An amazing story by Vanessa A. Alvarez, and one that deserves more attention here in Arizona — particularly with the expanding Mexican-American demographic in the southwestern part of the United States!

From NBC Latino:

Mexican-American honored as WWII Vet and Holocaust survivor

by Vanessa A. Alvarez

12:14 pm on 04/29/2013

Anthony Acevedo is photographed during the 20th Anniversary Tour event in Los Angeles on February 17th, 2013 (Photo/Courtesy U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum)

Anthony Acevedo is one of the World War II veterans being honored at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s 20th Anniversary Tribute in Washington, D.C. But unlike his fellow honorees, Acevedo is also a Holocaust survivor.

At 88 years old, Acevedo exudes life. His voice over the phone is a glimpse into his young spirit: He’s talkative, loves a punchline and is extremely warm. His memory: So sharp, he can recall even the smallest of details.

Acevedo became the first Mexican-American to be registered with the museum’s survivor database in 2010.

A medic assigned to the 70th Infantry Division during the war, Acevedo was one of the 350 U.S. soldiers captured during the Battle of the Bulge in France and sent to the Berga An Der Elster labor camp — a subcamp of the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany from which only about 180 would survive by war’s end, he says.

It was during his time at Berga that Acevedo would begin writing in a diary, documenting everything he saw; logging information on the dead, sketching and pretty much doing whatever he could to keep his mind moving. This diary was his lifeline, he says.

“I used to write down recipes on a piece of paper and then discuss with my buddies what I would want to eat the minute I got home.  I would say things like: ‘On this day, I want to be eating a hamburger,’” says Acevedo.

This diary is the first in the museum’s collection to be written by an American captive. Acevedo donated it during his first visit to the museum in 2010, along with his Red Cross arm band, a prayer-book he always carried during the war, a cross and numerous photographs, as well as a personal document of his father’s.

“I was scared but I tried to keep going with faith. Some didn’t have the faith but I always tried to remind myself that ‘Hey, you always have someone else to live for,’” he says.

For Acevedo, that person was his sweetheart, Dolores, who sent him care packages numerous times. Although they had never met, he had fallen in love with her just from those letters.

Born in San Bernardino, Calif., to Francisco and Maria Luisa Acevedo on July 31, 1924, Acevedo lost his mother as a baby and his father remarried four years later to a woman by the same name. They remained in California until the day his stepmother was deported and the family was faced with having to go back to Mexico. He has two full-blood sisters and three half-brothers from his father’s second marriage. Acevedo joined the U.S. army shortly after graduating high school, upon returning to the U.S. at the age of 18.

A difficult childhood stemming from an abusive father and memories of his nanny trying to drown him in the bathtub, Acevedo credits these events as the ones that built him up to sustain what lied ahead of him as a prisoner of war.

The awful conditions in the camp Acevedo remembers include once being fed boiled grass, not being allowed to bathe, sleeping in crowded barracks, wearing lice and flea-ridden clothing and being worked to the bone. Acevedo weighed 48 lbs by war’s end;  the situation was enough to drive anyone mad. Acevedo recalls seeing many of the prisoners lose their minds.  The worst part of it all was watching his buddies die, he says.  FULL STORY HERE>>>

Aztec dancer at Mexico City performance.

DAVID LEONHARDT, with the New York Times recently wrote an op-ed –  Hispanics, the New Italians with regard to “new arrivals.”

Ranking by Population — Pew

Indeed some Hispanic and Latinos are the new Italians, but the majority of those “Hispanics / Latinos” who are of Mexican descent are not the “New Italians” because those of Mexican descent are indigenous.  Mexicans should not be considered “new arrivals.”   Many people from the Anglo / Caucasian community forget Mexicans are indigenous to the United States pre-Guadalupe Treaty and it is high time we educate and remind them with regard to how we feel about painting with broad strokes.   The Mexica didn’t travel by Mayflower boat  to achieve the shores of this continent — nay, they were already here before borders were established and Manifest Destiny.   *On a side note:   The corrupt Sheriff Joe Arpaio is of Italian descent, and more than likely his ancestry came to our shores via boat.

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is a historical source of verification that those of Mexican descent had to recede when The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed by the United States and Mexico on February 2, 1848, ending the Mexican War and extending the boundaries of the United States by over 525,000 square miles. In addition to establishing the Rio Grande as the border between the two countries, the territory acquired by the U.S. included what will become the states of Texas, California, Nevada, Utah, most of New Mexico and Arizona, and parts of Colorado and Wyoming. In exchange Mexico received fifteen million dollars in compensation for the territory and the U.S. agreed to assume claims from private citizens of these areas against the Mexican government.

