What is Hispanic American Heritage Month & Why Do We Need One?

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[00:00:35] What is Hispanic American Heritage Month and why do we need one?

[00:00:42] Thank you very much for giving us this time.

[00:00:47] And I would like to introduce you to our listeners, Kuali Bakka, is a former senator.

[00:00:55] She was the first Hispanic woman senator.

[00:00:57] She was the founding staff member of the National Council La Rasa.

[00:01:04] And she also the delegate, the Colorado Democratic Party, to the DNC Convention.

[00:01:13] And I believe, probably that you have attended a good number of conventions.

[00:01:18] Yes, I attended every National Democratic Convention since 1964 and they have not been

[00:01:25] just deemed a different.

[00:01:27] 96.4.

[00:01:29] You must have been about 12 years old then.

[00:01:33] I love thank you so much.

[00:01:37] Yeah, the other thing that I think is your information is the fact that our podcast never again

[00:01:45] is a podcast of the coalition against global genocide.

[00:01:50] Yes.

[00:01:52] And we have rose doom on to thank for this podcast really.

[00:01:58] That's very true.

[00:01:59] So we pay our tribute to it, to rose and to her vision.

[00:02:05] She stands at an incredible job.

[00:02:07] Absolutely. I mean, that truly dedicated human being.

[00:02:13] Yeah. So the idea we have today is to talk about, you know, the Hispanic Heritage Month.

[00:02:23] And I would like it to maybe go all the reason why we where we have it, who do we celebrate and so forth.

[00:02:33] It started actually with Mexican Americans coming north from Mexico when it was still Spain

[00:02:38] in 1598. We actually came north and said the two other families came north with Montdale

[00:02:45] Napier, and settled in what is now Southern Colorado Northern New Mexico.

[00:02:50] So we came as migrants. We weren't immigrants because we were Spanish.

[00:02:56] You know, we settled in Spanish territory that then became Mexican in 18 as a result of the war in 1810

[00:03:03] and then part of the United States in 1848. The problem was that there were a difference in languages.

[00:03:11] And so my family was considered less fan and, you know, my grandparents always spoke Spanish,

[00:03:18] my father's first language. And so we were the group that was discriminated against.

[00:03:23] You know, as we came part of the United States, there was signs where I grew up in

[00:03:28] Julian, Colorado that said no Mexicans are dogs allowed. And that was true throughout the Southwest.

[00:03:37] The Puerto Ricans in New York, it's some of that as well as the Cubans in Miami did not have

[00:03:43] as much of a problem because they were coming as result of the Dalk Castro's red administration.

[00:03:50] The Puerto Ricans came to New York and other parts of the United, the Eastern coast

[00:03:56] in 1898 after Puerto Rico became a part of the United States in 1898. And then during the

[00:04:04] Castro Revolution in the 1950s and the late 50s, there was what they called the Peter Pan

[00:04:13] Children who came, their parents put them on airplanes and sent them to the United States

[00:04:19] from Cuba in order to get them out of Cuba during the Fidel Castro Revolution or War.

[00:04:29] And so then you got this huge group that was not really recognized, well, it's during civil rights

[00:04:36] movement where Martin Luther King became aware of was aware of it. And he invited us to be a part

[00:04:44] of his march on Washington in 1968. And so although I had already attended the 1963

[00:04:52] launch on Washington when Martin first pulled together the African American

[00:04:59] flat population to declare that they wanted their rights. And so he reached out to the rest of us,

[00:05:08] you know, this five years later, he's saying, well, it's not just blacks, it's also

[00:05:13] Hispanics. At that time, we didn't have a common term. Well, we needed a common term. So it was

[00:05:21] in 1972 that we settled on the term Hispanic, which was changed in the 1980s to the term Latinos.

[00:05:30] So there's a little bit of political history that goes along with the changing of how we call ourselves.

[00:05:36] But what we still, I think the inclusive terms are Hispanic and Latino that include not only

[00:05:43] the three original groups, Mexicans, Spanish, Puerto Rican and Cuban, but also all those coming

[00:05:50] north from Central America and South America. And so it's a term that includes all of us who have

[00:05:58] traveled to the world to this country in order to gain better rights. And so you got this

[00:06:06] population during the civil rights movement that has not been recognized. And we had in

[00:06:15] 19, I believe it was 67 or 68 that we were, we lobbied Congress to declare and Hispanic

[00:06:25] Heritage Week to, and this was during civil rights movement. So we were able to get that

[00:06:32] eventually passed. You know, it was part of our move to try to get recognized as a population

[00:06:41] that needed support. And needed to have the bigotry and justice outlawed. We wanted the laws passed

[00:06:50] saying that people couldn't do access to restaurants or access to public places. And so we

[00:06:57] that's why we became part of the civil rights movement in order to get our rights. And so Hispanic

[00:07:03] Heritage Week was carried by Congress during the seven tours initially. So we had a week and then

[00:07:11] it's time to land on. That week was established during September 16th because September 16th is the

[00:07:19] independence day for Mexico from Spain. And so September 16th is when Mexicans celebrate

[00:07:28] there independence from Spain. And so we wanted that week, that whole week to be declared

[00:07:35] Hispanic Heritage Week. By the way, I think it was originally Mexican American. So there was all

[00:07:41] this additional Hispanics Latinos that really wanted honor. And so their independence from Spain

[00:07:49] occurred in September, around the 16th but a little bit some beginning about the 15th of

[00:07:56] September. And then some into October. So collectively we wanted a Hispanic Heritage Month.

