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To see a list of academic sources used by Nican Tlaca University of Cemanahuac (NTUC), visit:

http://nicantlacauniversity.blogspot.com/2013/11/academic-origins-of-major-ideas-with.html

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To see a list of academic sources used by NTUC, visit:
http://nicantlacauniversity.blogspot.com/2013/11/academic-origins-of-major-ideas-with.html

Academic Origins of Major Ideas (with academic citations)

Academic Origins of Major Ideas

(with academic citations)

This list shows that many important concepts can be traced back with academic references.

Nican Tlaca:

The term Nican Tlaca has been a part of the historical record for nearly 500 years.

The term Nican Tlaca can be definitively shown to have originated around the mid-1500's and was used well into the 1600's. No individual can be identified as its originator. The term seems to have originated as a way to differentiate Indigenous People from Spaniards/Europeans.  In 1992, with the publication of The Nahuas After the Conquest, James Lockhart re-introduced the term via scholarship and affirmed it as being synonymous with “indigenous people”. Thereafter, the term has been adopted by other people (e.g. Mexica Movement, Nican Tlaca Voices Radio Show, Nican Tlaca metal-music band, Nican Tlaca University of Cemanahuac) and applied towards different purposes.

Below are the earliest academic sources in which we find the term Nican Tlaca.

1. Florentine Codex, Chapter 12 (mid-1500s A.D.)

Chapter Twelve of The Florentine Codex documents dialogue exchanges between colonizing Spaniards and the Indigenous people they encountered in Central Mexico. The term Nican Tlaca appears along with other terms like Nican tlalli (“the land here”) and Nican Mexico (“Mexico here”).

The term also show up in Sahagun's Primeros Memoriales as well as numerous colonial documents (e.g. wills, testaments, chronicles, etc.)

2. James Lockhart (1992)

On page 641 of his book The Nahuas After the Conquest: A Social and Cultural History of the Indians of Central Mexico, Sixteenth Through Eighteenth Centuries, historian James Lockhart acknowledges that Nican Tlaca is a “term for indigenous people” (Lockhart, 1992, p. 641).

 

A small segment from page 641 of James Lockhart's 1992 book showing Nican Tlaca as being equated with a “term for indigenous people”. (Lockart would assert the same meaning to Nican Tlaca in his next book in 1993).

Lockhart observes through archival documents that most colonized Indigenous people did not adopt the term indio, but rather, opted for alternative terms like Nican Titlaca, Nican Tlaca, or Nican Itoca in order to express their identity (Lockhart, 1992, p. 115). Lockhart fails to explain the etymological connection between Nican Titlaca and Nican Tlaca, although it is clear that the two terms are related and represent an evolving use throughout early Colonial Mexico.

Furthermore, another term – macehualli – was also a stand-in term meaning “the people” or “the common people”, in contradistinction to “nobles” (Lockhart, 1992, p. 115).

Lockhart states an important difference between Nican Tlaca and Macehualli (or macehualtin, plural) is that, “The collective machehualtin was more neutral”, as opposed to the more personal and conscious term Nican Tlaca (Lockhart, 1992, p. 116).

But the term Nican Tlaca is problematic if it is taken to mean “we people here”, since that meaning would be more accurately assigned to the term Nican Titlaca. Linguistically speaking, it appears that the term Nican Titlaca is the original term, from which Nican Tlaca was derived, either by social convention or some unknown decision by elites.

It would seem then, that Nican Titlaca is the more “etymologically / grammatically correct” term for expressing personal-possessive identity, even though “linguistic evolution” morphed the term into Nican Tlaca.

 


3. James Lockhart (1993)

On page 331 of his book We People Here: Nahuatl Accounts of the Conquest of Mexico, historian James Lockhart acknowledges that Nican Tlaca is a “term for indigenous people” (Lockhart, 1993, p. 331).

Seen above: a small segment from page 331 of James Lockhart's 1993 book showing Nican Tlaca as being equated with a “term for indigenous people”.

On page iv of his book, Lockhart prefaces the historical dialogues in his book with some examples of how Nican Tlaca – and some interesting variations/transpositions of the term – are found within Chapter Twelve of The Florentine Codex (Lockhart, p. iv, 1993).

Lockhart's book specifically examines Chapter Twelve of The Florentine Codex, a 16th-century Spanish ethnography.

The term Nican Tlaca has been a part of the historical record for nearly 500 years.

4. John F. Schwaller (1993)

In his 1993 academic peer review of James Lockhart's book The Nahuas After the Conquest: A Social and Cultural History of the Indians of Central Mexico, Sixteenth through Eighteenth Centuries., Schwaller addresses the 16^th century origins of the term Nican Tlaca:

“Likewise the natives did not call themselves Indians, and in fact it was not until nearly a half century after the conquest that any term arose to describe the natives to themselves, usually appearing as Nican Tlaca [emphasis added]” (Schwaller, 1993, p. 762).

