Mexica Movement
Encyclopedia
The Mexica Movement is a self described "Indigenous rights educational organization" based in Los Angeles, California
. Their organization views Latin Americans (a term Mexica Movement rejects) of Amerindian descent, Native Americans
, and Canadian First Nations
as one people who are falsely divided by European-imposed borders. Their ultimate objective is the non-violent, democratic "liberation" of the Western Hemisphere
from European-descendants. The organization seeks to create a future nation called Cemanahuac
. This nation will comprise North and Central America (Anahuac
) and South America
(Tawantinsuyo), fused into a single federation, under the collectively-democratic control of Indigenous people. The group views White people as Europeans who are squatting
on Indigenous lands, and who must be repatriated back to Europe. The majority of the group's members were born in the United States
. The group rejects the "Aztlan
ideology" as being too limited, seeking instead to unite the entire North American continent under indigenous control.
s used for themselves.
The organization is named after the Mexica
(a.k.a. Aztec
) civilization. This civilization is seen as the best chance from which the continent's indigenous-descent peoples can reconstruct themselves as a nation, similar to the way that modern Italians unified their nation under Roman-Italic identity and the Tuscan dialect. The organization asserts that the Mexica civilization is the best and most thoroughly-documented of all the major indigenous civilizations (e.g. architecture, language, theology, calendrics, etc.). Mexica is asserted as a civilization-rallying point for a future nation. Collectively, these indigenous people of the hemisphere are known as Nican Tlaca.
n symbolism. The black-and-white design in the center represents the Mayan
depiction of duality
(life and death, male and female, matter and non-matter, seen and unseen, etc.), which is called Hunab Ku
in the Mayan language
and Ometeotl
in the Nahuatl language. The two dualities complement one another and are unified in balance.
The four colors of the flag represent the Nahua version of the four directions
which are common to almost all indigenous cultures of the Americas, albeit with regional variations. The four directions represent the astronomical phenomena of the two solstice
s and two equinox
es during the cycle of one solar year, which thereby "frame" the cosmological realm of indigenous people. These astronomical events have long been considered important in almost all indigenous cultures of the continent, especially as temporal markers for agriculture, warfare, and the accession of rulers. The four directions, therefore, symbolize the spatial geography of the continent in direct interaction with the cycles of time. In short, the flag represents the continent and its Indigenous populations.
The colors represent astronomical, calendrical, theological, and spatial-temporal concepts: red for Tlaloc
, white for Quetzalcoatl
, black for Tezcatlipoca
and blue for Huitzilopochtli
. The flag is oriented with east at the top (as opposed to north, as European map models are oriented). East is the direction of the rising sun and is of immense significance to indigenous peoples (it is the direction from which the sun emerges and operates as the agent of solar time).
, California
. The group is active in the Southern California
protest
scene and has been highly visible in all of the Southern California immigration marches.
Members also host regular teach-ins at East Los Angeles College
and have delivered lectures to university crowds across the nation. The organization's position is to support the land ownership rights of Indigenous peoples of North America. It recognizes none of the current governments of the Americas as legitimate, calling them all "colonial" and "Europe
an-imposed". The organization has protested the Minuteman Project, Save Our State
, Universal Studios
and The Walt Disney Company
.
language is seen to serve as a future lingua franca, linking the entire continent's indigenous "ethnicities". A standardized writing system will be derived from the Mayan writing system, similar to the "standard script" concept used to link all of China's languages and ethnicities under a single format of literacy.
The Mexica Movement asserts that the entire continent
of North America
, which they refer to as "Anahuac
", belongs collectively to the indigenous people of the Americas: Latin Americans of Amerindian descent, Native Americans
, and Canadian First Nations
. The entire Western Hemisphere is referred to as Cemanahuac
("The One World Between The Waters" in the Nahuatl
language).
, Ward Churchill
, James Blaut, and Charles Mann
—that, beginning in 1492, Europeans and their descendants committed a genocide
that killed 95% of the indigenous peoples in the Americas. This, they assert, allowed Europe and peoples of European descent to prosper materially and to develop themselves at the expense of indigenous peoples.
are regarded as "colonial" and are rejected by the group. The only true border for Europeans, the group asserts, is the Atlantic Ocean
seaboard. The group maintains that indigenous people have the right to move freely among their own people of the continent, with whom they may share bloodlines and culture.
