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Ain't I A Woman? newspapers, June 1970-July 1971
1970-09-11 "Ain't I a Woman?" Page 12
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No More Radical Sabbaticals Female Perspectives The Southwestern Female Rights Union is a small collective of women interested in establishing a strong womens movement based on the struggle of the most oppressed in the Southwest. At this point we are primarily an informational office. Because of the problems we have talked about it is especially difficult to organize here. We are in the process of developing ideas for various positive programs. We are interested in any suggestions and help people have to offer. Some of us live together in a house where we also have our office. We are desperately in need of contributions for our rent and the first issue of our journal. Some of us are going to Cuba and so our staff will be severely depleted. We are in the process of trying to catch up with correspondence. We ask that all be patient. Struggle, (Nancy Adair, Martha, Mary Maxine) The Situation in New Mexico The situation in New Mexico, in the South, in the ghetto, demands special attention from the white Women's movement and the Movement as a whole; it demands analysis and sensitivity on the part of all white (anglo) people. We have studied, and are still studying and reading about the problems and teh oppression of the Black in her ghetto. Movement papers have analyzed the problems and establishment press, television, and films have inundated us with propaganda concerning the Black's situation. The Movement in centers like New York and Berkeley is just beginning to understand the situation and deal effectively with its racism. In New Mexico, however, we are just beginning to understand our chauvinism and racism because the situation demands a different analysis. Most of us were educated in "heavy" Eastern and West Coast politics. Most of the communication and information we have with other groups comes from both these areas. It is time now for the analysis of the problems of this area, by the women of this area, to reach the rest of the country. (For the beginnings of the analysis of Chicana problems we suggest you read Enriqueta Longauex y Vasquez' articles in "El Grito Del Norte"). Racism thrives here int eh form of imperialism and supremacy. New Mexico is a colony as is the South. The government can test its bombs and missiles at White Sands and Los Alomos because it does not have to put up with the objections of an urban white middle class whose good will it has to nurture. They build their bombs in a third world area and drop them on third world people. The atomic bomb, developed and tested in New Mexico was dropped on Japan. The government which did this continues to send missiles over New Mexico to land at White Sands. Could anyone imagine theirs ending it over Chicago to land in Lake Michigan? The government comes to the Southwest and offers good, well-paying jobs to the anglos. The Chicano remains unemployed - except in the low-paying menial jobs - his land is legally 'stolen' in quit-claim deeds - he moves to the ghetto of the city with his family where he can be easily contained and constantly harrassed by the police. (We use he in this instance because the plight of the Chicana is much worse - she usually owned no land, her jobs are worth less money, welfare is ridiculously low. The Chicano and Indian are people raised on the land. A hundred years before the Pilgrims landed the Chicano and Indian were fighting the harsh elements, growing their crops, and herding their sheep. They built irrigation systems to tap the precious water supply. They fought droughts and flash floods, they fought for their freedom - from Spain - the frontiersman - and the United States government. When the railroad came from the land became valuable for raising cattle to supply beef for the East. The anglo raped the mountains for minerals and stole the range lands, overgrazing them, turning the plains into a desert. With the help of "heroes" like Kit Carson they raped ad massacred the Indian. They destroyed the buffalo and the deer. Worst of all they brought their capitalistic, imperialist system; the economy that turns people into leeches, parasites who live off the misery of others, that creates the Vendido and Uncle Tomahawk. A second migration is unundating the Southwest... the cult of the commune, the freak, the longhair. Hollywood and Dennis Hopper have discovered a cheaper way to make "authentic' movies. The "richey" comes to escape the noise and smog of the city, the artist comes because this is truly "the land of enchantment" and the people are so "real", so "genuine". They live in dirt houses, attend dirt churches, eat tortillas, chile, and beans. Tourists don't have to deal with the expense and language of a foreign country when they can visit the quaint mountain villages of the Sangre de Christo and the "sublime" pueblos of the Rio Grande. The beauty of New Mexico has created a mask unlike Harlem that covers reality of extreme poverty. The tourist, imperialist representative in his own country, doe snot see that there are no hospitals for thousands, that the mountain streams 0 the very subsistence of the people - are polluted by mines, lumber mills and "hippie orgies". They do not see into the schools where children are forbidden to speak their own language, that the history which is taught is not their history but that of the Pilgrim... Kit Carson, a genocidal murderer, who led their forefathers on a death march, is acclaimed a great American hero. The media tells them how lucky they are that the Anglos came to build them good highways to the ski resort and the nearest McDonalds - the former they could not afford and at the latter they