[00:08:04] And so that's why the month runs from September 15th to October 15th in order to be inclusive

[00:08:11] of all these different days of independence from the different countries. And it worked where we've

[00:08:19] got Hispanic Latino populations. In fact, you are right. It was in the 1960s when,

[00:08:28] well, 1968 was when Congress would enjoy your Brown. Actually, George Brown was a state senator here

[00:08:35] Colorado. And it was, you know, I remember now. It was, yes. And it was part of, you know,

[00:08:44] it was during the movie years when Corky goes all as was organized as well as other Latinos.

[00:08:51] And Corky and George were friends along with Rogers to Stedos who was also in the

[00:08:55] States and at that time. George Brown led the way to get Hispanic Heritage Day. And then that led

[00:09:03] to the National Week being declared later. That thought that was carried by the Stedos.

[00:09:11] Torres, but you absolutely right. We started here in Colorado. Yeah, yeah. So in 1987,

[00:09:19] he was extended to a month. The other thing too is many countries like, for example,

[00:09:27] Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. They all had the September the 15th

[00:09:36] as they are the day of independence. And so it really makes a lot of sense that the independence

[00:09:44] day should sort of coincide with the Hispanic Heritage Month also. So that makes it. The other

[00:09:53] question too is the media we may want to talk a little bit about his bunny culture because in the end,

[00:10:01] a heritage is a reflection of what culture. There is something that we call his bunny culture.

[00:10:08] You would you like to say something about that? You know, it really rests on the music that we love

[00:10:15] and we eat and the different kinds of food coming from different countries. It also honors

[00:10:21] the fact that we, we came to the United States or what we came to this part of the world,

[00:10:27] I should say originally as Spanish speakers. So the Spanish language that tied us all together,

[00:10:34] although you know, beginning with my generation, we started to lose the language because of the

[00:10:39] bigotry that existed in this country. My parents, for example, my mother, my father wanted us to

[00:10:45] learn Spanish. But my mother was concerned that if we learned Spanish first of that we've

[00:10:51] taken really with an accent like my father did and she feared that that would even increase the

[00:10:57] bigotry against us. So a lot of us has a consequence, didn't learn Spanish, my generation

[00:11:03] didn't learn Spanish as children and so we had to learn that later on in life. Some of us are

[00:11:09] better than others. My daughters, they're great Spanish much better than others.

[00:11:14] So another thing too, when we talk about culture, is that when people come to this country,

[00:11:22] when people go elsewhere, they always take the other, their whole lines culture with them and

[00:11:30] that tends to affect the places where they go to. So in other words, the Puerto Rico,

[00:11:38] for example, came to this country. I mean, we have an imprint of our culture in this country and

[00:11:46] that's also a true mexican. The Mexican culture has a very deep, very deep roots in this

[00:11:55] in our country already. I mean, there's so much of Mexico here.

[00:12:01] But it's different. Let me share with you that that's a sound my family and the families

[00:12:08] came more in 1598 and 1600. To settle in the northern parts of what was then Spain,

[00:12:16] which you could at the San Luis Valley in Northern New Mexico. What we brought north,

[00:12:22] even the language was something different than what the newer arrivals that came after the

[00:12:29] Mexican-American War of 1810. Then in really, it was 1910. It was really the war that Pucco

[00:12:38] such a well, there were, you know, varieties of heroes from that second group,

[00:12:44] that second award to try to gain more independence than a lot of folks came north from Mexico.

[00:12:52] Interestingly enough, the way they spoke Spanish was different than the way that the

[00:12:58] original settlers here, the old families. By the way, my family settled in what is now the

[00:13:04] United States here in New Mexico and Colorado before the pilgrims landed on San Betroff.

[00:13:11] Yes, before, and the other European country came to this part of the world. We're not given credit for that.

[00:13:19] That's why I say that we were migrated north. We weren't immigrants and later on others that

[00:13:27] joined us, including my husband's family, they arrived in here from Mexico when he was three months old.

[00:13:36] I sometimes question whether or not he was actually born here or in Mexico.

[00:13:42] And my family, it was a more recent coming north from Mexico. So we came north at different times

[00:13:52] and we came from different countries. But I like to stress that we are a combination of individuals

[00:14:00] and heritage, that we're not immigrants, not all our immigrants, somewhere the founders

[00:14:08] of this country as well as people of our same ethnic group that were immigrants. And that's not

[00:14:16] an understanding. Well, yeah, yeah, yeah, it is just a way to be because the majority

[00:14:27] quite population likes to think that they have authentic, and they weren't.

[00:14:36] The like to think that we were first and therefore we are the rulers of the speak.

[00:14:42] I think if they begin the sort of acknowledging that there were a lot of his bunnies that

[00:14:49] are here before, then that kind of takes away the glory from their own, which is unfortunate.

[00:14:57] And there's no experience. I don't know why there's other scene, the reason why we can't all share

[00:15:03] in the facts that we brought different things to this subject.