, the Mexica Movement states that it has a strict non-violence policy because they believe they would be unable to achieve their goals through the use of violence. The group is committed to a long-term liberation-by-education methodology which seeks to "change hearts and minds" by educating people of the civilized achievements of Indigenous people before 1492, and of the genocide and land/resource thefts committed by Europeans since that date. The group supports the preservation of the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights
as a legal framework to protect both Indigenous and European peoples' rights during the multi-generational process of liberation.
The movement consciously seeks to promote indigenous demographic increases that will lend themselves to a stronger population counterweight against the influence of the European-descent population.
On its Website, the movement states that" Europeans have a homeland: EUROPE. We are only asking unwelcomed guests (racists) to leave our home. These racist Europeans have a home to go to. The non-racists can be part of a transition to our full independence, it's not as if Europeans are being asked to go into the Atlantic Ocean. They have a beautiful home called Europe."
have both done critical articles on the organization.
WorldNetDaily
characterizes the Mexica Movement as being a radical group with "activists calling for the expulsion of most U.S. citizens from their own country." WorldNetDaily claims the Mexica Movement wants to "expel the invaders of the last 500 years".
On the May 1, 2007 edition of his CNN
television program, Glenn Beck
labeled the Mexica Movement as a racist group for their alleged desire to exclude all Americans of European descent from the North American continent.
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
. Their organization views Latin Americans (a term Mexica Movement rejects) of Amerindian descent, Native Americans
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
, and Canadian First Nations
First Nations
First Nations is a term that collectively refers to various Aboriginal peoples in Canada who are neither Inuit nor Métis. There are currently over 630 recognised First Nations governments or bands spread across Canada, roughly half of which are in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia. The...
as one people who are falsely divided by European-imposed borders. Their ultimate objective is the non-violent, democratic "liberation" of the Western Hemisphere
Western Hemisphere
The Western Hemisphere or western hemisphere is mainly used as a geographical term for the half of the Earth that lies west of the Prime Meridian and east of the Antimeridian , the other half being called the Eastern Hemisphere.In this sense, the western hemisphere consists of the western portions...
from European-descendants. The organization seeks to create a future nation called Cemanahuac
Cemanahuac
Cēmānāhuac was the name used by the Aztecs to refer to their world.It is a Nahuatl name derived from the words "cē" one/whole and "Ānāhuac", which in turn derives from the words "atl" and "nahuac", a locative meaning "circumvented or surrounded"...
. This nation will comprise North and Central America (Anahuac
Anahuac
Anahuac is an ancient name for a Mesoamerican, particularly Aztec, area or areas, usually identified as located within or even coterminous with the Valley of Mexico...
) and South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
(Tawantinsuyo), fused into a single federation, under the collectively-democratic control of Indigenous people. The group views White people as Europeans who are squatting
Squatting
Squatting consists of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied space or building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have permission to use....
on Indigenous lands, and who must be repatriated back to Europe. The majority of the group's members were born in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The group rejects the "Aztlan
Aztlán
Aztlán is the mythical ancestral home of the Nahua peoples, one of the main cultural groups in Mesoamerica. And, by extension, is the mythical homeland of the Uto-Aztecan peoples. Aztec is the Nahuatl word for "people from Aztlan".-Legend:...
ideology" as being too limited, seeking instead to unite the entire North American continent under indigenous control.
Name and origin
The Mexica Movement was founded in 1993 as the Chicano Mexicano Mexica Empowerment Committee (CMMEC) by the poet and writer Olin Tezcatlipoca>ref> The name 'Mexica' is derived from the Nahuatl word Mēxihcah (meːˈʃiʔkaʔ), the name the AztecAztec
The Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the late post-classic period in Mesoamerican chronology.Aztec is the...
s used for themselves.
The organization is named after the Mexica
Mexica
The Mexica were a pre-Columbian people of central Mexico.Mexica may also refer to:*Mexica , a board game designed by Wolfgang Kramer and Michael Kiesling*Mexica , a 2005 novel by Norman Spinrad...
(a.k.a. Aztec
Aztec
The Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the late post-classic period in Mesoamerican chronology.Aztec is the...
