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Title: ‘Machete’ producers lied about racist bloodbath
Source:
PP
URL Source: http://www.prisonplanet.com/%E2%80% ... ed-about-racist-bloodbath.html
Published: Sep 6, 2010
Author: Aaron Dykes & Alex Jones
Post Date: 2010-09-06 01:55:33 by HAPPY2BME-4UM
Keywords: None
Views: 700
Comments: 52
Machete ‘race war’ confirmed as tax rebates still in question for anti-Texas, pro-immigration film Aaron Dykes & Alex Jones Sunday, September 5, 2010 When Alex Jones expressed concern in May that a leaked script portrayed white characters as vehemently racist and wantonly murderous, or that a Latino mob is roused to take on border vigilantes in racial conflict, director Rodriguez assured Ain’t It Cool News, that he’d ‘had too much tequila,’ and that those types of scenes wouldn’t make it to the final edited version. Producer Elizabeth Avellan went on the attack just before the release, defending the tax incentives ‘Machete’ had practically already been assured. Avellan denounced the ‘uproar over the film’ as “unfounded and unnecessary,” stating there was ‘no reason for a denial of incentives’: “A lot of people made up a lot of stuff in terms of what the movie is about and who the bad guy is,” she said. “There were a lot of things that people misconstrued … without even knowing the script and pretending they have a script.” Now there is no doubt. Everything Jones quoted from the script was on screen in one form or another– and its tone was clear: opposition to illegal immigration is tantamount to murder, white racism and vile Machiavellian scheming. One scene that was excised from the script repeated the one-sided demonization of the Freedom Force vigilantes, who were to murder a young child on the border at the end. However, that ending was left behind for a different sequence altogether. Reviewers like ‘Big Hollywood’ panned the film as ‘Dull, Convoluted, Racist and Anti-American,’ criticizing that: “’Machete’ offers no middle ground, no reasonable, non-racist position against wide open borders for those fleeing from what one character describes as the “personal hell” that is Mexico.” Who the illegals fight against on screen is one thing. What their words mean is altogether something else. That’s the shell game Rodriguez plays and his racially divisive messaging goes way beyond the normal cinematic political posturing and button-pushing. And you will never see a more stereotypically racist portrayal of Southerners, who, in an obvious reference to the border Minute Men, are not only played for cheap laughs but portrayed as sub-human animals who hunt and murder illegals – kill a helpless pregnant woman and say “Welcome to America.” Rodriguez & crew played everyone as fools, knowing full well what the film would contain. Does Texas want to subsidize the films of Robert Rodriguez and continue to give him a platform to spew divisive racially-tinted trash oriented at Hispanics and attempting to radicalize their views? Rodriguez is the face of the Texas Film Commission’s tax incentives program, and has been virtually guaranteed up to $60 million in rebate funding for a package of films. Blood-soaked and dripping with hate It wasn’t the extreme levels of violence or its nudity that made this film so offensive; it was the one-sided approval of Hispanic revenge killings while uniformly demonizing the actions of the white groups involved. Though the head Mexican drug lord was the ultimate enemy, he was served exclusively by white politicians and radical groups; everyone in ‘The Network’ worked against him. What’s more, the film was marketed towards Hispanic groups, including widespread promotion throughout Latin America, featuring a poster with an image of a blood-dripping machete (the symbol of peasant uprising). Now Hollywood’s exports aren’t just American cultural hegemony, but a weaponized-subsection of radicalized Latino culture that draws in crowds by playing to Hispanic supremacy. ‘Machete’ star Danny Trejo embraced his image as the ‘the first Latino superstar’ in an interview with HipHopNation.com, stating “It’s an honor to be considered the first Latino superstar. Or I should say the first Latino action hero!” He continued: “I think Hollywood is afraid to realize that the Latino audience is the largest that they’ve got. As long as they think that a Latino can’t carry a movie, its going to stay that way. Robert Rodriguez who is innovative and brilliant, he knows what we’ve got. The other great thing is that he put some strong Latina ladies in the movie like Michelle Rodriguez and Jessica Alba. Lindsay Lohan also stars in the movie and she might as well be Latina (laughs).” Keep in mind that Fox 20th Century films, a division of Rupert Murdoch’s NewsCorp empire financed ‘Machete.’ Its news division pulled a story criticizing the film’s violent ‘war on immigration.’ While Fox’s film division funds ‘Machete,’ Fox News stokes heat over the Arizona immigration battle and beyond. At the same time warhawks at Fox News fumed over the Ground Zero mosque controversy, it was revealed that the mosque is financed in part by a top Fox News owner (who is Saudi) as well as many top Western philanthropies like the Ford Foundation, among others. Meanwhile Fox also funds diversity filmmaking programs. The Ford Foundation and Rockefeller Foundation have a history of financing and subsidizing Mexican and Hispanic culture, including radical groups like La Raza. