History

Introduction to Our History

Chicano History is Indigenous history. The Indigenous/Native history of Anahuac and the "Western Hemisphere". That’s what this section is about. But what does that even mean? 

Well, before we start, try to answer these questions: 

• What is it that distinguishes us Chicanos-Mexicans from White Americans? 
• What makes a Mexican a Mexican and not a Spaniard?

 The answer is our Indigenous ancestry.

 No matter what else we may share with White Anglos and White Spaniards, there is the Indigenous (“Indian”) ancestry that neither of them has as a group. But we People of Anahuac (Chicanos-Mexicans-Central Americans) do have it as a group. And that ancestry has a place name: Anahuac (Ah-naw-walk), meaning “The Land Between The Waters” in the Nahuatl language of the Aztecs. Anahuac encompasses the US Southwest (Aztlan), Mexico, and Central America down to Costa Rica.

Why those places you ask? Because those regions are where our people come from, and those regions were all interconnected culturally and economically for centuries before European terrorists invaded our lands. We don't come from Europe...only Europeans do! The Spanish Conquest did not take place in Spain...it took place here on our lands, with our people! 
Nor are we to believe that the entire nation of Spain immigrated to Mexico. In fact, not even half of them came. Most of them stayed home to enjoy our stolen wealth!

Obviously there has always been far and away more Indigenous ancestry in us than European ancestry, or else wouldn't you think we would have been able to pass as Whites during Segregation? Even the lightest-looking Mexican is not a Nordic, Aryan, Celtic or a European (except maybe in his own fantasies). We're not even "half-Spanish" as many would love to claim. For most of us, the last Spanish ancestor we had was over four centuries ago! Why not then go back in history to Africa and claim we are one-quarter African? Europeans have more direct descent from Africa and even they don't claim that.

  This section does not claim to represent every single culture of Anahuac in exhaustive detail. It does, however, show Anahuac heritage through shining examples of  major civilizations which incorporated into themselves many of the most prized aspects of what Anahuac had to offer.

What Is Our Core History?

 You may be asking yourself, “If this is about Chicano History, then why doesn’t this history section start off with the Spanish Conquistadors or Pancho Villa, “Corky” Gonzales, or Cesar Chavez? “

 Oh, those things will be mentioned here. But they are not our “core history.” You see, we have 4,000 years of history that predates all of the above-mentioned individuals, and that’s not including the 50,000 years of history on this continent. That's the core history.

It’s that core Anahuac history that still deeply influences Mexico and Chicanos and Guatemalans today, no matter how much people want to pretend otherwise or are too ashamed to admit (read Mexico Profundo: Reclaiming A Civilization by Guilllermo Banfil Batalla, a Mexican archeologist). 

Even the Catholic conversion of our peoples was only skin deep. An enormous amount of people in Mexico still have a pre-Columbian orientation in their world view and habits. Furthermore, five million Mexicans (the population of metropolitan Silicon Valley) still speak an Indigenous Mexican language first, and Spanish second.

But still, you ask,  why should we focus so much on our history before Europeans invaded? Well,

• Would you buy a 300-page book and only read the last 3 pages? 
• Would you pay full-price to watch a movie for only the last 45 seconds? 

So, why would you read your own history that way? 99% of our history on this continent happened BEFORE European terrorists invaded our lands. That's 50,000 years ago versus 1492 A.D. -- do the math for yourself. 

The cruel truth is that we have been taught to ignore our true history and accept a counterfeit history crafted by Europeans/Euroamericans who control the education system and the images we see on television. But no more! Chale! Our history is our pride and our beauty. Learning it will transform us into a proud, beautiful, and creative people once again.

So What Am I Supposed To Be Learning Here?

 Here’s what you absolutely must know: The major civilizations of Anahuac were really variations on a common Olmec (1800 BC-400 BC) cultural inheritance, predating the founding of Athens, Rome, and Barcelona. (Even the revered Maya civilization was itself built from the Olmec inheritance.) The great Olmec achievements led to the later civilizations of the Zapotec, Mixtec, Teotihuacan, Totonac, Huaxtec, Toltec, Purepecha, Maya, and Mexica-Aztec, to name the majority. This is our Anahuac unity.

In other words: The Olmec civilization was the foundation of Anahuac civilizations ("Mesoamerica") . This is the unity that binds us as Chicanos-Mexicans-Central Americans...not so-called Hispanic/Latino "unity" crafted by scheming Spaniards. Anahuac heritage is something true Hispanics (Spaniards) just don't have. 

The Olmec were to Anahuac what the Sumerians were to Mesopotamia: they were the civilizers, and everywhere they went, civilization developed. Years of migrations and trade ensured that ideas, as well as goods circulated throughout Anahuac. No single group was a totally self-sufficient island unto itself, and so culture spread in all directions.

As archeologist-professor Michael Coe of Yale University said in his excellent book, Mexico: From The Olmecs To The Aztecs:

"There is now little doubt that all later civilizations in Mesoamerica, whether Mexican or Maya, ultimately rest on an Olmec base."

pg 62; Coe, Michael D; Mexico: From The Olmecs To The Aztecs; Thames & Hudson; 1994

Keep that in mind the next time someone tries to label you a "Hispanic" or "half-Spanish".

But weren't we always fighting each other?

Yes indeed, we did fight among ourselves, just as Europe has a history of brutal wars and internal battles between its various nations and dictators (some still going on to this very day). But that history of always fighting each other doesn’t stop them nowadays from moving beyond that and taking steps to form a “European Union.” Take away the fighting, and the peoples of Anahuac shared a common cultural experience. From religion, to architecture, to economics, to rules of warfare, this is the truth about us. We need to raise ourselves to that level of commitment where we form our own union of Anahuac peoples, with each one fully free to create through its own specific culture, not forced to “assimilate” into what European descendents and Hollywood want us to be. This will take generations, but it was done in generations once before anyhow.

[Note: Those of us who already call ourselves Chicanos are already anti-assimilationists of Euroamerican cultural dogma, and so have no problem with this kind of thinking.]

 Some people argue that the peoples of Anahuac [a.k.a. Mesomamerica and surroundings] were really distinct peoples with their differences outweighing their similarities (which were major similarities at that). But we see over and over again - especially through recent archeology - that the peoples of Anahuac had far more in common than they had in differences.

 What some people fail to see is the “forest from the trees.”  In other words, they focus on the differences of our peoples and mistake that for “the big picture.” But when we take a step back, we discover that the overwhelming majority of people from Anahuac were only “separated” by political divisions, thriving on common cultural foundations. (Of course, each group made its own cultural modifications as it saw fit.) This foundation was the Olmec, the later civilizations were variations of that "Mother Culture". By the time of the Spanish invasion in 1519, most of Anahuac was "glued" together through the Mexica-Aztecs and the Nahuatl language. 

 Follow the links ahead in this History section to find out about the many things that “glued” the peoples of Anahuac together. You’ll find it was not Hispanic or Latino identity that gave rise to our civilizations. It was something much grander which even the Hispanics and Latinos from southern Europe wanted to possess for themselves (just read Letters From Mexico by Hernan Cortes). And in the end, the old Hispanics (and the "new" Hispanics are trying, too) cut off our leaves, our branches, and maybe even our tree trunk...but they never got to the roots.

They never killed our roots, because, as you will read, those roots are buried very, very deep. Those roots are what makes a Chicano a Chicano, and a Mexican a Mexican.