Encuentro Internacional de Pueblos O'dam
Durango, Mexico
15-17 agosto 2013
Sonora - Chihuahua - Durango - Arizona
Radiodifusora
"Las Tres Voces de Durango"
YouTube:
Monday, August 19, 2013
Sunday, June 16, 2013
Ilhuicatonatahtli
 |
| Don Julio Martinez Enrique |
Cualli
Ilhuicatonatahtli
Father of Suns
Mixcoatl
Is known as the Father of the Suns.
One
Of these it was foretold
Would fall
To earth and become the Star-Seed of the Xochimeh,
Whose star serpent clouds of light-flowering-song
Furthest fastest flying
Arrow Feathers:
Cada movimiento una reflexión, una memoria
De su destino Azteca y
La leyenda de
Quetzalcoatl.
He is known
As ever dreaming and
Ever wakeful, his
Arms spiraling to embrace
Ilhuicayolotl - Heart of the Sky,
Tlalyolotl – Corazon de la Tierra.
Sunday, April 28, 2013
The Doag O'otham of Durango, Mexico
By Tupac Enrique Acosta
April 27, 2103
April 27, 2103
She had travelled over a thousand
miles and bridged a thousand years of history, but when Vicky Flores Flores
arrived at ASU West last week to participate in the DISMANTLING the Doctrine of Discovery International Conference, she
was returning for the third time to visit her relatives among the O’otham
Nations. She came from the
traditional O’dam Community of Santa Maria Ocotan in the State of Durango,
Mexico which lies along the Eastern flank of the Sierra Madre Occidental
mountain range in the heart of Mexico.
Her people, also known as the Tepehuano, consist of some 26,000 O’dam
peoples distributed in 2 municipalities and 6 communities that cover one of the
largest land bases of Indigenous Peoples south of the US-Mexico border. A majority of the O’dam of Durango are
still fluent in the language. Santa
Maria Ocotan lies at about 9,000 feet elevation among the mountain pine forests
of the Sierra Madre Occidental.
 |
| Map by Tupak Huehuecoyotl |
I first met Vicky in Mexico City
at a continental Indigenous Summit in 2010, where I was doing media work,
recording interviews of the different delegates from across the hemisphere that
were attending. When I asked her
for an interview she graciously agreed and it became very clear to me very
quickly that this was a special opportunity. In beginning the interview when I asked Vicky to introduce
herself, she stated she was “O’dam”.
We were conversing in Spanish but I then told her that I lived in
Arizona which was the homeland of the O’otham nations, and shared a few
O’odham words that I had picked up from talking with Shannon Rivers of the Gila
River Akimel O’otham. The rest is
not only history, but perhaps at the end of the day her travels to the O’otham
Jeved here in the north may become the fulfillment of prophecy.
It was in 1990, in Quito Ecuador
that the First Continental
Encounter of
Indigenous Nations, Pueblos, and Organizations convened for the first time
after nearly 500 years of colonization and genocide. We gathered in Quito over twenty years ago to reaffirm our
self-determination as Nations and Pueblos of Indigenous Peoples of the
continent, and made commitments to each other as survivors of the greatest
holocaust ever committed upon humanity to organize ourselves together under the
principles of the Continental
Confederation of the Eagle and the Condor. According to traditional histories, this ancient
continental confederacy was the original United Nations of the hemisphere, and
extended from pole to pole and coast to coast across our entire continent of Abya Yala [the Americas]. The Eagle represents the symbol of the
Indigenous Nations of the North and the power of “Sees Far”, while the Condor represents the Indigenous Nations of
the South and the power of “Sees Within.”
At that gathering in 1990 in
Quito, it was revealed that along with the tradition and memory of the Eagle
and the Condor came a legend of the Prophecy of the Reuniting of the Eagle and
Condor in a process of healing from the violence and trauma of centuries of colonization.
The two-day international conference
on DISMANTLING the Doctrine of Discovery held at ASU West last week was a
continuation of that decolonizing work,
and also a fulfillment of those obligations made twenty-two years ago, but the
story goes back of course even further.