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have not only given millions to the National Council of La Raza, but financed minority only scholarships. The Ford Foundation has also branched out into financing Hispanic and minority-oriented films, including the 2010 Sundance Institute / Ford Foundation fellowship initiative. Why would racist, elitist eugenicists groups like these finance radical minority movements? The strategy is to divide and conquer, breaking America into bands of opposing groups. There’s not been such an openly racist film in America since the early days of cinema where the pro-KKK ‘Birth of a Nation,’ and films featuring Charlie Chan and other “coolies” epitomized a cruder era of filmmaking full of offensive stereotypes. 70s exploitation films don’t come close to ‘Machete,’ despite inspiring much of its style. Today, such depictions from early cinema have been denounced. Why then would today’s politically-correct culture who denounce these stereotypes accept and praise a racist filmmaker who pans to the Hispanic market? The messages in culture, including how ethnic groups are portrayed, are clearly important to discuss in our society. Propaganda has been synonymous with films since the beginning– when Soviet propagandists, like Eisenstein, and later Nazi propagandists, headed by Goebbels, used it as a weapon of cultural influence. While Rodriguez has a right to make as hateful and racist a film as he dares, the State of Texas should be hesitant to institutionalize support for his extreme views, given that the Film Commission has a policy to selectively refuse funding that depicts Texas in a bad light. The film ‘Waco’ was sent packing, so why should ‘Machete’ have Gov. Rick Perry’s blessing and budget? Do its themes grace Texas, or glorify a ‘Reconquista’ view of the United States mainland? In the Mexploitation film ‘Machete,’ white characters who ran with the Hispanic crew felt the need to justify their presence. “I was adopted,” one Anglo wanna-be gangster told Machete as he attempted to rally a Latino posse. Hispanics, like Jessica Alba’s character, who worked for the white system as an I.C.E. (Immigrations & Customs) officer, redeemed herself by betraying “the law” for “what’s right.” Alba’s conversion, which ended in her rallying a crowd of migrant workers by declaring “We didn’t cross the border; the border crossed us,” was inspired by Luz. Played by Michelle Rodriguez, Luz operates a taco stand as cover for her role as head of ‘The Network,’ an underground organization that helps to transport migrants across the border and situate them within the U.S. Its influence is channeled through the pervasive myth of Luz’s alter-ego “She,” the militant female version of the revolutionary leader Che. ‘The Network’ becomes a sort of underground railroad for the plight of the immigrant, seeking refuge from the ‘Hellhole’ that is their collapsing country. In the film, that effort is thwarted by the white racist Von, who torches her headquarters while his band of vigilantes called ‘Freedom Fighters’ prepare for their next border raid to mow down helpless illegal aliens. Von & his boys also conspire with a crooked state Senator played by Robert DeNiro to construct an electrified border fence that literally fries trespassers instantly. Let’s Get Real: Having a Healthy Food Supply is Essential (AD) Even the non-violent parts of the film are littered with mini-lectures about the justification for immigration or on the dignity of brown people and day laborers. And while the film had plenty of humor, its stab at border issues was, as Kurt Nimmo noted, anything but satire. It is more of a racial polemic, fueled by Rodriguez’ one-sided philosophy, that declares symbolic dominance through Machete’s mythical exploits and ultimate victory. What’s inflammatory? - A Catholic priest played by Cheech Marin is crucified by the character “Booth” who slings racist insults while nailing him to the cross In closing, Fox News writer James Pinkerton has written a news story about Machete titled “The Reconquista is Here.” Let’s just hope the Fox executives don’t pull the plug on this one. Contact Texas Governor Rick Perry: Contact the Texas Film Commission Citizen’s Opinion Hotline [for Texas callers] :
‘Machete’ producers lied about racist bloodbath
Prison Planet.com
‘Machete’ reached the #3 spot at the box office opening weekend. But after viewing the film, it is clear that its producers lied about the extent of the film’s racial message, which includes vulgar atrocities, including the killing of a pregnant woman attempting to cross the border during one of the opening scenes. This deception about the film’s message could bring its tax incentives, worth millions in production costs, into question.
- Opening scene where pregnant mother trying to cross the border is killed by DeNiro and border vigilantes to ‘prevent another anchor baby’
- A phony campaign ad for DeNiro’s Senator McLaughlin depicts hundreds of crawling worms and cockroaches while decrying the “parasite” immigrant “terrorists” crossing the border.