5. Stafford Poole (1995)

In his book Our Lady of Guadalupe: The Origins and Sources of a Mexican National Symbol 1531-1797, historian Stafford Poole notes that the term Nican Tlaca was being used well into the 1600s. In particular, the term shows up in a written account of "Indian miracles" claimed to come from "The Virgin":

"The story of the Indian miraculously restored to life at the time of the dedication parade contains no Spanish loan words and uses the older term nican tlaca for natives (Poole, 1995, p. 122).

(Note: Poole's book deals with "La Virgen de Tepeyac" and debunks the entire "Juan Diego appearance" story by showing how no official records exist for the story with the local Catholic Bishop during the years the event was claimed to occur.)
 
Also in 1995, in his review of James Lockhart's book We People Here: Nahuatl Accounts of the Conquest of Mexico, Poole makes a reference to the usage of the term Nican Tlaca:

“The "people here" (nican tlaca) also showed relatively little interest in the Spaniards as such” (Poole, 1995, p. 225).

6. Susan M. Steele (1976)

A linguist by training, Steele translates what she calls “Classical Aztec” language. Among her many translations is the term Nican Tlaca which she translates quite literally as “here people” (Steele, p. 44, 1976).

While Steele's examination of the term predates James Lockhart by almost twenty years, it lacks Lockhart's more specific definition of the term to mean “Indigenous people”.

Still, Steele's article implies that she sees Nican Tlaca as a reference to Nahua peoples who speak “Classical Aztec” (as opposed to Spaniards/Castillians).

7. Jack Forbes (1973)

Although he did not use the term Nican Tlaca, Forbes used an equivalent term – Anishinabe – to describe Indigenous people across the continent – in particular, Mexicans who were the subject of his book, Aztecas del Norte: The Chicanos of Aztlan (Forbes, 1973, p. 13). The term Anishinabe was a precursor to the later notion of an inclusive, pan-Indigenous term like Nican Tlaca.

Forbes states that at that time, Mexicans as a group “compose the largest single nation of Anishinabeg (Indians) found in the United States today” (Forbes, 1973, p. 13).

8. Susan Schroeder (2010)

Describing the Colonial-era historian Chimalpahin in The Conquest All Over Again: Nahuas and Zapotecs, Thinking, Writing, and Painting Spanish Colonialism, Susan Schroeder remarks about him being "an ardent Nahua paisan" and that:

"...here we have a genuine, almost unique, display of pan-Indianism that is nontypical of the micropatriotism [emphasis added] always attributed to Mesoamerican ethnic societies. This, of course, could be a reflection of the seventeenth-century colonial nican titlaca (we people here) phenomenon..." (Schroeder, 2010, p. 117).

9. Louise A. Breen (2012)

In a recent book titled Converging worlds: communities and cultures in colonial America, the following statement re-confirms the use of nican tlaca an an identity label:

The term "Indian" used in Spanish documents usually refers to naturales (natives) of the New World. In the indigenous Nahuatl-language documents of Mesoamerica the native authors refer to themselves as nican tlaca, or "here people" (Breen,  2012, p. 83).

Mexica

The name Mexica can be traced back to The Letters of Hernan Cortes, which were correspondences from the Spanish invader of Mexico to King Charles V back in Europe. The historical consensus is that the name Mexica is much older, and describes the people who are commonly called Aztecs.

The term can also be found within The Florentine Codex from the mid-1500s. 

“Mexica As An Identity For Mexicans”

E. Cardoza Orozoco (1966) / Jack Forbes (1973)

In his 1973 book Aztecas del Norte: The Chicanos of Aztlan, historian Jack D. Forbes makes the case for using the term Mexica as an Indigenous affirmation (and replacement term) people of “Mexican-American” and “Chicano” descent.

But the argument for the usage of “Mexica as an identity” is even older than that. Forbes' book cites an 1966 pamphlet entitled Mexica: An Identity For Mexican-Americans, written by E. Cardoza Orozoco.

Orozoco states that, “Most persons of Mexican ancestry are mixed bloods of predominantly 'Indian' descent [emphasis added]” (Forbes, 1973, p. 168). His reasoning for the Indigenous term Mexica is that it will remove the semantic oppression of imposing foreignness upon Mexicans:

“Nobody listens to a foreigner or a second-class citizen. Persons of Mexican ancestry are relegating themselves to a second-class status by hyphenation...”

to which he proposes the following solution:

“In order to abolish this second-class position, this total foreignness, this difference between the minority group and the majority, a term has been coined by several persons of Mexican ancestry. This term is MESHICA and is also spelled MEXICA” (Forbes, 1973, pp. 170-171).

“Mestizo as a European colonial identity”

1. Jack Forbes (1973)

The idea that the term mestizo is a European-colonial identity can be traced back to Jack. D. Forbes' seminal work Aztecas del Norte: The Chicanos of Aztlan.

Specifically, Forbes wrote a section entitled “The Mestizo Concept: A Product of European Imperialism” wherein he explains that, “The Mexicans and Chicanos of today are perhaps eighty percent native Anishinabe descent” and that “Mexicans and Chicanos possess far greater continuity with their native past than do the Spaniards” (Forbes, 1973, p. 188).