TONATIERRA of the Izkaloteca,
Maya Vision of the Maya Nations, and the Techantit Cultural Center of the
Nahuat Pipil Nations were the conveners of this international conference. Among these three organizations, within
our shared cultural mandates and instructions, in spite of the centuries of oppression,
suppression, and repression, there continues till today the interdependence and
foundation in daily practice of our ancient calendar systems and teachings of
the milpa, our ways of life as People
of the Corn Mother. When we look
forward from this perspective, and with these teachings, it is a vision of the
past seen from the future that we become.
And so when Vicky Flores Flores
arrived at Sky Harbor airport in Phoenix on Friday April 19th after having to
sleep overnight in the airport in Mexico City because of a mix up in the
connecting flight, she was just in time to make it to the afternoon session of
the DISMANTLING conference and give
the closing remarks at the end of the first day. She spoke in
her O’dam language, and as had occurred during each of her other prior visits
to Arizona, the O’otham relatives could understand her message.
The event convened a broad representation of academics and
Indigenous leaders from across the hemisphere who presented on the historical
process of the imposition of the Doctrine of Discovery over the past five
centuries, within the present context of Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery as called for by the UN
Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues during the 11th Session of
May 7-18, 2012 in New York. Two recommendations from this session of the UNPFII served
as objectives for implementation for the DISMANTLING the Doctrine of Discovery
International Conference (DDD):
4.
The Permanent Forum recalls the fourth preambular paragraph of the United
Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which affirms that all
doctrines, policies and practices based on or advocating superiority of peoples
or individuals on the basis of national origin or racial, religious, ethnic or
cultural differences are racist, scientifically false, legally invalid, morally
condemnable and socially unjust. Legal and political justification for the
dispossession of indigenous peoples from their lands, their disenfranchisement
and the abrogation of their rights such as the doctrine of discovery, the
doctrine of domination, “conquest”, “discovery”, terra nullius or the Regalian doctrine were adopted by colonizers
throughout the world. While these
nefarious doctrines were promoted as the authority for the acquisition of the
lands and territories of indigenous peoples, there were broader assumptions
implicit in the doctrines, which became the basis for the assertion of authority
and control over the lives of indigenous peoples and their lands, territories
and resources. Indigenous peoples were constructed as “savages”, “barbarians”,
“backward” and “inferior and uncivilized” by the colonizers who used such
constructs to subjugate, dominate and exploit indigenous peoples and their
lands, territories and resources. The Permanent Forum calls upon States to
repudiate such doctrines as the basis for denying indigenous peoples’ human
rights.
9.
The Permanent Forum recommends that States include in all education curricula, in particular the school system, a discussion
of the doctrine of discovery/dispossession and its contemporary manifestations,
including land laws and policies of removal.
In bringing these issues forward
towards implementation, nearly one hundred high school students including
members of the Native American
Educational Program of the Phoenix Union High School District attended the
conference. Chief Jake Edwards of
the Onondaga Nation, members of the Haudensaunee - People of the Longhouse also
known as the Iroquois Confederacy shared the message of Great Law of Peace with
all conference attendees, which also included many non-indigenous folks. Chief Edwards presented on the history
of the confederacy, and its establishment over a thousand years ago as the
oldest democracy in the continent.
He also shared the story and meaning of the Haudenosaunee Wampum Belts which document the principles of mutual
respect and self-determination that must prevail between the Indigenous Nations
and the non-indigenous societies of the settler states of the Americas.
 |
| Onondaga Nation Chief Jake Edwards |
Also
attending the conference were delegations of Nations and Pueblos of Indigenous
Peoples from the entire hemisphere, from the Lenape of the North [Canada] to
the Mapuche Nation of the South [Chile].