Many Americans forget how our President Abraham Lincoln believed the Mexican-American war to be ‘illegal.’  As a Congressional freshman, Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln rebuked President Polk for the Mexican War.

got on the floor of the House on January 12, 1848, when he defended the vote of his party given a few days previous “declaring that the war with Mexico was unnecessarily and unconstitutionally commenced by the President.”

It is no secret that Mexican-Americans make up almost 70% of the Latino population pie, but our culture is different than the Honduran, the Cuban, the Dominican Republic and so forth.  In fact, the only thing that we really have in common is the Spanish language.  In addition, many of the legal terms Americans use are in Latin, too.

Indeed a majority of “us” or the Hispanic / Latino people who are lumped into one big pile will often identify ourselves from our country of origin.

The Pew Hispanic Research states:

When Labels Don’t Fit: Hispanics and Their Views of Identity

by Paul Taylor, Mark Hugo Lopez, Jessica Hamar Martínez and Gabriel Velasco

I. Executive Summary

Nearly four decades after the United States government mandated the use of the terms “Hispanic” or “Latino” to categorize Americans who trace their roots to Spanish-speaking countries, a new nationwide survey of Hispanic adults finds that these terms still haven’t been fully embraced by Hispanics themselves. A majority (51%) say they most often identify themselves by their family’s country of origin; just 24% say they prefer a pan-ethnic label.

Moreover, by a ratio of more than two-to-one (69% versus 29%), survey respondents say that the more than 50 million Latinos in the U.S. have many different cultures rather than a common culture. Respondents do, however, express a strong, shared connection to the Spanish language. More than eight-in-ten (82%) Latino adults say they speak Spanish, and nearly all (95%) say it is important for future generations to continue to do so.  FULL STORY>>>

Indeed, I hope the New York Times, the Associated Press, the UK Guardian, the Huffington Post will not lump “Hispanics” into one big pile.   We are different, and as a Mexican-American — I do know our American history and rose my right hand to defend this great Nation, however, I also know that those of Mexican descent are indigenous to this land, too.

Most people forget those of Mexican descent are indigenous to the southwestern part of our Nation.

If this happens, this should be applied to ALL immigrants including the Cubans.  Right now Cuban immigrants receive government benefits once their wet-foot touches dry-land. It seems to me the Cuban Adjustment Act ought to be revisited, too.

Just in and hot off the press from Reuters.

Senators unveil bipartisan immigration bill

By Richard Cowan and Rachelle Younglai

WASHINGTON – (Reuters) – A bipartisan group of senators on Tuesday unveiled long-awaited landmark legislation to remove the threat of deportation for millions of illegal immigrants and give them an opportunity to eventually become U.S. citizens.

Under the proposal, undocumented immigrants who came to America before December 31, 2011 and stayed continuously could apply for “provisional” legal status as soon as six months after the bill is signed by the president.

But beyond that, they would have to wait a decade or more without receiving federal benefits, while the government meets a host of tough conditions for securing U.S. borders and enforcing current immigration law.

The bill’s sponsors – four Democrats and four Republicans – felt such conditions and enforcement “triggers” to be necessary in order to help it succeed where similar measures have failed, mostly because of opposition to what opponents see as “amnesty” for law-breakers.

Full Article

After 10 long years of Mexican-Americans and Latinos fighting for comprehensive legal immigration reform because they do not benefit from Cuban amnesty, we are now hearing Cuban-American Sen. Marco Rubio state legal comprehensive immigration reform cannot be rushed.

It is a fact that the majority of those being deported are of Mexican descent so naturally we believe Rubio doesn’t feel the pain we feel.  [Mexican-Americans account for almost 70% of the Latin population pie while Cuban-Americans account for 3% of the pie.] Why should Rubio feel the angst and pain we feel?  His people benefit from amnesty so of course he isn’t in a hurry to help the Mexicans and other Latino groups who don’t receive privileged amnesty.

The solution is quite simple … all Marco Rubio has to do is pretend Cuba is Mexico with regard to the urgency of the matter.  Since Mexico is considered more corrupt than Cuba — wouldn’t it make sense to support a Mexican Adjustment Act that emulates the Cuban Adjustment Act?

