Comment
Readers are invited to address letters to The Editors, Report on the Americas. 475 Riverside Drive, Suite 454, New York, NY 10115. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. The Black...
...Her story must have had a special poignancy for a small community which was estranged from its past and isolated in its present predicament in the New World...
...Today many black organizations face pressures similar to those that ten years ago kept the embryonic Indian movement divided...
...Da Silva was elected to a second term in 1990 and is a leading candidate this year in Rio's mayoral race...
...When people first saw us in the plaza, they thought we were crazy...
...XXV, No...
...Pedro Restrepo remains cautiously optimistic: "The court will march to a rhythm according to the pressure we put on it...
...XXV, No...
...The commission was formed, and after its report was released we began to get financial and moral support from many sectors-artists, unions, even the Quito Chamber of Commerce contributed money for the legal fund...
...The police threw tear-gas canisters into the crowd and confiscated the demonstrators' placards and photographs...
...Fals claims that in the Constitution, multi-ethnicity encompasses both Indians and blacks...
...Burdick's insistence on a divisive color line within the movement is neither useful nor accurate...
...Those countries resolved this question in 1987 and 1988, Ball6n was elected in July, many expect a legal loophole will be found to allow the ten jailed police officials to go free while awaiting trial, and indeed the trial could be delayed for years...
...One of the editors discovered the mask at a friend's house during a dinnerparty...
...He argues that expanding on his previous testimony will only implicatehimfurther...
...Delegates from the M- 19 Democratic Alliance, including myself, did challenge "binary calculations" in ethnicity, and succeeded in getting Article VII approved, which recognizes the pluri-ethCONTiNUED ON PAGE 15CONTINUED FROM P.2 nic and multicultural character of Colombia...
...The answer may well have something to do with the widespread belief that mestizaje is a democratizing force...
...In the preparatory sessions, as in the Assembly itself, no one had any difficulty recognizing the ethnicity of Indians...
...In 1982, Nina S. de Friedemann and I wrote a book on Indians and their organizations, Herederos del Jaguar y la Anaconda, for which Orlando Fals Borda wrote the prologue...
...To date, the commission has not even been set up, because politicians are trying to keep black organizations from having any real input...
...And something did happen...
...Still others, not oblivious to the continuing dangers for the converted, made their way to the Americas in order to distance themselves from the Inquisition...
...Of course, as Elkin points out, the meting out of punishment to Jews or conversos for things they may or may not have had anything to do withincluding the death of Christ--has always been key to anti-Jewish propaganda...
...What's more, the representatives of black organizations and AfricanAmerican studies experts spoke at length on the subject...
...Your otherwise excellent documentation of the problem's massive proportions was weakened only by your reliance upon analyses of historical patterns, and relative lack of attention to contemporary demographics and other socioeconomic indicators of racial inequality...
...Understood in that light, such ceremonies may shock gringo sensibilities, but are less alarming in the context of any conclusions that might be drawn about widespread anti-Semitism among rural people...
...I was never guarded about my Jewish identity, and never encountered hostility from the people there who are of Zapotec and Mixtec origin...
...It's astonishing thatFals had no problem defining as legitimate ethnic groups CONTINUED ON PAGE 16 CONTINUED FROM P.15 the "raizal" people who have lived on Colombia's Caribbean islands since 1786...
...That the forces of history and of historical intolerance can change our 16 REPORT ON THE AMERICAS traditional views is underscored by the fact that the most important holiday among the secret Jews of Mexico was not the conventional Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, but Purim, the day which commemorates the courage of Queen Esther of Persia, a secret Jew herself...
...Our speedy approval of the rights and autonomy of the black"raizal" communities of the Caribbean islands of San Andr6s, Providencia and Santa Catalina also belies the claim that we opposed the blacks...
...The signatures of "Jim" appears in the comer, but no credit is given to the artists who produced the mask or the cultural milieu which made its creation possible...
...To speak contemptuously of black organizations as Fals does-alluding to their lack of effective organization as a pressure group--is to ignore the lasting repercussions of slavery, and to deny blacks' potential for liberation...
...The Jewish community, while it might find fascinating the extent of the continuation of Jewish practices among some conversos and their descendants, is not always ready to see this as "a valiant attempt...to remain faithful to their beliefs...
...It acknowledges, for the first time in Colombian history, land rights for black riverine communities in the Pacific region and elsewhere...
...When the Inquisition wasestablished in Mexico, many conversos, among them cryptoJews, became the first European settlers in New Mexico in their attempt to escape the hand of intolerance...