Representatives of the Maya of Totonicapan [Guatemala] and the Nahuat
Pipil [El Salvador] , the Arhuaco and Embera [Colombia] joined with Indigenous
Nations of the O’otham [Arizona] and the O’dam of Mexico [Durango] and the
Havasupai to receive the Continental
Confederation of Indigenous Nations of Abya Yala intent on regenerating the
historical and political vision of responsibility and traditional alliance that
has sustained the collective cultural identity and nationhood of Indigenous
Peoples for millennia.
 |
| Sharing at Gila River Rez |
Before
returning back to Mexico, Vicky Flores Flores visited among the O’otham Nations
relatives of Salt River and Gila River communities sharing language, food and
the spirit of the O’otham-O’dam Himdag, for which there is no border on the
land or in time which cannot be overcome with patience, hard work, and a lot of
love.
Epilogue
This story is to be continued, as Vicky
Flores Flores has extended and invitation to receive a delegation of the O’tham
to visit her home community in Durango, Mexico. Plans are still in the making,
but she suggested that the best opportunity falls in Mid- May when the O’dam
ceremonies are in full swing. Keep
posted.
Tupac
Enrique Acosta, Yaotachcauh
Tlahtokan
Nahuacalli
 |
| Gathering the Relatives at Salt River Rez |
Photos of Santa Maria Ocotan, Durango Mexico
Embassy of Indigenous Peoples
A
PROJECT
*******
Livestream Video Link:
DISMANTLING
The Doctrine of Discovery
**************
March 23, 2012
Virginia Flores Flores at the Arizona State Capitol House of Representatives
Message to the O'otham Nations
*******
Livestream Video Link:
DISMANTLING
The Doctrine of Discovery
**************
March 23, 2012
Virginia Flores Flores at the Arizona State Capitol House of Representatives
Message to the O'otham Nations
Sunday, April 14, 2013
The Age of Abya Yala
In icuitlacuah oquipantiac
in tlapetlanilli.
Le pego el relámpago en la cuitlacuaitl, en la pura nuca, but by that time it was too late.
They had already begun to laugh out loud, and that beginning was the very first wispy whisper of the roaring wind of their resistance, which came to be later documented in the Archives of Áztlan under the chapter known as the Atecocoli, a chapter which had neither beginning nor ending but kept on growing in remembrance and aspirations as the tale tellers grew, yes, grew older as the elders.
It was too late to expect for federal recognition from the United States government as “Native Americans” and being exactly 160 years after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848), the government of the Republic of the United Mexican States would never flinch now to explain why or how as a political sovereignty recognized within the United Nations system, how could they (as States) transfer territorial integrity to the government in Washington, DC over lands, rivers, mountains, caves, glaciers, and entire ecosystems that they never even knew the name of, except only as shadow provinces of a New Spain that never made it past Geronimo into the New World, tracing projections of the way points of Americo Vespucci, Adams, and Onis.
“Sabes what?” He said, not questioned but said as only a truly close relative might, could and did say: “Sabes what?” He began asking out loud to the other ones, who there were not that many (they were not the masses, but only the surviving veteranos of the Movimiento Chicano), as a matter of fact at times there were only a few, or two, or an even one.
It was the multitude in miniature.
“Do you realize we live in the age of Abya Yala?”
He said it out loud but the question part of it went inward to return again four decades later (Gregorian) understanding that it was not resistance but fulfillment that created the high and low pressure zones, states of correlating social sciences trying to account for the lack of human relationship as human beings (what else?) across the territory of the lands of Abya Yala. [AKA: the Americas].
“We are no longer in America.” It was a declaration of voluntary departure. “We no longer live in America, this is now the age of Abya Yala”, and it was a statement of celebration in the powerful hushed tone of reverence and just simple luck to have lived long enough to sense it, see it, and realize that they had become the veteranos of the movement in spite of it all and because of it all. Because of it all, La Causa had called and they had not resisted but fulfilled its mandate to go where all men and all women had gone before, those who had the good sense to go before and become the ancestors of those of us now going to find out just how they did it, how did they fulfill their love for life and humanity, and so they said it again repeating:
“Let us say with absolutely no risk of sounding ridiculous that the true revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love.”