- ‘The Network’ of Latinos was continually virtuous while the Freedom Force, a vigilante group cast with caricatures of hillbilly trash, neo-Nazi types and fat slobs, repeatedly use terms like “wetbacks,” “cucarachas,” “parasites,” “beaners” and more.
- Freedom Fighter vigilantes regularly go out on adventures to snipe at illegals near the border and film their exploits
- A scene in a hospital where it is declared that illegal immigrants are usually refused emergency care, but Machete is lucky that ‘The Network’ is there to help him this time. (In reality, the cost of health care for undocumented illegal immigrants, for both emergency care, births, public education and beyond is burdensome to every Southern border state, as well as in many other areas.)
Phone: (512) 463-9200
Alt.: (512) 463-2000
Fax: (512) 463-1849
Phone: (512) 463-9200
Fax: (512) 463-4114
film@governor.state.tx.us
Phone: (800) 252-9600
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Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 47.
#1. To: HAPPY2BME-4UM (#0)
Alex jones Alex jones.... Maybe he is having flash backs of the parking lot incident. LOL I remember seeing the tarintino trailer for Machete in planet terror/grindhouse I never thought he would make it into a Real movie.. but here it is. I plan on seeing it. I expect gore,violence,and all sorts of adult themes. I will not run off and cry like a baby to a lame ass governor that couldn't give a flip about it anyways unless it somehow paid him. And on that note hasn't anyone ever noticed how AJ bemoans congress and Perry for hours on end then at the end of his show he is always telling us to call our Governor and congress critters ....Have you ever thought that maybe just maybe it is a damn good pysop to make you put yourself on the black lists?
Confirmed: Machete Is A Race War Epic
It is a movie. Don't like it? Don't watch it. The movie "A day without a Mexican" seemed kinda stereotypical to me. "Friday" and "Soul Plane" have certain racial aspects one might find offensive. The Entire BET networks offends me...But I don't cry over it. Instead I just don't watch it. Nuff said.
Nuff said You said you fell off of which planet?? Movies have political and social content. Birth of a Nation, Potemkim, Triumph des Willens, etc, etc. This is a forum & we discuss this crap, see? By the way, from what I've seen of this film, I find it extremely offensive and dangerously provocative. The producers will have blood on their hands.
Bullshit. That is the kinda of thinking that blames gun manufactures for murders or violent video games for kids bad behavior. You can't pass the responsibility of a citizens actions onto a movie just because it was violent or racist. And I seriously doubt the depth of the political and/or social content of "Machete". It will probably be as deep as "Planet terror" or "Desperado". Neither of those two movies motivated folks to violence. .... In fact I doubt you could name me any movie that has ever motivated folks to violence. It is just a cheap b rated action gore flick. Get over it.
Wetbacks are not white and cannot be held to adult standards.
The California Coalition for Immigration Reform (CCIR) produced a CD with excerpts of radical, racist speeches by fifteen Latino elected officials, professors, students and community activists, with additional comments by Congressman Tom Tancredo, L.A. Talk Show Host Larry Elder, former CA Governor Gray Davis -- ending with disturbing chants by MEChA students. [You may download each individual clip in mp3 format. A link is provided at the end of each individual transcript for your convenience]. These are the verbatim transcripts: 1) Armando Navarro, Prof. Ethnic Studies, UC Riverside at Latino Summit Response to Prop 187, UC Riverside, 1/1995 2) Art Torres, former CA state senator, currently Chair of California Democrat Party at UC Riverside 1/1995 3) Jose Angel Gutierrez, Prof. Univ. Texas at Arlington, founder La Raza Unida Party at UC Riverside 1/1995 4) Bill Richardson, New Mexico Governor, former U.S. Congressman, U.N. Ambassador, U.S. Sect'y of Energy interviewed on radio Latino USA responding to Congressional Immigration Reform legislation in 1996 5) Mario Obledo, founding member/former nat'l director of Mexican-American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), former CA Sect'y Health/Welfare on Tom Leykis radio talk show 6) CCIR commentary on Mario Obledo 7) Richard Alatorre, former Los Angeles City Councilman at Latino Summit conference in Los Angeles opposing CA Prop. 209 ending affirmative action in 9/1996 8) Joe Baca, former CA Assemblymember, currently member of Congress at Latino Summit Response to Prop 187 UC Riverside 1/1995 and Southwest Voter Registration Project annual conference in Los Angeles, 6/1996 9) Antonio Villaraigosa, Chair of MEChA (student wing of Aztlan movement) at UCLA, former CA assemblymember, former CA Assembly speaker, currently Los Angeles City Councilman at Southwest Voter Registration Project Conference in Los Angeles, 6/1997 10) Gloria Molina, one of the five in Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors at Southwest Voter Registration Project Conference, 6/1996 11) Vicky