would not eat. Movement people came through on their way to California, light up a joint, and stay because it is so beautiful. ... when they travel from Berkeley to San Francisco they do not stay in Oakland because it is so beautiful. New Mexico is becoming the land of the Radical Sabbatical. The Mesa has a way of suspending our sense of humanity. How can hunger, disease, despair exist in such beauty? It does. We call for a boycott on travel and Tourism in New Mexico. If you come -- come as a true revolutionary, come with the consciousness that we have to work together and to fight together -- when asked -- against the oppression of the most oppressed. Anglo women who were planning to come to the workcamp had not been invited by Chicanas. They were coming to work and learn, but we who planned the camp did not have sufficient insight or knowledge to understand the position we would be in. Instead of arriving as sisters we would be seeing the loveliness which brings tourists; instead of achieving unity we might be splitting the ranks of the Chicanos. Rather than be guilty of any of these errors in judgement we called off the workcamp. We offer our apology to our sisters in California who helped us but who did not participate in the decision. We, in New Mexico, were solely responsible for our ignorance and insensitivity to the problems. We feel that we have learned something from this experience and we have wanted to share it with you. Our further apology for the delay in this analysis reaching you. Sometime in the future it may be possible to have a camp when we are invited. The Cuban people have asked many North Americans to join the Venceremos Brigade and participate in the sugar harvest. When and if a group class Female Liberationists then, perhaps, we can have a workcamp. We feel that women should get together in workcamps next summer. We must learn to work together after we have learned to talk together. We support the efforts ofa ny who are interested in holding such camps. We welcome any correspondence, critical analysis. [Photo on bottom:] SOJOURNER TRUTH, "THE LIBYAN SIBYL." "That man over there say that a woman needs to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helped me into carriages, or over mud puddles, or gives me a best place ... And ain't I a woman? Look at me. Look at my arm! I have plowed and planted and gathered into barns, and no man could lead me... And ain't I a woman? I could as much and eat as much as a man when I could get it, and bear the lash as well.. And ain't I a woman? I have borned thirteen children and seen them most all sold off into slavery. And when I cried out with mothers grief, none but Jesus heard. And ain't I a woman? Sojourner Truth, Speech before the Women's Rights Convention at Akron, Ohio in 1851. IOU 1.50 for notes from 2nd year Penny also 35c for off our [?] hand delivery is the only means of payment acceptable to the collective. 12 VOL. 1, No. 5 AIN'T I
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No More Radical Sabbaticals Female Perspectives The Southwestern Female Rights Union is a small collective of women interested in establishing a strong womens movement based on the struggle of the most oppressed in the Southwest. At this point we are primarily an informational office. Because of the problems we have talked about it is especially difficult to organize here. We are in the process of developing ideas for various positive programs. We are interested in any suggestions and help people have to offer. Some of us live together in a house where we also have our office. We are desperately in need of contributions for our rent and the first issue of our journal. Some of us are going to Cuba and so our staff will be severely depleted. We are in the process of trying to catch up with correspondence. We ask that all be patient. Struggle, (Nancy Adair, Martha, Mary Maxine) The Situation in New Mexico The situation in New Mexico, in the South, in the ghetto, demands special attention from the white Women's movement and the Movement as a whole; it demands analysis and sensitivity on the part of all white (anglo) people. We have studied, and are still studying and reading about the problems and teh oppression of the Black in her ghetto. Movement papers have analyzed the problems and establishment press, television, and films have inundated us with propaganda concerning the Black's situation. The Movement in centers like New York and Berkeley is just beginning to understand the situation and deal effectively with its racism. In New Mexico, however, we are just beginning to understand our chauvinism and racism because the situation demands a different analysis. Most of us were educated in "heavy" Eastern and West Coast politics. Most of the communication and information we have with other groups comes from both these areas. It is time now for the analysis of the problems of this area, by the women of this area, to reach the rest of the country. (For the beginnings of the analysis of Chicana problems we suggest you read Enriqueta Longauex y Vasquez' articles in "El Grito Del Norte"). Racism thrives here int eh form of imperialism and supremacy. New Mexico is a colony as is the South. The government can test its bombs and missiles at White Sands and Los Alomos because it does not have to put up with the objections of an urban white middle class whose good will it has to nurture. They build their bombs in a third world area and drop them on third world people. The atomic bomb, developed and tested in New Mexico was dropped on Japan. The government which did this continues to send missiles over New Mexico to land at White Sands. Could anyone imagine theirs ending it over Chicago to land in Lake Michigan? The government comes to the Southwest and offers good, well-paying jobs