It sounded good but in actuality the preference was for:
“Prefiero morir de risa que vivir sufriendo.”
And so it began, once, again. Beginning with an echo, the laughter came out with that wispy nostalgia, whispering the question loudly in clear free flight, and with night sky of the desert wind for a trail: “Where have you been?”
I was trying to remember. Already I was trying to remember what it was like to live in America before the Age of Abya Yala.
ixachitecatl: indígena americano, nativo americano, amerindio, gente autoctona que habita en las tierras de todo el continenteamericano, desde Alaska y Groelandia, hasta la Patagonia chileno-argentina.
Indigenous person of Ixachitlan, Abya Yala [the Americas], (native american), amerindian, auctocotonous peoples who live in the lands of the entire continent Abya Yala [the Americas], from Alaska and Greenland to Patagonia of Chile and Argentinia.
Ixachitlan: América (Lugar de la gran tierra), así nombraban los aztecas al continente americano antes de la llegada de los españoles.
Abya Yala [America] (Place of the great land), thus was named by the Azteca the continent before the arrival of the Spaniards.
http://aulex.org/nah-es/?busca=grande
ixachi: bastante, suficiente, grande, gran, mucho
full, sufficient, great, much,
Le pego el relámpago en la cuitlacuaitl, en la pura nuca, but by that time it was too late.
They had already begun to laugh out loud, and that beginning was the very first wispy whisper of the roaring wind of their resistance, which came to be later documented in the Archives of Áztlan under the chapter known as the Atecocoli, a chapter which had neither beginning nor ending but kept on growing in remembrance and aspirations as the tale tellers grew, yes, grew older as the elders.
It was too late to expect for federal recognition from the United States government as “Native Americans” and being exactly 160 years after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848), the government of the Republic of the United Mexican States would never flinch now to explain why or how as a political sovereignty recognized within the United Nations system, how could they (as States) transfer territorial integrity to the government in Washington, DC over lands, rivers, mountains, caves, glaciers, and entire ecosystems that they never even knew the name of, except only as shadow provinces of a New Spain that never made it past Geronimo into the New World, tracing projections of the way points of Americo Vespucci, Adams, and Onis.
“Sabes what?” He said, not questioned but said as only a truly close relative might, could and did say: “Sabes what?” He began asking out loud to the other ones, who there were not that many (they were not the masses, but only the surviving veteranos of the Movimiento Chicano), as a matter of fact at times there were only a few, or two, or an even one.
It was the multitude in miniature.
“Do you realize we live in the age of Abya Yala?”
He said it out loud but the question part of it went inward to return again four decades later (Gregorian) understanding that it was not resistance but fulfillment that created the high and low pressure zones, states of correlating social sciences trying to account for the lack of human relationship as human beings (what else?) across the territory of the lands of Abya Yala. [AKA: the Americas].
“We are no longer in America.” It was a declaration of voluntary departure. “We no longer live in America, this is now the age of Abya Yala”, and it was a statement of celebration in the powerful hushed tone of reverence and just simple luck to have lived long enough to sense it, see it, and realize that they had become the veteranos of the movement in spite of it all and because of it all. Because of it all, La Causa had called and they had not resisted but fulfilled its mandate to go where all men and all women had gone before, those who had the good sense to go before and become the ancestors of those of us now going to find out just how they did it, how did they fulfill their love for life and humanity, and so they said it again repeating:
“Let us say with absolutely no risk of sounding ridiculous that the true revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love.”
It sounded good but in actuality the preference was for:
“Prefiero morir de risa que vivir sufriendo.”
And so it began, once, again. Beginning with an echo, the laughter came out with that wispy nostalgia, whispering the question loudly in clear free flight, and with night sky of the desert wind for a trail: “Where have you been?”
I was trying to remember. Already I was trying to remember what it was like to live in America before the Age of Abya Yala.
Chapter 1.
