By: David Conde

One of the significant outcomes for Putin in his war on Ukraine are the heavy losses in the field and the reversal of his vision for his enemy to be absorbed into the greater politic of the Russian State. Unable to achieve a quick win or any win at all, the dictator is resorting to desperate measures by destroying whole cities and killing civilians in large numbers.

This is World War II all over again in that part of Eastern Europe in a losing cause. Russia is doing what Nazi Germany did to the same region and the world beginning 83 years ago also in a losing cause. The attack on a Woman’s right to choose has many of the same characteristics as the United State Supreme Court has joined the fight to do violence to what most of the Justices had said was settled law. In 1973 the same court said that “the Constitution of the United States protects a woman’s liberty to choose to have an abortion without excessive government restriction.”

Evidently, the notion of precedent in interpreting the Constitution now has less value than it used to have. I know the LGBTQ community is very nervous about their recently won rights to marry and be treated as every other American.

Women’s rights issues are much bigger than any other kind for demographic reasons and more importantly, because of the fact that it is a male-female thing. This set of opposites cannot really be reconciled because they are the ultimate psychological and cultural adversaries in any power structure.

The final resolution of that dynamic will come from women taking policy-making power and dictating a new set of rules by which we should live. In our modern democratic society, this is a matter of political will because the numbers are there.

As a Latino, I see this overreach by the Supreme Court as a step that could lead to more bad things for the community. A prime example of this is the Governor of Texas Greg Abbott’s effort to initiate an effort to deny an education to a large number of students from immigrant families in that state.

Decades ago (1982), in a case known as Plyler v. Doe, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Texas law that denied undocumented students admission to public schools. The Court found that the Texas law violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.

That was the same clause used to rule on the 1954 Brown v. Topeka Board of Education case that abolished segregated schools and declared that “separate but equal facilities for Whites and African American students were inherently unequal.”

However, Governor Abbott is emboldened by the change in stance of the Supreme Court on Roe v. Wade and is poised to try again to deny an education to students from Latino immigrant families. The feeling seems to be that even the 1954 decision of Brown v. Board of Education may not be settled law.

Early in my career, I carried with me the transcript of court testimony by Jose Angel Cardenas the then superintendent of a San Antonio School District that endeavored to prove the gross shortcomings of school finance in poor Texas school systems. At that time, Dr. Cardenas provided Mexican Americans another tool to challenge the condition of education in their communities.

The tools to challenge discrimination are still available to us. They can be a defense against a desperate people.

Por: David Conde

Recently, I visited Mexico and traveled into Mexico City from the south. To get to my destination downtown we drove on 20 de Noviembre Street. Driving on that street brought back memories of a variety of history book passages that cite Francisco I. Madero’s manifesto published on October 5, 1910 in San Antonio, 7 regarding non recognition of President Porfirio Diaz’ reelection and calling for the Mexican people to rise in rebellion on the 20th of November. That is the official day that celebrates the Mexican Revolution of 1910.
Later I took a walk down another street, Cinco de Mayo, that now forms an important part of the shopping venue in the city’s historic district. Cinco de Mayo (May 5th) celebrates an 1862 battle and victory of a small Mestizo and Zapotec force over the French Army that was intent on creating an empire on Latin American soil.

That battle represented a bright light of hope in the middle of an overwhelming invasion that later installed Maximilian of Hapsburg as Emperor of Mexico. The spirit of Cinco de Mayo however, did help President Benito Juarez organize a defense that successfully retook the country 5 years later and depose the usurper.
Cinco de Mayo mostly came to the United States in the form of General Ignacio Zaragoza, the hero of the May 5th Puebla battle where he defeated a French army 11 times the size of his. It helped that he was born in Presidio-La Bahia in what is today Goliad, Texas near Corpus Christi.
Subsequently, Zaragoza Halls began to spring up in the American Southwest and where Mexican immigrants came to live. One such hall is located in Pueblo, Colorado.
Attendance at a Cinco de Mayo ceremony in the hall during the era of the Chicano Movement inspired the notion that Cinco de Mayo had a lot in common with the Movement’s struggle for freedom and justice. That led to adoption of the date by activists in the area.
One hundred and ten years after the battle in Puebla, Mexico, the Chicano commemoration of Cinco de Mayo was born and celebrated by 25,000 people in Zapata Park in Pueblo, Colorado. One hundred and eight organizations in Southern Colorado had come together to create activities that included a pancake breakfast in Downtown Pueblo, a parade and several cultural events that culminated with the large gathering at the park.
The organizers of the first celebration also brought people to the 4-H Pavilion in the Colorado State Fairgrounds for a dance featuring Al Hurricane, the godfather of New Mexico music, that played to an audience of 2,500. It was an unforgettable experience to see Al Hurricane Sanchez and his brothers Tiny Morrie and Baby Gaby perform the Nuevo Mexicano music we all love.

Once Cinco de Mayo became a Chicano event, it developed into a staple of Spring celebrations in cities across in the Southwest and the country. Also, in the first years of the event, businesses took notice and offered Cinco de Mayo sales as part of the week.
In the decades that followed, Cinco de Mayo festivals have become part of the national calendar. Beer and media companies also have converted into major sponsors and advertisers of the events.
Although the Chicano version of Cinco de Mayo has lost much of its political meaning, it nevertheless provided another step in the recognition of the Latino community as a major influence in the affairs of the country.
Please stay safe at the NEWSED’S Cinco de Mayo Festival at Denver’s Civic Center Park this coming weekend.