Castro, former member of Los Angeles Board of Education at Southwest Voter Registration Project Conference, 6/1996 12) Ruben Zacarias, former superintendent of Los Angeles Unified School District at Southwest Voter Registration Project Conference, 6/1997 13) Ernesto Zedillo, former president of Mexico announcing the Mexican constitutional amendment allowing for dual citizenship on 6/23/97 14) Augustin Cebada, Information Minister of Brown Berets, militant para-military soldiers of Aztlan shouting at U.S. citizens at an Independence Day rally in Los Angeles, 7/4/96 15) Fabian Nunez, formerly Alliance for Immigrant Rights, political liaison for L.A. School District, currently Speaker of the CA Assembly at Latino Summit Response to Prop 187 at UC Riverside, 1/1995 16) Larry Elder, L.A. radio talk show host reads a letter from one of his listeners: 17) Tom Tancredo, U.S. Congressman from Colorado,, speaking on CSPAN, 6/27/2001 18) Gray Davis, former governor of California, recalled by the voters 10/2003 speaking to a Latino audience in 1999 19) MEChA (student wing of the Aztlan movement - motto: "For the race, everything, for those outside the race, nothing.") chants at national conference, Cal State Univ., Northridge, 6/1996
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#2. To: titorite (#1)
Kurt Nimmo
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Comment from Alex Jones: Robert Rodriguez is a liar - when a script for Machete was leaked back in May, I pointed out that the film contained numerous elements that were highly offensive and could easily kick-start a race war. Rodriguez claimed that these scenes had been edited or removed for the final version. They were not – every part of the original script remains in the film almost word for word. http://www.infowars.com/leaked-machete-script-confirms-race-war-plot/
When a Cinco De Mayo political trailer for the movie was released in reaction to the Arizona immigration situation, Rodriguez again claimed that this was satire and not representative of the film. http://www.aintitcool.com/node/44943?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter In fact, the movie contains everything that appeared in this trailer and a lot more (including Jessica Alba’s provocative “the border crossed us” rallying cry).
This movie is sickening. Myself and six members of the Infowars team all left the theater feeling physically ill. The film opens with Texans butchering pregnant illegal aliens and the propaganda only gets more virulent, including references to serial killer Charles Manson’s Helter Skelter vision of race war, sterotyping the Minutemen as murderers of illegal aliens, when in reality they have never harmed anyone, showing Texans butchering a priest, and talk of “resettling America” in the context of the extremist reconquista racial movement.
This movie is not a joke. It is race war propaganda hastily disguised behind a stylized, bloodthirsty black comedy.
If a white person had directed a movie about hispanics being sub-human devils who want to kill everybody there would have been an uproar, but Rodriguez can demonize an entire race of people, along with Texans in general, in a similar vein and the establishment media treats it all as a cutsie joke. This is disgusting.
——————————————
Robert Rodriguez’s Machete lives up to its trailer released earlier this year. “This is Machete with a special Cinco de Mayo message … to Arizona,” the star of the grindhouse movie, played by Danny Trejo, growls at the start of the trailer. He then engages in bloody mayhem and mass murder.
World War One propaganda poster depicting Germans as baby killers. Rodriguez’s film portrays the border Minutemen in much the same light.
On Friday night, Alex Jones took his crew to see Machete at a theater here in Austin, Texas. The movie lived up to and even exceeded expectations.
Critics have mostly panned the movie as trashy, campy, and rife with senseless and gratuitous violence. Daniel B. Wood, writing for the Christian Science Monitor, says the film has a sub-theme — immigration and “reverse racism.” http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2010/0904/Machete-has-immigration-subtheme.-How-will-it-play-in-Arizona Wood quotes Barbara O’Connor, director of the Institute for the Study of Politics and Media at California State University, who warns that some people may have “negative reactions” after watching the film. “Yes, this movie is goofily violent, but it’s also dealing with issues that are largely visceral,” she tells Wood. “I don’t know that people in the middle of the debate will view it as satire.”
Machete is not satire. It is propaganda under the cover of an exploitation film. It is designed to stir up “visceral” reactions to the very serious issue of illegal immigration. It strives to demonize Americans outraged over an open border and the influx of millions of illegal aliens every year.
Machete portrays members of the Minuteman Project — an activist organization founded in 2005 by James Gilchrist — as racist thugs and serial murderers. The Minutemen are not directly named. Instead, the border patrol group calls itself the “Vigilantes,” but the comparison in unavoidable.
