Nuestra Gente ~~ Our People

(con't from last week)

We Have Leaders in Our Raza!

By: Daniel L. Muñoz

(Last week we brought to your attention one of our 60's/70's activists, Julio Calderon, who through his activities laid the groundwork, along with other activists, for the basis of political action in the State.

The ideas and concepts they generated helped to create the structure for a political ideology and philosophy that would undergird the political, social, civic, and economic development of future generations. Note: Readers, who missed out on last week's edition, may pick up La Prensa on our Web site at http: //www.laprensa-sandiego.org).

Mr. Calderon last week you ended your narrative by stating that we did in fact have leaders in our communities at the local, state and national levels. You also indicated that the concept of having UNITY, at least in the political arena, was not possible. Your stated reason: `our people are the most diverse and independent people in the world.'

Gaining Positive Self Image and Shared Values

Back in the 60's & 70's, one of our continued problems was our perceived lack of positive self-image. The media, schools, literature and commonly held negative views of the Mexican- Latino communities. We were here physically but appeared to be an invisible race. La Prensa San Diego asked Julio Calderon how he dealt with this phenomenon.

"The pride (orgullo) that I had within me was instilled by my Grandmother and my Aunts and Uncles. The pride that they had in their culture and heritage was clear to it had little to do with the economic situation of our family. At that time we were extremely poor. But, we managed to work with honor, integrity, and knowledge of what we were. My Grandmother, Aunts and Uncles instilled those things in me. We didn't receive the concept of `who or what we were' from the educational system. Further more, I didn't really think that was their function. It is really a function of the family. It may be that the low self-esteem of many of our youth today is because there isn't that many "Grandmothers" around anymore. Most of us have a long history of being in the United States. We know who we are and what we are. Each one of us has an individual family history as well as a shared history with the other members of our community. As an example, many Mexican-Latino families have a shared history of WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. We can relate through those shared experiences. Those are points of commonality that can form the basis for unity," said Calderon.

(L/P: It is common knowledge that individual family life experiences are held in common and become shared bonds between members of the same cultural-heritage group. The Catholic religion is another one that works to unify our communities).

M.A.P.A. and Its Failure

(L/P: What caused M.A.P.A. to fail as a political group?)

"M.A.P.A. was a strong political group in the 60's and 70's," stated Calderon, "but internal problems brought them down. When I became President of M.A.P.A., I came in with the idea of making it a bipartisan organization. The involvement of Latino Republicans with M.A.P.A. did not exist at that time. La Raza Unida had a concept that stated: `The Democratic Party and the Republican Party is a `two headed monster' that eats from the same bowl.' My vision was to have M.A.P.A. in the position of putting the food in the bowl so that regardless which head eat out of the bowl, we would be in a position of being able to deal with the body (politic). I felt that the real target should have been the body politic and not the parties. I soon discovered that we take our politics very personally, and that has been our downfall.

"M.A.P.A. you must remember was an organization involved in learning about politics and eventually participating in the politics of the state. La Raza Unida was a national group involved in the creating a national party. As a group, we were confronted with the Democratic Party that had a strong Chicano Caucus, now called the Chicano-Latino Caucus, and the Republican Party had the Republican National Hispanic Assembly and the California Republican Hispanic Council, both were partisan groups. M.A.P.A. I viewed as being a central point. This would be where we could all meet and come together. Where we could discuss our common problems as Chicanos/Hispanos and be able to hammer out those things that were best for our entire community."

The 1980's

In 1982, I went out and recruited, while still a registered Democrat, the Dukemejian Republicans, the "Viva Dukistas." I asked them to get involved with M.A.P.A. I told them that this is where you have to be in order to have a forum that was going to shed light on the influence that Hispanics had in the Republican party. However when they came in to the Convention floor there was maelstrom of controversy surrounding their presence at the M.A.P.A. Convention. The Democratic leadership had panicked when I told them that the `Dukies' would attend our Endorsement Convention. The conventional thinking was that M.A.P.A. would automatically endorse only Democrats. The leadership of the Board of M.A.P.A. panicked and immediately sent out letters and flyers to all the chapters condemning my sell out to the Republicans.

What occurred was that the Convention was attended by over 2,000 people! That was more people than had ever attended before! Every Chicano Democratic elected official was there as well as all the Chicano leaders in the state, including Cesar Chavez. All that I had done was put a shroud over the Democratic endorsement and the Democratic Party panicked. Los Angeles Mayor Bradley spent over $50,000 to bring farm workers and Union workers to the convention. Dukemajian spent over $20,000 to bring his Republican supporters to the convention. It was really the first time ever that at a Mexican-Latino political convention of Republicans and Democrats were there under the same roof. The television cameras were there as well as the print media. We had for the first time, and what turned out to be the last time, a real political convention! As usual, in the end the Convention attendees voted a straight Democratic ticket. The membership was unable to come together, in unity, to force both parties to pay heed to the needs of our people as A WHOLE. They could not see the political power that could accrue to the groups by demonstrating that we could come together and unite for the common good. The membership could not see what we were trying to do. At the next election, that followed, Cesar Chavez, and his Union, took over M.A.P.A and delivered it to the Democratic Party," Calderon pointed out.

(L/P: It was apparent that Calderon was ahead of his time and that the sophistication of our people was limited to the point where they could not interact with those with differing political views for the common good. M.A.P.A. dissolved into a very Democratic partisan group and became a captive of the Democratic Party. The Republicans abandoned the group. Unfortunately the Democratic camp showed little interest in giving the growing Mexican-Latino community any voice in the Party. M.A.P.A. for all intents and purposes became the workhorse for giving the mostly White Democratic Party the Chicano vote and the Party took no interest in their concerns. M.A.P.A. went into oblivion.)

The 1990's

"During the time that I was President of M.A.P.A. we established 52 chapters statewide and had organized chapters in Arizona, and Washington State. The organization fell into disarray after the `80's and became a non-player. At this point in time, the only major Chicano-Mexican American political organization has still not found its way and is still considered a tool of the Democratic Party. It is now said that M.A.P.A. should modify its name and call itself M.A.D.P.A. (The Mexican American Democratic Political Association.)

We have a Democratic Governor and a number of elected Mexican -Latino in the Assembly and Senate. We have one elected State wide Hispanic. But the question is and remains ARE THEY REPRESENTATIVES OF ALL THE PEOPLE OR JUST THE SAME RULING OLIGARCHY THAT HAS RUN THIS State? Are they going to stand up for the issues that are important to us. Do we have the leverage and power to make the difference. Time will tell whether the 30 percent of this state which is Mexican American-Latino will gain political equity and justice.

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