Symbol and Essence: The Power of Naming

ANOTHER BLOG POST exclusive to MTV, as it is part of my Street Team 08 duties! This one delves more into one of my favorite paradigms, Symbol and Essence.

Words that came to me while thinking on our many forms of warring with the Other.

Crossposted at The Unapologetic Mexican, Culture Kitchen, and OpEdNews.

MTV Street Team '08 Reports on Super Tuesday

YOUR FAITHFUL OREGON representative for the MTV Street Team '08 (ahem, yours truly) is invisible on this day, because Oregon doesn't exist when it comes to Super Tuesday. But my Street Team peeps are LIVE on the scene in each Super Tuesday state.

It's a pretty cool idea, they'll be broadcasting live using cell phones, MTV News will be editing and playing pieces all day, and I believe so will MTV. As a point of interest in the current political climate, Califas is covered by Carl, a fantastic filmmaker and a real good guy, we chilled a bit during the MTV bootcamp training sesh I went to. Georgia is covered by the Shelbinator, a regular at Huffpost. NJ (Sia), NM (Christine), and NY (Sara) have some very talented (and hot) mamas reporting. Kyle, blogmigo from Citizen Orange is covering Massachusetts! I could go on. In fact, many of these people are very talented and doing deeds in many areas and states aside from the Street Team. After all, they won the chance to rep their state, and the whole process was grueling, as I can tell you. None have blogged on The Unapologetic Mexican, but hey, there's talent, and then there's plain ole fantasticality.

Click here or here to keep up with their feeds. Or turn on MTV on ya set and watch for spots occurring all day.

Crossposted to The Unapologetic Mexican, Corrente, Culture Kitchen, and OpEdNews.

A Taste of Mittocrisy

DEAR MISTER ROMNEY, I really appreciate your steadfast commitment to your faith. I've heard people choose these types of ideologies because it grounds a person in morality and integrity and human values. And of course I can admire that. With all the hate- and fear-mongering filling the public square today, I welcome men of your caliber.

I only have a small question. Given that a central tenet of Mormonism is that the Indians of the Americas are descended from the Lost Tribes of Israel, how do you reconcile your current anti-immigrant stance with the fact that Mexicans are descended, too, from these same people? How do your actions fit into the theological framework now that you are the one trying to stop them from wandering?

and furthermore—

DALLAS - Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is Mexican on his father’s side, reports Diario La Estrella. George Romney was born in Galeana in the Mexican state of Chihuahua in 1907. The history of Mormons in Utah and Mexico is inextricably linked, Diario La Estrella reports. In the 1880s, when Utah was petitioning to be a U.S. state, polygamy was practiced by some Mormons there, which went against American law. Those who practiced polygamy sought sanctuary in Chihuahua, Mexico and founded a colony there. By 1910, there were 4,000 Mormons in Mexico. During the Mexican Revolution, guerrilla groups attacked the Mormons, forcing them to send their children to Utah. George Romney, Mitt Romney’s father, was one of these children.

—Mitt Romney’s Mexican Heritage

Wait a Minute Mitt Romney has Mexican Roots?

An article posted on AlterNet reveals Mitt’s Mexican connection.

Mitt Romney’s father George was born in Chihuahua, Mexico in 1907, the son of Gaskell Romney and Anna Amelia Pratt. Three generations of Romneys lived in Mexico because Miles Park Romney, a polygamist, moved the family there in 1884 as it became increasingly clear that the U.S. government would not tolerate polygamy in the Utah Territory. The 1882 Edmunds Act stripped polygamists of the basic rights of U.S. citizenship, denying them the right to vote, serve on juries or hold office. Not dissimilar to current immigration raids, U.S. federal agents hunted and arrested polygamists. Polygamists were forced to leave the country or risk jail.

Mitt’s grandparent’s crossed back into the U.S. during the Mexican Revolution. But that hasn’t made this candidate any softer on the immigration issue.

Source : AlterNet

Damn. And all this time, you been hidin' ya raza under a bushel??? Dunno, Mittski! Maybe you and Jessica Alba, and Malkin, and Tancredo all oughtta get together. Self-Loathers and Self-Deniers for a Confused Country Coalition, seeking to sublimate the locking down and locking up and interment and eradication of all demons you refuse to see within yourselves. Just a thought.

Or you can continue (what we must by now call) "Republican Repression-Projection Politics."

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Crossposted at The Unapologetic Mexican, Culture Kitchen, and Corrente.