[00:15:08] We have to accept to us to share that. And I think that's why we have this podcast because

[00:15:16] in my heritage as a matter of fact, 13 times to move, I have an African-American grandmother,

[00:15:23] a black grandmother, and I thought Native American roots are one third native American,

[00:15:29] as well as European Spanish. So we're a combination, the Hispanic Latino population,

[00:15:36] is a combination of all the different races. If I own personal history, we have three,

[00:15:43] we don't have, I can't trace back to any Asian Americans. But the Philippines are considered

[00:15:49] part of the Hispanic population. At our Asian American Hispanics. So I'm so proud of that

[00:16:00] that we combine the different racial groups, you know, my brother-in-law who's Puerto Rican,

[00:16:08] his mother was African-American and black. And so I'm so proud of the fact that we combine

[00:16:15] all of these different racial groups. That's what makes it unique as Hispanic. And that has influenced

[00:16:22] our culture, that combination of black, white, Asian, Native American. That has influenced

[00:16:32] the culture of its standings because we combine the different heritage as to do most Hispanics

[00:16:41] acknowledge that there's a mixture of all these different groups, though, under. It depends

[00:16:49] on where you come from. You know, because of your education, your background, your knowledge.

[00:16:55] Certainly the Puerto Rican snow, they're both black and white. Even the Mexicans know we're

[00:17:01] being Native American and white. The Filipino is known that they're Asian and white. You know,

[00:17:08] we also have that Spanish history or the heritage which is where we get our white heritage.

[00:17:15] But we also have much more than that in terms of our culture, our different racial and ethnic

[00:17:23] heritage. You know, like Native American, black, Asian as well as the white. You know, there's a lot

[00:17:31] of misunderstanding about the Latino population. Let me share with you one that has concerned me.

[00:17:38] This past, during Hispanic heritage week, there were a lot of portrayals on the television

[00:17:45] of Hispanic people from different parts of Hispanic heritage. They always leave out those

[00:17:53] of us that were here before anybody else came. The original Latino Hispanic families that were

[00:18:01] here for the English land of Oklahoma, the Rock. My heritage always seems to be excluded. They

[00:18:07] realized that they're not aware that we were here, beginning in 1598. And at least we said,

[00:18:15] I think it's a beautiful history and but it's left out. In the last time, for it,

[00:18:20] it doesn't make any sense. Does it? The reason it doesn't make sense is that the United States

[00:18:26] views itself as a country of immigrants that goes to recognizing that people were here.

[00:18:34] Yeah, the Native Americans were here. The Spanish were here. We were here before the English

[00:18:39] flat it up. So that's wrong. The United States didn't begin. I mean, the territory that

[00:18:45] it now occupies didn't begin in the East if the Jan here in the South West. It's South West.

[00:18:53] Yeah. Yeah, we were here before the folks signed it on on Plano's Rock. You know, and that is

[00:19:00] recognized or understood. It is not up at the schools. It might be an interesting addition.

[00:19:09] Kind of describe a little bit, what you remember from your forefathers of your parents,

[00:19:16] in terms of your story, first of all, I think you said you're 13 generation, nothing you said.

[00:19:25] The 13th generation. It was all the way back to 1600 when Pistola Waka,

[00:19:32] but he was part of a group. It was the military. He was the, it was a captain. So if you

[00:19:41] know it's with a group of a couple hundred settlers to settle what is now northern New Mexico,

[00:19:48] seven Colorado, became north with one day or not then. And we traced back to him.

[00:19:54] How many was they when they came up? Was it a large group of Mexicans,

[00:20:02] of Spaniards because they were Spaniards? It was in the United States.

[00:20:05] There were Spanish at the time. There were 200 families that came north from Mexico to

[00:20:09] settle in in 1598. I think I should share that quite a few of those families were of Julie

[00:20:18] Heritage. The reason was they were trying to escape the inquisition and then my family,

[00:20:24] apart from my family, I can trace back to that. But I have a direct line back to 1600.

[00:20:31] When I was a little bit older, I got a group of people, families. These families, they weren't

[00:20:37] travelers, they were families. They came north to settle the land, the territory. And he brought

[00:20:44] up a few more families to replenish the colony. You know, that's the colony that was here

[00:20:51] in southern Colorado, northern New Mexico. So I guess it was right around Brunely,

[00:20:58] O'Counny, northern New Mexico. But it was in this part of the world. And what has happened

[00:21:03] over the years? Yeah, there were, that was a few hundred years before others started coming

[00:21:10] to this part of the world. Other than the Native Americans, and of course our families,

[00:21:15] they were married with the Native Americans as we said, they were kind of isolated from Mexico

[00:21:22] city. So they really weren't aware of the war that much. When Mexico declared its independence

[00:21:30] from Spain, they were more aware when they became part of the United States because of the

[00:21:40] continued to call themselves Spanish. When in fact, they were Spanish until 1818, 1810, and that

[00:21:46] they were Mexican until 1848. But the Spanish felt more comfortable to them for a couple of reasons.

[00:21:57] Number one, when you know, that was their heritage, so to speak. But number two, I think it was

[00:22:06] important. What happened was that when we became part of the United States, because we were

[00:22:13] discriminated against. You know, we were called the term Mexican and it became to be a more popular

[00:22:21] term, you know, like 50 years after we became part of the United States in the early 1900s.