Video
Leaked Machete Script Confirms Race War Plot
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9tIoJBhp18
A few minutes into the film, the border Vigilantes — including a corrupt Texas politician played by Robert De Niro — murder a pregnant illegal woman as she crosses the border. The scene is an example of classic war propaganda.
“A handy rule for arousing hate,” noted political scientist and communications expert Harold Lasswell, “is, if at first they do not enrage, use an atrocity. It has been employed with unvarying success in every conflict known to man.”
The murder of a defenseless pregnant woman in the film is designed to elicit a visceral and emotional response on the part of the audience. It far surpasses the “ravishing” of maidens by evil Huns portrayed in pro-war posters during the First World War. It ranks right up there with photos published in newspapers prior to the Second World War showing sadistic Japanese soldiers skewering Chinese babies with bayonets. Such images were instrumental in convincing the American people they should support entry into the war.
Rodriguez’s message is clear — if you oppose illegal immigration, support the activism of the Minutemen, and agree that states should adopt laws like Arizona in response to illegal immigration, you also support shooting pregnant Mexican women.
Polls reveal that most Americans by large margins support the Arizona law. “A solid majority of Americans back Arizona’s tough crackdown on illegal immigrants,” Reuters reported in May. http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64B4W820100512 Eight in 10 Americans are concerned that illegal immigrants burden schools, hospitals and other government services, and 77% worry that they drive down wages, according to a USA TODAY/Gallup poll, also conducted in May. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-05-03-immigration-poll_N.htm
Despite its obvious cliches and racial stereotypes, a climatic scene near the end of the movie calls for a bloody revolution against the Vigilantes, aka the Minutemen and their supporters, or for that matter Americans who want to deal with illegal immigration in a lawful manner. During the scene, we see a large number of Mexican laborers using the implements of their trade to attack the Vigilantes.
The scene has an ominous parallel — in April, the Americans for Legal Immigration PAC released a video showing an illegal alien supporter in Arizona claiming that shovels and axes will be used against Americans. “We will not stop! We will take up our shovels and pickaxes and we… will use them against you! Believe that!” screams an opponent of Arizona’s tough new bill addressing illegal immigration in the video.
Video
Illegals Threaten To Murder Americans With Axes and Shovels SB 1070
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDlutO0KK7g
Following charges that he was attempting to stir up a race war with the release of his “Cinco de Mayo” trailer, director Rodriguez promised to tone down incendiary aspects of his film. After Alex Jones received the Machete script and pointed out the race war elements, Rodriguez said his critics have jumped to conclusions.
“They may have read a script that wasn’t finished and jumped to conclusions about its content and tone,” he told Ain’t It Cool. “Any filmmaker will tell you, there are three movies that you make: the one you write, the one you shoot and the one you edit.” http://www.aintitcool.com/node/45169
The theatrical version of Machete is true to the leaked script, with one notable exception at the end of the film.
“I don’t really believe in protests, rallies or marches,” Rodriguez told Ain’t It Cool, and then encouraged supporters of illegal immigration to “register and vote because what we need is serious, comprehensive immigration reform,” in other words voter should force the government to legalize tens of millions of illegal immigrants. “You can feel people’s frustration [over Arizona] and yet it’s difficult for them to have a clear opinion on the matter because there’s such a mess of misinformation.”
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Robert Rodriguez’s Machete is an obnoxious exercise in misinformation. It calls for a violent response to the political activism of Americans — including Hispanic Americans — opposed to wide open and lawless borders and the assertion by many Mexicans that the American Southwest was stolen from them by the United States.
Machete is primarily about illegal immigration — specifically framed by the “Cinco de Mayo” trailer — and is Rodriguez’s answer to the acrimonious debate over Arizona’s effort to stem the tide of illegal immigrants bankrupting the state.
Rodriguez has cynically shrouded his message — violence in response to border “vigilantes” is not only acceptable, but preferable — under the cover of a Mexploitation film. It remains to be seen if the film, now showing in theaters around the country, will result in violence.
http://www.prisonplanet.com/machete-race-war-propaganda-under-the-cover-of-a-mexploitation-film.html
#5. To: HAPPY2BME-4UM (#2)
#6. To: titorite (#5)
It is a movie. Don't like it? Don't watch it. . . .
#7. To: randge (#6)
The producers will have blood on their hands.
#45. To: titorite (#7)
Bullshit. That is the kinda of thinking that blames gun manufactures for murders or violent video games for kids bad behavior.