Forbes proceeds to shrewdly dissect the mixed-heritage of Europeans in a section named “Mestizo Peoples Who Are Not Mestizo”. He points out how,

“Racially, the modern Spaniard probably carries relatively few indigenous genes, the latter having been greatly overwhelmed by Carthaginian, Celtic, Latin-Roman, Germanic, Arab, Moorish, Berber, Jewish, black African, and Gitano intermixture. In both a racial and culture sense, then, the Spaniard is profoundly a mestizo” (Forbes, 1973, p. 180).

In summary, Forbes states that:

“The mestizo concept, as used by the Spaniards, by white ruling cliques, and by social scientists, is an anti-Indian, psychologically paralyzing tool of colonialism” (Forbes, 1973, p. 204).

2. Guillermo Bonfil Batalla (1996)

Quotes from Guillermo Bonfil Batalla's book, Mexico Profundo: Reclaiming A Civilization:

“Mestizos are the contingent of the 'de-Indianized' Indians” (Batalla, 1996, p.17).

and

“Traditional campesinos do not think of themselves as Indians, even though their culture is predominantly Indian” (Batalla, 1996, p.58).

“6,000 years of civilization”

Based on an archeological study by Haas, Creamer, and Ruiz (2004), the oldest radiocarbon dates with communal architecture date back to 3720 B.C., at the Porvenir site in the Fortaleza Valley of Peru (Haas, Creamer, and Ruiz, 2004, p. 13).

This effectively places the earliest civilizations of the hemisphere at 6,000 years old.

“4,300 years of civilization”

In his classic work Mexico: From The Olmecs to the Aztecs, world-renowned archeologist-historian Michael D. Coe points out that the true starting point of civilization lies in the abundant production of ceramics, which he calls “that index fossil of fully sedentary life” (Coe, 1994, p. 38).

It was during the “Purron phase” (2300-1500 BC) that radiocarbon dates identify a definite transition into urban life. This is not to say that no pottery existed prior to this period, but that its regular production during the Purron period indicates that sedentary life was an established way of life.

An argument could also be made that the starting point of “civilization in Ancient Mexico” begins even earlier – during the Abejas phase (c. 3400-2300 BC) – given a patterned appearance of “small hamlets of five to ten pithouses” composed of small farming populations. Coe states that this phase demonstrates how “sedentism was gradually replacing nomadism” (Coe, 1994, p. 38). Based on this perspective of nascent urbanism, a phrase like “5,400 years of civilization” might well be justified.

(It should be noted that this is the very method used to date the earliest beginnings of Minoan civilization, and in so doing, the beginnings of an allegedly "Greek" civilization).

“Supe Valley as the oldest area of civilization”

1. Charles C. Mann (2009)

In his book Before Columbus: The Americas of 1491, author Charles C. Mann states that, “Radiocarbon dating showed that Caral was founded before 2600 B.C. The history books would have to be rewritten” (Mann, 2009, p. 7).

“Huaricanga as the oldest site”

1. Charles C. Mann (2009)

In his book Before Columbus: The Americas of 1491, author Charles C. Mann states that, “Several of these sites were older than Caral. One with pyramids, Huaricanga, dates from about 3500 BC. It is currently the oldest known American city” (Mann, 2009, p. 7).

“racial and cultural castration”

1. Jack D. Forbes (1973)

In his work Aztecas del Norte: The Chicanos of Aztlan, Forbes makes reference to the psychological poison caused by colonialism:

“The oppressed peoples of the world are struggling to liberate themselves from both the material and psychological forces of imperialism...Many people are castrated by feelings of racial and cultural inferiority implanted by European colonists and their neocolonist successors” (Forbes, 1973, p. 204).

“75 to 100 million killed by Europeans”

David Stannard (1996)

In American Holocaust (1996), David Stannard states estimates on the number of Indigenous peoples killed as a result of Europeans. On the original Indigenous population, Stannard states that,

“Today, few serious students on the subject would put the hemispheric figure at less than 75,000,000 to 100,000,000” (Stannard, 1996, p. 11).

and in addition,

“...the total extermination of many American Indian peoples and the near-extermination of others, in numbers that totaled close to 100,000,000” (Stannard, 1996, p. 151).

“350,000 inhabitants in Tenochtitlan”

1. David Stannard (1992)

In American Holocaust (1996), David Stannard estimates the pre-genocide population of the capital city of the Mexica ("Aztecs") :

 

“With a conventionally estimated population of 350,000 residents by the end of the fiteenth century, this teeming Aztec city already had at least five times the population of either London or Seville, and was vastly larger than any other European city” (Stannard, 1992, pp. 3-4).

“smallpox as a genocidal tool of Europeans”

1. James Blaut (1993)

From Blaut's book The Colonizer's Model of the World: Geographic Diffusionism and Eurocentric Theory:

“The relatively minor difference in technology between the two communities [Indigenous vs. Europeans] , and the impact of Eastern Hemisphere diseases upon Western Hemisphere communities, can be explained in terms of the settlement history of the Western Hemisphere and its consequences. The Americas were not conquered; they were infected [emphasis added]” (Blaut, 1993, p 186).