[00:22:29] You know, the interesting thing is that in Spanish these families called themselves the many

[00:22:34] Spanish, almost the Spanish. I know we were Mexican because they identified with Mexico. I

[00:22:39] haven't been their last owner, so it's I mean, their last government. But it English because

[00:22:48] of the bigotry and prejudice against Mexico itself and Mexicans, the term Mexican American

[00:22:57] was, our Mexican was used in a very derogatory way. All the families said, oh well, we're

[00:23:04] Spanish, we're not Mexican and that was because of the bigotry. That's sad when you stop to think about it.

[00:23:12] But but that was the reason why so many of the family still in New Mexico and in Colorado called

[00:23:19] themselves Spanish as opposed to Mexican. I always say, you know, I was Spanish and then I became

[00:23:25] Mexican and then I became, because I was in Chicana and I saw it on and then I became Hispanic and

[00:23:34] then like, you know, you know, all of the, because all of those terms are used, you know,

[00:23:39] my family used it a different time of my life experience. Yeah, the discrimination and the

[00:23:49] bigotry from the majority group. Was it, was it a severe van? Has it changed over time? How has

[00:24:02] it has it developed? Oh, it changed dramatically because of the civil rights movement. You know,

[00:24:08] Friday the civil rights movement there were signs and stories that said no Mexicans are dogs

[00:24:13] around. There were, I can remember going to church and the woman moved into town we went to church and

[00:24:19] we were told we couldn't sit in the center aisle. We had to sit on the side aisles that was

[00:24:24] segregated. You know, a lot of the business establishment, public establishment, there was a swimming pool

[00:24:30] and thorton, you know, when we first moved to thorton, that Mexicans are Spanish, whatever we wanted

[00:24:37] to do, or ourselves couldn't swim in. It was segregated. That's why I got so involved in the civil

[00:24:42] rights movement. You know, when I went back, I didn't know, you know, because there were so few

[00:24:48] African-American terror in Colorado. We were the folks that were, you know, the ditched rivers and stuff.

[00:24:55] So we were considered far less than the African-Americans. We weren't considered as good as,

[00:25:01] you know, so when civil rights movement came and I was working back east, I went back

[00:25:07] at Washington D.C. for a job after college in 1962, that I connected with the African-Americans

[00:25:15] that were that were over the end of the aircraft. And I was a member of the end of the aircraft.

[00:25:19] But I remember, you know, a lot of the things that we did, and I thought, wow, this is fantastic.

[00:25:25] In a word, you know, I identified with the black population. It was after Bobby Kennedy's

[00:25:32] staff and the civil rights movement was really going big. And I ended up with, that's what we found

[00:25:39] that the South Wisconsin Council had a lot of stuff over the National Council. And I was on the

[00:25:43] original staff. But her on Gagos was the executive director and my former husband Miguel Badaigan

[00:25:50] and I were the two professional staff people we had. That was our movement, that was our movement,

[00:25:58] trying to do a way with the discrimination against Mexican Americans, a lot of denotes,

[00:26:04] generally, is Spanish. This week connected with the Puerto Ricans and the Cubans and the other

[00:26:09] Latinos during that time too. And we did, it was said that civil rights movement that we were able

[00:26:14] to get our right. I was going to ask, see, see the Chavez because he came in about the same time,

[00:26:22] didn't he? I first met Caesar. I was still on Washington, New York State. But I think home

[00:26:28] for visit and Caesar had gone out on strike in 1965. And he was here in Denver with the oil

[00:26:37] chemical and atomic workers were the way we know having a bunch to just see what they could

[00:26:42] do to help them organize arm workers. And I was invited to that安全 and I went up afterwards

[00:26:48] and introduced myself. We just kind of put, so he asked me if I would help organize a what we

[00:26:56] called a welder committee and Washington DC to support the farm workers because I asked them

[00:27:01] what I could do. So he gave me a job. We're going to see him like I organized the welder

[00:27:08] committee there to honor the strike against the grapes. We were boycotting grapes. And so then

[00:27:17] of Caesar and I became very good friends at the lowest, the lowest, but still a very different

[00:27:23] of mine. I just saw a recently at the convention. She's doing incredibly well at 93 or

[00:27:31] 93 years old. That's pretty good at all. But Caesar was so much with absolutely dedicated to

[00:27:39] this cause. How did he come up? Caesar. What were his origins?

[00:27:45] Well, Caesar, his family were far workers. He was actually in Arizona and then he

[00:27:52] he traveled, he went to California. And he and Colonel and Gallagos were both working for the

[00:28:02] organization. And the 966 to 162. And that's when Caesar had the idea he comes from a farm

[00:28:10] family, you know farm worker family I should say. His farm workers and his commitment was to

[00:28:19] his family and the community that were still farm workers. And he understood although he was now

[00:28:25] in a warm middle class job with this organization that had been with receiving funds to kind of

[00:28:33] try to organize. I remember he and Herman wanted to organize people in urban areas and see

[00:28:41] your one to organize the farm workers. So, he started, well actually was Filipino, a very

[00:28:50] ethong who started the farm worker boycott. He was really the first one and Caesar's groups said,

[00:28:58] well they're going out. We're going to join them. They went out on strike a little bit earlier. I

[00:29:03] think that Caesar was in the other but he joined Larry and the others that were Filipino workers.

