Same Sex With A Different Demographic

It looks like living in the PacNW will provide a lot of fodder for the blog as we gear up once more. This from Oregon and KUOW:

Gay marriage supporters in Oregon are trying to win over support from the
Latino community. They're targeting Spanish speakers in a new radio ad campaign.
The ads mark the first concentrated effort to build support for gay marriage
among the Hispanic community in Oregon.

Jeana Frazzini is executive director of Basic Rights Oregon. She says the
effort comes as the organization considers whether to take a same-sex marriage
initiative to the ballot next year.
"We keep an eye towards the eventual
policy victory that we need to achieve, but through that work seek to change the
hearts and minds of folks broadly in Oregon communities," Frazzini says.

Frazzini says her group has done some polling on the issue among
Hispanics, but she wouldn't release the numbers. Latinos nationally have
historically opposed gay marriage.

It looks like folks in Oregon understand what Californians did not: Latino votes count. Remember, while heaping up a plate-o-hate at the Mormons for their lobbying and $$$ re: Prop 8 in California, it was a large Latino and African American vote that helped put it over the top.

Hate Crimes, Indigenous Style?

Prairie Mary, whom I used to read with far more frequency before the baby was born, has posted an interesting note about a bar fight just off the Blackfoot reservation in Cut Bank, MT. Sez Mary:

The narrative: Three brothers, not Indians but possibly with some Mexican blood, liked to fight and had been drinking all evening. At closing time, 2AM, they chose as their victim a hired hand, a Native American single guy who was mild-mannered and well-liked, but not very good at self-control or social smarts, esp. once he was drunk. They picked a fight with him and all three began to beat on him. When he went to the ground, they began to kick.

A Native American county commissioner came out with his wife, saw what was happening and decided to intervene. At first he just remonstrated, saying he was going to call the police. (He had a cell phone.) So the brothers began to beat him and took him down. His wife tried to help but she, too, was shoved and sent flying. By that time enough people were there that the brothers thought they should get scarce.

But the county commissioner, a handsome and resourceful man from a strong rez family chose to make an issue out of it. He tried to press charges, saying it was a “hate crime” because the men were shouting phrases like “dirty Indian.” The white county attorney refused, saying that it was NOT a hate crime, just a fight as usual.

Read the whole post.... (A great discussion of race and class.)

Indigenous folks in the United States and citizens of Mexico (and the empire before it) have had close ties for generations. Nevertheless, I don't think most Anglos think about those ties - at least not since we quit making Westerns - and perhaps many U.S. Americans of Mexican descent don't either. Last semester one girl gasped when I said that we were going to talk about the right of those of indigenous descent in the United States, but that we were not yet going to focus on people who self identified as being descended from one of the Latin American nations. She raised her hand and said that she had never thought of herself and U.S. Native Americans having anything in common.

Anywho, a couple things struck me about this post from the talented Prairie Mary:

1) The county decision not to call it a hate crime. In Latin America if you have a few mestizo guys whooping up on a guy shouting "Indio sucio," I don't think anybody would think twice about calling it a racially motivated crime. Of course in Guerrero or Oaxaca you might just call it the police.

2) The fall back position that this was just a standard bar fight for the area. You know, all those hot-blooded folks like fightin' anyway. (***Please note that last sentence was written dipped in irony and dripping with exasperation***)

The Great Falls Tribune had an article on the incident, but what I liked most about that post was the comment of one of the readers. To find an "impartial" jury they moved the trial to the extreme NW corner of the state - the Lilliest portion of the state bristling with militia members, drugged up vets, and white supremacists (at least it was 15 years ago). Violence in Latin America, indeed.

What US Students Should Know, or, What the "Area" People Have to Say

Ok, another incredibly frustrating conversation with a colleague over people of the Americas in the United States. When I asked her what she taught about Latin Americans in the US, she responded that she taught about Coronado, Cortes, Zoot Suit Riots, and the UFW. I was floored. So, here are a few books I think US historians need to read and incorporate into their survey US history courses.

- Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest. Say no to white gods that show up with no context and kill all the Indians.

- Empires of the Atlantic World. Say no to the ANGLO/franco focus of the imperial projects of the Americas.

- Ecological Imperialism or The Columbian Exchange. Say no to teaching kids that the "Columbian Exchange" is the old "triangular trade" of third grade, just with a new name.

- Neither Enemies nor Friends. Problematic at times, but helps say no to the 50s notion of simplistic racial US.

- Empire's Workshop and Empire and Revolution. Say no to US imperialism starting in 1898.

- True Tales and Delfino's Gun. Say no to simplistic ideas on immigration.

- Barrios Nortenos and Chicanos. Say no to lectures on Latino-free labor movements.

- Captives and Cousins and Comanche Empire. Say no to a West devoid of Mexico and Spain.

- Whitewashed Adobe. Say no to a California absent Mexicans until the summer of 1943.

- Tree of Hate. Say no to the reasons Latin America and Latinos disappear from US history survey courses.

Ok, so there are ten of my entries. For the three people that follow this blog and the two that will stumble on to it from google: What would you want a US historian to read and incorporate into their courses? Martinez? Anzaldua? M.T. Garcia? Who do you think they should be reading?

Final note: This frustrating conversation came just two days after a student came up to me after we did civil rights and thanked me because she thought only African Americans had a civil rights movement. She'd never heard of LULAC, AGIF, Bert Corona, Dolores Huerta...nada. Crazy, man.