Archive for the 'Land' Category

Brown Berets on Immigration

ozelotl May 22nd, 2007

By Ramiro

Human migration is a phenomenon as old as humanity. Throughout the ages humans have been known to migrate extensively all over the world. Indeed, it is migration which created human isolation and is therefore responsible for our current genetic differences and the makeup of the world today. One of the main theories in explaining the populating of Turtle Island is through migration of Asians along a temporary land bridge called the Bering Strait, although this theory is currently under much scrutiny.

Our gente are a historically migrating people. Every time we look at the official Mexican flag, or interchangeably the panquetzalli which is the flag the Aztecs used, we should be reminded of out migrating history, for that is what these symbols represent. The official story tells us the Aztecs (or Mexicah) followed their “god” Huizilopochtli’s orders to migrate south out of their current home, Aztlan, in search of an eagle devouring a serpent, perched on a cactus in the middle of a lake. Although the story is a metaphor, the migration did indeed happen. It took the Aztecs seven generations to reach their destination: Lake Texcoco, where they would build the beautiful Tenochtitlan, which would then become modern-day Mexico City. There should be no confusion as to our migrating nature as it is depicted in our most representative emblems and symbols.

United States Immigration History

The United States as a country was founded by European immigrants fleeing political or religious persecution, and done on the backs of a population which were victims of a different form of migration: forced migration. Africans were bought and sold as slaves for centuries after the colonization of Africa by initially the Portuguese, and afterwards by all other European imperialist nations. Migration has continued all throughout history until modern times, despite the strong objection to it by modern-day nation-states, or at least the objection to migration done without the relatively new notion of proper legal immigration proceedings.

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La Peña for the Cucapá and Kiliwa

ozelotl May 10th, 2007

MayDay march a success!

ozelotl May 3rd, 2007

MayDay 2007
Corporate media’s accounts of the Watsonville May Day march

Marchers unite against raids
Posted: Wednesday, May 2nd, 2007
BY: AMANDA SCHOENBERG

As he stood next to a handwritten sign proclaiming “we are not terrorists,” Jesus Rodriguez said immigration raids in Watsonville, Hollister and Santa Cruz in September frightened many locals into staying home and keeping their children out of school.

“They make you feel like a terrorist and at the same time, they make you feel terror,” he said.

Rodriguez, along with his wife and three children, joined about 2,000 people in a peaceful afternoon march through the streets of Watsonville and Pajaro Tuesday to protest raids by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.

“It is a very difficult life there (in Mexico), that’s why we’re here,” he said, holding up a United States flag. “We work hard, we pay taxes. Look, here is my flag.”

The group of multi-generational protesters, which gathered steam as it headed toward Pajaro, began and ended in the Watsonville Plaza. Many chanted “Si se puede” and waved signs that read, “We didn’t cross the border, the border crossed us,” and “Migra out of Watsonville.” One boy toward the front of the group carried a green sign that said, “Don’t take away my parents.”

Unlike last year’s well-publicized “Day without an Immigrant” mass demonstrations focusing on immigration reform, this year’s march rallied against the “Return to Sender” campaign that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials began last year to target undocumented immigration with deportation orders. During the September campaign in Santa Cruz, Hollister and Watsonville, ICE officials rounded up 107 people.

“We’re coming together to say, ‘Stop the immigration raids,’” said Ramiro Medrano, a member of organizing group MigraWatch. “No human being is illegal.”

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Root Force Road Show

braulio April 21st, 2007

root-force.jpg Are you tired of talking about “the system” and ready to do something about it?
Are you looking for a way to fight the onslaught of corporate globalization beyond summit hopping and buying fair trade?

Root Force is a strategic campaign designed to exploit weak points in the global economy and hasten the system’s collapse. Using direct action, Root Force pressures all those involved in specific infrastructure construction projects in Latin America to end their participation in ecocide and genocide.

Thursday, April 26th
Watsonville Brown Berets meeting
WBB meeting starts at 7pm, Root Force presentation at 8pm
406 Main St., Suite 408b

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Cucapá Camp

ozelotl March 20th, 2007

Cucapa Camp The Watsonville Brown Berets are proud adherents to the Sixth Declaration and La Otra Campaña del Otro Lado (The Other Campaign of the Other Side). We will have an ongoing presence at the Cucapá Camp in Baja California through its existence as time permits us. We make a call to all the people of the earth to join us in the struggle for true liberation of our indigenous brothers and sisters in Mexicali. All friends and allies, all other Brown Beret chapters, you are welcome to join us in this action to take back the sovereignty of the Cucapá and Kiliwa peoples! MEXICA TIAHUI!

ZAPATISTA ARMY OF NATIONAL LIBERATION
MEXICO

FEBRUARY 20, 2007

TO THE PEOPLES OF MEXICO AND THE WORLD:
TO THE OTHER CAMPAIGN:

The indigenous Cucapá people, the indigenous Quilihua people, the Other Campaign in Baja California, the Independent Francisco Villa Popular Front – UNOPII, the Party of Communists, Socialist and Worker Unity – UNIOS, the Good Government Council of the Chiapas Highlands and through its Sixth Commission, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation…

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