[00:29:11] And they all kind of on strike against the farm. Caesar was interested but it was really

[00:29:16] the Lord. The Lord has been a teacher in stock and the Lord also, the Lord was actually one

[00:29:24] of the Mexico. And she was a teacher and she really felt passionate about the farm workers

[00:29:31] and wanted to do something about that. At the very beginning, she joined Caesar and said,

[00:29:36] all help you out. So, she went out. They gave up everything to go out and work them under

[00:29:41] a farm workers and organize, just incredible to have someone just give up on your material things

[00:29:49] and go out to organize. And so, Caesar had this idea of he talked to money from the labor

[00:29:57] movement. The United Auto Workers I think were very supportive. They gave him money to go to different

[00:30:04] cities and organize the boycott. And so that's why we became so aware of him.

[00:30:12] And the farm workers that came to DC often stayed up my home when they were working in the

[00:30:18] muddled apartment. When they were when they were boycotting, when they were organizing the boycott.

[00:30:25] So it became a national concern. It was our first effort to, and so many of us had

[00:30:34] former, my parents and grandparents were farmers. So so many of us had that heritage that we

[00:30:40] identified with what Caesar was doing. And so we became a part of that movement. That movement

[00:30:47] led to then the urban folks by curman then it was responsible for starting the South West

[00:30:53] Council of La Casa that I went to work for. And his idea was that we had to organize

[00:31:01] Latinos in the urban areas so they could get their housing rights. Their education was the big thing.

[00:31:07] But that passed only about our getting our education in our scholarship, etc. So a lot of organizations

[00:31:15] were started to help kids get their scholarships. They gave me nine Latin American citizens

[00:31:22] really like we started in 1920 for the purpose of helping Latinos get scholarships.

[00:31:29] No education. So it was this whole movement effort, nationally then, that was occurring in the

[00:31:37] late 60s early 70s. And that propelled because Caesar was someone who was, you know, when you

[00:31:45] gave a speech, he just turned you on but he was still a very mild, rather man, you know, and he,

[00:31:52] you know, it was interesting getting to know him because when I first met him, very mild

[00:31:58] matter. You didn't view him as being a real raw raw kind of oysters person. And he wasn't.

[00:32:04] But when he gave a speech, when he got out there to organize his passion came out and he

[00:32:10] was one of the best speakers I've ever heard. He just was able to figure out those farm workers

[00:32:16] and get them going. Those are fascinating years. Yeah, so I'm kind of curious in terms of

[00:32:26] for some of the Mexicans had their l'arassa. So you have this group, you don't know, l'arassa,

[00:32:31] let's Mexican. Do the other like the Puerto Ricans and the Cubans? Do they have groups that

[00:32:39] also work for them? And is there sort of an intermingling of the different

[00:32:46] Hispanic groups I mean, working together? Let me share with you how that all started.

[00:32:52] Sure. And that's the first idea that worked with her and my guy, he was, his start,

[00:32:56] became the National Council of Baudosa. It was during the 1967-5 House Conference on Mexican

[00:33:03] Americans. I won't work the Antiply Council at the time. I was the PR person

[00:33:08] for the Energy Mexican-Midiom Mexican Americans. And then the Johnson, he understood,

[00:33:15] he's from Texas. He understood the plight of Mexican Americans. So he or organization's

[00:33:21] a Lulec and the GI form really pressured when the Johnson did it. We wanted our,

[00:33:27] because we weren't involved in the 1960s civil rights conference. It was only by the

[00:33:33] leadership was very upset about that. They wanted to be a part of it. So they went after the

[00:33:38] person at Johnson and said, we want our own conference. So President Johnson finally gave way

[00:33:45] and we had the White House Conference on Mexican Americans in El Paso, Texas in October 1967.

[00:33:55] And it was during that time that everybody, anybody who was anyone in the movement years,

[00:34:01] you know, the folks that had started organizing in the Midwest and in the Southwest and

[00:34:06] from all the different states came to our PSO Texas. And they were, all the leadership was all invited.

[00:34:14] The only one that didn't, there were two people that didn't come. But what two of our latest

[00:34:18] that didn't come, Caesar didn't come because Caesar felt passionate about focusing only on

[00:34:24] the government. Caesar did not want to get distracted. So he didn't come to that conference.

[00:34:32] And the other person, the other person, it wasn't invited. Caesar was invited. He wanted them

[00:34:37] to be there. But the other person that wasn't invited was Oshut, um, stationed in the name of

[00:34:43] a very important person from New Mexico that had been invited for Boeing up a, um, oh, yeah.

[00:34:54] You know, please, uh, a cell, you know, any ability, any help. He wasn't invited so he didn't

[00:35:01] come up in that. Anyone who is anything in the organizing of Mexican Americans or Latinos,

[00:35:07] Spanish, they were all there. We didn't have a unifying term. We didn't know because some said

[00:35:15] that was Spanish, others said they were Mexican, others said they were American and Spanish,

[00:35:20] the center of Mexican descent. So we needed a unifying term. It was at Vesta Galarsa, Dr. Anissa Galarsa

[00:35:28] from California who had been an undocumented person, I mean, into the United States. It was Dr.

