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Chicano conference programs and speeches, April 1973-May 1974

1974-04-13 Opening Remarks Page 8

8
it, imperialized on it, exploited us, and did everything to us to keep us in an inferior position as a conquered people. We can see that in the Southwest. In the 19th century when we look at American history in Mexican history, we find that the Mexican-American War was caused by the gringos desire for land in the Southwest, was caused by gringo aggression. There is no doubt about that.
The problem is that many historians have not followed that up. O mean going into the late 19th century and going into the 20th century. One of the biggest myths about Mexican history is that "Revolucion" solved everything in Mexico. We are finding out now in the 60's, 70's in Mexico, the Mexican government is going back to many of the policies that were there before the Revolucion. El Indio y los pobres are still being exploited in Mexico.
We have been led to believe that the Mexican Revolution resolved everything, we have been lead to believe that many of the presidents of the 20's Obregon, Calles and Cardenas in the 30's broke away gringo imperialism in Mexico and told the gringos to get out of Mexico and they never came back. That's not true. The gringo is back in Mexico again. What we have found in the 20th century is that American imperialism, Americans have always been imperialistic, the gringo has always been imperialistic since he set foot in this country. He took the Indian lands first. He took the Indians and Chicano lands in the Southwest. By 1898 he began to move into the Caribbean he began to move into the Pacific. There was so much of a feeling that the United States should not begin to move outside of its boundaries that they began a new kind of imperialism an economic imperialism. They began with the money to by off the third world peoples countries. We see this all over, in Latin America very clearly we see it in Africam we see it in Asia. The gringo has been imperializing in the 20th century economucally. The same thing  has happened in Mexico.
In 1880's and 1890's Rodolfo Acuna who I think has the best Chicano history book now called "Occupied America", vital to interpretation of Chicano history in this country. Rodolfo Acuna has shown that in the 1890's 82 percent of all the Mexican raw materials were being shipped to the United States and that the Mexican worker was doing all the dirty work, all the cheap labor. All of the railroads that were build in Mexico in the Porfirio Diaz regime were built by American capitalists.
What we are understanding about American imperialism 20th century in regards to American and European imperialism is Africa, Asia and Latin America is that the first thing thay do is build road systems so they can go in and plunder the resources of those countries and ship them out. Then they can

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8 it, imperialized on it, exploited us, and did everything to us to keep us in an inferior position as a conquered people. We can see that in the Southwest. In the 19th century when we look at American history in Mexican history, we find that the Mexican-American War was caused by the gringos desire for land in the Southwest, was caused by gringo aggression. There is no doubt about that. The problem is that many historians have not followed that up. O mean going into the late 19th century and going into the 20th century. One of the biggest myths about Mexican history is that "Revolucion" solved everything in Mexico. We are finding out now in the 60's, 70's in Mexico, the Mexican government is going back to many of the policies that were there before the Revolucion. El Indio y los pobres are still being exploited in Mexico. We have been led to believe that the Mexican Revolution resolved everything, we have been lead to believe that many of the presidents of the 20's Obregon, Calles and Cardenas in the 30's broke away gringo imperialism in Mexico and told the gringos to get out of Mexico and they never came back. That's not true. The gringo is back in Mexico again. What we have found in the 20th century is that American imperialism, Americans have always been imperialistic, the gringo has always been imperialistic since he set foot in this country. He took the Indian lands first. He took the Indians and Chicano lands in the Southwest. By 1898 he began to move into the Caribbean he began to move into the Pacific. There was so much of a feeling that the United States should not begin to move outside of its boundaries that they began a new kind of imperialism an economic imperialism. They began with the money to by off the third world peoples countries. We see this all over, in Latin America very clearly we see it in Africam we see it in Asia. The gringo has been imperializing in the 20th century economucally. The same thing has happened in Mexico. In 1880's and 1890's Rodolfo Acuna who I think has the best Chicano history book now called "Occupied America", vital to interpretation of Chicano history in this country. Rodolfo Acuna has shown that in the 1890's 82 percent of all the Mexican raw materials were being shipped to the United States and that the Mexican worker was doing all the dirty work, all the cheap labor. All of the railroads that were build in Mexico in the Porfirio Diaz regime were built by American capitalists. What we are understanding about American imperialism 20th century in regards to American and European imperialism is Africa, Asia and Latin America is that the first thing thay do is build road systems so they can go in and plunder the resources of those countries and ship them out. Then they can