Mexica Movement

The Mexica Movement is a self described "Indigenous rights educational organization" based in Los Angeles, California. Their organization views Latin Americans (a term Mexica Movement rejects) of Amerindian descent, Native Americans, and Canadian First Nations as one people who are falsely divided by European-imposed borders. Their ultimate objective is the non-violent, democratic "liberation" of the Western Hemisphere from European-descendants. The organization seeks to create a future nation called Cemanahuac. This nation will comprise North and Central America (Anahuac) and South America (Tawantinsuyo), fused into a single federation, under the collectively-democratic control of Indigenous people. The group views White people as Europeans who are squatting on Indigenous lands, and who must be repatriated back to Europe. The majority of the group's members were born in the United States. The group rejects the "Aztlan ideology" as being too limited, seeking instead to unite the entire North American continent under indigenous control.

Name and origin

The Mexica Movement was founded in 1993 as the Chicano Mexicano Mexica Empowerment Committee (CMMEC) by the poet and writer Olin Tezcatlipoca>ref>[1]</ref> The name 'Mexica' is derived from the Nahuatl word Mēxihcah (Nahuatl pronunciation: [meːˈʃiʔkaʔ]), the name the Aztecs used for themselves.

The organization is named after the Mexica (a.k.a. Aztec) civilization. This civilization is seen as the best chance from which the continent's indigenous-descent peoples can reconstruct themselves as a nation, similar to the way that modern Italians unified their nation under Roman-Italic identity and the Tuscan dialect. The organization asserts that the Mexica civilization is the best and most thoroughly-documented of all the major indigenous civilizations (e.g. architecture, language, theology, calendrics, etc.). Mexica is asserted as a civilization-rallying point for a future nation. Collectively, these indigenous people of the hemisphere are known as Nican Tlaca.

Logo Symbolism

Mexica Movement's flag features indigenous Mesoamerican symbolism. The black-and-white design in the center represents the Mayan depiction of duality (life and death, male and female, matter and non-matter, seen and unseen, etc.), which is called Hunab Ku in the Mayan language and Ometeotl in the Nahuatl language. The two dualities complement one another and are unified in balance.

The four colors of the flag represent the Nahua version of the four directions which are common to almost all indigenous cultures of the Americas, albeit with regional variations. The four directions represent the astronomical phenomena of the two solstices and two equinoxes during the cycle of one solar year, which thereby "frame" the cosmological realm of indigenous people. These astronomical events have long been considered important in almost all indigenous cultures of the continent, especially as temporal markers for agriculture, warfare, and the accession of rulers. The four directions, therefore, symbolize the spatial geography of the continent in direct interaction with the cycles of time. In short, the flag represents the continent and its Indigenous populations.

The colors represent astronomical, calendrical, theological, and spatial-temporal concepts: red for Tlaloc, white for Quetzalcoatl, black for Tezcatlipoca and blue for Huitzilopochtli. The flag is oriented with east at the top (as opposed to north, as European map models are oriented). East is the direction of the rising sun and is of immense significance to indigenous peoples (it is the direction from which the sun emerges and operates as the agent of solar time).

Activism

The Mexica Movement is based in Los Angeles, California. The group is active in the Southern California protest scene and has been highly visible in all of the Southern California immigration marches.

Members also host regular teach-ins at East Los Angeles College and have delivered lectures to university crowds across the nation. The organization's position is to support the land ownership rights of Indigenous peoples of North America. It recognizes none of the current governments of the Americas as legitimate, calling them all "colonial" and "European-imposed". The organization has protested the Minuteman Project, Save Our State, Universal Studios and The Walt Disney Company.^[1]

Issues

Historical awareness

Mexica Movement declares itself as a non-violent, educational organization. It focuses on teaching the public about the pre-European civilizations of Nican Tlaca (Indigenous people in the Nahuatl language). In addition, the group promotes the study of "European genocidal crimes against Nican Tlaca". The group advocates this historical awareness in order to reframe the context of discussions about Indigenous people and the current governments they live under.

Identity

The organization considers the vast majority of Mexicans and Central Americans to be Nican Tlaca (Indigenous people of the Western Hemisphere). The group rejects all labels that originate from European-descent people. This would include Latino, Hispanic, Indian, and mestizo. Such labels are considered to be "European-colonial" in nature. The group includes "mixed-bloods" and "full-bloods" as Nican Tlaca (indigenous) .

