Anything But Mexican Revisted and Never Trust a Gringo by Rudy Acuña

Rough Draft
Anything But Mexican Revisted
By
Rodolfo F. Acuña
The 32nd Congressional District race is hard to watch. I have been active in politics for nearly fifty years. Unless you have lived through this period, it is impossible to appreciate how painful the struggle for political representation has been. Edward R. Roybal was not elected to the Los Angeles City Council until 1949 where he served until 1962 when he was elected to Congress. It was not until 1985 that Mexican Americans again won representation in the city council.
All through this period liberal Democratic Party leaders gerrymandered Mexican Americans – splitting up communities in the eastside. The left leaning California Democratic Council during the sixties justified keeping Mexicans without representation – excusing that it kept progressives such Rep. George Brown, Jr. in office. Brown was not a Mexican, they said, but he was against the Vietnam War. It was an “Anything But Mexican” mindset that a few Mexican Americans bought into.
Slowly this was turned around by the grace of the Voter Right Act and the Mexican American Legal Defense & Education Fund. It was one office at a time. The reasons were obvious; the basis of equality was political representation. No one can deny that there was a qualitative difference with Richard Alatorre’s election to the city council in 1985. Almost overnight the number of city workers triples --- which was important in maintaining stable families by providing livable wages and healthcare.
Our justification for working for Mexican American candidates was that through life experiences they knew the needs of the unrepresented Mexican American communities, and that role models were needed for Latino youth – confronted with the problems usual to the poor. It was an argument that many of us used to support Barrack Obama over formidable candidates such as Hillary Clinton.
These early victories paved the way for politicos such as the late California Assemblyman Marco Firebaugh who in his short years became a giant in promoting Latino interests in higher education. Marco always listened and understood the necessity for all Mexican origin people having a higher education. It was not their battle it was his.
In recent years, the community has returned or reverted to the 1960 mindset, forgetting the sacrifices of the past when George Brown represented an eastside district, and the disenfranchisement of the Latino mass was justified because he was against the war --- like there were no Mexicans against the war.
In this decade Latino elected officials conflicted with MALDEF that wanted one of more additional Latino congressional seats. The reason for the bargain was that it would protect the Democratic Party majority. I could understand this if the Latino community lacked effective and progressive leadership that was insensitive to other communities.
But I ask myself, wasn’t this why we as a community pushed to have Mexican American city council persons, county supervisors, and mayors? Is the present representation enough? Is it more deserving and entitled to speak for all Latinos?
Let’s get real, “In a 2005 editorial that appeared in the Los Angeles Times, UC Chancellor Robert J. Birgeneau described an atmosphere of "alienation, mistrust, and division" that permeates UC campuses as a result of dwindling numbers of underrepresented minority students.”
Who has been hurt by Proposition 209 (1996)? Not whites and not Asians. This is something that Marco Firebaugh understood.
Watching the 32nd Congressional District race is painful because I know the Mexican American candidate. In my opinion one of the priority issues of the next decade will be immigration. Today there are thousands of undocumented students who have been here since they were toddlers. The few that make it through college do it the old fashion way – they earn it. But once they graduate, they cannot find employment because they lack a green card.
I know Gil Cedillo. You would be hard put to name a Latino politico who has worked harder for those without papers. I know that he will not bargain away the interests of these students because he has taken on Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and defended the rights of immigrant and working families.
In the next decade, the community will need a congressional representative who prioritizes the interests of people who cannot vote. In the early 1960s Dr. Ernesto Galarza told me that it was not that labor leaders and politicos did not care about farm workers; the problem was that farm workers ranked low on their priority list. So their interests were never addressed because they were bargained away before they could get to them.
I already mentioned the college level where most blacks and Latinos attend community college; at the state college level they are about 20 percent; more than 50 percent lower at the community colleges. The funding reflects this caste; the UC’s getting twice as much per student as the state university that in turn get twice as much as the community colleges.
In the forty-five years I have been in high education there have been few legislators of any color who understood this. Even when there were only fifty students of Mexican decent at San Fernando Valley State College (1960) politicos excused the gap. Gil Cedillo ranks just below Marco Firebaugh in his commitment and his accessibility.
Just like the number of Mexican American elected officials, the gains we have made in higher education came piece by piece – one trench at a time.
This is taking anything away from the Asian or Chinese communities. They have made tremendous strides; they today rank higher in numbers than the white student population at the UC’s. But having been born and raised in Los Angeles I know that the great majority of residents of the 32nd are working class Latinos.
I am no politico. Just a poor professor earning about half the salary of my elected brethren. But I have been fortunate to have lived through the struggles of yesterday. I know that our elected officials became elected officials because there were poor Mexicans and then Latinos to justify them; just like I have written twenty-one books because there are brown skinned people in need. If the poor weren’t there I would be just another hack reading my notes to spoiled kids – drinking my Merlot.
Read Acuña at www.forchicanachicanostudies.wikispedia.com

