El Plan Espiritual de Aztlán and ultimately the idea of Aztlán is a great nationalist ideology. The ability for a national movement to self identify its beliefs and pride is key to spark a revolution. However, in addressing Professor Cotera's challenge in lecture to analyze the implication of the El Plan Espiritual Aztlán, the ideology of Aztlán could not go any further than promoting self pride for Chicanos because Aztlán maps an imaginary homeland.
If the United States Federal Government were to acknowledge El Plan Espiritual de Aztlán, it would only define the Chicanos' ancestry. The plan does not challenge the Federal Government to give back any stolen or concurred land. The Plan's demand for the government to acknowledge Chicanos' indigenous root will only further perpetuate the inferior notion that Chicanos are not Americans and not equivalent to citizens.
I believe that El Plan Espiritual de Aztlán should have either went further to challenge the American Government of land rights (similar to what some Native American did within the Supreme Court) or emphasized that their heritage with the land should at least grant them equality with whites. Self pride may be essential to organize people but to claim change within a prejudice society it is necessary to organize and redefine the status quo!
4 comments:
I think that part of the Plan de Aztlan was to emphasize that they deserved equality as much as whites, except in a different manner. The only downside I saw was that the plan was too idealistic and less focused on achieving specific goals relevant to the community.
One interesting comparison is the similarities between El Plan de Aztlan and the Puerto Rican notion of Borinquen. Both had very idealized notions of what they wanted, yet neither were really in touch with reality and neither really focused improving their situation.
I agree. The plan was quite idealistic, but the movement of chicanos needed something solid to hold on to. This idea of Aztlan was a centralizing force in their battle for a place in the country that they were a part of (but were not given the same rights as whites in).
The concept of Aztlan is necessary because without it the cultural nationalism of the chicano movement wouldn't have been able to exist as strongly as it did.
I think that you make a good point, Marcus. It did seem like they were taking the wrong approach to an important movement that should have been organized and operated a little better than it was. Perhaps part of the reason why they tried to define their ancestral lands was because they were desperate for equality, but didn't know how to go about it. They were all probably disillusioned from all of the racism and prejudice and just didn't quite know how to translate their passion into a strong movement.
I firmly believe that a movement, if truly great and powerful, should accomplish something. The question remains of whether the Plan de Aztlan accomplished anything. I believe that being proud of oneself and one's origins is a wonderful thing. However, there is only so much that can be done before one ends his/her quest for pride and his quest become to alienate himself/herself from a larger population. I feel like that is what the movement became. And the sad thing to me is that in the long run, they really accomplished very little in the area of improving the quality of life for Latinas/os. Do not get me wrong, I believe that they had the best of intentions at the beginning of the movement. However, they seemed to have lost their way in violence towards others and the idea of separation from the rest of America.
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