Save Our Sculpture!

[ On May 14th, 2005, the xenophobic "Save Our State" (SOS) organization kept their word to hold a protest in Baldwin Park California demanding the destruction of a public monument they find “seditious”. No more than 50 of the reactionaries gathered near the sculpture designed by Chicana artist Judy Baca, and they were confronted by around 500 to 800 angry counter-protestors. Those opposed to SOS made it clear that they would not tolerate racist attacks against the Chicano/Latino/Immigrant community, and that they would defend the monument created by artist Judy Baca. Dozens of riot police kept the two sides apart, and eventually the police asked SOS to stop their protest and leave the area (they were escorted to their cars by armed officers). The hundreds of counter-protestors took this as a defeat for the racist SOS group and a victory for those defending human rights and artistic expression. In the following article, Xispas staff writer Gina Ruiz shares with us some of her thoughts on the continuing controversy]

SOS (Save Our State) a racist group who support the Minutemen vigilantes in Arizona are calling for the destruction and removal of Judy Baca's simply beautiful artwork, Danzas Indigenas. A counter-protest took place on Saturday, May 14, 2005. I was not able to attend due to a family funeral but I was there in sprit. The thing that bothered me the most when I went to the SOS site to see for myself what they were trying to do was the fact that one of their members called Gloria Anzaldua "a dead lesbian". That statement kept me up well into the early morning hours just pacing and fuming with rage. How dare they? Just the fact that this group can say that is a clear indication of their profound racism. They aren't just targeting Mexicans, or the "browning" of the state. That comment says to me that they are racists and bigots plain and simple. They are against women, they are against people of color, they are against anything foreign or “strange”, they are against anyone who isn't a white American male. They even comment that we, the Xicanos, shouldn't call ourselves Indians because we come from a “mongoloid” race.

Gloria Evangelina Anzaldua was a woman, a scholar, a poet, an activist, a Xicana, a role model, a teacher and yes she was what she called herself, "chicana dyke-feminist, tejana patlache poet, writer, and cultural theorist". She was much more than that to so many women, children and men. She inspired and continues to inspire through her writing. She held numerous awards for her groundbreaking literature, Literary Journal named Borderlands one of the 38 Best Books of 1987. She taught first in bi-lingual elementary classroom then on to work with the handicapped and finally to teach in universities where she taught Feminism, Chicano Studies and Creative Writing. She opened doors not just for women of color, but also for women. She transcended color lines and to have her be defined by the very thing that she spent her life fighting; racism and bigotry - infuriates me.

The statement also leaves one thing very, very clear to me and that is that this organization, Save Our State, isn't interested in "saving" anything. They are the new breed of KKK hiding under the guise of a protective organization. Think the wolf in sheep's clothing. They are simply promoting a racist agenda and this is something we simply cannot tolerate. They state that if the City of Baldwin Park doesn't destroy a piece of artwork with poetry by Gloria Anzaldua, they will take steps to destroy it themselves. How? How will they destroy it? This is the kind of mentality that promotes terrorism and fear. How can any person, after the events of September 11th, have these kinds of thoughts? What is wrong with them? Destruction of ART? Destruction of POETRY? Calling the exercise of FREE SPEECH seditious? Will they burn books next? Will they march through the streets in full Nazi gear? Do they want us, the Xicanos, to be rounded up into death camps? Hermanos y Hermanas... mobilize - vocalize - get out there and educate against this kind of terrorism, this racist mentality that has to stop. All those who wish to co-exist in harmony and peace are threatened by this horrific and dangerous ideology. I leave you with this quote from the great lady herself who is very much missed by the world she touched so amazingly with her writing and shy smile.

"And if going home is denied me, then I will have to stand and claim my space, making a new culture… una cultura mestiza…. with my own lumber, my own bricks and mortar and my own feminist architecture." - Gloria Anzaldua, Borderlands/La Frontera