The beauty of our democracy remains firmly planted in our belief that we have freedom of speech and the right to peaceably assemble.
How we exercise those rights has been the defining issue of our ever changing experiment. One of the founding fathers, James Madison, described it as self-government by and for the people.
Pero, before we continue, let's first put this Chicano's rant in its proper perspective ese.
You may be disgusted at our flailing individual freedoms and unabated power of the super-rich.
Yeah, we have that burden to bear as voters. It's not easy fighting for our freedoms - internally - when money dictates most decisions. But it's worse elsewhere! Look at what's going on across the frontera in Mexico and their self-governing experiment.
Last Sunday's general election in Mexico, the people voted overwhelmingly for its first female Presidenta. A country where many of our familias were born and whose children came or were born aqui en este lado (this side of the border). Nationwide some 2,000 political posts in Mexico were filled by anxious and thoughtful politicians seeking votes and claiming to make change. So, what's the big deal, you ask?
The election, historic as it is, was not so simple. Slayings of at least 30 candidates nationwide have provided a chilling backdrop to Mexico’s elections. Criminal gangs seeking to expand control in states where cartels already wreak havoc. Politicians have to be with them or else!
Mexico's new Presidenta Claudia Sheinbaum, has her work cut out, as public safety is the primary concern for most Mexicanos. According to researchers, there have been 560 victims of political violence as of May 1st this year — compared with 389 victims during the 2017-18 campaign and 299 in the 2020-21 midterms.
The current campaign season was the most violent in modern Mexican history when also taking into account threats, disappearances, kidnappings and other acts of intimidation — against not only office seekers, but also current and former public officials and “collateral” victims such as family members.
We should be thankful that our bizarro political arena, hasn't disintegrated to such violence and criminal subterfuge...yet! Pues, maybe it has, but that is a topic for another mezcal drinking day.
Fortunately, our nation's political forefathers sought to ensure our freedoms in the constitution.
We know them as, The United States Bill of Rights. Ten amendments were ratified by three-quarters of the states in 1791.
Pero, we'll only only talk about the first one. We think it's important to note that it was made the first amendment for a reason. Porque, free speech and protest matters!
1st Amendment - Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
This nation has a history of protesting that supports our freedom to speak our mind, peacefully assemble and shout out proudly our grievances. In fact, even before we became a nation, the colonists were the first to protest. The Boston Tea Party was a political protest that occurred on December 16, 1773.
American colonists, led by Samuel Adams (simon, the beer drinker) frustrated and angry at Britain for imposing “taxation without representation,” dumped 342 chests of tea, imported by the British East India Company into the harbor.
The event was the first major act of defiance to British rule over the colonists. It showed Great Britain that Americans would not tolerate taxation and tyranny sitting down, and rallied American patriots across the 13 colonies to fight for independence.
The newly formed national leaders knew the rights of private citizens were very important to those who had just fought the British and won independence for the American colonies. Their experience with the British king and Parliament had made them wary of creating a new government where power was not held in check. That is where the Bill of Rights was born.
The founders of this country were determined to protect the rights of the individual against authority. Excluding, of course, women, slaves, indentured servants and indigenous peoples.
Yeah, ese, that's also another story!
However, our history of protesting in the United States, didn't exclude anyone. The government reactions to protestors may have been reactionary, ugly and sometimes violent, but it couldn't stop Americans of all nationalities from exercising their right to assemble and voice collective dissatisfaction from our nations beginnings to today.
Here are the facts about our love of protest:
The American labor movement goes back to the 1800s when the industrial revolution took hold, and factory jobs for skilled and unskilled laborers were plentiful but working conditions were terrible. The first recognized national labor organization was the Knights of Labor. The earliest recorded strike occurred in 1768 when New York journeymen tailors protested a wage reduction; likewise, The Railroad Strike of 1877 was a protest over reduced wages.
Beginning in the mid-19th century, several generations of Woman Suffrage Movement supporters lectured, wrote, marched, lobbied, and practiced civil disobedience to achieve what many Americans considered a radical change in the Constitution – guaranteeing women the right to vote. Wow, what a concept!
Passed by Congress June 4, 1919, and ratified on August 18, 1920, the 19th amendment granted women the right to vote.
The Lawrence Textile Strike, also known as the Bread and Roses Strike, was a strike of immigrant (Irish, Italian, German, Jewish and English) workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts.
It was led in 1912 by the Industrial Workers of the World. Unions became the face of demonstrations and protests during the industrial revolution.
Prompted by a two-hour pay cut corresponding to a new law shortening the workweek for women, the Bread and Roses strike spread rapidly through the town, growing to more than twenty thousand workers and involving nearly every mill in Lawrence.
Let's don't forget the largest gathering for civil rights of its time. An estimated 250,000 people attended the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963, arriving in Washington, D.C. by planes, trains, cars, and buses from all over the country.
Nor should we ignore our own Raza protest history. The 1968 East Los Angeles Student Walkouts protesting the lack of minority teachers and administrators at high schools primarily of Latino or Black students.
Or the 1970, Chicano Moratorium Against the War in Vietnam.
