Copyright by Alan Eladio Gómez 2006
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Copyright by Alan Eladio Gómez 2006 The Dissertation Committee for Alan Eladio Gómez Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: “From Below and to the Left”: Re-Imagining the Chicano Movement through the Circulation of Third World Struggles, 1970-1979 Committee: Emilio Zamora, Supervisor Toyin Falola Anne Martinez Harry Cleaver Louis Mendoza “From Below and To the Left”: Re-Imagining the Chicano Movement through the Circulation of Third World Struggles, 1970-1979 by Alan Eladio Gómez, B.A.; M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin August 2006 For the Zarate, González, Gallegos, and Gómez families And for my father, Eladio Gómez Well, we’ve had to look at ourselves, we have had to look at our history: actually we have had to define that history because it was never defined by North American historians. Antonia Castañeda Shular, Seattle, 1974 “El mismo enemigo ha querido mutilar, y si posible, hacer desaparecer nuestras culturas, tan parecidas una a la otra, y sin embargo, tanto el Chicano como el Boricua hemos podido salvar nuestra idenitidad cultural…” Rafael Cancel Miranda, Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary, 1972 “Prison is a backyard form of colonialism” raúlrsalinas “Nuestra América” José Martí Por la reunificación de los Pueblos Libres de América en su Lucha el Socialismo. Partido de los Pobres Unido de América (PPUA) “Somos uno porque América es una.” Centro Libre de Expresión Teatral Artística (CLETA) Exploitation and oppression transcend national boundaries and so the success of our resistance will be largely dependent upon our ability to forge strong ties with struggling peoples across the globe. As Blacks, Chicanos, Puerto Ricans, Indians and exploited whites, we have a special responsibility to our brothers and sisters in Mexico. The Mexican people have always been locked together with us – often even more drastically than we – in an orbit of oppression created and sustained by U.S. imperialistic circles Angela Y. Davis, on the occasion of the Corpus Christi Massacre, June 10, 1971 There are two things that exists In every hood and ghetto in the world: Struggle and Dreams. Dead Prez (Sticman and M-1) Acknowledgements In the same way that this dissertation is about connections, relationships, and ideas, about the circulation of struggles across borders, everyone who supported me in this long endeavor shared experiences and memories fundamental to my political and intellectual development In 1994, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) declared a war against neoliberalism and for humanity, demanding that the rights of indigenous people be recognized and respected. Theirs was a revolt of dignity. I am part of that generation of activists and organizers that continues to be inspired by the intuition of Zapatismo: the urgency of asking hard questions, the necessity of creating alternative projects, and the patience to listen. First and foremost, I would not be writing these lines without the support of my family. My mother, Alicia Gallegos Gómez has supported everything I have done, even when she didn't agree with my decisions. I am fortunate to have grown up with abuelos. Their perspective on the past, and their patient responses to my questions about their own histories (and my opinions about the present) are part of my understanding of how a historical record and family histories are created. On my mother’s side, Esther Gallegos- Zarate and Baldomero Gallegos have guided me in ways that I am often not aware of. Baldomero taught me to always help others in whatever way I was able. Esther is a strong women, whose is always there with a sassy comment reminding me to not take life so seriously and that hard work is about working hard. On my father’s side, Guadalupe González and Guadalupe González, mis abuelos, had to contend with a spoiled kid during vi visits in the summer. It was only later that I would learn the story of how my grandparents were recruited by the Mexican government in the 1940s to return to Mexico to cultivate cotton in the Valle Hermosa – the was neither a valley or beautiful. Guadalupe’s courage to leave her husband with her two children, cross the border again, and resettle in south Texas was another decision that allows me to be here. My extended family in Corpus Christi, those who knew me “before Austin” and who are now scattered across the country, are part of this too: Gloria Garza and family, Vincent Vargas and family, Santiago Tagle and Judge Hilda Tagle, Jacqueline Theresa O’Guin, Daniel Guerra and family, Gerardo Stephens and family, Isabel Araiza, the Serna Family - Danny, Roger, Roland and Andy (RIP), and Jerome Hatten. The graduate school experience is different for everyone. During the ILAS (now LLILAS) years I benefited from the friendship of Alberto Sánchez, Mariana Schiffman and Elise Bralliard Osborn. We are