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Creating Aztlán: Chicano Art, Indigenous Sovereignty, And

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Creating Aztlán: Chicano Art, Indigenous Sovereignty, And creating aztlán Creating Aztlán Chicano Art, Indigenous Sovereignty, and Lowriding Across Turtle Island Dylan A. T. Miner the university of arizona press tucson The University of Arizona Press www.uapress.arizona.edu © 2014 The Arizona Board of Regents All rights reserved. Published 2014 Printed in the United States of America 19 18 17 16 15 14 6 5 4 3 2 1 Cover designed by Leigh McDonald Cover art adapted from the Aubin Codex © Trustees of the British Museum. Publication of this book was made possible in part by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Miner, Dylan A. T., 1976– author. Creating Aztlán : Chicano art, indigenous sovereignty, and lowriding across Turtle Island / Dylan A.T. Miner. pages cm. — (First peoples: new directions in indigenous studies) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8165-3003-8 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Mexican American art. 2. Indian art. 3. Aztlán in art. 4. Colonization in art. I. Title. N6538.M4M56 2014 704.03’97—dc23 2014007749 This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper). N’zhibiiamawaan oniijanisanaanig enji-niizhwaaso-aanike- bimaadiziwinan wiikwaji’owaad ji bagidendaagoziwaad. Dedicated to the seven generations, both past and future, who struggle for a world without oppression. Ticmactilia tlen chihchicome huahcapameh, cena tlen panotoc huan tlen panotihualaz, tlen tequitizceh pan tlaltepactli axcanah ica cualantli. Dedicado a las siete generaciones, ambos en el pasado y en el futuro, tienen que luchar por un mundo sin opresión. Contents List of Illustrations ..................................................ix Acknowledgments ................................................ xiii Introduction. Indigenizing .......................................... 3 Part I. Tlilli: Theorizing Aztlán Chapter 1. Remembering: Utopian Migrations through Aztlán ...... 23 Chapter 2. Naming: Aztlán as Emergence Place .................... 53 Chapter 3. Claiming: Claiming Art, Reclaiming Space .............. 82 Part II. Tlapalli: Visualizing Aztlán Chapter 4. Reframing: Aztlán and La Otra Frontera ................ 113 Chapter 5. Creating: Creating Aztlán, Finding Nepantla ........... 144 Chapter 6. Revitalizing: Aztlán as Native Land .................... 169 Postscript. Returning: Jack Forbes, Mestizaje, and Aztlán ............ 212 Notes ............................................................ 221 Works Cited ...................................................... 245 Index ............................................................ 263 Illustrations Figures 1. Dylan Miner, Anishnaabensag Biimskowebshkigewag (Native Kids Ride Bikes) ........................................ 5 2. Anonymous (Mexica), Codex Boturini (Folio 1), ca. 1530–1540 ................................................ 27 3. Frédéric de Waldeck after Anonymous (Mexica), facsimile of Mapa Sigüenza .................................... 27 4. Anonymous (Mexica), Codex Aubin ........................... 28 5. Anonymous (Mexica), Huitzilopochtli bundle from Codex Boturini (Folio 4), ca. 1530–1540 ....................... 33 6. Theodor Galle after Jan van der Straet, America, ca. 1580 ....... 41 7. John Disturnell, Disturnell’s Treaty Map ....................... 46 8. Emanuel Martínez, Mestizo Banner ............................ 57 9. Antonio Bernal, Del Rey mural, right wall ..................... 102 10. Antonio Bernal, Del Rey mural, left wall ...................... 102 11. Mario Castillo, Peace-Metafísica .............................. 103 12. George Vargas and Martín Moreno, CitySpirit ................. 114 13. Vito Jesús Valdéz and James Puntigam, The Cornfield .......... 114 14. Map of Southwest Detroit .................................... 116 15. Nora Chapa Mendoza, Employment Agency ................... 122 ix x • Illustrations 16. Nora Chapa Mendoza, Los Repatriados ....................... 124 17. Ernesto Todd Mireles, Aztlán flag ............................. 127 18. Marcos Raya, Homage to Diego Rivera ........................ 139 19. Malaquías Montoya, Viet Nam Aztlán ......................... 155 20. Santa Barraza, La Virgen ..................................... 164 21. Carlos Cortéz Koyokuikatl, Anišinabe Waki-Aztlán (Truman College) ............................................ 174 22. Carlos Cortéz Koyokuikatl, Anišinabe Waki-Aztlán (Uptown People’s Community Center) ........................ 175 23. Carlos Cortéz Koyokuikatl, Orgullo Itzachilatleka .............. 179 24. Favianna Rodríguez, Jesús Barraza, and Estria Miyashiro, Resist US Imperialism ........................................ 184 25. Favianna Rodríguez, We Are Not the Enemy ................... 