2. Ward Churchill (1997)

In his book A Little Matter of Genocide, Ward Churchill states that smallpox was consciously used by Europeans as a weapon of war:

“...it is at best an absurdity to contend that attrition through disease represents anything approximating a 'benign' explanation for the complete extermination of numerous North American native peoples – or the near-total disappearance of the 'race' as a whole – between 1600 and 1900. To the contrary, based on evidence the presumption should be... that the waves of epidemic disease that afflicted indigenous populations during these centuries were deliberately induced, or at least facilitated, by European invaders” (Churchill, 1997, p. 156).

 

3. Ronald Wright (1992)

In his book Stolen Continents, Wright provides a quote by Spaniard Francisco de Aguilar welcoming the onslaught of smallpox against Indigenous people:

“And when the Christians were exhausted from war, God saw fit to send the Indians smallpox” (Wright, 1992, p. 44).

inventions and achievements

See the excellent book American Indian Contributions to the World for an encyclopedic treatment of Indigenous inventions.

compulsory education of the “Aztecs”

Jacques Soustelle (1962)

In his seminal work Daily Life of the Aztecs, Soustelle explains that in terms of education:

“It is well worth noting that in that age and upon that continent an American native race practiced compulsory education for all and that Mexican child of the sixteenth century, whatever his social origin, was deprived of schooling” (Soustelle, 1962, p. 173).

"Anahuac" as a nation
1. Guillermo Bonfil Batalla (1996)

In his book Mexico Profundo: Reclaiming A Civilization, Guillermo Bonfil Batalla suggests that the creation of the modern area of "Mexico"  -- via so-called "Independence" in 1821 -- could also be equated with an enlarged concept of Anahuac:

" Independence created a new sociopolitical entity, Mexico, or "Anahuac", as was suggested at one point" (Batalla, 1996, p.97).

The original use of Anahuac applied mainly to the Anahuac Valley. Most scholars interpret the meaning of Anahuac to be something like "The land near the waters" or "the land in between the waters".

When "Mexico" achieved formal "independence" from Spain in 1821, its territory extended from modern-day Mexico to the far north in the "U.S. Southwest"... far beyond the original conception of Anahuac in its earlier form.

In fact, this version of Anahuac would encompass the majority of "North America".

“Cemanahuac”

From "A Hill on a Land Surrounded by Water: An Aztec Story of Origin and Destiny" by Wayne Elzey:

“The surface of the earth, Cemanahuac, meant "land surrounded by water...Cemanahuac was the model for all centers established on it, and each of these centers was a world in miniature, enclosing and enclosed by other, structurally similar centers” (Elzey, 1991, p. 128).

“Ometeotl has many manifestations”

1. Jack D. Forbes (1973)

Quotes from Forbes' book Aztecas del Norte: The Chicanos of Aztlan:

“Ometeotl is known by many other names, such as Tonantzin... and Tlazolteotl” (Forbes, 1973, p. 56).

and

“We can summarize the [ancient] Mexican concept of The Ultimate Reality by saying that it is a great, creative, active, force or power possessing the quality of self-creation” and that with its Masculine and Feminine qualities, “it can give birth to 'thoughts' which are cosmic forces (sometimes described as 'lesser gods') and to 'thoughts' which are visible things that we call the earth, matter, living things, and so on” (Forbes, 1973, p. 56).

2. Roberta H. Markman and Peter T. Markman (1992)

In their work The Flayed God, the Markmans explain “Mesoamerican religion”:

“The vast complexity becomes profound simplicity when we realize that for the seers of Mesoamerica who elaborated this marvelous system, all observed reality, all the gods and spiritual forces, are finally manifestations on various planes of 'reality' of the unitary essence of all being that is complete and of itself” (Markman and Markman, 1992, pp. 61-62).

The need for an Indigenous University

1. Jack D. Forbes (1973)

In a section of his book Aztecas del Norte: The Chicanos of Aztlan (in a section titled “Every People Needs Its University”, Jack D. Forbes states that:

“History has shown that every race or nation of people needs it own center for intellectual and artistic development, its own university, its own center for assisting in the self-realization of its entire people” (Forbes, 1973, p. 245)

and

“Our noble heritages are as great as any other on the face of the earth. We do not have to prove that they are worthy of “preservation” (Forbes, 1973, p. 246).

 Works Cited

Batalla, G., & Dennis, P. A. (1996). México profundo: reclaiming a civilization. Austin: University of Texas Press.

Blaut, J. M. (1993). The colonizer's model of the world: geographical diffusionism and Eurocentric history. New York: Guilford Press.

Churchill, W. (1997). A little matter of genocide: holocaust and denial in the Americas, 1492 to the present. San Francisco: City Lights Books.

Coe, M. D. (1994). Mexico: From the Olmecs to the Aztecs. (4:e upplagan. ed.). London: Thames and Hudson.

Cortes, H., & Pagden, A. (2001). Hernan Cortes - Letters from Mexico. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Dibble, C. E., & Anderson, A. J. (1977). Florentine codex.. ([Reprint]. ed.). Santa Fe: The School of American research and the Univ. of Utah.