Cemhueytlalpan - Pangaea
******************************************************************************http://aulex.org/nah-es/?busca=continente&idioma=en
hueytlalpan: continente m continentixachitecatl: indígena americano, nativo americano, amerindio, gente autoctona que habita en las tierras de todo el continenteamericano, desde Alaska y Groelandia, hasta la Patagonia chileno-argentina.
Indigenous person of Ixachitlan, Abya Yala [the Americas], (native american), amerindian, auctocotonous peoples who live in the lands of the entire continent Abya Yala [the Americas], from Alaska and Greenland to Patagonia of Chile and Argentinia.
Ixachitlan: América (Lugar de la gran tierra), así nombraban los aztecas al continente americano antes de la llegada de los españoles.
Abya Yala [America] (Place of the great land), thus was named by the Azteca the continent before the arrival of the Spaniards.
http://aulex.org/nah-es/?busca=grande
ixachi: bastante, suficiente, grande, gran, mucho
full, sufficient, great, much,
*************
Anahuac, Cemanahuac
Hueytlalpan, Cemhueytlalpan
Gaea |ˈjēə|
variant spelling of Gaia (sense 1). Gaia |ˈgīə| |ˈgaɪə| |ˈgʌɪə|
variant spelling of Gaia (sense 1). Gaia |ˈgīə| |ˈgaɪə| |ˈgʌɪə|
1 (also Gaea, Ge) Greek Mythology
the Earth personified as a goddess, daughter of Chaos. She was the mother and
wife of Uranus (Heaven); their offspring included the Titans and the Cyclopes.
[ORIGIN: Greek, 'Earth.' ]
2 the earth viewed as a vast
self-regulating organism. [ORIGIN: 1970s: coined by James Lovelock, at the
suggestion of the writer William Golding, from the name of the goddess Gaia.]
DERIVATIVES
Gaian |ˈgaɪən| noun &
adjective
********
pan-combining form
pan-combining form
all-inclusive, esp. in relation
to the whole of a continent, racial group, religion, etc. : pan-African |
pansexual.
ORIGIN from Greek pan, neuter of pas 'all.'-
There are 5 results for «relampago»
There are 5 results for «relampago»
tlahuetequi: rayo m, relámpago m
tlapetlalli: relámpago m
tlapetlanalotl: relámpago m
tlatomitl: rayo m, descarga eléctrica f, relámpago m
tletletl: rayo m, relámpago m
tlapetlalli: relámpago m
tlapetlanalotl: relámpago m
tlatomitl: rayo m, descarga eléctrica f, relámpago m
tletletl: rayo m, relámpago m
********************
This preliminary study establishes that the Doctrine of Discovery has been institutionalized in law and policy, on national and international levels, and lies at the root of the violations of indigenous peoples’ human rights, both individual and collective. This has resulted in State claims to and the mass appropriation of the lands, territories and resources of indigenous peoples. Both the Doctrine of Discovery and a holistic structure that we term the Framework of Dominance have resulted in centuries of virtually unlimited resource extraction from the traditional territories of indigenous peoples. This, in turn, has resulted in the dispossession and impoverishment of indigenous peoples, and the host of problems that they face today on a daily basis.
Thursday, April 4, 2013
5 de Mayo
According to the traditional ancestral teachings of the Nican Tlacah, the Indigenous Peoples of the Nahuatl Nations,
all of humanity shares equally in the warmth of Father Sun, and the
sacred sustenance from Mother Earth. Besides being a scientific formula
written in cultural terms,TONATIERRA, this relationship serves as TEOXICALLI: a
nest of consciousness and context for the full development of our collective human awareness and cognition one which
allows for the emergence of understanding, respect, harmony, and peace, CENYELIZTLI.
At the horizon of a new day, a New Sun, the Izalotekah bring
these traditional teachings forward upon the celebration of 5 de Mayo.
