Monday, September 08, 2003

["Por la Raza, todo. Fuera de la Raza, nada."]

"By the Race, everything. Outside the Race, nothing."

Correcting myself, then:

"Por" = "by" or "through" then and not "For" as Kaus et al (including me) have been mistating.

"Por la Raza"

"Raza" is a colloquialism (from Mexico, primarily, as first coined in the phrase "la raza cosmica" by political philosopher Jose Vasconcellos), you cannot count on a "neutral" Spanish to English translator to tell you what it means. Literally, sure, "Raza" = Race, but once you understand the history of latin america and Mexico in particular you'll understand that there is no pure blood anything (not Spaniard, Celt, or Arab) in Mexico anymore (except for large pockets of indigenous peoples), thus the concept of race is already one that is diluted by thousands of years of "mestizaje" - or a mixture. Vasconcellos co-opted the term raza, by calling the "new people" of the "new world" the "Cosmic Race" to reflect the mixture of European and indigenous bloodlines. To be truly Mexican, in fact is to be anti-racist. Vasconcellos was a bit of a racist, but only against pure-blooded indigenous peoples - he thought that they needed to be "redeemed" through mixing with European bloodlines. I could track down a citation for all of this - but that would entail me going back through my college notebooks and I can't do that from work.


So,

Through the people of the new world, everything. Outside of the people of the new world, nothing.

If you're familiar with the way people write in spanish, they love to turn clever figurative phrases - read a fricking Garcia Marquez novel in Spanish, or if you're not too intimidated, Don Quijote, please -- then you'll see.

So, "By or through this mixed up mongrel of a race, everything. Outside, or without, them, I have/am/can do, nothing."

This is the MEANING notwithstanding the translation you get from translator services. This is what I understood when I first read the Plan de Aztlan in 1990 when I became involved with MEChA at Yale. And though I grew to set aside the anti-gringo sentiment as outdated and unconstructive (even in the face of the racism I faced as a son of Mexican immigrants back home in California in 1994), it woke me up to the world as a place where I can "fight the power" as it were and could only rely on those who struggled for social justice, "through" and "by" those who would benefit through such a struggle; and I would find no help or understanding of the cause outside of them.

Of, for, and by - the people. don't you see?