Elzey, W. (1991). A Hill on a Land Surrounded by Water: An Aztec Story of Origin and Destiny. History of Religions, 31(2), 128.

Forbes, J. D. (1973). Aztecas del norte; the Chicanos of Aztlan.. Greenwich, Conn.: Fawcett Publications.

Haas, Jonathan, and Winifred Creamer. 2004. Cultural transformations in the Central Andean Late Archaic. In Andean archaeology, ed. H. Silverman, 3550. Malden: Blackwell.

Haas, J., & Creamer, W. (2006). Crucible of Andean Civilization: The Peruvian Coast from 3000 to 1800 BC. Current Anthropology, 47(5), 745-775 .

Keoke, E. D., & Porterfield, K. M. (2002). Encyclopedia of American Indian contributions to the world: 15,000 years of inventions and innovations. New York, NY: Facts on File.

Lockhart, J. (1992). The Nahuas after the conquest: a social and cultural history of the Indians of central Mexico, sixteenth through eighteenth centuries. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press.

Lockhart, James, and Bernardino de Sahagún. We people here: Nahuatl accounts of the conquest of Mexico. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993. Print.

Mann, C. C. (2005). 1491: new revelations of the Americas before Columbus. New York: Knopf.

Mann, C. C., & Stefoff, R. (2009). Before Columbus: the Americas of 1491. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers.

Markman, R. H., & Markman, P. T. (1992). The flayed God: the mesoamerican mythological tradition : sacred texts and images from pre-Columbian Mexico and Central America. San Francisco, Calif.: HarperSanFrancisco.

Nican Tlaca. Mexica Movement. Retrieved from http://www.mexica-movement.org/timexihcah/identity.htm

Poole, S. (1995). Our Lady of Guadalupe: the origins and sources of a Mexican national symbol, 1531-1797. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

Poole, S. (1995). We People Here: Nahuatl Accounts of the Conquest of Mexico. Anthropological Linguistics, 37(2), 225.

Schroeder, S. (2010). The conquest all over again: Nahuas and Zapotecs thinking, writing, and painting Spanish colonialism. Eastbourne: Sussex Academic Press.

Schwaller, J. F. (1993). The Nahuas after the Conquest: A Social and Cultural History of the Indians of Central Mexico, Sixteenth Through Eighteenth Centuries. The Sixteenth Century Journal, 24(3), 762.

Soustelle, J. (2002). Daily life of the Aztecs. London: Phoenix. (Original work published 1962)

Stannard, D. E. (1992). American holocaust: the conquest of the New World. New York: Oxford University Press.

Steele, S. M. (1976). A Law of Order: Word Order Change in Classical Aztec. International Journal of American Linguistics, 42(1), 44.

Wright, R. (1992). Stolen continents: the Americas through Indian eyes since 1492. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. (Original work published 2005)

NICAN TLACA UNIVERSITY - Anti-Columbus Day page

Nican Tlaca University - Anti-Columbus Day Facebook page NICAN TLACA UNIVERSITY OF CEMANAHUAC

NICAN TLACA UNIVERSITY - 1492: Columbus and the Legacy of Genocide

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/10/12/1246553/-Columbus-and-The-Legacy-of-Genocide

October 12th is Columbus Day, a day which is increasingly coming under criticism for celebrating a genocidal pirate, murderer, rapist, and enslaver who is credited with the “discovery” of the Western Hemisphere.

Most people today dismiss the notion that Columbus “discovered” a land that was already packed with 100 million people and 6,000 years of thriving civilizations (the earliest urban center with communal architecture is at Porvenir, Peru, dating back to 4930 B.C., according to Haas et al, 2004).

The world that Europeans “encountered” (read: “invaded”) was not that of a barren wilderness, sparsely populated by nomadic tribes; but a continent filled with wealthy, urban civilizations and complex, sedentary farming cultures. The Western Hemisphere of 1492 was a land of cities, writing, mathematics, astronomy, calendars, and engineering (listen to the Charles Mann interview for more information).

Unknown to most people is the enormity of Columbus' genocidal actions, as well as its deadly legacy lasting into modern times. Genocide expert David Stannard has asserted that, beginning in 1492 with Columbus,  Europeans collectively killed between 70 million to 100 million Indigenous People (within 80 years). In his book American Holocaust, Stannard calls this “the largest ongoing holocaust in the history of humanity.” The consequences of this Indigenous Holocaust were world-changing: 95% of Indigenous People were killed by European actions, 100% of Indigenous lands were stolen, and European-descent people became the most prosperous people on the planet.

Background on Columbus

Spain was the perfect place for pirate and slave-trader Christopher Columbus to go as he looked for financial backing for further naval exploitations. In 1492, Spain was an environment hot with the fervor of Holy Wars against Muslims and the expulsions of Jews out of Spain.