More than just a historical commemoration of the Battle of Puebla,
Mexico in 1862 the indigenous ceremonies related to 5 de Mayo have an
ancient astronomical significance. It is during these days celebrated
annually by the Indigenous Nations of Mexico, that a certain
constellation of stars gains prominence over the southern horizon in Anahuac for
the first time since winter: the CHACANA: the Southern Cross, also known as the
constellation of the Confederation of the Condor, Tawantinsuyo.
La Chacana
Chakana Cross
Chakana Cross
TENAMAZTLE OF THE COSMOS
Three Steps
Emergence – Presence -
Return
The three steps represent levels of attainment of
consciousness in the three 'worlds' or tiers:
* Hanan Pacha: the upper
world of the stars, celestial beings and gods (also represented by the condor)
* Kay Pacha: the middle world of Mother
Earth and human life (also represented by the puma)
* Uqhu Pacha: the lower world
of the underworld and death (also represented by the snake)
Central hole
The central hole represents the Incan capital of Cusco,
the portal from one tier to the next, and the Eye of God.
Twelve points
The entire symbol additionally represents the cyclical
year, with each of the twelve corners corresponding to a month.
Four arms
The four 'cross' arms represent:
* the four directions of the compass,
* the four 'classical elements' of earth, air, water and fire,
* the four main stars of the Southern Cross, an important constellation
for the Inca, who believed that was the centre of the Universe.
 |
| Star Turtle's Island |
On August the 12th 1521, the traditional council of the Confederation of Anahuak issued a mandate for the future generations from the center of Mexico, in Tenochtitlan. Nearly five hundred years later, the traditional circle of families of Izkalotlan continue to perpetuate this powerful call to destiny and harmony for all humanity, known as the Nahuatilamatl.
The Zacapoaxtla Battalion
and the Battle of 5 de Mayo, 1862
Originating
from settlements of the Indigenous Nations of the Nahuas, Chichimecas
and Toltecas, the region known as Zacapoaxtla is recognized for
providing the majority of fighters at the Battle of 5 de Mayo in 1862.
These some 4,000 Indigenous Peoples faced the bayonets and rifles of the
8,000 man French Army armed only with only machetes and valor. They
emerged victorious, and left the legacy of one of the most significant
military victories by the Indigenous Peoples of the continent against
those who would subjugate us to colonization.
The French were arrogant and Eurocentric in their thinking, and were eventually deported back to Europe. Today we face the same battle, and must recall the same courage as in 1862. But today our weapons are not instruments of destruction and death. Today we are called to battle not in a military campaign, but against the doctrines of cultural supremacy, racism and fear that would deny the reality of our common humanity that we share with each and all.
Today our weapons are our Principles: Respect, Dignity, Cultural Self Determination and EDUCATION, as we advance in the Battle against Ignorance, the Battle of 5 de Mayo!
The French were arrogant and Eurocentric in their thinking, and were eventually deported back to Europe. Today we face the same battle, and must recall the same courage as in 1862. But today our weapons are not instruments of destruction and death. Today we are called to battle not in a military campaign, but against the doctrines of cultural supremacy, racism and fear that would deny the reality of our common humanity that we share with each and all.
Today our weapons are our Principles: Respect, Dignity, Cultural Self Determination and EDUCATION, as we advance in the Battle against Ignorance, the Battle of 5 de Mayo!
!La Batalla de 5 de Mayo es todos los Dias!
It's not about what we want, it's what we WILL!
###
TONATIERRA
www.tonatierra.org
NAHUACALLI
TONATIERRA
www.tonatierra.org
NAHUACALLI
Embassy of Indigenous Peoples
XINACHTLI: Inevitably
XINACHTLI
An
Indigenous Peoples Studies Educational
Program
of
Cultural Empowerment and Competency
Tupac
Enrique Acosta 1991
“Inevitably, cultural
self-government and cultural self-determination must precede their political
and economic counterparts if these latter areas are to have any substance and
significance.”