#46. To: Turtle, Prefrontal Vortex, christine, lod, Samuel Gray, Itistoolate, Original_Intent, randge, Flintlock, titorite, James Deffenbach, cynicom, Jethro Tull, InsideJob, PSUSA, farmfriend, A K A Stone (#45)
#47. To: Turtle, Prefrontal Vortex, christine, lod, Samuel Gray, Itistoolate, Original_Intent, randge, Flintlock, titorite, James Deffenbach, cynicom, Jethro Tull, InsideJob, PSUSA, farmfriend, A K A Stone (#46)
"These are the critical years for us as a Latino community. We're in a state of transition. And that transformation is called 'the browning of America'. Latinos are now becoming the majority. Because I know that time and history is on the side of the Chicano/Latino community. It is changing in the future and in the present the balance of power of this nation. It's a game - it's a game of power - who controls it. You (to MEChA students) are like the generals that command armies. We're in a state of war. This Proposition 187 is a declaration of war against the Latino/Chicano community of this country. They know the demographics. They know that history and time is on our side. As one community, as one people, as one nation within a nation as the community that we are, the Chicano/Latino community of this nation. What this means is a transfer of power. It means control."
Click here to download this audio clip.
"Que viva la causa! It is an honor to be with the new leadership of the Americas, here meeting at UC Riverside. So with 187 on the ballot, what is it going to take for our people to vote - to see us walking into the gas ovens? It is electoral power that is going to make the determination of where we go as a community. And power is not given to you -- you have to take it. Remember: 187 is the last gasp of white America in California. Understand that. And people say to me on the Senate floor when I was in the Senate, 'Why do you fight so hard for affirmative action programs?' And I tell my white colleagues, 'because you're going to need them.'"Click here to download this audio clip.
"The border remains a military zone. We remain a hunted people. Now you think you have a destiny to fulfill in the land that historically has been ours for forty thousand years. And we're a new Mestizo nation. And they want us to discuss civil rights. Civil rights. What law made by white men to oppress all of us of color, female and male. This is our homeland. We cannot - we will not- and we must not be made illegal in our own homeland. We are not immigrants that came from another country to another country. We are migrants, free to travel the length and breadth of the Americas because we belong here. We are millions. We just have to survive. We have an aging white America. They are not making babies. They are dying. It's a matter of time. The explosion is in our population."Click here to download this audio clip.
"There are changing political times where our basic foundations and programs are being attacked, illegal and legal immigration are being unfairly attacked. We have to band together, and that means Latinos in Florida, Cuban-Americans, Mexican-Americans, Puerto Ricans, South Americans, we have to network better - we have to be more politically minded, we have to put aside party and think of ourselves as Latinos, as Hispanics more than we have in the past."Click here to download this audio clip.
"We're going to take over all the political institutions in California. In five years the Hispanics are going to be the majority population of this state." Caller: "You also made the statement that California is going to become a Hispanic state and if anyone doesn't like it they should leave - did you say that?" Obledo: "I did. They ought to go back to Europe."Click here to download this audio clip.
When CCIR, the California Coalition for Immigration Reform, erected a billboard on the California/Arizona border reading, "WELCOME TO CALIFORNIA, THE ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION STATE", Mario Obledo, infuriated, went to the billboard location and threatened to blow it up or burn it down. Even after this threat to deny American citizens their freedom of speech, President Clinton awarded Obledo the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America's highest civilian honor. CCIR question to Obledo: "Jose Angel Gutierrez said, 'We have an aging white America, they are dying, I love it.' How would you translate that statement?" Obledo: "He's a good friend of mine. A very smart person."Click here to download this audio clip.
"Because our numbers are growing, they're afraid about this great mass of minorities that now live in our community. They're afraid that we're going to take over the governmental institutions and other institutions. They are right, we will take them over, and we are not going to go away - we are here to stay, and we are saying 'ya basta' (enough!) and we are going to turn... and de... not elect or re-elect people that believe that they are going to advance their political careers on the backs of immigrants and the backs of minorities."Click here to download this audio clip.
"We need more Latinos out there. We must stand up and be counted. We must be together, We must be united. Because if we're not united you know what's going to happen? We're like sticks - we're broken to pieces. Divided we're not together. But as a unit they can't break us. So we've got to come together, and if we're united, si se puede (it can be done) and we will make the changes that are necessary. But we've got to do it. We've got to stand together, and dammit, don't let them divide us because that's what they want to do, is to divide us. And once we're divided we're conquered. But when we look out at the audience and we see, you know, la familia, La Raza (the family, our race), you know, it's a great feeling, isn't it a good feeling? And you know, I started to think about that and it reminded me of a book that we all read and we all heard about, you know, Paul Revere, and when he was saying, 'The British are coming, the British are coming!' Well, the Latinos are coming, the Latinos are coming! And the Latinos are going to vote. So our voices will be heard. So that's what this agenda is about. It's about insuring that we increase our numbers. That we increase our numbers at every level. We talk about the Congressional, we talk about the Senate, we talk about board of supervisors, board of education, city councils, commissions, we have got to increase out numbers because the Latinos are coming. Because what's going on right now, with 187, the CCRI (CA Civil Rights Initiative against affirmative action), and let me tell you, we can't go back, you know, we're in a civil war. But we need to be solidified, we need to come together, we must be strong, because united we form a strong body. United we become solidified, united we make a difference, united we make the changes, united Latinos will win throughout California, let's stick together, que si se puede, que no? (it can be done, right?)Click here to download this audio clip.