) civilization. This civilization is seen as the best chance from which the continent's indigenous-descent peoples can reconstruct themselves as a nation, similar to the way that modern Italians unified their nation under Roman-Italic identity and the Tuscan dialect. The organization asserts that the Mexica civilization is the best and most thoroughly-documented of all the major indigenous civilizations (e.g. architecture, language, theology, calendrics, etc.). Mexica is asserted as a civilization-rallying point for a future nation. Collectively, these indigenous people of the hemisphere are known as Nican Tlaca.
Logo Symbolism
Mexica Movement's flag features indigenous MesoamericaMesoamerica
Mesoamerica is a region and culture area in the Americas, extending approximately from central Mexico to Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, within which a number of pre-Columbian societies flourished before the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 15th and...
n symbolism. The black-and-white design in the center represents the Mayan
Maya mythology
Mayan mythology is part of Mesoamerican mythology and comprises all of the Mayan tales in which personified forces of nature, deities, and the heroes interacting with these play the main roles...
depiction of duality
Dualism
Dualism denotes a state of two parts. The term 'dualism' was originally coined to denote co-eternal binary opposition, a meaning that is preserved in metaphysical and philosophical duality discourse but has been diluted in general or common usages. Dualism can refer to moral dualism, Dualism (from...
(life and death, male and female, matter and non-matter, seen and unseen, etc.), which is called Hunab Ku
Hunab Ku
Hunab Ku is the name of a supposed Maya deity, described as "the supreme god" whose name appears in only two colonial sources: the Motul Dictionary and the Chilam Balam of Chumayel...
in the Mayan language
Mayan languages
The Mayan languages form a language family spoken in Mesoamerica and northern Central America. Mayan languages are spoken by at least 6 million indigenous Maya, primarily in Guatemala, Mexico, Belize and Honduras...
and Ometeotl
Ometeotl
Ometeotl is a name sometimes used about the pair of god Ometecuhtli/Omecihuatl in Aztec mythology...
in the Nahuatl language. The two dualities complement one another and are unified in balance.
The four colors of the flag represent the Nahua version of the four directions
Cardinal direction
The four cardinal directions or cardinal points are the directions of north, east, south, and west, commonly denoted by their initials: N, E, S, W. East and west are at right angles to north and south, with east being in the direction of rotation and west being directly opposite. Intermediate...
which are common to almost all indigenous cultures of the Americas, albeit with regional variations. The four directions represent the astronomical phenomena of the two solstice
Solstice
A solstice is an astronomical event that happens twice each year when the Sun's apparent position in the sky, as viewed from Earth, reaches its northernmost or southernmost extremes...
s and two equinox
Equinox
An equinox occurs twice a year, when the tilt of the Earth's axis is inclined neither away from nor towards the Sun, the center of the Sun being in the same plane as the Earth's equator...
es during the cycle of one solar year, which thereby "frame" the cosmological realm of indigenous people. These astronomical events have long been considered important in almost all indigenous cultures of the continent, especially as temporal markers for agriculture, warfare, and the accession of rulers. The four directions, therefore, symbolize the spatial geography of the continent in direct interaction with the cycles of time. In short, the flag represents the continent and its Indigenous populations.
The colors represent astronomical, calendrical, theological, and spatial-temporal concepts: red for Tlaloc
Tlaloc
Tlaloc was an important deity in Aztec religion, a god of rain, fertility, and water. He was a beneficent god who gave life and sustenance, but he was also feared for his ability to send hail, thunder and lightning, and for being the lord of the powerful element of water. In Aztec iconography he...
, white for Quetzalcoatl
Quetzalcoatl
Quetzalcoatl is a Mesoamerican deity whose name comes from the Nahuatl language and has the meaning of "feathered serpent". The worship of a feathered serpent deity is first documented in Teotihuacan in the first century BCE or first century CE...
, black for Tezcatlipoca
Tezcatlipoca
Tezcatlipoca was a central deity in Aztec religion. One of the four sons of Ometeotl, he is associated with a wide range of concepts, including the night sky, the night winds, hurricanes, the north, the earth, obsidian, enmity, discord, rulership, divination, temptation, jaguars, sorcery, beauty,...
and blue for Huitzilopochtli
Huitzilopochtli
In Aztec mythology, Huitzilopochtli, also spelled Uitzilopochtli , was a god of war, a sun god, and the patron of the city of Tenochtitlan. He was also the national god of the Mexicas of Tenochtitlan.- Genealogy :...
