UNA
PALOMA BLANCA
by:
f. g. loprlato y lopez
The prospects for quickly climbing out of the economic crisis in which
we find ourselves are not very promising, but we can and we will do it.
All we need is leadership that understands New Mexico and New Mexicans
..
Diane Denish, slated to be our first woman governer. and first to choose
her own second in command, is off to an excellent start, by surrounding
herself with peep Ie who do not think that New Mexico is a newly conquered
foreign country and do not act as if they are an occupying force.
History, indeed repeats itself. Scholars of authentic New Mexico's past
wi!! hate the similarities between the state's populace today and the populace
of our state in the 1900's in relation to today's incursions from
other states and the role played by the Italian community in forming
a bridge between the American and the New Mexican cultures, and the New
New Mexicans, such as, soon to be, Governor Denish, and her expressed desire
to have more of the same in dignified positions of trust, and respect in
state government
The Land Of Enchantment's
beautiful sand dimes are now covered over with a thick growth of imported
Politica! Climbing Ivy that has been too long neurished with the bovine
droppings from Texas, and (now) other states, whether it fits or not. It
is about time that a New Mexican Woman restore New Mexico's true decor.
Do you, dear reader, know that, in the Navajo culture a girl could not
get married until she had demonstrated to the women of the tribe, her abilities
to make use of every part of a sheep,' seasoned with everything that can
be found in the desert within walking distance of her hegan ? (including
the wood used for cooking.)
That chapter in the history of our state, apparently, capitulated to the
modernization. of education. think of that next time you see young Navajo
girl approach a sheep, as if she has never seen one before and is afraid
te do so. ! have. Just as I have seen modern Navajo girls go to special
schools to learn the are of weaving, intrigued with the knowledge of where
the yarn that they are came from and the precesses that the yarn under
went to get to that point and it isn't even a rug with the traditional
designs yet.
Of course the world is not going to end because a few Navajo girls have
left the way of the Dine. Those same girls can and will teach you some
tricks you can use in the use of computers, nursing, busness, and a host
of other things. this is only to iIIustrate that knowledge is accumulative.
Education places you in the present, knowledge is awareness what you are
because of your heritage.
When you approach "book Learning" you bring all you are; your entire potential,
Not just what you would like to be or what you think you are but the potential
to become whatever it is that you are going to attempt to be.
Your culture and
heritage mold your potential, and awareness of this is knowledge. To leave
your past behind and forget about it is to disown part of yourself. if
you then attempt to live a complete life as an incomplete human being is
possible but not very likely, certainly a lot more difficult. You can't
easily do it as an individual, and neither can New Mexico do it without
involving all that New Mexice has been and is at this present time in history.
In other words, it is up to us to mold the New Mexico of the future ..
Is it going to remain stunted by handicaps because outside influences devalue
your worth to appear indispensable
The
Navajos are not the only New Mexicans who have played a significant
part in the making of this state. Other tribes and other Pueblos have helped
as have the Spanish, the Mexican, and Anglos. Not to mention Jews, Arabs,
Orientals, Blacks, Greeks, !talians, and more. It is oniy lately that I
have need to inform the younger set, as well as new comers, and to remind
people .. such as Fernando C De Vaca, former County Chairman of the GOP,
that if it had been left to anyone of these single groups, New Mexice would
not have progressed AND regressed as dynamically as it has the Civil War
era.
No ethnic group, anywhere, is completely free of it's trouble makers and
muck rakers, and you can be sure that because of these few misfits, an
entire group can and have been cendemned, because ignorance thrives
in an atmosphere of suspicion
The mind is the most wonderful thing in creatian. It controls everything,
your breathing, temperature, voluntary and involuntary systems and all
that
is you. From your
first heart-beat to your last sigh. But as wonderful as it is, the mind
is, it's subconscious part is incapable of reasoning, discerning. and .judgment.
Further more, It is amenable to sugges tioo. and always accepts the dominant
of two suggestions. Suggestion 1 subconsciously accepted authority
figure suggests that a person, place, thing conditien or state exists.
It becomes real, whether it really exists or not. We've all seen hypnotized
people, and see fanaticism of every type in our daily lives. All these
methods will be discussed in future editions of The Wopajo , stay
tuned. ASI ES NUEVO MEJICO, LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT!
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