According to a POLITICO story, Rubio stated CIR “…  cannot be rushed …”

Rubio cannot be relied upon because he has changed his position too many times.  For instance, Rubio was against the DREAM Act before he was for it.  He kicked Mexicanos and other Latino groups while we were down and out in December of 2010.  Rubio also stated his support for Arizona’s harsh anti-immigrant law via SB 1070 (he hasn’t retracted support of it), and now that President Obama has stated he wants to fix the broken immigration system right now …. we see Rubio being the person who is dragging ass. In the last couple of years, we have witnessed anti-immigrant organizations like NumbersUSA and the Tea Party movement align themselves with Latino Republican politicians who will support their similar anti-immigrant policies. They use the Cuban community who benefit from unique amnesty to attack those of Mexican descent because Mexicans account for almost 70% chunk of the total Latino population.

I support the Cuban Adjustment Act, but I do not support Tea party politicians like Rubio who forget  their relatives and family had compassion afforded to them.  We are not asking for amnesty with entitlements that are afforded to Cubans via the wet foot dry foot policy, all we are asking for is a secure border plan and legal immigration reform — without the government entitlements. We believe that’s reasonable.  Will Senator Marco Rubio who claims to be for less government insist on protecting the unique Cuban amnesty and at least one year of government entitlements using our tax payer dollar? Republicans have forgotten that the GOP has indeed supported immigration amnesty for years under the Cuban Adjustment Act(CAA). Under the unique Cuban amnesty program, Cuban immigrants can receive at least one year of government entitlements once their foot touches American soil. Since the Tea Party claims to be champions of government entitlement reform, it will simply be a matter of time before they want to do away with the CAA and their government entitlements, too.

The Mexican-American community which makes up the muscle of the Latin population numbers are watching Rubio closely.  We are recording and documenting how soon he reacts to Cuban-related crisis versus the crisis affecting my people via Mexican American families.

Oh, and by the way, we are noticing the Cuban American Texas Senator Ted Cruz is still Missing In Action (MIA) on immigration reform even though Texas shares the longest border length with Mexico.  But here is the thing — Cruz isn’t Mexican-American either so of course he doesn’t care to take the lead on this.   It doesn’t hurt him the way it hurts us.

C/S

President Obama wants to fix the broken immigration system, but Cuban-American Sen. Marco Rubio doesn’t want CIR “to be rushed” while Mexicans continue to be deported. More importantly, Cuban-American Sen. Ted Cruz is still MIA on CIR efforts even though Texas shares the longest border with Mexico. In other words, we see a non-border “Hispanic” being the vocal piece for CIR instead of the Texas border “Hispanic.”

Amigos,

It is okay to get angry with public servants and politicians who use derogatory and offensive terms. Get mad and demand for Republican Don Young to resign. During 2011, a freshman Republican lawmaker resigned because his wife sent “an offensive and racist” email to the Democratic state Senate campaign of nine-time Olympic gold medalist Carl Lewis.

As many of you may already know, most Mexican-Americans understand we are indigenous to this land, and it appears we have to educate and remind politicians that those of Mexican descent can technically be considered natives to this land.

It is now 2013, and it has been almost 7 years since the ousted Arizona Republican Sen. Russell Pearce has used the “wetback” term on an Arizona radio show, too — and he continues to use that term. Yet, Pearce is still in an influential position with access to Arizona Republican Precinct Committeemen as he is still the 1st Vice Chairman of the Arizona GOP today. The National Republican Committee and Chairman Reince Priebus have done nothing in the way of leadership, nor have they initiated educational seminars that would prevent discriminatory or offensive environments. All public servants and politicians should receive similar training military GI’s receive in order to prevent continued offensive discriminatory environments.

Since Rep. Don Young claims to have grown up on a farm in California, we believe he should have known the real history of the California-born Mexicans [post-conquest California] as it relates to who the real “immigrants” were when the 10,000 Californios (pre-conquest Mexican Californians) soon found the territory swamped by Anglo-American migrants and foreign immigrants.

These California-born Mexicans would automatically be come U.S. citizens under the terms of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. But according to the United States National Park Service and the U.S. Department of the Interior, “The state anti-vagrancy act of 1855 was so obviously anti-Mexican that it became known popularly as the Greaser Law. Possibly the most blatantly anti-Mexican law was the 1855 act negating the constitutional requirement that laws be translated into Spanish.” Already suffering from heavy taxes and lacking capital, Chicano landowners had to go through the slow, expensive process of legally confirming their claims, and often were forced to borrow money at high interest rates to cover the costs of the legal struggle.

The anti-Mexican rhetoric continues to be fueled by Republican lawmakers, and since the National Republican Committee Chairman Reince Priebus states he wants to spend million$ in “minority” outreach — we believe he can start by asking Don Young to resign. It will not cost $1.00 for Priebus to make Don Young an example. Priebus should also explain why the GOP has not yet reversed its protectionist and restrictionist anti-immigrant platform of 2012.