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Rough Draft

Never Trust a Gringo

By

Rodofo F. Acuña

Dr. Julian Nava who was almost always polite once pointed out that a
Mexican American would never be appointed as president of a large
metropolitan California State University; most large Mexican American
and Latino populations. Administrators and faculty members feared that
the president would build their own constituency. Witness Nava’s bid for
the California State Los Angeles presidency and Tomás Arciniega’s
21-year stint as president of California State University Bakersfield.
Arciniega was passed over in favor of a vice-president with much less
experience when he applied for the Cal State Fullerton job. In Nava’s
case, he had recently been an ambassador to Mexico, and he was promised
support from the Chancellor as well as individual Trustees.

I have come to the conclusion that fear of a large Mexican American
population is just part of the explanation as to why Latinos and
Mexicans in particular are feared but respected. When growing up in Los
Angeles after World War II, anti-Semiticism was rampant and more than
one Jewish friend warned me to “Never trust a goy.” (Never trust a
non-Jew or white person). Jews were still ethnic then, and were not
considered white. An oppressed people always display ethnic pride – it
is a way to survive. However, the case of Mexicans has always differed
from other racial and ethnic minorities; Euro-Americans – no matter how
uneducated or pinche their existence – feel at liberty to judge and tell
Mexican Americans how to act.

This ranges from throwing tantrums over their displaying the Mexican
flag at rallies, to their speaking Spanish or their presence at
institutions of higher learning. I have been admonished by colleagues
for warning “Never trust a gringo,” it is racist, according to them,
although they use the term illegal alien with impunity. At California
State University where I teach 4.9 percent of the faculty are Spanish
surnamed and over here-quarters of the departments don’t have a single
Mexican American tenured professor. When we approached the provost and
the Department of Human Resources to verify these statistics, we were
told that CSUN did not breakdown Hispanic groups by country of origin –
it was guess work at best. Even the provost who is sympathetic tried to
divert our probe which reached a dead end without institutional support.
“Mexicans don’t count!”

Further there is no institutional loyalty. Because I am constantly
questioning, the administration has made me pay the price. One year when
I was up for merit pay increase – everyone thought I was a sure thing
for the maximum increase of five steps. I had two books and five
articles that year. As it came out, I received a one step increase. When
I asked around I was told in confidence that the president had told the
provost that she would never give me the maximum increase because she
did not like me. The Chicano students had jammed her and that I stood
by. That I had told her controlling students was not part of my job
description. Instead she supported one of her lackeys for the five
steps; he did not have the equivalent of a book review to his credit –
hr knew how to kiss you know what.

The treatment of the department has been similar. CSUN is first in line
to trumpet that it has the largest Chicana/o Studies department in the
nation. It is a Spanish speaking Serving Institution which logo it
attaches to every grant proposal. CSUN got over a million dollars for a
library grant based on the Chicano student population, the Chicana/o
studies department, and the Chicano collections that it has yet to
process. The institution ignores that it has curtailed the Educational
Opportunities Program – splintering it in parts. It has systematically
used Chicana/o Studies to subsidize the growth of other departments that
are hurting for enrollment. It has cut the department’s prime time
classes to give other departments a better chance to draw students. When
Chicano Studies asked for support from the dean and the provost for
development of online classes it was refused. When we laid out a plan to
extend Chicano Studies classes to high school students, we were
discouraged; our ideas were then given to engineering. Simply we wanted
to offer via the internet college level course credit to Chicano high
school students.

Without belaboring the theme and laying out documentation, I submit the
following memo of March 18, 2009 to the provost:

Rudy Saves wrote:

Harry,
I do not want to complain, whine, or for you to mention it to your
publicity unit. However, in Mexican society -- in my generation of
Mexican Americans -- words like honor and respect had meaning. I
previously mentioned the slight over the Choice Award. I did not mind
the slight but the slight of hand – I resent that functionaries with
half my IQ would think that I would believe that it was unintentional
and that they could get away with it.* Another incident happened a year
ago when I was invited by the history department to be the Whitsett
Scholar Lecturer. My first inclination was to turn down the invitation
-- there is been bad blood between me and the history department since
1968 when it turned me down for a job. The then chair stated as reasons
1) I could not objectively teach Latin American history because my
parents were Mexican, 2) that I would vote with the radical faction of
history, and 3) that it already had a Mexican (Julian Nava) in the
department. So be it, the next year I came in as a full professor with
my own department. Over the years there were turf battles and
affirmative action issues. Last year history proposed -- with Jorge
acting as an intermediary -- if I would be willing to give the lecture.
[They did not want to be turned down]. Jorge spoke to me and convinced
me to say ok – the rationale was that there were younger historians who
wanted relations and perhaps it was time that we let bygones be bygones.
Moreover, we had a common cause with history in re: the move to blur the
disciplines by Religious Studies, and Beth Say's inane proposal to label
everything ”studies" so humanities could raid the social science's
general education offerings. The event went off well. However, about two
weeks later I noticed that there were other Whitsett Scholar lectures --
it seemed odd since to my knowledge this was not so in the past and this
was not what the agreement had been. I brought it to Jorge's attention
who spoke to his friends in Behavioral Science, they assured him that
this was not the case. This week the issue was resurrected and the
announcements came out for this year's honoree. My very good friend
George Sanchez was chosen. (I won't be able to attend, it is my
daughter's birthday). They listed the past honorees, I was not among
them. So far the answer that we have gotten is that I was not "the"
Whitsett Scholar but "a" Whitsett Scholar. Come on Harry, we are talking
about an academic award -- not a blow job. My feeling is that you cannot
expect more of gringos; Jorge feels as if he was lied to. The truth is
that it is an issue of respect -- the institution ////nos ven la cara de
pendejo// (it sees in us the face of a fool (collectively). Again, this
is not to complain, I have enough going with my new website, getting my
history of Chicano studies ready and the rewrite of the seventh edition
of //Occupied America//. I don't whine but I have never been anyone's punk.

Rudy Acuña
.
*It is customary for professors who receive awards to be mentioned in
the website newsletter. It amounts to kudos for the department. This
past year I had a book and a three volume anthology published -- they
were not mentioned. I also received the
Outstanding Academic Title by CHOICE Magazine, /Corridors of Migration:
The Odyssey of Mexican Laborers, 1600-1933, /2009/ /; the National
Hispanic Institute, Lifetime Achievement Award, Austin, Texas , 2008;
keynoted , Texas Foco, National Association for Chicana Chicano Studies,
2008; an award from the Community Coalition South Central Los Angeles ,
9th Annual Gala Dinner, Activist-scholar award, 2008; The
Labor/Community Strategy Center Lifetime Achievement Award, May 2007 (a
major labor organization); the Center for the Study of Political
Graphics (CSPG), Historian of the Lions Award at our 18th Anniversary
Dinner in Los Angeles on Saturday, October 13, 2007. None of them were
mentioned although the university was informed. At least three requests
have come in to involve me in minor community events; however, they were
dissuaded by the director of alumni affairs. The truth be told, the head
of the alumni division has been confronted for calling me a communist in
public.

The truth be told, I like /Blazing Saddles/ misquote of Gold Hat in the
1948 film /The Treasure of the Sierra Madre/ (1948). "Badges? We don't
need no stinking badges!" I really don’t care if they recognize me. I
don’t need their badges! However, I know that this plays into the habit
of society of dismissing Mexicans – they can get away with it. When I
was teaching at San Fernando Junior High the teachers were told, “If a
Jewish parent complains, take care of it right away. If a white parent
complains, take care of it. Negro parents rarely complain, and don’t
worry about Mexican parents, they never complain.” In order to break
this culture of Mexicans don’t count, we have to fight back.

Like my mother said, /ni les pido agua/. However, this is wrong. I
worked damn hard for a doctorate, working sixty hours a week ande
carrying a full load. They gave whites scholarships but dismissed me.
Yet I have contributed more than 99 percent of the professors at CSUN
and demand to be treated the same. We have to speak up! The same
standard applied to us has to be applied to Jewish-Americans, Armenians,
Italian-American and Irish-Americans. If they don’t want us to wave
Mexican flags then abolish St. Patrick’s Day and Columbus Day marches.
If they call us illegal, remind them that they stole half Mexico’s land
and the lack of arable land and water is one of the reasons people come
here. Remind them that Central Americans did not come here en masse
until we blew up their countries. And remind Glen Spencer of Citizens
Together, the ranting David Horowitz, and Dick Cheney that their
patriotism is predicated on other people losing their lives – they never
went. Remind them that Mexico has drug cartels because the U.S. market
for drugs. Remember treat others like they treat you.

To carry on a discussion with the author go to
http://forchicanachicanostudies.wikispaces.com/