[00:35:34] Galarsa that said, we should all call ourselves from La Dasa. That means our people, you know,

[00:35:42] so as so the term actually when you translate it can also be translated to say the race. But

[00:35:48] that's not what he meant. But he meant to say was, that's our people. So so that's the term

[00:35:55] that then became popular because it unified us, you know, as a coming from the Southwest and the

[00:36:01] Midwest, all of us at that time, the activists were all of Spanish and Mexican descent.

[00:36:08] You know, a lot of us that became the term, that's why you had the National Council of La Dasa called

[00:36:14] the National Council of La Dasa at the time. Then as Tyler said, on this is 19,

[00:36:21] that I was, you know, that's when I was working for them in the late 1960s. And then as we went into

[00:36:27] the 70s, but we started expanding and relating to other Spanish-speaking groups. I was a member of

[00:36:35] the DARPA, all I was on the staff of the DARPA National Committee in 1972. And my job, we had never

[00:36:42] participated in a national political convention ever to any great degree. And my job was to try to

[00:36:49] get Latino. That was the special assistant of the president, you know, for I think we said Spanish

[00:36:55] speaking to Spanish speaking at the time. You know, again, we didn't have a unified term that

[00:37:01] included everybody. So I pulled together, while I went around the country, I was traveling all

[00:37:07] around the country, trying to get people delegates, you know, to go to the convention, to be supportive,

[00:37:16] you know, in the Democratic National Committee of the Chairman of whom which was very

[00:37:23] a line at the time. There had been an article in Washington Post that said, the Nixon Chicano strategy

[00:37:30] at that time because the movement we were calling ourselves, Chicago's in the Southwest. And so

[00:37:36] because of that headline and a Washington Post, it scared the Democrats because of Mexican-Americans

[00:37:43] Latinos had always been Democrats, you know, 90% of us. So Nixon is the one that said, oh, I'm going to

[00:37:51] capture some of these folks. So any idea? People together suddenly progressive program that helped our

[00:37:58] community. And so I was visiting the DC, I had done something sold to work for the National

[00:38:03] Democratic Party in the 1970s because they knew me because I'd work for Bobby Kennedy. Anyhow,

[00:38:10] I'm in DC and I get recruited during to help out specifically for the convention to go around

[00:38:17] the country and get and recruit Hispanic Latinos, Mexican Americans to be part of our democratic

[00:38:24] delegation. So we had the first ever Hispanic caucus or the first ever caucus of people of this

[00:38:32] hurricane and I was chairing the caucus at the time, and I had all the Congress people that were,

[00:38:37] there were, I think five members of Congress, three or five members of thousands of the time.

[00:38:43] I remember by the old was pretty recent and Eddie Rueville was Mexican-American. And so they were

[00:38:50] two that were the most well-known and and helped me the most, you know, and they were the

[00:38:55] pretty much the co-chairs of our caucus. We had this big argument as to what we ought to call ourselves

[00:39:01] in the Southwest. And Dr. Dan had had a renonautical and a loose magazine that said we should call ourselves

[00:39:10] Hispanic because Hispanic is inclusive of all of the different countries in Kovie's fame. But at the

[00:39:16] time the Puerto Ricans and the Cuba's were saying, no, no, no, we're from Latin America.

[00:39:22] Then we should couple of ourselves Latinos. Latinos as well. Yeah, so we have this

[00:39:28] flash of what the car sells it along the delegates. While there were more Mexican Americans there

[00:39:35] than Puerto Ricans and Cubans and others, so they won the vote. And I conducted the vote.

[00:39:40] And we agreed that the term then would be Hispanic. So that's how it started. We did

[00:39:45] it. We were the DNC Hispanic caucus and we just self declared. And then the the congressman

[00:39:53] who co-opped us on the editorial and co-opped us on the current body of the year, and they went

[00:39:59] to Congress and they said we have to have a caucus. And so they developed their Congressional

[00:40:04] Hispanic caucus. And they got some really good things done. They were wonderful things done.

[00:40:09] But then you go on 10 years, 1980, Ronald Reagan becomes president. Now Ronald Reagan

[00:40:17] what he did among his first acts were to do away with a lot of the stuff that it works so hard

[00:40:22] in the past in the 60s and 70s. And so we were very angry. And Ronald Reagan was the first president

[00:40:30] to use the term Hispanic. It started following us Hispanic. You know? And we, you know, I'll

[00:40:36] know, and the hinterland in the communities. They said, you know, wait a minute. We don't like that

[00:40:42] president. He's doing away with all of these programs that were that were ours that we developed.

[00:40:48] You know, he's decreasing the scholarships. He's decreasing housing assistance. He's increasing

[00:40:55] you know, he's trying to do away with all of these benefits. So then the kids on campus in

[00:40:59] the campuses said, we're not, you know, because that was the other term. So then he's talking

[00:41:05] college kids saying, and I'm running around the country in the 1980s giving speeches because

[00:41:10] I was vice-chair of the National Democratic Party at the time. And I'm running around the country

[00:41:15] on college campuses. And I'm hitting this, don't call me Hispanic. I'm Latino. You know,

[00:41:21] or in the Southwest when my daughter, those saying, I'm Chicana. But Latino then became the

[00:41:27] top, the corporate graduate student. So pretty soon, she was saying, most of them, not all,

[00:41:33] in New Mexico, they were holed out for Hispanic. And Dr. Dan Bell Davis was the one that hit

[00:41:39] first proposed the the Kermi Spanish. So there were some in Colorado and New Mexico primarily

[00:41:44] to keep the term Hispanic. But around the country, others said, no, we're Latinos. And so that's how

[00:41:51] you have the development of the term Latino. And so now we're Latinx by the way. That's a reason.

