1990_10 The Daily Collegian October 1990

              What's on the Chicano Horizon?
^
As I walk around campus, I often ask myself, are the 80s tritely
over? Is the Chicano Movimiento
that died in the eighties still dead,
or is it alive and kicking somewhere
out there? Is the decade ofla bala de
plata really over? What should he
the direction of Chicanos in the 90s?
Should we forget the struggle and
assimilate into american society,
will they let us, do really want to?
Why. does this elitist group of Chicanos, myself included, known as
university students forget our mothers and fathers in the fields, los
vatos and rucas struggling in the
barrios, andespecially the little Chi-
canitos in the class rooms of our
racist educational system? These,
along with many other questions,
still remain unanswerd.
First, I must say that the eighties are finally over thank God. I am
also glad to say that a lot of us are
once again proud ofbeing Chicanos
and not Hl-SPa rJCS. To know that
the pride, identity and self
respect.that was once taken away
from us in. the Reagan decade, is
. now slowly but surely coming back,
and coming back strong. Such
events as the Chicano Moratorium
in Los Angeles last August and just
recently the MerictFtns. sympo-
syum here at the university along
with groups such as CWAA,
MEChA, CLASE and Chcanos in
Law, to name only a few, are proof
ofthe new unity of Chicanos here
on campus. These groups are here
expressly for us Chicanos to let
ourselves grow acadamically and
spiritually. With this new unity
we need to totaly restructure this
present political and socio- economic system, we need to act now.
I personally would like to think
that the decade ofla bala de plata
is really over. I don't want ta see
anymore brown people selling their
souls to Tto System" for a few
dollars. To see them on television
advocating add supporting the
exploitation of all brown people
here in the United States.
In his lecture here at CSUF,
Chicano artdstMalaquias Montoya
spoke ofthe social respousabilities
ofthe Chicano artist, which were
to maintain their form and craft
out of the greedy hands of the
giant advertising agencies that
work for big busin e ss. These social
responsabihties also pertain toany
Chicano that graduates from this
university and "makes it."
By the way what does happen
to all those Chicanos that "make it',
anyway? After they receive their
B. A. and or M. A., it seems that the
Earth somehow swallows them
whole or is it the system that swallows them but kind of gets them
stuck in its throaght and calls them
hispanics? But the ones that are n't
hispanics, where are they? They
can't all he here at Fresno State
teaching, can they? I often wonder
if they are out there, but are being
suppressed by their employers or
organizations. Is the media not
letting us recognize our own positive role modeles? We need to go
out there and locate them and use
them.
It has taken us too long to get
Chicano studies into the University, it is now that we need these
courses in the middle schools and
high schools through out all of
California. We need for our little
Chi canitos that are being promoted
from grade to grade to do so with
pride. Fresno State University is
on its way to getting a Chicano
studies major, why shouldn't we go
onto individual majors in literature and art and history etc? We
'
, Ghicano, your life
aW* ana* thai, vnn rtuila* no Ion
has na meaningj
\
By Daniel Chacon
•   .
•
I must have looked like a Chi
cano Socrates. I walked down the
cement stairs to the pit during
lunch, waving my hands in the
air, mumbling to myself "Why?
wbymamr
Students were lounging beneath the red, white, and blue
umbrellas as if they were at the
beach or some swanky outdoor
cafe on the pier—sunglasses and
blonde hair and white teeth and
tanned skin blurred by me as I
went through the automatic glass
doors into the cafeteria. I ordered
a tuna sand which front a girl
named Judy who I had met at
Summer Bridge. Aa she was plopping a glop of gooey tuna on my
bread, she looked into my searching eyes, stopped what she was
doing, and asked what was wrong.
"Life is meaningleas," I said.
"It haa no purpose.'
get me here? Just so you can declare my life—my existence—
meaningless?*'
"WelL-"
"LookJDan. I'm really sorry
things may not be going well for
you. But my life baa plenty of
meaning."
"No it doesn't You just think it
does."
"You're a jerk," she said.
She shoved the sandwhich at
me and told me that I was hopeless. She was right. I was hopeless. I felt like eating my last meal,
walking up to the Peter's Building, all the way to the very top,
above the sixth floor, and I felt
like throwingnrysetfdown, Jumping off. I would splatter like chery
Jello on the asphalt path below,
all over treea,and the faces and
legs of people walking by.
Why was I so unhappy? Why
didn't I have Judy's perspective?
Judy seemed surprised that I   I mean, we are the same, Judy
would say this. " Are you serious?" she asked me.
"No meaning,'' I aaaurred her.
"I mean, what the hell's the
useTThere's no point to our lives.
and me. Fm from a poor background. My father had to work
his ass off. I am the only one in my
family to make it to the univer-
sity.