We have witnessed Republicans rebuke Don Young, however, the rebuke ought to come from top. It is a reasonable idea for the RNC Chairman to rebuke offensive and derogatory terms used by Republican officials. More importantly, they ought to be more responsible in conducting educational seminars in order to educate their members/leaders on how to avoid offensive and derogatory remarks. Republican politicians like Don Young and Russell Pearce undo what the Father of the GOP via Abraham Lincoln intended.

Abe Lincoln rebuked President Polk for the Mexican War

Indeed Abraham Lincoln showed real leadership when it was unpopular to do so.

As a Congressional freshman, Lincoln got on the floor of the House on January 12, 1848, when he defended the vote of his party given a few days previous “declaring that the war with Mexico was unnecessarily and unconstitutionally commenced by the President.”

Will Reince Priebus declare war on continued Republican bigotry against Mexican-Americans?

Will he educate his Party members and leaders with regard to discriminatory terms that we consider offensive?

Please tweet Priebus and suggest the resignation of Don Young today @ReincePriebus or send him an email at: rrpriebus@michaelbest.com

Remind Priebus to how many Mexican-Americans / Latinos have fought and died for American wars and why we continue to be in support a “United” States and not a divisive one.

Con Safos

C/S

DeeDee Garcia Blase

Today is National Medal of Honor Day. Here are a list of U.S. Latino Medal of Honor Recipients.  (Click on image for full list).

Russell Contreras wrote another great story as we continue to add to our “all things Mexican” via the Tucson Citizen.

The great southwest is home to the fastest growing demographic in the nation — Mexican-Americans. I’ve always believed we ought to have a great relationship with our soil neighbors such as Canada and Mexico, and we ought to learn what Germany tried to do before WWI.  Indeed we want to prevent other real war time enemies from doing the same thing Germany tried to do before President Woodrow Wilson intercepted an important telegram.   Strong national security in the United States includes having amicable relationships with our soil neighbors and we cannot do so when we have Sheriff Joe Arpaio waiving his 50 caliber tank at the border. Mexicans aren’t the real enemy … thousands of our relatives have fought and died in U.S. wars.

Contreras writes:

World War II is often credited with producing the first generation of U.S. Latino civil rights leaders.

But it was the Great War 30 years before that planted the seeds for a movement that would change the lives of U.S. Latinos.

In 1917, the United States intercepted the Zimmerman Telegram. The communication was a invitation by Germany to Mexico to join the war effort against the U.S. in exchange for Texas, New Mexico and Arizona—territories lost in the U.S.-Mexican War. President Woodrow Wilson released the telegram to the public who then supported the nation joining the war.

Congress quickly enacted the Selective Service Act and required all men between the ages of 21 to 30 to register for duty. Those classified as “foreigners” were required to register with a local agency and prove their nationality.

Because of vigilante violence and regular lynchings by mob, some Mexican Americans in South Texas feared that being forced to join the U.S. military might make them join a group they hated — the Texas Rangers. In South Texas, the Texas Rangers ruled by violence and fear, often killing innocent Mexican Americans at random under the pretense that they were working to fight “bandits.” As a results, tens of thousands of Mexican Americans fled Texas to Mexico to avoid being drafted. Some saw the draft as another Texas Rangers roundup.

Others stayed and participated in the draft seeing the war as a opportunity to show the rest of America that, despite the discrimination and charges that they were un-American, they would demonstrate just how American they were on the battlefield.

And others even volunteered.

“We are proud of (our Mexican heritage) but ten times more proud that we are American citizens,” San Diego Constable Ventura Sanchez said at the time.

One corrido, entitled “La Guerra,” even had these lyrics: We Tejanos also know how to die for a great nation.

David Barkley Hernandez (pictured above), even tried to downplay his Mexican heritage because of fears that the San Antonio draft boards might not let select him to join the U.S. Army. So, using only his father’s name, he enlisted as “David Barkley.” FULL STORY>>>

A new book has been released by José Angel Hernández (author) titled: Mexican American Colonization during the Nineteenth Century: A History of the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands.

You can buy it via AMAZON right now and I am looking forward to reading this one in light of dispossessed lands that are ongoing.