[00:41:58] So another question that I think maybe we should talk a little bit about the culture.

[00:42:05] Now, we you didn't mention something about about the cuisine. Maybe a little bit more about

[00:42:13] about the culture of the the the Latin people. A lot of the culture derives from

[00:42:21] from the fact that we were the the commonality of the cultures. You know, because if each of

[00:42:26] the countries that we come from at their all specialties in terms of food and music and

[00:42:32] and drink and all of that there were two things that were common among all of these different

[00:42:37] Hispanic Latino descendants, you know, and groups that there was of course the the Spanish language

[00:42:47] had Spanish as their original language. But the second was the Catholic church.

[00:42:53] Right. You're part of the Catholic church and that was the the church at it had an incredible

[00:42:59] impact on the culture of this this ethnic group, you know? And so you have those two things in common

[00:43:08] that were really unified, you know, at the time. That isn't as true today. You know,

[00:43:16] today not everybody speaks to the language and not everybody is Catholic but they still identify

[00:43:24] as an ethnic group as a Spanish Mexican Hispanic. The term now is Hispanic Latino,

[00:43:31] ethnic group. We still identify even though there are many of us don't speak for language anymore,

[00:43:39] the new generations and many don't well you know go to the Catholic church anymore. But there's still

[00:43:46] this this identity. There's still this heritage that holds this together. Well I mean I mean you

[00:43:53] may not speak the language but you still need the same food that your parents did on your

[00:44:00] and they have run that is did. But we different foods for example I grew up with beans a

[00:44:08] pintle beans for teas beans and potatoes and and a chicken on a Sunday you know it would

[00:44:16] were like the we raised chicken so my dad was with slaughter chicken on Sundays for Sunday here but

[00:44:22] it was beans potatoes and and chewing that was my heritage. What I went back to East I was introduced

[00:44:28] to black beans and I had never experienced black beans in a different way. But that was the

[00:44:36] the predoritan you know, human was our five beans and rice you know and then so it's and the

[00:44:43] chili you know and even even even here the way my mom makes you know made in Toronto here in Colorado

[00:44:51] was different than what you and Toronto's father's house you know in southern New Mexico even

[00:44:58] our home yeah it was a different way to cook in Toronto but yet the food is is similar but

[00:45:05] there are different you know different textures. That's one thing the second thing of course

[00:45:12] the music that we were talking about and music and dance of course I think you know the

[00:45:21] Cuban Cubans of somewhat different dance from the Puerto Ricans and the Mexican.

[00:45:28] We all do my grandfather and my uncles play me the violin the violin and strength.

[00:45:36] They had this incredible music that was based on string instruments right I did never heard

[00:45:41] my deacchi till I went to work for the South Wisconsin for the last time and then all of a

[00:45:46] sudden or when I went back east I think I heard about them but there were your mariachi came

[00:45:52] north with the Mexicans later later on in life they weren't they were part of the original

[00:45:58] the original family so so I love mariachi's but in our Mexican and then Mexican music but it's

[00:46:06] not the old family music and then the Puerto Ricans had salsa I loved to cancel salsa and

[00:46:13] had not been introduced to it till I went to encounter all my Puerto Ricans friends back east

[00:46:19] and of course the Cuban wow their music is even I love to dance to Cuban music yeah so

[00:46:26] they each have their own unique style of music ranging from the old families you know the violin

[00:46:33] that they and the string instruments to the mariachi today to the salsa to the triplets so

[00:46:40] you know to all of the different forms of music but we all enjoy it we all enjoy it but they

[00:46:46] they come from different roots and this I need to see observation there because you know the

[00:46:52] Puerto Ricans in the Cubans they have a lot of old old Africa Africa effect in Africa

[00:47:02] and in the Puerto Ricans they all have black heritage and they have a very very very strong

[00:47:09] black heritage the meaning does result with the Haitians for example you know both of them living

[00:47:16] with the same island you know they have all that African you know French and African

[00:47:25] cultures intermingling and you know and making into this crazy mixture

[00:47:31] and in the southwest it was the native American heritage the drums and the strings

[00:47:37] yeah yeah you're influenced by very definitely by the native Americans yeah I think what would

[00:47:44] want one can say is that the Hispanic culture is a mixture of tremendous tremendous influences

[00:47:54] and and origins and because I think I think everything seems to be coming from everywhere

[00:47:59] kind of have integrated all the different racial groups we are a mixture and of all the different

[00:48:07] racial groups and have integrated their music and their food and you know becoming from different

[00:48:16] different racial groups in their white black Asian Native American all of those groups

[00:48:24] have impacted and been a part of the Hispanic heritage in culture yeah you know we see that America is

[00:48:33] the you know is a melting melting pot I think I think it is fun actually more more of a melting