We might as well be fish. In tact. Hey, Chicano, remember over 30
we're no better off than (hat tuna
your scraping up from that metal
pan.'*
She looked down at my
sandwhich, then shV looked
around the cafeteria aa if she
might spot some thing tb at would
prove me wrong.
"So what are you sayingr she
said. Tn going to school for no thing? My father worked his ass off
in the fields for nothing?Just to
years ago? You wanted to study your
culture and your history at the university, because you had become
equipped with New Consciousness, a
New Awareness. You knew that you
were too important to be ignored. You
started La Rasa studies.at Fresno
State, and even though you were
threatned and fired by racist administrators, you kept going; kept struggling, fighting, because you knew that
you were an emerging giant of a people
and that you could no longer be content as a seconder third class citizen.
You knew that the false illusion that
the Southwest belonged entirely to
the Anglos was fading into the clear
New Picture of Aztlan, the land of
your indigenous ancestors, the Land
of Hope, the land stolen from Mexico
by the Treaty Guadalupe Hidalgo—a
treaty that promised but denied the
rights ofthe Mexican and indiginous
populations.
You knew that this New Vision of
Aztlan was a place where you will not
be oppressed by a "dominate culture,*'
where you will be the dominate culture. You will n ot live in poverty. You
will not die in the fields and factories.
You will not be left out ofthe university experience. s-i
Now you are the Chicano-Latin
American Studies Department of
CSUF. You are internationally respected as a place for research. You
have published many books.
You do not belongto the university,
the university belongs to you. You are
higher education. You are the students who formed the Chicano Writers Artiste Association (CWAA),
and have poetry readings underneath
the stars, guerilla poetry, in the spirit
of El Theatro Campesino.
Take a look at yourself, Chicano.
See who you are. In the early mornings you are the small man in a white
Tijuana hat who sweeps wet leaves
from the parking lot you like it when
you feel the steam from your coffee
going up your nose, because it makes
you feel warm and at home. You are
Dr. Rueben Sanchez, the first tenure-track Chicano in the English department of CSUF, the advisor of
CWAA You are editor of the Daily
flqllay an QaJ*laT*a"aa*a*a*»Sa\ Mad flajOgfl
you are criticized for having too many
ads and too much sports coverage,
your heart achesat the sight of racism
and homophobia, and you sign your
are finally taking our education
seriously and not just as a way to
escape the Chicano class.
At present we ally ourselves
with other minorities groups, would
the Chicanos benefit if these ties
were to be broken so that these
changes that we want to see will
come into fruition at a faster rate
or should we keep our alliance and
make sure that no one gets left
behind? Should we seggrigate ourselves from the rest of american
society and become our own power
or should we assimilate and become Hl-SPardCS.
I know I really didn't answer
any of my own questions but instead asked more. This editorial
was written so that all you out
there along with myself can hear
from each other and exchange our
ideas through the paper if not in
person and so that tins collective
unity of Chicanos can bring about
the much needed changes.
?
dro Garcia
Pedro
editorials con safos.
You are Alicia Aaguianc who
spends, afternoons sitting in toe
ampitheater under the sun, studying, and dreaming of semesters at a
University in Mexico. You are Lisa
Rocha who takes long walks talking
and listening to your friend Tamara.
You are Frank Aviles, and you
were attacked by drunk frat boys as
you were walking through campus
late one night with your friend Salvador Cuevas. You/are the Chicanos who are the butt of racial slurs on
the bathroom walls and in the .
freespheech area; but you are also
Ralph Avitia, Ron Castillo, Gen-
oveva Islas, and Marta Velasco
fighting racism in the senate.
You are Juana Perez from Aguas
Calientes. You are a freshman. You
came through Summer Bridge. You
are Aibertina Soto artd Ramiro
Teran and Ana Diaz and you are the
Sanchez brothers, Celestino and
Frank. You are Evangelina Martinez who writes poetry in Spanish.  •
You are Manuel Cortes' who
makes sketches in a notebook that
are good enough and important
enough to be on canvas and on the
walls of art museums. You are Frank
Barbosa who feels a heart-deep commitment to your family and your gente
. You are Mike Espino who will not
be defeated.
You are to do s de los "Perros de la
Raza." You like to have fun. You are
the Danztantea de Aztlan, you are
ColmenaUniversitariaHispania.You
are Rauls, Moreno and Diaz ofthe
UMS—you are the UMS. You are
Proud of your culture. You listen to
Los Tigres del Norte and Vincente
Fernandez and M.C. Hammer and
Bobby Brown and REM and San tan a
• and Juan Serrano and Led Zepplin
and Amanda Miguel and Prince and
Kid Frost and Public Enemy.
You are existentialist intellectu- '
als. You are Gene Uruttia, Julio
Leal, Teresa Navarro, and Jesse
Aleman. You are Jill Soltero—you
wear red and black UFW t- shirts to
...see LIFE page 5