This study is a reinterpretation of nineteenth-century Mexican American history, examining Mexico’s struggle to secure its northern border with repatriates from the United States, following a war that resulted in the loss of half Mexico’s territory. Responding to past interpretations, Jose Angel Hernández suggests that these resettlement schemes centred on developments within the frontier region, the modernisation of the country with loyal Mexican American settlers, and blocking the tide of migrations to the United States to prevent the depopulation of its fractured northern border. Through an examination of Mexico’s immigration and colonisation policies as they developed in the nineteenth century, this book focuses primarily on the population of Mexican citizens who were ‘lost’ after the end of the Mexican American War of 1846–8 until the end of the century.

BUY IT TODAY!

In the meantime, here is an interview from Jose with regard to the new released book.

Two Thumbs Up for Bless Me, Ultima

By DeeDee Garcia Blase

Photo courtesy of Bless Me, Ultima

I was enthused to see the Bless Me, Ultima movie now in theaters across the Nation this past week based on a controversial novel written by Rudolfo Anaya.  I am particularly interested in how this movie does at the box office in light of several recent studies that show Latino audiences buying a lot of movie tickets.  In 2010, Nielsen reported that 43 million Latinos bought 351 million movie tickets — an increase from the 37 million that bought 300 million tickets in 2009.

The Bless Me, Ultima movie was especially endearing to me, and it has a quality of familiarity to the Mexican-American (Chicano) because most of us can relate to Healers in our own families.  How many of us remember the El Ojo (Evil Eye)  egg being applied to us when we were sick as little children? How many of us remember our abuelitas or grandmothers showing us the importance of plants, vegetables, flowers, and herbs to make healing teas – and explaining to us how nature takes care of human beings?

This movie depicted Ultima – the character of a grandmother who was a curandera healer and the special  relationship she had

Photo Courtesy of Bless Me, Ultima

with her grandchild.  The bond and love expressed in this film was extremely moving.  As a woman, I especially enjoyed how the director showed the  strong matriarch role of love yet fearless strength a woman can bring to her grandchildren. Although this movie was a drama based on a controversial war, we were able to enjoy the subtle humor Mexicans can identify with.  For instance, a touching scene involved a poor boy getting laughed at in the school classroom because his family could not afford a lunch box, and it was engaging to see him joining the other group of kids outside who had similar coffee cans used to hold their lunches, too.  There was no doubt they were laughed out of their classrooms, too, and the movie director had a way with showing us the little boy was not alone.

Some people believe curanderas are evil when in all actuality they have similar qualities to the Native American medicine man. The indigenous curanderas merely use holistic herbs from Mother Earth with the intent of restoring balance the healer draws from her own unique set of skills, wisdom and life experiences.   She is often misunderstood.

A moment of sadness swept over me when the little boy was ridiculed on the school playground because his grandmother was accused of being a bruja or a witch.   More sadness was evoked learning how the community would secretly go to the curandera healer for help but would not acknowledge her in public because of their fear of ostracism.   It reminds us how our fellow man continues to shun or put down those who are often misunderstood today.

All things considered, I give this movie two thumbs up.  The director via Carl Franklin was able to masterfully give Latinos a connection by incorporating Spanglish into the film, and this is important to us because some of us do not speak fluent Spanish in light of strong English assimilation that occurred when our parents were punished by nuns in Catholic schools for speaking Spanish.

We do want to hold on to tradition, and we are proud of our heritage.  We want to pass on the gold nuggets of our culture to our children in an English society – and although we love and adore American tradition, we believe we can adore and embrace multi-culturalism, too.

Con Safos

c/s

Some interesting movie ticket trivia I learned from Jim Estrada of Austin, Texas, today with regard to the Academy Awards, the movie industry, Mexican-Americans (Latinos) and etc.  I thought it was worth quoting him in light of the Oscars.

HOW SOON THEY FORGET: Oversights and ethnically-biased quips continue to plague the Academy Awards and the movie industry it honors. A months-long investigation by The Los Angeles Times resulted in a February 25, 2012, editorial about the membership of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) that revealed the organization—like much of the media and entertainment industries—is mainly non-Hispanic white (NHW) and male. The Times found of the Academy’s 5,112 members, the voting members were almost 94 percent (4,805) NHW and 77 percent (3,936) male. According to AMPAS, that of the 178 people accepted for membership in 2011, 30 percent (53) were women and 10 percent (18) were non-white.

Why is this relevant? In 2010, Nielsen reported that 43 million Latinos bought 351 million movie tickets — an increase from the 37 million that bought 300 million tickets in 2009, making them a critical share of the movie-going audience in the U.S. The movie industry continues to develop more marketing initiatives and ways to make their films more attractive to U.S. Latinos, but fails to understand the need for more inclusion and respect within their own industry’s ranks for a growing number of future customers.

How soon will we forget?