"Part of today's reality has been propositions like 187 (to deny public benefits to illegal aliens, 1994), propositions like 209 (to abolish affirmative action, 1996), the welfare reform bill, which targeted legal immigrants and targeted us as a community. That's been the midnight. We know that the sunny side of midnight has been the election of a Latino speaker - was the election of Loretta Sanchez, against an arch-conservative, reactionary hate-mongering politician like Congressman Dornan! Today in California in the legislature, we're engaged in a great debate, where not only were we talking about denying education to the children of undocumented workers, but now we're talking about whether or not we should provide prenatal care to undocumented mothers. It's not enough to elect Latino leadership. If they're supporting legislation that denies the undocumented driver's licenses, they don't belong in office, friends. They don't belong here. If they can't stand up and say, 'You know what? I'm not ever going to support a policy that denies prenatal care to the children of undocumented mothers', they don't belong here."Click here to download this audio clip.
"This community is no longer going to stand for it. Because tonight we are organizing across this country in a single mission, in a plan. We are going to organize like we've never organized before. We are going to go into our neighborhoods. We are going to register voters. We are going to talk to all of those young people that need to become registered voters and go out to vote and we're are politicizing every single one of those new citizens that are becoming citizens of this country. And what we are saying is by November we will have one million additional Latino voters in this country, and we're gonna march, and our vote is going to be important. But I gotta tell you, there's a lot of people that are saying, 'I'm gonna go out there and vote because I want to pay them back!' And this November we are going to remember those that stood with us and we are also going to remember those that have stood against us on the issues of immigration, on the issues of education, on the issues of health care, on the issues of the minimum wage."Click here to download this audio clip.
"Que viva la raza, que viva la raza (long live our race)! I'm here to welcome all the new voters of 18 years old that we're registering now in our schools. Welcome, you're going to make a difference for Los Angeles, for San Antonio, for New York, and I thank Southwest for taking that challenge. And to the Mechistas (MEChA students) across this nation, you're going to make that difference for us, too. But when we register one more million voters I will not be the only Latina on the Board of Education of Los Angeles. And let me tell you here, no one will dismantle bilingual education in the United States of America. No one will deny an education to any child, especially Latino children. As you know, in Los Angeles we make up 70% of this school district. Of 600,000 -- 400,000 are Latinos, and our parents are not heard and they're going to be heard because in Los Angeles, San Antonio and Texas we have just classified 53,000 new citizens in one year that are going to be felt in November!"Click here to download this audio clip.
"We have 27 centers now throughout LAUSD. Every one of them has trained people, clerks to take the fingerprints. Each one has the camera, that special camera. We have the application forms. And I'll tell you what we've done with I.N.S. Now we're even doing the testing that usually people had to go to INS to take, and pretty soon, hopefully, we'll do the final interviews in our schools. Incidentally, I started this very quietly because there are those that if they knew that we were creating a whole new cadre of brand new citizens it would have tremendous political impact. We will change the political panorama not only of L.A., but L.A. County and the State. And we do that we've changed the panorama of the nation. I'm proud to stand here and tell you that in those close to three years we have processed a little over 78,000 brand new citizens. That is the largest citizenship program in the entire nation."Click here to download this audio clip.
"I have proudly affirmed that the Mexican national extends beyond the territory enclosed by its borders, and that Mexican migrants are an important - a very important part of it. For that reason my government proposed a constitutional amendment to allow any Mexican with the right as he desires to acquire another nationality to do so without being forced to first give up his or her Mexican nationality. fortunately, the amendment was passed almost unanimously by our federal Congress and is now part of our constitution. I am also here today to tell you that we want you to take pride in what each and every one of your Mexican brothers and sisters are doing back home.