. The flag is oriented with east at the top (as opposed to north, as European map models are oriented). East is the direction of the rising sun and is of immense significance to indigenous peoples (it is the direction from which the sun emerges and operates as the agent of solar time).
Activism
The Mexica Movement is based in Los AngelesLos Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. The group is active in the Southern California
Southern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
protest
Protest
A protest is an expression of objection, by words or by actions, to particular events, policies or situations. Protests can take many different forms, from individual statements to mass demonstrations...
scene and has been highly visible in all of the Southern California immigration marches.
Members also host regular teach-ins at East Los Angeles College
East Los Angeles College
East Los Angeles College is a community college of the Los Angeles Community College District in the Los Angeles suburb of Monterey Park. Fourteen communities comprise its primary service area...
and have delivered lectures to university crowds across the nation. The organization's position is to support the land ownership rights of Indigenous peoples of North America. It recognizes none of the current governments of the Americas as legitimate, calling them all "colonial" and "Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an-imposed". The organization has protested the Minuteman Project, Save Our State
Save Our State
Save Our State is an activist organization opposed to illegal immigration in Southern California. The group also has a chapter in Northern California...
, Universal Studios
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
and The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
.
Historical awareness
Mexica Movement declares itself as a non-violent, educational organization. It focuses on teaching the public about the pre-European civilizations of Nican Tlaca (Indigenous people in the Nahuatl language). In addition, the group promotes the study of "European genocidal crimes against Nican Tlaca". The group advocates this historical awareness in order to reframe the context of discussions about Indigenous people and the current governments they live under.Identity
The organization considers the vast majority of Mexicans and Central Americans to be Nican Tlaca (Indigenous people of the Western Hemisphere). The group rejects all labels that originate from European-descent people. This would include Latino, Hispanic, Indian, and mestizo. Such labels are considered to be "European-colonial" in nature. The group includes "mixed-bloods" and "full-bloods" as Nican Tlaca (indigenous) .Language
The organization uses English and Spanish as a practical means to communicate in daily life, but rejects the inclusion of European languages into their identity and vision for a future Indigenous nation. All European languages are seen as foreign and instruments of European colonialism. The NahuatlNahuatl
Nahuatl is thought to mean "a good, clear sound" This language name has several spellings, among them náhuatl , Naoatl, Nauatl, Nahuatl, Nawatl. In a back formation from the name of the language, the ethnic group of Nahuatl speakers are called Nahua...
language is seen to serve as a future lingua franca, linking the entire continent's indigenous "ethnicities". A standardized writing system will be derived from the Mayan writing system, similar to the "standard script" concept used to link all of China's languages and ethnicities under a single format of literacy.
Land ownership
Continent
A continent is one of several very large landmasses on Earth. They are generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria, with seven regions commonly regarded as continents—they are : Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia.Plate tectonics is...
of North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
, which they refer to as "Anahuac
Anahuac
Anahuac is an ancient name for a Mesoamerican, particularly Aztec, area or areas, usually identified as located within or even coterminous with the Valley of Mexico...
", belongs collectively to the indigenous people of the Americas: Latin Americans of Amerindian descent, Native Americans
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
, and Canadian First Nations
First Nations
First Nations is a term that collectively refers to various Aboriginal peoples in Canada who are neither Inuit nor Métis. There are currently over 630 recognised First Nations governments or bands spread across Canada, roughly half of which are in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia. The...
. The entire Western Hemisphere is referred to as Cemanahuac
Cemanahuac
Cēmānāhuac was the name used by the Aztecs to refer to their world.It is a Nahuatl name derived from the words "cē" one/whole and "Ānāhuac", which in turn derives from the words "atl" and "nahuac", a locative meaning "circumvented or surrounded"...
("The One World Between The Waters" in the Nahuatl
Nahuatl
Nahuatl is thought to mean "a good, clear sound" This language name has several spellings, among them náhuatl , Naoatl, Nauatl, Nahuatl, Nawatl. In a back formation from the name of the language, the ethnic group of Nahuatl speakers are called Nahua...
language).
Claims of genocide
The Movement asserts — based primarily on the writings of David StannardDavid Stannard
David Edward Stannard is an American historian and Professor of American Studies at the University of Hawaii. He is particularly known for his book American Holocaust , on the genocide of the native American population.-Early life:He was born to Florence E. Harwood Stannard and David L. Stannard,...