[00:48:40] pot that anything else you know I agree I one no no I don't like the term melting because

[00:48:47] I prefer to say integration we are more like the salad you know what we have the different colors

[00:48:55] and the different beauty we don't want to melt the beauty all you know have it's unique flavor

[00:49:04] you know that that is much much more exciting and painful like we're saying I think it's

[00:49:10] it's called less mixed class you know they mix just you know they make they will mix

[00:49:18] thing what one thing you know with another but in the movement years we've been against the term

[00:49:26] melting they wanted us to be white now and the melting you melt into the white culture yeah

[00:49:35] no no no no we don't melt into other cultures we want to maintain our own culture and be a part

[00:49:43] you can you can celebrate our country I mean our culture just as much as we celebrate yours

[00:49:47] exactly and with the resistance against the use of the term melting we have want you white

[00:49:54] we wanted our own unique culture but we wanted to celebrate that with those that we're already here

[00:50:02] with the clients and the and all the different racial and ethnic groups each of us to maintain

[00:50:08] our own heritage and still work together and live together and love one another absolutely also

[00:50:15] the other thing is going to talk about literature I think you know heritage again you know you

[00:50:21] take all the other culture influences so art food music you know literature I was talking to you

[00:50:32] last time about this Mexican painter I knew it was a free-dark color you know you know

[00:50:45] I love her and like to her her husband lover that she worked with you know I didn't know about

[00:50:57] them though until I was already in the movement years oh so the movement is that I became a

[00:51:03] wherever and of her and I identified with her because as a woman it was during both the the

[00:51:10] woman's movement and the nothing on the movement expanding you know that so we're right through

[00:51:16] because of her great skill and talent and the freedom and the freedom was a woman

[00:51:26] yes exactly so it was during the movie you know 70s that I became aware of her but I think even

[00:51:34] she existed when I was a child yeah not even aware of course you know she was Mexican and and

[00:51:42] just not aware she was Mexican yeah yeah that's why it's so important for us to teach our history

[00:51:50] to our young people because there are amazing people who were you know who were of different

[00:52:00] countries that we can be proud of you know I mean you know talking about art and talking about

[00:52:07] literature you know people like somebody called Fwendis and somebody by them will talk to

[00:52:15] you or tell your path you know who won on Nobel Prize in literature I mean yeah and of course

[00:52:24] in Ecolombia you had a versus name Marquez the point I'm trying to make is that the culture

[00:52:33] they they's putting culture and then the you know this Spanish American culture is full of full

[00:52:40] of heroes you know it's full of full of poets full of painters full of musicians full of

[00:52:48] everything that that the Anglo-Hahaz and that I think is what I think we celebrate I think

[00:52:58] during the heritage mother things those are things you need to be celebrated that's right

[00:53:05] have you told me everything that you want to tell me about your life

[00:53:10] I will say this that I went into politics because I saw that as an avenue to

[00:53:18] correcting the conditions that people down you know so it was the so I came of age

[00:53:27] during the civil rights movement but because I was in my 20s I was already back in DC when

[00:53:33] I attended the 1962 March on Washington because I was living in DC at the time as the

[00:53:40] editor of the Union in East paper right out of college but it's it's like you know the whole

[00:53:48] movement of people to gain their rights the key to all of this I believe is annoying

[00:53:56] when you are and valuing your heritage whatever that is doesn't matter what you're for

[00:54:03] you come from or what your your ethnic or racial heritage is it ought to be valued and honored

[00:54:09] and then honor and value the heritage of everybody next to you because we gain in

[00:54:18] knowledge and awareness when we become aware of each other's heritage and an honor

[00:54:26] the heritage that coming together it all has a real play and not only who we are in the United States

[00:54:37] but who we may become and that becoming is is honoring all of the different strands

[00:54:45] that that made us up as as a unique population not now in them together but honoring each

[00:54:53] as their individual value yeah well in the end I think what you're saying is that human beings are free

[00:55:03] you know we are we're free human beings we are free we should be free to live as well as we can live

[00:55:10] it be as happy as we can be without being you know without being opposed by anybody else

[00:55:17] and then to be able to contribute towards the happiness of others too

[00:55:22] at times because it's it's important that we we work together we help each other

[00:55:29] and it to make a more perfect union you know they let's the most important thing

[00:55:35] in terms of of your vision for the future in addition to it to the things you just said

[00:55:42] what do you see as the future of the Hispanic community I hope that we all remember where we came from

[00:55:53] whatever country that is whatever group that is that we remember even if we you know for I'm

[00:56:01] mixture of I've got Native American Spanish Jewish black heritage I've got all of those in my

[00:56:11] single person and so I think I'd look forward to the time when each individual can value and honor

[00:56:21] whatever their heritage is and if we proud of that heritage and not and not diminish one part

[00:56:30] themselves because another part doesn't hide it yeah essentially I think what I'm hearing from you

[00:56:37] is the thing you're saying that the racism has no place in our you know you know you know

[00:56:43] in our world but I think I think we've pretty much covered everything today yeah

[00:56:48] it's so good to be with you

[00:56:52] the never again podcast is presented by the coalition against global genocide and its mission to

[00:56:59] educate, motivate and empower individuals and communities to oppose genocide and crimes against humanity