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"Augustin Cebada, Brown Berets, we're here today to show L.A., show the minority people here, the Anglo-Saxons, that we are here, the majority, we're here to stay. We do the work in this city, we take care of the spoiled brat children, we clean their offices, we pick the food, we do the manufacturing in the factories of L.A., we are the majority here and we are not going to be pushed around. We're here in Westwood, this is the fourth time we've been here in the last two months, to show white Anglo-Saxon Protestant L.A., the few of you who remain, that we are the majority, and we claim this land as ours, sit's always been ours, and we're still here, and none of the talk about deporting. If anyone's going to be deported it's going to be you! Go back to Simi Valley, you skunks! Go back to Woodland Hills! Go back to Boston! To back to the Plymouth Rock, Pilgrims! Get out! We are the future. You're old and tired. Go on. We have beaten you, leave like beaten rats. You old white people, it is your duty to die. Even their own ethicists say that they should die, that they have a duty to die. They're taking up too much space, too much air. We are the majority in L.A. There's over seven million Mexicans in L.A. County alone. We are the majority. And you're going to see every day more and more of it, as we manifest as our young people grow up, graduate from high school, go on to college and start taking over this society. The vast majority of our people are under the age of 15 years old. Right now we're already controlling those elections, whether it's by violence or nonviolence. Through love of having children we're going to take over." Other demonstrators: "Raza fuerza (brown race power), this is Aztlan, this is Mexico. They're the pilgrims on our land. Go back to the Nina, the Pinta, the Santa Maria."Click here to download this audio clip.
"There's only two forms of power in this country and in this world. One is economic power, We certainly don't have the economic power because we don't own the means of production, but there's another form of power, and that's the power of the masses. So you can be as revolutionary as you want, you can be Chicano nationalist, you can be Mexican-American, you can be Hispanic, you can believe in the concept of Aztlan, you can believe in the concept of multi-culturalism. Somebody can say 'Everybody here is wrong, I am the only one that has reached revolutionary completeness'. But the bottom line is that if we do not mobilize our community we are not putting together a setting - the parameters to establish a massive movement in our community. That's what this is about. And that's why I am here today - to talk about who here wants to organize the masses, and who here is interested in developing that movement that somebody earlier said that the sleeping giant is in a coma. I'll tell you that on October 16 ("Grande Marcha" against Prop. 187) 150,000 representatives from the sleeping giant were not in a coma but rather were marching down the streets of Los Angeles saying that enough is enough and we're no longer going to tolerate the racism against our community. The very essence of the dignity of our community is in danger right now. Luckily, we don't have to give our lives. We're not at that point, but we can give a little. What I would like to ask everybody here to give is not necessarily your life, but to give one moment of thought to what the importance of a national march on Washington DC in 1996 would mean for the mass movement of our community. Get ten people, ten people ready to go with us to that march to Washington DC in '96, and I guarantee you, just as we mobilized 150 (sic) people into the streets of Los Angeles on October 16, we can mobilize one million people and bring Washington to a standstill, and those rednecks that are out there making decisions for the betterment of their communities will think twice before they push forward anti-immigrant legislation against our community. And so that we can show our people that the time has come for us to come together on what brings us together instead of to sit down and bump heads. And I tell the students in the colleges, if you're still debating the question of whether they're Chicanos or Mexicanos, or Chicano/Mexicano, we're not learning from the lessons of ten, fifteen years ago. The time has come for unity - there's too many things that separate people, but we have to begin to look at what brings us together. And so I ask everybody here, how many of you agree if we can leave here with one thing today, that in 1996 we are going to Washington DC on a mass mobilization there to bring Washington to a standstill so that they know that we're there and that we begin to put into place those things that are necessary to insure that we advance the interests of our community. Raise your hands, those of you that agree with what I'm saying."Click here to download this audio clip.
"Dear Larry, I spent ten years as a cruise hostess working at sea on cruise ships all over the world, so many of my assignments were to the Mexican Riviera, going back to the destination over and over again working friendships with many of the local people working along side of us in the Mexican tourist industry. Larry, the one phrase I heard a hundred times or more was, 'When the revolution is over.' When I asked for information, always the same answer, 'When they have California back.' Young or old, it seems they grew up being taught there would be a revolution some day. Somehow they would have California back."Click here to download this audio clip.
"In the June 21 issue of Time Magazine, the lead story of which is titled, "AMEXICA". It describes the de facto elimination of the border between Mexico and the United States. I believe that the debate revolving around our immigration policy should reflect the fact that this phenomenon is underway. President Fox (of Mexico) yesterday stated that he came to the United States to "play a more active role in establishing the new international architecture". I believe that this new "international architecture" can be described as AMEXICA.Click here to download this audio clip.
"In the near future, people will look at California and Mexico as one magnificent region."Click here to download this audio clip.
"Viva la raza (long live our race)", "Chicano power" "We didn't cross the border, the border crossed us" "Long live the revolution" "Esta es mi tierra, esta es mi lucha (This is my land, this is my fight)"Click here to download this audio clip.
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