The following video by Nican Tlaca University explains more:

Acts of Genocide

The genocidal actions of Columbus and other Europeans who followed in his footsteps (e.g. Cortes, DeSoto, Pizarro, et al) can be classified into two general categories:

Biological genocide: spreading smallpox as a weapon of warfare, massacres of unarmed delegates, execution of leaders, death marches, death-by-torture, death-by-exhaustion/malnutrition, etc.

Cultural genocide: the deliberate destruction of books, buildings, and other cultural assets for the purpose of undermining cultural identity, development, and self-determination.

The following video by Nican Tlaca University describes more:

Genocide Sanctioned By Law

It was the Catholic Church which established a “Genocide By Law” tradition through the issuing of Papal Bulls (Christian Declarations), granting European-Christians the rights to invade, enslave, and plunder the lands of non-Christians.

This tradition of Church-sanctioned crime led to the Doctrine of Discovery, which stated that Europeans have the right to invade, steal, rape, enslave, and colonize worldwide people and lands in the name of Jesus Christ and “salvation”. This doctrine was perhaps nowhere more blatant than in the Spanish-colonial tradition of reading aloud document called The Requirement, just before invading Indigenous lands. An excerpt from The Requirement is as follows:

“But if you do not do this, and maliciously make delay in it, I certify to you that, with the help of God, we shall powerfully enter into your country, and shall make war against you in all ways and manners that we can, and shall subject you to the yoke and obedience of the Church and of their highnesses; we shall take you, and your wives, and your children, and shall make slaves of them, and as such shall sell and dispose of them as their highnesses may command; and we shall take away your goods, and shall do you all the mischief and damage that we can, as to vassals who do not obey, and refuse to receive their lord, and resist and contradict him: and we protest that the deaths and losses which shall accrue from this are your fault, and not that of their highnesses, or ours, nor of these cavaliers who come with us “.

source: https://en.wikipedia.org/...

Other legal methods of codifying destruction and subordination were:

The 1577 Law of Book Burning – this Spanish law demanded the burning of all Indigenous books.

Spanish Inquisition imported from Spain – most people associate the Inquisition and its horrors with Europe. But the Inquisition was also imported into Spanish Colonies.

Racial caste system – White Supremacy was codified into a “bloody purity” caste system which still survives today (albeit informally).

Encomienda system (slavery) – this slave system granted entire Indigenous communities over to Spaniards who could work them to death, rape them, and otherwise act with impunity.

Reservation/Reserves - mainly practiced in “The United States” and Canada, this practice herded Indigenous People – like animals -- onto barren, unwanted lands.

The Columbus Formula

The Columbus Formula was replicated by subsequent European invaders. Briefly, the Columbus Formula included the following:

• Pretend to come in peace, bringing “freedom” or “salvation”
  
• Massacre unarmed people
  
• Take the leader hostage
  
• Extort the population for gold, silver
  
• Murder the leader
  
• Terrorize the population
  
• Fan the flames of smallpox infection
  

Much of this may sound familiar in our age of “The Bush Doctrine”, whereby American foreign policy is based on “pre-emptive war” (invasion) in the name of  “Democracy” and 'Freedom”. Just as the American government is a direct descendant of European Colonial governments, so too is modern American foreign policy a direct descendant of European-Colonial “Indian Policy”.

Modern Legacy of Genocide Since 1492

• Poverty for Indigenous People
• Racial Caste System still in effect (informally)
• “Illegal Immigration” (Indigenous People are classified as criminals for migrating across European-colonial borders.)
• Reservations
• Forced Sterilization of Indigenous Women
• Indian Schools (the most famous are the Indian Boarding Schools, but these have their origins in the missionary schools of early colonial Mexico. These school systematically exterminated Indigenous culture: languages, writing, mathematics, theology, and pride.)
• Latino/Hispanic (an attempt to whitewash the Indigenous-descent population, making them a sub-category of Spanish imperialism.)
• Manifest Destiny (the theft of Indigenous lands and parceling it out to white settlers)
• United Fruit Company and  Monsanto - corporate colonialism of lands and resources
• Genocide of Mayans in Guatemala 1980s  - hundreds of thousands were killed by paramilitary forces funded by the United States.
• Bush Doctrine – pre-emptive invasion in the name of “saving them with Democracy”.
• IMF, WTO, World Bank - this “triad” oversees (read: strong-arms) the world economy on behalf of “The West”. These institutions are run by Europeans to “develop” non-white nations, charging them huge interest on debts loaned out with numerous “structural reform” strings attached.
  

Conclusion

Columbus Day is more than just a holiday celebrating a man who merely “mistreated the natives”. “Mistreatment”, “depopulation”, and other euphemisms for genocide, torture, rape, and enslavement do an injustice to the horror story that is The Columbus Genocide Legacy. Columbus Day honors the architect of 521 years of continuous genocidal actions against Indigenous People.

To criticize Columbus Day merely on the notion that he did not “discover” an already-inhabited hemisphere is inadequate. The real significance of Columbus Day lies in the fact he established the Indigenous Holocaust Formula, leading to the extermination of 70 million to 100 Million Indigenous People and the theft of Indigenous lands.