Language

The organization uses English and Spanish as a practical means to communicate in daily life, but rejects the inclusion of European languages into their identity and vision for a future Indigenous nation. All European languages are seen as foreign and instruments of European colonialism. The Nahuatl language is seen to serve as a future lingua franca, linking the entire continent's indigenous "ethnicities". A standardized writing system will be derived from the Mayan writing system, similar to the "standard script" concept used to link all of China's languages and ethnicities under a single format of literacy.

Land ownership

Mexica Movement banner

The Mexica Movement asserts that the entire continent of North America, which they refer to as "Anahuac", belongs collectively to the indigenous people of the Americas: Latin Americans of Amerindian descent, Native Americans, and Canadian First Nations. The entire Western Hemisphere is referred to as Cemanahuac ("The One World Between The Waters" in the Nahuatl language).

Claims of genocide

The Movement asserts — based primarily on the writings of David Stannard, Ward Churchill, James Blaut, and Charles Mann—that, beginning in 1492, Europeans and their descendants committed a genocide that killed 95% of the indigenous peoples in the Americas. This, they assert, allowed Europe and peoples of European descent to prosper materially and to develop themselves at the expense of indigenous peoples.

Borders

All current borders across the Western Hemisphere are regarded as "colonial" and are rejected by the group. The only true border for Europeans, the group asserts, is the Atlantic Ocean seaboard. The group maintains that indigenous people have the right to move freely among their own people of the continent, with whom they may share bloodlines and culture.

Liberation

In response to an article published by the Associated Press, the Mexica Movement states that it has a strict non-violence policy because they believe they would be unable to achieve their goals through the use of violence.^[2] The group is committed to a long-term liberation-by-education methodology which seeks to "change hearts and minds" by educating people of the civilized achievements of Indigenous people before 1492, and of the genocide and land/resource thefts committed by Europeans since that date. The group supports the preservation of the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights as a legal framework to protect both Indigenous and European peoples' rights during the multi-generational process of liberation.^[3]

The movement consciously seeks to promote indigenous demographic increases that will lend themselves to a stronger population counterweight against the influence of the European-descent population.

"Repatriation" of white population back to Europe

Given this new majority status and radical changes in the mainstream historical narrative, the movement seeks to have "white supremacists" become the first to "return" to Europe. The next phase, the group advocates, should be a civilized negotiation to repatriate the remaining white population back into Europe, over the course of a few generations. Also to be addressed will be discussions of how Europe and European-descent people will collectively deliver reparations to the peoples of the Western Hemisphere.

On its Website, the movement states that" Europeans have a homeland: EUROPE. We are only asking unwelcomed guests (racists) to leave our home. These racist Europeans have a home to go to. The non-racists can be part of a transition to our full independence, it's not as if Europeans are being asked to go into the Atlantic Ocean. They have a beautiful home called Europe."^[4]

Criticism

The Conservative Voice and WorldNetDaily have both done critical articles on the organization.

WorldNetDaily characterizes the Mexica Movement as being a radical group with "activists calling for the expulsion of most U.S. citizens from their own country."^[5] WorldNetDaily claims the Mexica Movement wants to "expel the invaders of the last 500 years".

On the May 1, 2007 edition of his CNN television program, Glenn Beck labeled the Mexica Movement as a racist group for their alleged desire to exclude all Americans of European descent from the North American continent.^[6]

See also

• Mexica
• Revanchism
• Irredentism

References

1. ^ Disney Px (We defended Zapata Protesting in Disneyland) by Olin Tezcatlipoca, August 24, 2005
2. ^ Associate Press Supports White Supremacy, Mexica Movement.
3. ^ Mexica Movement Policy
4. ^ Note for Europeans (We welcome Europeans to our web site), Mexica Movement website.
5. ^ Marchers say gringos, not illegals, have to go
6. ^ Transcript - Congressman, Sheriff Respond to May Day Protests; al Qaeda in Iraq Leader Reported Dead; "Ask a Mexican" Author Discusses May Day Protests, Glenn Beck. CNN.com.

External links

• Mexica Movement official website
• Mexica Movement Youtube channel