, Ward Churchill
Ward Churchill
Ward LeRoy Churchill is an author and political activist. He was a professor of ethnic studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder from 1990 to 2007. The primary focus of his work is on the historical treatment of political dissenters and Native Americans by the United States government...
, James Blaut, and Charles Mann
Charles C. Mann
Charles C. Mann is an American journalist and author, specializing in scientific topics.He is the coauthor of four books, and contributing editor for Science and Atlantic Monthly. In 2005 he wrote 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus, followed in 2011 by 1493: Uncovering the New...
—that, beginning in 1492, Europeans and their descendants committed a genocide
Genocide
Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
that killed 95% of the indigenous peoples in the Americas. This, they assert, allowed Europe and peoples of European descent to prosper materially and to develop themselves at the expense of indigenous peoples.
Borders
All current borders across the Western HemisphereWestern Hemisphere
The Western Hemisphere or western hemisphere is mainly used as a geographical term for the half of the Earth that lies west of the Prime Meridian and east of the Antimeridian , the other half being called the Eastern Hemisphere.In this sense, the western hemisphere consists of the western portions...
are regarded as "colonial" and are rejected by the group. The only true border for Europeans, the group asserts, is the Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
seaboard. The group maintains that indigenous people have the right to move freely among their own people of the continent, with whom they may share bloodlines and culture.
Liberation
In response to an article published by the Associated PressAssociated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
, the Mexica Movement states that it has a strict non-violence policy because they believe they would be unable to achieve their goals through the use of violence. The group is committed to a long-term liberation-by-education methodology which seeks to "change hearts and minds" by educating people of the civilized achievements of Indigenous people before 1492, and of the genocide and land/resource thefts committed by Europeans since that date. The group supports the preservation of the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights
Bill of rights
A bill of rights is a list of the most important rights of the citizens of a country. The purpose of these bills is to protect those rights against infringement. The term "bill of rights" originates from England, where it referred to the Bill of Rights 1689. Bills of rights may be entrenched or...
as a legal framework to protect both Indigenous and European peoples' rights during the multi-generational process of liberation.
The movement consciously seeks to promote indigenous demographic increases that will lend themselves to a stronger population counterweight against the influence of the European-descent population.
"Repatriation" of white population back to Europe
Given this new majority status and radical changes in the mainstream historical narrative, the movement seeks to have "white supremacists" become the first to "return" to Europe. The next phase, the group advocates, should be a civilized negotiation to repatriate the remaining white population back into Europe, over the course of a few generations. Also to be addressed will be discussions of how Europe and European-descent people will collectively deliver reparations to the peoples of the Western Hemisphere.On its Website, the movement states that" Europeans have a homeland: EUROPE. We are only asking unwelcomed guests (racists) to leave our home. These racist Europeans have a home to go to. The non-racists can be part of a transition to our full independence, it's not as if Europeans are being asked to go into the Atlantic Ocean. They have a beautiful home called Europe."
Criticism
The Conservative Voice and WorldNetDailyWorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily is an American web site that publishes news and associated content from a U.S. conservative perspective. It was founded in May 1997 by Joseph Farah with the stated intent of "exposing wrongdoing, corruption and abuse of power" and is headquartered in Washington, D.C.-History:In...
have both done critical articles on the organization.
WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily is an American web site that publishes news and associated content from a U.S. conservative perspective. It was founded in May 1997 by Joseph Farah with the stated intent of "exposing wrongdoing, corruption and abuse of power" and is headquartered in Washington, D.C.-History:In...
characterizes the Mexica Movement as being a radical group with "activists calling for the expulsion of most U.S. citizens from their own country." WorldNetDaily claims the Mexica Movement wants to "expel the invaders of the last 500 years".
On the May 1, 2007 edition of his CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
television program, Glenn Beck
Glenn Beck
Glenn Edward Lee Beck is an American conservative radio host, vlogger, author, entrepreneur, political commentator and former television host. He hosts the Glenn Beck Program, a nationally syndicated talk-radio show that airs throughout the United States on Premiere Radio Networks...
labeled the Mexica Movement as a racist group for their alleged desire to exclude all Americans of European descent from the North American continent.