UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO INSTITUTE OF DIVERSITY - 2

EL PLAN DEL NORTE


We people of Mexican origin have been in the American Southwest (1848 to the present), or the Mexican north (900-1848 A.D.), from ancient Meso-American times, northward being our natural migration pattern. Later under Spanish hegemony, we Hispanicized Mexicanos continued our northward march setting up settlements in New Mexico (1598), Arizona (1690), Texas (1718), and California (1769). One hundred and seventy years ago the former colonial children of protestant England - the Anglo Americans, and we the mestizo children of Catholic Spain and indigenous natives - the Mexicanos - clashed along the north Mexican frontier. In that encounter the Anglo-Americans won and annexed half of Mexico's national territory along with 100,000 of us Mexicanos/Chicanos. Even though the "Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo" (1848) promised to protect our civil, religious, and property rights, we soon found ourselves reduced to colonial status, subordinated, and subjugated - strangers in our own land. Since that time, we Norteños have lived under colonial rule of the United States with our language, identity, land grants, and religion under incessant attack.

The centuries-old battle for the Spanish borderlands is not yet resolved. The westward push of the norteamericanos continues, as does the northward march of Mexicanos. Let no one misunderstand the insidious anti-Mexicano propositions continually rearing their ugly head in California; they mark the broadside fired in the cultural war being raged to further homogenize American society. The mantras of "multiculturalism" and "diversity," touted by the dominant society are hollow as they implicitly note a diversity which is English speaking, and intent on retaining dominant Anglo cultural values.

The continuous accounts of police corruption, odious legal precedents, and overtly discriminatory and harsh sentencing practices that imprison our young people are further proof of anti-Mexicano attitudes. Yet the so-called "national" politicians fail to address our issues. Why should a colonized, marginalized, yet emerging majority population endorse such a system? A system whose foundation was built around a doctrine of white supremacy. A system designed to ensure the maintenance of a dominant Anglo oligarchy. A system which protects the individual over the good of the community, and a judicial system not centered on justice, but the protection of economic interests through the manipulation of the courts. Where do we the disenfranchised masses go to seek redress for our grievances?

A growing sense of alienation from the United States government pervades many sectors, creating a search for alternatives. One alternative is ethnic nationalism. The United States' foundation as a country was based on the right of self-determination: first as colonists from England pursuing religious and political liberty, then as revolutionaries rejecting British rule. It a tragic historical irony that such a country would deny that same inalienable right to subordinated nationalities within its territory. Our Native American brothers still struggle for full sovereignty within the United States, but their day will soon come. African-Americans also seek redress from centuries of oppression.

A cursory perusal of the global geo-political situation bears witness to the dismemberment and crumbling of old and tired multi-ethnic empires - the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, India, Indonesia, potentially China and eventually the United States. We are also witnessing the re-emergence of long suppressed nations - Croatia, Palestine, and Armenia amongst others. The tide of history is in favor of smaller states reemerging out of larger but faltering super-states.

Beginning in 1910, the Mexican Revolution initiated a ninety-year process by which Mexicanos began re-colonizing the former Mexican North. Currently the wounded and receding American Empire, with its false claim of "Liberty and Justice for all" is slowly being exposed as the widening gap between the rich and poor in the United States, and throughout the rest of the world, impels mass waves of immigration. The southern border of the United States is patrolled by the military to keep our people out of their ancestral home, yet ironically American economic and foreign policy objectives throughout Latin America impoverish and decimate indigenous communities forcing droves of immigrants to seek jobs in el Norte. Within the next 25 years, Mexico's population will reach 150 million. Perhaps as many as 50 million will make their way north, pressing against and spilling over the American border in a virtual völkerwanderungen. Mexicanos will cross that imaginary line and re-colonize those lands lost to the Americans in 1848.

This change in regional demography will eventually establish a Chicano/Mexicano majority in the American Southwest around 2080. Which in turn will create Quebec style separatism, and perhaps foster an intifada like student movement. Those who seek the welfare of our people should also anticipate the formation of a new country based on Justice, Equality, and the Self-Determination for its indigenous peoples. A country in the American Southwest and the Mexican North - La República del Norte!



http://www.unm.edu/~ecdn/planenglish.html