...The church, in its attempt to create a kind of ideological cohesion in fifteenth-century Spain, sought to reducethe Spain ofthree cultures--Catholic, Muslim and Jewish-into one, and when arguments failed, it resorted to force...
...Other new Christians were the most vocal in questioning, from within, the beliefs and religious orthodoxy of the Church...
...The Colombian government is presenting the required draft law to the Congress...
...When Lorenzo Muelas, an Indian leader and delegate to the Assembly, spoke, I stood up with him to demonstrate my solidarity, in view of the danger that powerful vested interests might deny rights not only to blacks but also to Indians...
...In its own way, it's moving...
...On the advice of his lawyer, Hugo Espafia has refused to testify until his release...
...This article was one of our main initiatives...
...Recent revelations emanating from research on The Secret Jews ofthe Southwest have met with mixed reaction in both the Christian and Jewish communities in the United States...
...This oversight may give the impression that although NACLA opposes the creation of economic free-trade zones, it supports cultural free zones-or that NACLA editors find cultural appropriation acceptable when done by politically progressive organizations...
...Thanks to the leadership of Da Silva and Cao, racial discrimination, abusive sterilization of black women and violation of the rights of black minors have been outlawed, Also, a number of state and municipal government agencies jointly organized an international seminar on discrimination and public policy in which international affirmative-action strategies were debated...
...Rabbi Salom6n Halevi became Bishop don Pablo de Santa Maria, an instigator of the pogroms of 1391, which he justified as revenge for the blood of Christ...
...This has hampered the efforts of black-movement activists to convince legislators and public officials of the urgency of the problem...
...Supreme-court hearings begun in October, 1991 continue at a slow pace...
...The Judas represents the figureJudas Iscariote who is punished for his betrayal of Christ...
...I said I don't know, but at least we are going to stick it out here...
...I am a long-time reader of Report on the Americas, and am familiar with the excellent work published by the magazine over the years...
...Meanwhile, the weekly demonstrations in the plaza continue, but an incident earlier this year seemed an ominous portent of the changing political climate...
...I lived in Oaxaca, Mexico for two years in the mid-1980s...
...But we, like all the concerned lawyers, advisers and academics such as Arocha, had a hard time arriving at a legal definition of "ethnic group" or "ethnicity" to be inscribed in the Constitution...
...Rather than dissecting what he perceives to be color and class barriers within the black movement, Burdick should draw readers' attention to the movement's groundbreaking policy initiatives, Rebecca Reichmann Ford Foundation Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Jaime Arocha Rodriguez's well-intentioned article, "Afro-Colombia Denied," in the February report merits the following observations regarding my supposed betrayal of black aspirations at the Constituent Assembly: I did not participate in any preliminary sessions of the Constituent Assembly in which a compromise proposal was agreed to by Indian and black organizations, and thus I was not committed to any specific position during the Assembly itself...
...commission was never constituted, it never met, and no cases were ever heard...
...Carlos Suarez-Boulangger Boston, MA Editors' note: We thank Carlos Suarez-Boulangger for bringing this oversight to our attention...
...In his analysis of Brazil's black-consciousness movement, John Burdick rightly concludes that popular AfricanBrazilian cultural practices-samba, condombld and umbanda-could serve as an even richer source of energy for Brazil's black movement...
...And, in conjunction with these agencies, several black non-governmental organizations are in the process of formulating proposals for legislation to ensure equal-opportunity employment...
...5] features a drawing of a Mexican mask by New York artist Jim Stoccardo...
...They covered it up, and we are uncovering it...
...It seems to me, however, that she may have overstated how deeply rooted anti-Jewish sentiment is among indigenous peoples, and among rural Mexicans in particular...
...As an aside, a similar trend characterizes scholarship on AM-can Brazil, partially due to the unavailability of adequate socioeconomic data disaggregated by race...
...On January 8, police in full riot gear surrounded hundreds of peaceful supporters marking the fourth anniversary of the disappearance...
...NACLA was not aware that the mask was a replica of an Aztec artifact...
...All the others were plagued with vacillations concerning their ethnicity, and some even openly proclaimed their desire to become integrated into the mainstream...
...In view of the many obstacles in the Assembly, black groups scored a clear victory when Transitory Article 55 was approved...
...While his analysis of overall trends in the movement is helpful, Burdick's limited and often outdated field data weaken his conclusions about the effectiveness of Brazil's contemporary black movement, particularly with regard to the movement's impact on public officials and policy debate...
...What can you do against the police or the state?' they asked...