The Nations Within – The
Past and Future of American Indian Sovereignty by, Vine Deloria Jr. and Clifford Lytle, ©1964
CONTEXT
The destruction of the thousands of
AMOXTIN that existed in the Mesoamerican centers of learning during the first
phase of Spanish invasion of Abya Yala [the Americas] may perhaps never be accurately
evaluated in terms of the effect on the heirs of these sources of knowledge;
the autos-de-fe
by Archbishop Zumarraga of the libraries of Texcoco are the most well known but
were doubtless countless others that escaped notation in the colonial
histories. What is known is that
every commercial and cultural center had its AMOXCALLI and that the art of writing – TLACUILOA
– was extensively instructed in the TELPOCHCALLI and CALMECAC, the two major
educational institutions of the Nahuatlacah. As script, a form of writing- the
complex system combined text, image, and color in a phonetic representation
that required the talent of the artist and el conocimiento del sabio for
it’s expressions. To
read (not interpret) the Nahuatl written language was however most nearly
universal in the urban centers where public education was obligatory. It is well to remember that
the meso-american culture was predominantly urban where the centers of
population followed the spiritual tradition of being ceremonial centers, each a
dynamic focus of space and time.
The primordial orientation of the culture, reflected in the name of the
language itself, NAHUATL, in harmony with the forces of creation. This entailed above the balance
at all levels of the cosmic duality that represented the highest level of the
highest of Nahuatl philosophy – OMETEOTL.
Besides the codices, there are other examples of the writing tradition that take their names from the media on which they are presented, such as lienzos, rollos, tableau, etc. Finally, there are murals, sculptures, ceramics, and the inscriptions on stone.
The negation of the existence of a
written convention for Nahuatl began with the first arriving Spaniards. Although the initial accounts of their
encounter with the Meso- American civilization were full admiration, however,
the Spaniards quickly reversed themselves and began to negate all positive
aspects of the culture. It became
necessary in order to impose the colonial superstructure to diminish the
civilization, culture, and language of the indigena to a savage
and unenlightened status.
The denial of the science and art of the Nahuatl script as an instrument of human literature served the immediate purpose of forcing all official, legal transaction to be conducted in the European scheme, with Latin Characters. This demeaning approach within of the Euro-centric schools of anthropology and linguistics has preserved the bias at the highest levels of academia. It has taught that the criteria for recognizing a written language is that the symbolic elements cannot have a representation outside of the phonetic, a definition that suits the Indo-European languages and relegates all others to an inferior status. As a direct consequence, the history, systems of knowledge, and languages or indigenous Mexico are referenced as dialects only.
The denial of the science and art of the Nahuatl script as an instrument of human literature served the immediate purpose of forcing all official, legal transaction to be conducted in the European scheme, with Latin Characters. This demeaning approach within of the Euro-centric schools of anthropology and linguistics has preserved the bias at the highest levels of academia. It has taught that the criteria for recognizing a written language is that the symbolic elements cannot have a representation outside of the phonetic, a definition that suits the Indo-European languages and relegates all others to an inferior status. As a direct consequence, the history, systems of knowledge, and languages or indigenous Mexico are referenced as dialects only.
Furthermore,
this prejudice has shielded the continued colonization of the continent from
impartial intellectual evaluation, denying in precept the existence of the
surviving indigenous civilization except, in terms of the nation states
currently enjoying international recognition.
Nearly five hundred years after the invasion by Spain, the Indigenous Peoples of Anahuac Mexico still suffer the imposition of a European-American Psychology of domination upon the national identity.
South of the Rio Bravo, the European allegiances (Hispanic, Latino, Portuguese, etc,) are a numerical minority and to retain control over the predominantly indigenous population of Mexico overt colonization is not viable. Instead, the concept is to control the Mexican allegiance by ursurping the symbolism and nationality of the ancient indigenous political confederacies of Mexico (Aguila y Nopal, Piedra y Agua, TENOCHTITLAN) thereby subverting the liberation of the Nican Tlacah, Indigenous Peoples of Mexico Profundo in an age of DECOLONIZATION.