This genocide paved the way for Europeans to acquire lands for “free”. The enormous wealth of the Western Hemisphere transformed Europe into a wealthy continent, and provided white settlers with “opportunities” which they would not have otherwise found back inside Europe.

Today, “Corporate Conquistadors” continue to plunder the world on behalf of “The West” (European-descent people), plundering natural resources from those who need them the most, and imposing poverty-producing conditions on struggling economies.

The cultural genocide continues today as well. A current proposal is underway to construct a “Museum of the American Latino” which plans to glorify Spaniards and their colonial past, while subsuming Indigenous-descent people under the categories of Hispanic/Latino, as a way of erasing their identity and voices.

In the words of Noam Chomsky, “The conquest continues”.

Sources:

The Journals of Columbus

Destruction of the Indies

Education For Extinction

Kill The Indian, Save The Man

Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction

American Indian Contributions to the World

1491: New Revelations on the Americas

Year 501: The Conquest Continues by Noam Chomsky

Pagans In The Promised Land: Decoding The Doctrine of Discovery

Visit the Nican Tlaca Facebook page for more information
NICAN TLACA UNIVERSITY

NICAN TLACA UNIVERSITY - 1492: Columbus and the Legacy of Genocide

NICAN TLACA UNIVERSITY

1492: Columbus and the Legacy of Genocide 

 

NICAN TLACA UNIVERSITY

COMMENTARY: Teacher's strike in Mexico City

Almost all of our strikes and protests tend to be failures in the long-term. Why is this? Because while our people have the proper "instincts" to protest over temporary issues (labor issues, "immigration reform", police brutality), we do not have the proper NICAN TLACA MENTALITY (knowledge of history, identity, colonialism, genocide, false solutions) to go beyond temporary outbursts of anger and fight for long-term, structural change.

We show up, yell, and go home. Nothing changes.

We are reactive instead of proactive. We wait for something bad to happen, then react. And our reactions always take place within a EUROCENTRIC mindset: white people frame the issues, they propose the solutions, we beg them for "reforms" to our exploitation, they may (or may not) give us small crumbs, we are grateful, and nothing changes overall.

Only when we combine the "protest outrage" with a Nican Tlaca Mentality (education on our history, identity, European Colonialism) will we ever have a chance to make serious changes.

Only when we invoke our Nican Tlaca history, our Nican Tlaca identity in our protests, our chants, and the solutions will we gain serious traction in throwing off 500 years of European Colonialism.

Until then, we chant with half-baked Marxist slogans (European philosophy), narrow Capitalist goals ("we just want to work as your slaves"), and with White Supremacist slave-labels ("Latinos/Hispanics") that kill our Indigenous identity and hence, rights to our lands and our resources.

We have to learn our Nican Tlaca history. We will then reclaim our Nican Tlaca identity. And only then will we know what the hell we are protesting for, instead of being made fools every time we go out and protest using the white man's slogans, fabricated history, and loaded dice.

Otherwise, we will end up with thousands of people in the streets, with no clear sense of our Nican Tlaca past, our colonized present, or our Decolonized future. This is a recipe for a very loud failure, which we have seen time and time again.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/09/13/striking-teachers-mexico-city/2812289/

Background on Nican Tlaca University of Cemanahuac

Background to the Nican Tlaca University of Cemanahuac

Personal background - I grew up on the East Side of Salinas, California. My parents were migrant farm workers in the lettuce and strawberry fields of the Salinas Valley. I lived in an especially violent section of East Salinas: Garner Avenue. (Today, Garner Avenue has become one of the bloodiest streets in "the United States".)

I was able to escape Garner Avenue by attending a private Catholic junior high and high school across town in "The White Area". This private school environment provided me with the only real structure in my life. I became a star student and captain of the wrestling team. This White World was where I wanted to be, I thought. I never wanted to go back to that "disgusting Mexican world". This led to me going to a Catholic university on scholarship. All seemed well on the surface, but I always felt that this White World did not seem designed for me, a Mexican. Something was very wrong and racist with this society I was forced to live in. But I could not even articulate the problem, much less the solution.





1993 - In college, my roommate was President of the campus Mecha club. While I got to meet several "famous Chicanos", I noticed that none of them had any kind of serious historical knowledge, much less any real future vision or cultural plan. Lots of chest-thumping and nostalgia for the 70's, but little knowledge about civilizations, achievements, or any kind of ideology that wasn't Eurocentric. I myself didn't know any better at the time.





1996 - First saw Mexica Movement's web page (original version)
At first, I didn't understand the "Indigenous" nature of the page, but I liked the call for a "think tank" that would serve our interests. I put the page to the side and continued down the flawed path of "Chicano culture". I had no idea as to how rich our Indigenous Civilizations really were.





Late 90's thru early 2000's:  Traveled around the world, meeting British, Jewish, African Diaspora, German, Italian, Greek, Arab, Australians, New Zealand Maori, and many other peoples. These meetings stimulated questions in myself as to my own identity, for which I had few answers. For some weird reason, it was when I met White South Africans ("Afrikaaners") that I really began to realize the power of having your own language, your own history, and your own culture.

