George Bush signed the US-Peru Free Trade Agreement today after the US Congress approval. Peruvian President Alan Garcia was there -unnecessary presence- and this video shows their unreal, cynical and fake speeches. For what is worth, the anti-FTA campaign has thought me that people everywhere are in danger, we are losing our civil rights over the interests of multinational corporations, power interests and politicians who don't represent their constituents anymore. Today was, no doubt about it, a tragic day for Peru's history and the beginning of a new struggle for the poor of my first country.
The majority of most recent immigrants in the United States are not Latinos nor Hispanics, as the U.S. government and corporate media are saying.
Most of usare Native Americans, we are indigenous peoples of this continent. Also a big number of newcomers are African descendants. Very few are Spaniards (Hispanics).
Photo by Carlos A. Quiroz
Update: the original video I posted here was deleted by Youtube.
Here is another of my video interviews. Here is the local D.C. Native leader Gaudencio Fernandez, born in Mexico and today a U.S. naturalized citizen. The video includes a poem and song by Native artist Rodrigo Sanchez-Chavarria:
The Amerindian numbers do not account for those who take a more activist approach toward filling out the census form. Carlos A. Quiroz, an activist and blogger born in Peru, checked off that he was a “Non-Hispanic” American Indian, a category normally associated with North American Indians. Mr. Quiroz said he selected it because he opposed use of the word “Hispanic” as an ethnic category.
“Hispanic is not a race, ” said Mr. Quiroz, whose ancestors were the Quechua people, of the Central Andes. “Hispanic is not a culture. Hispanic is an invention by some people who wanted to erase the identity of indigenous communities in America.”
“We don’t believe we have to accept this identity just because we speak Spanish,” Mr. Quiroz added.
Note that the NY Times keeps using the terms Hispanic and Indians to refer to our Natives peoples. I suspect is because corporate media in the U.S. follows terms set (imposed) by the Euro-centric U.S. government.
Finally, this video is very illustrating.
During a press conference in DC, I met Mayan teacher Marina Diaz who is based in New York and here she tells Janet Murguia, the National Council of La Raza's CEO, that we are Native peoples are not Latinos nor Hispanics.
I've been writing the bilingual blogPeruanista(in Spanish/English) for over a year now. During this time, I have been thinking about sharing my thoughts in other local blog about my life in Washington, DC. It makes sense, since I live here in the US and although English is my second language, but I definitely like writing in that language.
Update:
Carlos in DC is a personal blog that I started by December 2007. I wanted to write about my personal experiences living in Washington, D.C., about the city, its cultures, spaces, politics, arts and people.
With time, I realized that my blog should focus on the following:
As a migrant, I write about the impact of the U.S. government policies on the peoples of the Americas, policies created mostly in Washington, DC, especially immigration.
As a person of Native heritage, I write about Latinos in the U.S. who are mostly Indigenous and Afro descendants among other heritages.
As a gay Two-Spirit person, I blog also about LGBT rights in the U.S.
I started Carlos in DC in Wordpress on December 22, 2011 but I quickly moved it to Blogger.
I returned to Wordpress on December 2010, after my blog was deleted for 10 hours from Blogger.
By October 2011, again and finally I left Wordpress for good, and I'm here again with Blogger.