to the anglos. The Chicano remains unemployed - except in the low-paying menial jobs - his land is legally 'stolen' in quit-claim deeds - he moves to the ghetto of the city with his family where he can be easily contained and constantly harrassed by the police. (We use he in this instance because the plight of the Chicana is much worse - she usually owned no land, her jobs are worth less money, welfare is ridiculously low. The Chicano and Indian are people raised on the land. A hundred years before the Pilgrims landed the Chicano and Indian were fighting the harsh elements, growing their crops, and herding their sheep. They built irrigation systems to tap the precious water supply. They fought droughts and flash floods, they fought for their freedom - from Spain - the frontiersman - and the United States government. When the railroad came from the land became valuable for raising cattle to supply beef for the East. The anglo raped the mountains for minerals and stole the range lands, overgrazing them, turning the plains into a desert. With the help of "heroes" like Kit Carson they raped ad massacred the Indian. They destroyed the buffalo and the deer. Worst of all they brought their capitalistic, imperialist system; the economy that turns people into leeches, parasites who live off the misery of others, that creates the Vendido and Uncle Tomahawk. A second migration is unundating the Southwest... the cult of the commune, the freak, the longhair. Hollywood and Dennis Hopper have discovered a cheaper way to make "authentic' movies. The "richey" comes to escape the noise and smog of the city, the artist comes because this is truly "the land of enchantment" and the people are so "real", so "genuine". They live in dirt houses, attend dirt churches, eat tortillas, chile, and beans. Tourists don't have to deal with the expense and language of a foreign country when they can visit the quaint mountain villages of the Sangre de Christo and the "sublime" pueblos of the Rio Grande. The beauty of New Mexico has created a mask unlike Harlem that covers reality of extreme poverty. The tourist, imperialist representative in his own country, doe snot see that there are no hospitals for thousands, that the mountain streams 0 the very subsistence of the people - are polluted by mines, lumber mills and "hippie orgies". They do not see into the schools where children are forbidden to speak their own language, that the history which is taught is not their history but that of the Pilgrim... Kit Carson, a genocidal murderer, who led their forefathers on a death march, is acclaimed a great American hero. The media tells them how lucky they are that the Anglos came to build them good highways to the ski resort and the nearest McDonalds - the former they could not afford and at the latter they would not eat. Movement people came through on their way to California, light up a joint, and stay because it is so beautiful. ... when they travel from Berkeley to San Francisco they do not stay in Oakland because it is so beautiful. New Mexico is becoming the land of the Radical Sabbatical. The Mesa has a way of suspending our sense of humanity. How can hunger, disease, despair exist in such beauty? It does. We call for a boycott on travel and Tourism in New Mexico. If you come -- come as a true revolutionary, come with the consciousness that we have to work together and to fight together -- when asked -- against the oppression of the most oppressed. Anglo women who were planning to come to the workcamp had not been invited by Chicanas. They were coming to work and learn, but we who planned the camp did not have sufficient insight or knowledge to understand the position we would be in. Instead of arriving as sisters we would be seeing the loveliness which brings tourists; instead of achieving unity we might be splitting the ranks of the Chicanos. Rather than be guilty of any of these errors in judgement we called off the workcamp. We offer our apology to our sisters in California who helped us but who did not participate in the decision. We, in New Mexico, were solely responsible for our ignorance and insensitivity to the problems. We feel that we have learned something from this experience and we have wanted to share it with you. Our further apology for the delay in this analysis reaching you. Sometime in the future it may be possible to have a camp when we are invited. The Cuban people have asked many North Americans to join the Venceremos Brigade and participate in the sugar harvest. When and if a group class Female Liberationists then, perhaps, we can have a workcamp. We feel that women should get together in workcamps next summer. We must learn to work together after we have learned to talk together. We support the efforts ofa ny who are interested in holding such camps. We welcome any correspondence, critical analysis. [Photo on bottom:] SOJOURNER TRUTH, "THE LIBYAN SIBYL." "That man over there say that a woman needs to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helped me into carriages, or over mud puddles, or gives me a best place ... And ain't I a woman? Look at me. Look at my arm! I have plowed and planted and gathered into barns, and no man could lead me... And ain't I a woman? I could as much and eat as much as a man when I could get it, and bear the lash as well.. And ain't I a woman? I have borned thirteen children and seen them most all sold off into slavery. And when I cried out with mothers grief, none but Jesus heard. And ain't I a woman? Sojourner Truth, Speech before the Women's Rights Convention at Akron, Ohio in 1851. IOU 1.50 for notes from 2nd year Penny also 35c for off our [?] hand delivery is the only means of payment acceptable to the collective. 12 VOL. 1, No. 5 AIN'T I
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