...Meanwhile, territories such as those in the Baud6 region are still being called "vacant" and therefore ownerless...
...The feelings of Jews today toward these people, and toward their former adopted homeland, Sefarad(Spain), remain ambivalent...
...The mask is, in fact, a reproduction of an Aztec mask housed at the Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City...
...A number of darker-skinned blacks (and dark black women, I might add) are now at the helm of several of Brazil's most important African-Brazilian organizations, among them the Unified Black Movement (MNU) and the Center for Studies and Assistance to Marginalized Populations (CEAP...
...That may be neither here nor there, but it does cause me to question the need for Elkin's Jewish colleagues to travel in Mexico as non-Jews...
...As the new highway from Pereira advances toward TribugA, it is likely that blacks will lose the lands they have occupied for at least 200 years...
...I introduced this article myself, and two Indian deputies, among others, defended it...
...The Black Americas Congratulations for bringing to light inyourFebruaryreport [Vol...
...At the time we found only one indigenous organization, the Regional Indigenous Council of the Cauca Valley, to be unified and consolidated...
...But he could not do the same for the descendants of Africans who arrived on the Pacific Coast with the Spanish conquistadors, and have been miners there since the seventeenth century...
...And if defining the concept in legal terms was a significant obstacle, why didn't they consult the constitutions of Nicaragua or Brazil...
...Orlando Fals Borda Secretary General National Commission for Territorial Revision Bogotdi, Colombia Jaime Arocha Rodriguez responds: Neither Orlando Fals Borda's personal defense of the concept of political autonomy, nor the fact that he did not take part in the preliminary meetings, can excuse his decision to ignore the compromise proposal submitted by the Subcommission on Equality and MultiEthnic Identity...
...We then asked Jim Stoccardo to sketch it for us...
...Mufecos or gigantes are paI IIIIIIII raded about, beaten, burned orexploded all over Mexico during Pascua, but they are called Judas, notjudios...
...Your readers deserve to know where the mask came from...
...Then why is the charter so specific with respect to the territories and political representation of Indians, while the rights of blacks are relegated to a transitory article...
...But I found too simplistic his location of Brazil's "blackest" masses at the margins of the "mulatto-based" African-Brazilian movement...
...This new wave of police repression is seen as a sign that the government is growing weary of the persistent clamor raised by the Restrepo case...
...As historian AmdricoCastropoints out, some Jews who converted became principal fanatics in the continued campaign for uniformity...
...The friend had bought the mask at an outdoor market in Mexico, and did not know its origins...
...Latin American Jews Judith Laikin Elkin's "Colonial Legacy of Anti-Semitism" in your February report gave a thorough account of the historical underpinnings of antiSemitism in Latin America...
...Howard Yank Eugene, Oregon Cover Art The cover of your May report [Vol...
...Moreover, the election to Congress of darker-skinned Benedita da Silva and Carlos Alberto Cao in 1986 would undermine Burdick's claim that mulattos dominate movement leadership...
...41 (an)issue long neglected by scholars of Latin America-the denial of pervasive racial discrimination throughout the region...
...respectively...
...To defend black groups' land rights in "vacant lands," as Arocha advocates, is a permanent task, which requires articulate mass actions...
...As an official delegate, he could not have been unaware of it...
...It is in this context that I want to express my disappointment and outrage...
...The draft law mandated by Article 55 that Fals mentions is supposed to be drawn up by a Commission for Black Groups...
...Such a movement is starting to take shape in the Choc6 region thanks to the combined and harmonious efforts of local black and Indian groups, and it has the full support of the M-19 Democratic Alliance...
...In the preparatory sessions, the Indians' legal advisers gave ample evidence of their familarity with these texts...
...Yet, for all the above reasons, it is impossible to accept Arocha's judgment that blacks were "disadvantaged," or his insinuation that they were slighted or denied in the new Constitution by the Indians or by me...
...Now that the rightist government of Sixto Durfn Of course, the blacks could have gained more from the Constituent Assembly had they organized more effectively as a pressure group or movement...
...In underscoring her point, Elkin noted Easter pageants in which effigies (mufecos) of Jews (judios) symbolize devils...
...Obviously Muelas and I could not ignore the "ethnicity" of black groups...
...If we keep up the same energy as the case goes through the courts, things will continue to happen...
...In the Purim story, when the Jews of Persia are threatened by the evil Haman, she steps forward to reveal her identity as a Jew, placing her life on the line to save her people...
Vol. 26 • September 1992 • No. 2