Yet MEXICAYOTL has endured. Within la Republica
Mexicana the Mexican language is the mother tongue of over two
million and in AZTLAN a new generation –el XICANO – has revived the
consciousness of our ancient indigenous identity. This consciencia is not a
romantic idealization, but a process born of the relationship and historical struggle for liberation with the
surviving indigenous nations that form the family of Uto-Aztecan
languages in the territory.
However, to escape the parameters of the European intellect and participate in the regeneration of our indigenous destiny, the path to communication and thus confederacy with the other nations of Aztlan is through the language. More profoundly, in an indigenous context not limited to anthroprocentric conceptions of society, communication processes of harmonization of the people with the powers of nature and the cosmos requires the ceremonial and non-verbal (movement-imagery) aspects of the culture. These ceremonials and their caretakers are the remaining bases of resistance to the total psychological conquest of the people. Their survival over 500 years of European-American domination is a testament to the enduring values of the Nahuatl culture.
However, to escape the parameters of the European intellect and participate in the regeneration of our indigenous destiny, the path to communication and thus confederacy with the other nations of Aztlan is through the language. More profoundly, in an indigenous context not limited to anthroprocentric conceptions of society, communication processes of harmonization of the people with the powers of nature and the cosmos requires the ceremonial and non-verbal (movement-imagery) aspects of the culture. These ceremonials and their caretakers are the remaining bases of resistance to the total psychological conquest of the people. Their survival over 500 years of European-American domination is a testament to the enduring values of the Nahuatl culture.
“WE AS INDIGENOUS PEOPLES KNOW THAT THE
DEFENSE OF OUR TRADITIONS, BELIEFS AND KNOWLEDGE ARE A CENTRAL PART OF THE
STRUGGLE FOR OUT DEFINITE SOCIAL LIBERATION AS A PEOPLE. UNFORTUNATELY , THOSE THAT OPPRESS AND
EXPLOIT US, IN WHICHEVER COUNTRY WE ARE, ALSO KNOW THIS. IN THAT SENSE, AND ENORMOUS
INSTITUTIONAL BUREAUCRACY HAS BEEN CREATED THAT SEEKS TO SUPPRESS OUR VALUES IN
ORDER TO SUBSTITUTE THEM WITH OTHERS THAT CORRESPOND TO EACH GOVERNMENT.
IN GENERAL OUR CULTURE IS
RESPECTFUL OF THE EARTH AND OF NATURE. WE FEEL WE ARE A PART OF THE EARTH AND
IN HARMONY WITH HER. BASED ON THIS
FUNDAMENTAL BELIEF, WE HAVE DEVLOPED A COSMOVISION, WHICH EMPHASIZES THE
HARMONIOUS AND COMMUNAL EXISTENCE BETWEEN MAN AND OUR NATURAL
SURROUNDINGS. OUR INDIVIDUAL
DESTINIES ARE IN UNION WITH ALL LIFE, INCLUDING ELEMENTS THAT ARE CONSIDERED INERT
BY WESTERN CULTURE. THAT IS WHY WE SHOULD NOT ABRUPTLY BREAK FROM OUR
ENVIRONMENT AND THE CREATION OF OUR SYMBOLS, WHICH WE REGARD WITH REVERANCE AS
THEY ENRICH OUR DAILY LIVES. THIS
IS OUR TRUE SPIRITUALITY, WHICH IS AT THE BASE OF OUR CULTURE. . . . . .”
From a report written
for the 1990 Continental
Conference on the 500
Years of Indian Resistance attended
By 120
representatives of Indigenous Nations from
Throughout the
hemisphere –Commission of Culture,
Religion and
Education. Quito, Ecuador - July,
1990
*******
YouTube:
TENAMAZTLE
The Legend of Truth and the Doctrines of Power
TONATIERRA
www.tonatierra.org
*******
YouTube:
TENAMAZTLE
The Legend of Truth and the Doctrines of Power
TONATIERRA
www.tonatierra.org
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