UPROOTED or how the militant & the radical got drained from Chican@ movements Part 1

After reading this post on Racialicious and seeing the amazing play Crystal City 1969, I began thinking, what happened to these radical militant student movements? The kids in Crystal City were 15 and were able to impact national politics PLUS directly change their community for the better (their main goal in the first place). People my age and younger, talking about Aztlan, teaching eachother alternative histories, sharing how its not worth it to play by the rules because hegemonic (white) culture changes the rules in order to maintain a status quo, and then organizing across generations, in order to protest their racist, classist school system, & not giving in or getting duped by bargains BUT ACTUALLY GETTING WHAT THEY WANTED. Through CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE no less. IN FCKING 1969!

And pretty much most of what they fought for has been eroded into a hollow husk (hoja). My mom was a student activist in the early 1980's, she was a member of AMAS, Association of Mexican-American Students, they held statewide conferences over immigration rights, and got legislation passed to give Worker's Compensation rights to Migrant Workers. I joined the same organization at the same college in 2004 & it consisted of:
Volunteering - Habitat for Humanity
Culture - Decorating a table, practicing some Salsa dances for a cheesy multicultural day on campus
Social - Lots of clubbing
Zero politics of any kind, much less radical or militant. What happened??

I was raised by activists but as a child, I hated my ethnicity until my "click" moment at 18. Currently, I tutor high school kids in a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood. I only ever hear them articulate their Brown-ness as the butt of jokes. While I was watching Consuming Kids, on the commercialization of childhood, it made me realize that if you're the target of the best minds in marketing working 24/7 to manipulate your tween fears into buying the next big bullshiz, what time is left for raising conciousness about the power of recognizing your Chicano@ identity?? This is just a partial answer, but I think with the deregulation of media during George W. Bush, the rising commercialization & influence of the media in the past ten years has only exacerbated the fears of being "othered" in the youngest generations of latin@s.

I can only speak from the experience of a 3rd generation latina, my race shame came from a mix of a generational divide from my parents & acculturation to mass culture. My super-Catholic parents represented outmoded traditional beliefs & attitudes that I resented, and I felt more of a belonging in a mainstream U.S. culture that gave no value to my ethnicity. What I lacked was a context. The only awareness I had of my culture came directly through my parents, and at the time I was a pissed-off latina not willing to listen. This is an experience I've heard other 2nd & 3rd generation latin@s speak of, of being uprooted, only to discover the true meaning of their identities in adulthood. and that's fucking sad. & I look at latin@s like Jessica-don't-call-me-Latina-Alba & it's obvious that some never even have that click moment. and that's even more fucking sad.

Right now, there is a committee in Austin composed of ultra-Christian conservative Republicans on whether or not Cesar Chavez should be in Texas' School textbooks since he “lacks the stature…and contributions” and should not “be held up to our children as someone worthy of emulation.” (Words of Creatonist & committee Chair Gail Lowe). This is everything the kids in Crystal City fought for & it's about to be reversed. I feel like if we don't even own our identities, how can we see ourselves in each other enough to organize against the system that keeps us uprooted? I don't know, my thoughts are only half answers.