taught these powerful tools of analysis that have emerged from people’s experiences engaging with power – race, class, gender, sexuality – yet many are unwilling to apply this analysis to the very institution we are part of. There are repercussions for challenging power. In learning some of these lessons, I have been fortunate to be part of a community of dedicated organizers, activists, and scholars – and scholar activists and activist organizers and straight up dedicated peeps. Organizationally, shout outs are due to the Red Salmon Arts, PODER, Advanced Seminar for Chicano/a Research, MEChA, CLGSA, University Staff Association, UT Austin Custodial Staff, the Midnight Art Project, Acción Zapatista, the Proyecto de Defensa Laboral, Consejo General de Huelga (UNAM), Radio Caracol, Youth Liberation vii Network, and Austin Voices for Youth. Maneja Beto provided a soundtrack to the struggles in Austin. Alba Peña, manager for Maneja Beto and co-organizer for the 2000 Encuentro for Popular Education, among a host of other community events, is an organization in and unto herself. I also want to thank Tom Kolker and Virginia Raymond for their support throughout the years. At UT, The Advance Seminar for Chicano/a Research (ASCR) already existed when I arrived to Austin. A vibrant political and intellectual space, the ASCR functioned as a political vehicle to explore questions of radical scholarship and politics. It was not a graduate student support group to get through the hoops. It was a powerful political formation collectively organized to enact intellectual and political projects within the academy and disrupt flows of power to redirect resources to projects and students whose work mattered beyond the walls of the university. It existed to resist the disciplining of the discipline and in order to make learning and unlearning relevant. Never respected by the professoriate, though they were always willing to appropriate the knowledge, the ASCR was one of those rare political formations that evolved with necessity. Though a whole slew of students rolled through the Advanced Seminar, Manolo Callahan, Rebecca Gámez, Pablo González, Veronica Martínez, Toni Nelson Herrera, Isa Quintana, Gilberto Rosas, Lilia D. Raquel Rosas, Cristina Salinas, and Geoff Valdez all pushed my political analysis and scholarship forward with probing and provocative questions, and a relentless engagement with imaginative and absolutely urgent political strategies. It wasn't all business; reviving conviviality is a daily struggle that must also be fun! viii Even though Antonio Villaraigosa, the Tío Taco who cannot seem to even stand up for Mexican farmers in South Central Los Angeles, was a MEChistA, I’ll still claim it. Es una broma, MEChA rocks your pinche face! Consistently MEChA has been a force in politics – on and off campus – and I am proud to be part of that trajectory. Plus, UT- MEChA has always been international in the face of conservative nationalism, local in the face of homophobia, and consistently self-critical. For the past five years, I have been fortunate to work with a crew of dedicated media activists. Beginning in 2001 with the radio program “Disorientation”, Veronica Delgado, Peter Mendoza, Andre Lancaster, and Jamie Munkatchy, were there at the beginning of what has become the longest running bi-lingual community radio program at UT. There was quite a learning curve that first summer of 2001, but “Disorientation” evolved into “Radio Aguascalientes”, “La Hora de Don Durito”, and now “Radio Caracol”. The Colectivo Radio Caracol and its diaspora include Pablo González, Mariana Mora, Haldun Morgan, Geoff Valdes, Viviana Newdick, Toni Nelson Herrera, Alex Chavez, Omar Angel Pérez (Tocho), Ajb'ee Jiménez, and Emiliana Cruz, together we have all been part of making Thursday evenings from 7-8pm necessary and urgent. In Mexico, during time spent at the UNAM and the Colegio de México, Sandra Amelia Cruz has been a little sister and a older sister. Compañera: ¿Por qué los cerdos son tan cerdo? Fortunately, the university has not been my only experience while in Austin. In 2001, a group of students began to organize politically with custodial staff members at UT who were struggling to change their own conditions of work and the abusive ix treatment of the Physical Plant management. Almost every Saturday morning at 1am for almost two years, we would meet in a basement classroom on the UT campus. With members of MEChA, the CLGSA (Chicano/a Latino/a Graduate Student Association), and Acción Zapatista (AZ), UT custodial staff and student created a united front against the processes of privatization within the university. At the same time that staff members were trying to regain some semblance of control over their own work environment and how their work was organized, we as students were trying to slow down the privatization trend on campus, particularly with regard to the control of tuition increases being given the board of regents.