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What's New with CHCANO TODAY
Chicano Today Notes Cinco de Mayo 2009 - Beyond Aztlán I realize that we are beyond Aztlán. We have stretched out to areas unimagined before. Never in the minds of Chicanos during the Chicano Movement eras of the late 1960s and early 1970s did they think Aztlán would reach here. After all, to everyone Aztlán was only that part of Mexico which was taken by the US during the Mexican-US War of 1846-1848, including California, New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, Colorado, Nevada and parts of Utah and Wyoming. Aztlán was where our Aztec Ancestors came from before they arrived in the Valley of Mexico. Now Aztlán is wherever there is a Chicano/ Chicana, there is Aztlán. Just like the original Latino gang members of LA or Southern California or the US have spread out to Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and other parts of the world, so too have we Chicanos spread. And the Diaspora continues.Like my European ancestors, who rushed to plant a foreign flag anywhere …. We are beyond the traditional US Southwest borders. We are in Mexico and throughout the US in almost every state of the country. We are in Germany and Japan and now in Afghanistan and Iraq through our soldiers. And now with the internet, I can be all over the planet at all times. “I am a soldier in the deserts of Iraq, waiting my mission, and yearning to go back home, home to Aztlán.” “I am in a spaceship circling the planet and I smile every time I pass the US, Mexico or Aztlán.” “I am an expatriate or deportee in Mexico or Central America who smiles every time I hear some news about my town or country, awaiting my time or the right political climate so that I can return to Aztlán. Because Aztlán is in my heart, in my mind, and in my soul, everywhere I go, is Aztlán. Frank R. Castillo © 2009 CINCO DE MAYO Post Thoughts 5/6/02 It is a good combination, a dumb white guy/ gal and a dumb Mexican both reporting about Cinco de Mayo. It would be like a basketball player and a baseball player talking about football or organic chemistry or Mexican folklore. What do they know? What makes them experts? And yet although none would question it here no one challenges it when it is reported in the Los Angeles Times. Why? Because most whether Latino or not, especially the dominant culture, is clueless about Cinco de Mayo. And neither will take a Chicano Studies class to find out about its true meaning. In the meantime, “¡que viva el cinco de mayo!”Frank R. Castillo © 2009
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What's New With My Travels?
I recently returned from a week in Venice, Italy. With 400 bridges and 114 canals, Venice is a photographer's dream. Uniqueness and stories seep out of each slight bend in Venice's narrow corridors and calli (paths). The picture at the left shows some of the boats that become Venetians' mainstay. Venice is famous for its gondolas, which work well for traveling on shallow water, but, in reality, residents travel using motorboats. The always-black gondolas are reserved for tourists.
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