188 26. Favianna Rodríguez, We Resist Colonization ................... 189 27. Favianna Rodríguez, Not in Our Name ........................ 190 28. Favianna Rodríguez, Fight Patriarchy .......................... 192 29. Favianna Rodríguez, Fight the Climate Crisis .................. 193 30. Melanie Cervantes, Las Brown Berets ......................... 201 31. Dignidad Rebelde, EZLN Women’s Revolutionary Laws ........ 203 32. Melanie Cervantes, Indigenous Women Defending Land and Life Since the Beginning of Time .......................... 205 33. Jesús Barraza, Indian Land ................................... 209 Illustrations • xi Color Plates 1. Frédéric de Waldeck after Anonymous (Mexica), facsimile of Mapa Sigüenza 2. Anonymous (Mexica), Codex Aubin 3. Emanuel Martínez, Mestizo Banner 4. Antonio Bernal, Del Rey mural, right wall 5. Antonio Bernal, Del Rey mural, left wall 6. Mario Castillo, Peace-Metafísica 7. George Vargas and Martín Moreno, CitySpirit 8. Vito Jesús Valdéz and James Puntigam, The Cornfield 9. Nora Chapa Mendoza, Employment Agency 10. Nora Chapa Mendoza, Los Repatriados 11. Malaquías Montoya, Viet Nam Aztlán 12. Santa Barraza, La Virgen 13. Favianna Rodríguez, Jesús Barraza, and Estria Miyashiro, Resist US Imperialism 14. Dignidad Rebelde, EZLN Women’s Revolutionary Laws 15. Melanie Cervantes, Indigenous Women Defending Land and Life Since the Beginning of Time 16. Jesús Barraza, Indian Land Acknowledgments This text has been written, at least in part, while I lived in many colonized and unceded Indigenous territories, both on Turtle Island and throughout the world. The ideas I develop in Creating Aztlán emerged during my youth in Anishinaabeakiing, or as I spell it, Anishinaabewaki (Michigan), and later expanded while I was living in Tiwa territory along the Río Grande (New Mexico). Creating Aztlán was then completed after I returned to Anishinaabewaki to work as a professor at Michigan State University. In the time between, sections of this text were compiled and edited during my expansive lowriding across Turtle Island (including colonized and unceded lands in the United States, Canada, and Mexico), Scandinavia, the British Isles, continental Europe, and Australia. In each of these places, I have tried, to the best of my ability, to learn from and with local communities in a way that, I hope, strengthens the ideas I develop in this book. I thank each of these individuals and communities for their wisdom and strength, as well as their willingness to share in dialogue. While the ideas in this book are collective and collaborative in origin, any faults or shortcomings are solely my own. In this way, let me begin by offering a humble gift of semaa to the following individuals and spirits for their help in seeing this book come to fruition. First, I must thank the earth and the knowledge that she has so kindly shared with me. Although I was raised in the woods, I never realized how sacred, profound, and intimate earth-based knowledge is until I finally completed this book. In fact, I only wish I would have listened as a child more closely to the teachings of Niimaamaaki and Nokomis. Nonetheless, Niimaamaaki and Nokomis never turned their backs on me or anyone else willing to listen to their stories. When faced with a grave intellectual impasse in my intellectual work, I decided to take some time away from xiii xiv • Acknowledgments life and slowly walk the contours of the earth. Within a few days, I was gifted the ideas needed to move forward and complete the book you hold in your hands. For this knowledge, I must thank the Noopimiimanidoog or forest spirits. By spending time in the woods, I learned about Aztlán, our Indigenous relationships to the land, and what migration and emergence stories really are. In this same way that the spirits must be thanked, the ancestors must also be acknowledged as the intellectual core of my work. In many ways, their ideas are my writings’ axis mundi. Their spirit, nonetheless, inflects this text and my ideas in general. I am especially grateful to my grand- parents Germaine and Basil Miner (Michif) and Nancy and Theodore Torkelson, as well as my grandparents-in-law, Delfina and José Torrez (Xicano-Genízaros). My parents, siblings, and nieces and nephews also need a thank-you. As I work to decolonize my life and my children’s lives, I am frequently reminded of the importance of this work when my father’s eyes tear up every time I speak about the ancestors or introduce myself in Michif or Anishinaabemowin. Additionally, the artists whose work is discussed in this book (as well as those whose work is not, but should be) must be profusely thanked. In a world of expanding capitalist control, I believe that artists are among the few remaining individuals capable of confronting capitalism at its base. In this way, my collaborators
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