classy, damn it. No, am not a traitor to my class. I just think that people like Sean Connery or Anthony Hopkins embody a style of manhood that I find quite tasteful, in my taste. Hell, I want to be a wine connosiuer. I want to be able to appear in control of the english language and most of all, I wan to get angry in style, just like the aforementioned actors do in their acting roles.

But no. Were there a show that somehow requiered profound and complete knowhow in the manners of Extreme Casual Wear I’d be a top payed consultant on the matter. Come on, it takes years to remain largely unawaress of one own pantalones size, it is an art to go into a store and come out with a pair of jeans that are either too long or too tight for one. And let us not forget that jeans are always the du rigour daily wear. Shirst? Ja, you think that wrinkled is just a laziness attribute? Think again, wrinkle betrays days of deep concentration and wasted hours in the absence of the mind.

Oh well, the drag will just have to wait. But one day, one day, I will, at the very least, look the part. Near it either way.

To the legions of my reader fans who await not a minute before I clamp down the keyword with whatever oozez down my brain, I say no x-mas to you. Alas! I am desillusioned with the lot of humanity so seek not the jule tides with jingles in every pimple million of innocent smirks cause. Humbug! I am a bitter soul the likes of one Bartleby. I stand idle waiting for death to appear down the horizon any day. No friend however curios of life cometh to visit my prison-like solitude nor do they worry about the lot of the world.

X-mas is just a reminder nowadays of how cruel and vicious humanity can be towards one another. People are dying this very instant in some part of the world while someone is buying a present thinking of that dearly beloved one. Bought with the very money the bullet, that killed that unknown in a foreign land, earned in an unethical slushfund on Wall Street. Millions rejoice in América with their cherished ones, eat, drink and piss in tranquility while half the world is protuding in misery.

I have heard the angry ones who will stand not a sight the likes of me. Go to Africa! if thoust must cryth the X-mas dappers.

but

Is it too much to ask for a little reflection some other time of the year other than the 24th of Dic?

Kill x-mas, it has become a lawyer for good tidings.

Even the title of the movie is ambiguous: Something the Lord Made, with Alan Rickman and Mos Def, both, without doubt, astounding actors who contribute to their art in many ways. The movie is set in the Jim Crow era when blacks had to seat at the back of the buses and when blacks had to pee in coloured designated bathrooms, hence the ambiguous title.

I do love a flick that manages to cast subtle critique at academia. Frankly speaking, I think academia is the last bastion in modern society that still safeguards old hierarchical values. Academia is infused with so many ceremonious bullshit that while its arguments á la Pound and its tradition arguments are solid, the fact that it hides an order is quite obvious. An order that sets a system well into place where it really shouldn’t be anymore, not now, not in this age, not this era I live in.

Academia is a frustrated limelight seeker that gives two dead rats over humanity. In academia everybody wants to be a star and everymotherfucker that steps unto its aisles is made to feel it is next in line to see God and hence a natural superstar that just needs to wait a bit before humanity bestows accolades upon accolades for nearly making it to the realm of the gifted ones.

It is nearly to the point of being poignantly ironic that at the end of the movie, Vivien, the star of the flick, gets its portrait hung amongst white intellectuals who are donning the cloth of academia while Vivien was painted wearing a suit. There are multiple interpretations to this dress code but it isn’t easy to not notice the snob.

I don’t like academia, specially the rules that surround its institutions. Academia is a very nasty beast that is a Golden calf that needs to be overthrown, a false God that cares not for humanity nor the advancement of humanity. Specially nowadays. The lifeless bloodsuckers that stand guard to its interiors are but a pack of bitter beings who are loath to admit their jobs are no better than a bureaucrat at the county offices of any county seat. These useless leeches have to go over a mountain of papers before they get any close to the chambers of God and while they peruse the stacks of papers they bitterly argue against their lot and how a waste of time their mundane chores are, that is, correcting papers made by mere mortals, Lord forbid they had anything they would be willing to teach humanity.

Damn, I just had my time confiscated by gringos. I was reading over at the Agonist chunky bits of wisdom that, alas! goes unheeded by most and, as Dr. House points out, the White House ain’t so cause of the facade. (forget what episode). Either way, just grab a wad of these as we are about to masticate some grungy ideas here:

Most crime is created by the government by choosing to outlaw something.

People like forcing other people to obey their morals.

Then there is what sociologists call labeling. Simply put, if you’re white, you won’t be stopped for driving while black.

This is particular pertinent to us Xicanos and Xicanas as we are indeed on collusion course with gringo mentality. Xicano values differ radically different and we like to put spagguetti onto sanwiches so our normal radar functions in odd ways over at Smiths.

This tends to cause friction and alienates us from mainstream America. Mainstream as white protestant value added society. The very way we think causes a furor. The mentality is that while all are created equal the guardians of procuring said right will act not as an enforcer but as giver, as if equality is to be dished out in rightful portions. This is the current mentality.

We Xicanos need to start focusing on strategies that help us be, allow us to be the way we are, assert our americanness into mainstream america. This needs to be repeated over and over until the normalized curve peaks and we are accepted as one with America not as a part of America but a whole of America. And don’tcha let no one tell you otherwise.