Native American Tribe protests included the Occupation of Alcatraz Island in 1970.
A 19-month long protest when 89 Native Americans and their supporters occupied Alcatraz Island.
The group lived on the island together until the protest was forcibly ended by the U.S. government.
But the tribes didn't back down!
They held protests at the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1972, the Occupation of Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Reservation in 1973.
And, on July 15, 1978, the “Longest Walk”—a 2,800-mile trek for Native American justice that had started with several hundred marchers in California—ended in Washington, D.C., accompanied by thousands of supporters.
Recent protest examples include, the 2011, Occupy Wall Street movement, which extended protest against economic inequality and the corruption of corporate law that began in New York City.
The demonstration marked the beginning of a new focus on wealth disparity in American politics, that led to other protests in other major cities.
There are many, many more examples of protest and strikes by all Americans since the birth of this nation. Yet today we find more examples by police, social media and government leaders bemoaning protests and strikes.
Remember the Black Lives Matter movement? It began with a social media hashtag of the same name, after the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin back in 2012.
The movement grew nationally in 2014 after the deaths of Michael Brown in Missouri and Eric Garner in New York. The movement spearheaded demonstrations worldwide protesting police brutality and systemic racism that overwhelmingly effects the Black community. Hence, the "Defund the Police," chants. Meaning, reduce and reallocate funds to non-policing forms of public safety and community support, such as social services, youth services, housing, education, healthcare and other community resources. But of course, that's not how it was interpreted by police advocates.
The political blow-back was made famous by counter-protesters slogan, "All live Matter," and "Blue Lives Matter."
Most social media discussions and government agency responses, were a mix of; protesting interferes with traffic, leads to violence; and therefore unlawful. Besides, protests don't change anything. Yet, our history of protesting has always continued unabated for a reason...it gets attention to issues, which sometimes gets results.
Today, we are seeing college students protesting on campus against the death and carnage in the Gaza region of the middle east. The administrative decision to remove the protesters by force from some universities was based on perceived "safety" concerns and potential classroom interference arguments.
These protests are not your grandparents protest experiences. They are just as important demonstrations against crimes of humanity but they are juvenile in comparison of historical examples.
College presidents who witnessed the massive, fiery student demonstrations of May 1970 — the peak month of antiwar protest in the Vietnam era — would have thanked their lucky stars if the protests on their campuses back then had been as nonviolent and tactically tame as they have most often been this past 2024 semester.
In 1970, the National Guard had been called out to quell student protests in 16 states, one of which was Ohio, yielding the Kent State massacre, in which guardsmen killed four unarmed students and wounded nine others at an antiwar protest.
At that time, Major antiwar demonstrations had spread to more than 1,300 campuses, mobilizing an estimated 4 million students, more than half the American college student population. This included 350 student boycotts of classes and shut down some 500 colleges and universities. The draft was still in affect nationwide, so it be that students didn't really want to vacation in Vietnam.
By contrast, the 2024 student protests have involved a mere 50 campuses, mobilizing student protesters in the hundreds rather than the thousands. There have been only a few building takeovers, limited use of civil disobedience and a complete absence of bombings and arson.
Yet police have been called in to suppress nonviolent encampments on such campuses as USC, UCLA, New York University, the University of Virginia, the University of Texas and Columbia University, with more than 2,600 arrests nationally.
While in the 1960s it usually took the takeover of university buildings, major property damage or violence to call in riot-clad police, in 2024, students have been arrested for minimally disruptive acts such as occupying outdoor campus spaces, such as lawns and plazas.
In our current world of technology and immense social media saturation. Are we on information overload or dumbing down to simple questions of, "Why are these people blocking the freeway? Blocking street intersections and the pathway to class? Why march against police who risk their lives daily? Why take over public parks, etc." Why? You ask. Because they are protesting pendejo!
Shouldn't we be asking the more critical question - WHY, are these people protesting?
As the 16th century writer, Shakespeare, said so eloquently, "Thou dost protest too loudly." Meaning, to express an opinion or fact so strongly or so often that people start to doubt that you are telling the truth or worse - they ignore you.
From Shakespeare we get a simple truth about protestors. They are routinely ignored, dismissed, and/or perceived as unruly agitators. It is neither wrong to demonstrate, strike, or march for your constitutional right to voice grievances, nor is it wrong for others to protest against the acts of protestors.
But what should never be tolerated are limits or restrictions to our ability to peacefully protest.
Our freedom of speech, our right to assemble and petition authority to fix some wrong is a constitutional guarantee all of us must cherish and support.
So when your watching the news and see a group creating peaceful havoc, smile ese! Regardless of your opinion, politics or dogma. Those protesters are reaffirming our fundamental freedoms, however convoluted or tattered YOU believe they be.
Freedoms are constantly threatened across our southern border resulting in the murder of activists and politicians that seek political change. Mexico's sad political circumstance - however hopeful we are for Presidenta Sheinbaum - reminds us to embrace our own American protestors right to speak out. Because you can be sure that you won't find a democracy like ours tolerated in totalitarian or communist regimes!
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