Cesar Chavez: “Si Se Puede”: See “Salt” and Other Events

Chicano Cultural Tourism Event: July 31-Aug. 2

“This event will be a powerful commentary on how the history of our area shapes the
present landscape and economic possibilities, uses of land and social issues.” Judi Cantu, Taos Councilwoman and event co-creator.

The word “Chicano,” according to various sources, first appeared in the 19th Century scholars say and gained usage as a transliteration of the roots referring to “Mexicano.” The 60s term “Chicano” became a popular name for referring to the descendants of Spain, who settled in Mexico, and later migrated to the United States and who acknowledged their multicultural Mesoamerican indigenous roots.

The Chicano movement addressed the socio-economico politico-cultural issues of the 60s, while seeking a unified front in order to address issues of injustice aimed at the descendants of the “brown” multicultural victims of discrimination, whether in the fields, the mines, at restaurants or the voting booths.

Cesar Chavez, the great leader of the farm workers asked his cousin to draw up a symbol for a flag “to give people something they could identify with” and said, “Draw an Aztec Eagle.” The symbolic Nahuatl/Aztec imagery goes back to preColumbian Mexico. Meanwhile other “Chicano” symbols include “Our Lady of Guadalupe,” language like “Viva La Raza” (viva the race) or “Viva La Huelga” (viva the strike) and gave voice to the common claims of the movement and the concept of “chicanismo.”

Despite the intermarriage, whether formal or informal, with the indigenous cultures, local Taosenos during the sixties frequently disputed the influence of their own “Native American” or “Chicano” ancestors and tended to refer to themselves as “Spanish.” The term “Spanish” is seen as a kind of linguistic construct, created by Anglos and Politicos meant to mitigate the negative associations attached to the word “Mexican.”

In Aztlan: Essays on the Chicano Homeland (Albuquerque, UNM Press, 1989), Editor Rudolfo Anaya, the New Mexico literary eminence, discusses the historic mythopoeic roots of Chicano culture and the “naming ceremony” that helped “bond the group” and “created a new vision of the group’s potential.” Anaya says the greater Southwest of “Aztlan is our homeland.” And “The naming of Aztlan was a spontaneous act which took place throughout the Southwest, and the feat was given authenticity in a meeting that was held in Denver in 1969 to draft “El Plan Espiritual de Aztlan.”

(Editor’s note. Most of the male attendees were assumed to have gotten haircuts at “Raoul’s Barber Shop of Love” in the Capitol Hill area prior to the confab, according to the Chicano Barber of El Prado.)

Here in El Norte, the Chicano culture survives not only in this symbolic homage to Cesar Chavez by the Town of Taos but also in the historic acequia and La Tierra land-grant culture, the presence of Brown Berets and Vato Locos, among low-riders and fiesta queens, in the spoken language and biscochitos or green chile, in the imagery of the Catholic Church, and the indigenous native faces of the historic descendants, whether in the pew, the pulpit, on the dais or in the lock-up.

Those spectators, who attend a screening of the film “Salt of the Earth” at 9 am on Saturday, Aug. 1, in the Mural Room of the Historic County Courthouse will view the story of a great victory by a small union in the early 1950s, a union composed of Chicanos, i.e. Mexicans. The men and women of Mine/Mill Local 890 who went on strike for higher wages and better working conditions in Silver City at the Empire Zinc Mine prevailed over a vast conspiracy of right-wing corporations and unions in America, including “McCarthyism.” The film, “Salt,” was suppressed as a subversive threat for decades by McCarthyites.

Today “Salt,” both story and film are considered exemplary as a tale of two victories for working men and women. The story of the movie began in San Cristobal at Craig and Jenny Vincent’s ranch and synthesizes life and art in the interest of achieving justice and focusing on issues of race, gender, and class relations in starkly black and white terms. Yet the portrayal of the story in film fully realizes the Biblical colors of justice in its feeling and effect. The audiences of the time who were allowed to see “Salt” stood, cried, and cheered.