Mexica Movement
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The Mexica Movement is a self described "Indigenous rights educational organization" based in Los Angeles, California. Their organization views Mexicans (a term Mexica Movement rejects) of Native Mexican and Amerindian descendants, as one people who are falsely divided by European-imposed borders. Their ultimate objective is the non-violent, democratic "liberation" of the Western Hemisphere from European-descendants. The organization seeks to create a future nation called Cemanahuac. The group views White people as Europeans who are squatting on Indigenous lands, and who must be repatriated back to Europe. The majority of the group's members were born in the United States. The group rejects the "Aztlan ideology" as being too limited, seeking instead to unite the entire North American continent under indigenous control.
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Name and origin[edit]
The name 'Mexica' is derived from the Nahuatl word Mēxihcah (Nahuatl pronunciation: [meːˈʃiʔkaʔ]), the name the Aztecs used for themselves.
The organization is named after the Mexica (a.k.a. Aztec) civilization. This civilization is seen as the best chance from which the continent's indigenous-descent peoples can reconstruct themselves as a nation, similar to the way that modern Italians unified their nation under Roman-Italic identity and the Tuscan dialect.
Logo Symbolism[edit]
Mexica Movement's flag features indigenous Mesoamerican symbolism. The black-and-white design in the center represents the Mayan depiction of duality (life and death, male and female, matter and non-matter, seen and unseen, etc.), which is called Hunab Ku in the Mayan language and Ometeotl in the Nahuatl language. The two dualities complement one another and are unified in balance.
Issues[edit]
Historical awareness[edit]
Mexica Movement declares itself as a non-violent, educational organization, however it fails to describe how repatriation of European-Americans can be accomplished without some type of violence or use of force. It focuses on teaching the public about the pre-European civilizations of Indigenous people. In addition, the group promotes the study of "European genocidal crimes against [Indigenous People]". The group advocates this historical awareness in order to reframe the context of discussions about Indigenous people and the current governments they live under. In 2015, the Movement protested the canonization of Junípero Serra due to his alleged genocide of native people.[1]
Identity[edit]
The organization considers the vast majority of Mexicans and Central Americans to be Indigenous people of the Western Hemisphere. The group rejects all labels that originate from European-descent people. This would include Latino, Hispanic, Indian, and mestizo. Such labels are considered to be "European-colonial" in nature. The group includes "mixed-bloods" (people of partial European descent) and "full-bloods" as indigenous people.
Language[edit]
The organization uses the European languages (English and Spanish) as a practical means to communicate in daily life, but rejects the inclusion of European languages into their identity and vision for a future Indigenous nation. All European languages are seen as foreign and instruments of European colonialism. The Nahuatl language is seen to serve as a future lingua franca, linking the entire continent's indigenous "ethnicities". A standardized writing system will be derived from the Mayan writing system, similar to the "standard script" concept used to link all of China's languages and ethnicities under a single format of literacy.
Land ownership[edit]
The Mexica Movement asserts that the entire continent of North America, which they refer to as "Anahuac", belongs collectively to the indigenous people of the Americas: Latin Americans of Amerindian descent, Native Americans, and Canadian First Nations. The entire Western Hemisphere is referred to as Cemanahuac ("The One World Between The Waters" in the Nahuatl language).
Claims of genocide[edit]
The Movement asserts — based primarily on the opinions of activists David Stannard, Ward Churchill, James Blaut, and Charles Mann—that, beginning in 1492, Europeans and their descendants committed a genocide that killed 95% of the indigenous peoples in the Americas. This, they assert, allowed Europe and peoples of European descent to prosper materially and to develop themselves at the expense of indigenous peoples. The claims of "genocide" are not generally accepted by the scientific community as the numbers of indigenous peoples in the New World died from Old World diseases due to casual contact with Europeans.
Borders[edit]
All current borders across the Western Hemisphere are regarded as "colonial" and are rejected by the group. The only true border for Europeans, the group asserts, is the Atlantic Ocean seaboard. The group maintains that indigenous people have the right to move freely among their own people of the continent, with whom they may share bloodlines and culture.
Liberation[edit]
In response to an article published by the Associated Press, the Mexica Movement states that it has a strict non-violence policy because they believe they would be unable to achieve their goals through the use of violence.[2] The group is committed to a long-term liberation-by-education methodology which seeks to "change hearts and minds" by educating people of the civilized achievements of Indigenous people before 1492, and of the genocide and land/resource thefts committed by Europeans since that date. The group supports the preservation of the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights as a legal framework to protect both Indigenous and European peoples' rights during the multi-generational process of liberation.[3]
The movement consciously seeks to promote indigenous demographic increases that will lend themselves to a stronger population counterweight against the influence of the European-descent population.
"Repatriation" of white population back to Europe[edit]
Given this new majority status and radical changes in the mainstream historical narrative, the movement wishes to have whites they (Mexica Movement) considers to be racists to return to Europe. The next phase that the group advocates, should be a negotiation to repatriate the remaining white population back into Europe, over the course of a few generations. Also to be addressed will be discussions of how the Mexica Movement dreams of having Europe and European-descent people collectively deliver reparations to the peoples of the Western Hemisphere.
On its Website, the movement states that" Europeans have a homeland: EUROPE. We are only asking unwelcomed guests to leave our home. These Europeans have a home to go to. The non-racists can be part of a transition to our full independence, it's not as if Europeans are being asked to go into the Atlantic Ocean. They have a beautiful home called Europe."[4]
WorldNetDaily characterizes the Mexica Movement as being a radical group with "activists calling for the expulsion of most U.S. citizens from their own country."[5] WorldNetDaily claims the Mexica Movement wants to "expel the invaders of the last 500 years".
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ Gale Holland. "Protesters confront parishioners over Serra canonization". Los Angeles Times.
- ^ Associate Press Supports White Supremacy, Mexica Movement.
- ^ Mexica Movement Policy
- ^ Note for Europeans (We welcome Europeans to our web site), Mexica Movement website.
- ^ Marchers say gringos, not illegals, have to go