A painful moment was when I stood outside of Sir Isaac Newton's old house in London  -- now a library next to Leicester Square -- and I thought to myself, "Why don't we (Mexicans) have any geniuses like this? What is it about whites that makes them superior to us?"





1998:  Chicano History Group - Yahoo Groups
















http://web.archive.org/web/20031220061349/http://groups.yahoo.com/group/chicanohistory/


In 1998, I started an online Chicano History discussion group.
In 2002, I began to change the format to promote the idea that "Chicanos are Indigenous".






1999:  Discovered the book "Lies My Teacher Told Me" which shifted my views on how history was written.





2001:  Discovered a book entitled "Aztecas del Norte" by Jack D. Forbes

While in a used bookstore in Grass Valley, CA, I found an old, used book that promoted the idea of Indigenous identity for Mexicans (Chicanos). The book contained a chapter called "Mexica As An Identity For Mexicans". I remembered that old Mexica Movement page I saw back in 1996 and began viewing it again, this time with fresh eyes.





2001 (August):  Began speaking to Mexica Movement by phone. Many of my longtime questions were answered and I finally found the "historical narrative" I had been seeking. This narrative was supported by numerous books that I had never heard of: Daily Life of the Aztecs, Mexico Profundo, The Florentine Codex, American Holocaust, The Colonizer's Model of the World, and many more.




2002 - 2009: Chicano History page





http://web.archive.org/web/20050215212540/http://www.geocities.com/chicanohistory/index2.htm

Inspired by a new Indigenous focus, I created a web site that attempted to promote our history through categories: Civilizations, Achievements, Poetry, etc.

Interesting fact: Before YouTube was a household name, this Chicano History site was already streaming numerous online videos using the RealPlayer format:


http://web.archive.org/web/20050113194358/http://www.geocities.com/chicanohistory/video_anahuac.htm





2005 - 2012 (April) -  Involvement with Mexica Movement

- Confronted the Minutemen/Save Our State
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_YW3bilXpU


- Confronted Lou Dobbs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VS14BYsgsYc


- Filmed the MacArthur Park police brutality shootings from inside the crowd
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYVWAqSRBUU


- Presentations on our history and achievements




- Wrote two articles selected as "Top 10 Stories of the Year" by Indymedia for 2007 (the Maywood Police department scandal, and the Leimert Park/Minutemen confrontation)





- Set up YouTube account (with first videos), web tracking system, PayPal account, fund raising, created "Credentials" page

- Attended protests, outreach events, and came up with poster ideas

- Took the majority of photos at events (that's why I am never seen in any photos).


- A protest confrontation with a White Supremacist made the front page of the LA Times and CNN web sites.






2012 (December): Nican Tlaca University of Cemanahuac

     

www.NicanTlaca.com
www.facebook.com/NicanTlaca

I decided to return to the spirit of my old "Chicano History" page, but this time with a "Nican Tlaca" focus. This time, with a more academic seriousness and a Decolonial direction (but Decolonization is not enough, we need to reconstruct our own Nican Tlaca Civilization to replace European Colonialism). A lot of time has been spent planning out the future direction, pedagogy, technology platform, and project ideas. This is a work-in-progress, and it is aimed at getting inside our classrooms with educational materials. We have to change the "software" in the minds of our people. Most of our people will not find this to be "sexy" because it does not involve chest-thumping, yelling on street corners, tattoos, rap music, or New Age pseudo-science.

Visit the original Nican Tlaca University of Cemanahuac

 

Visit the original

Nican Tlaca University of Cemanahuac

at

www.NicanTlaca.com

https://www.facebook.com/NicanTlaca

https://www.youtube.com/user/NicanTlacaUniversity

https://twitter.com/NicanTlacaUni

Learn Your Nican Tlaca History in 2 Minutes

Learn Your Nican Tlaca History in 2 Minutes

Anahuac Civilizations

Anahuac Civilizations

("North America")

 

Anahuac ("North America")
4,300 years ago, our earliest civilization began in the "Veracruz" region of Anahuac ("North America").

Our major northern civilizations were:

• Olmec
• Teotihuacan
• Mayan
• Toltec
• Mexica
• Mississippian
• Anasazi

NicanTlaca.com

Tawantinsuyu Civilizations

Tawantinsuyu Civilizations

("South America")

 

Tawantinsuyu ("South America")
6,000 years ago, our earliest civilization began in the Supe Valley of Peru.

Our major southern civilizations were:

• Supe Valley
• Chavin
• Moche
• Tiawanku
• Nazca
• Wari
• Inca

www.nicantlaca.com

 

About Nican Tlaca University of Cemanahuac (NTUC)

www.nicantlaca.com

www.facebook.com/NicanTlaca

NicanTlaca.com provides online education about the history and civilized achievements of Indigenous People. Nican Tlaca = Mexicans, Central Americans, Native Americans, South American Indigenous, and Canadian First Nations (without borders).

 

 

Mission

 

NicanTlaca.com (NTUC) aims to become the #1 online source of history and heritage for Indigenous People of Cemanahuac ("the Western Hemisphere").
The intellectual and moral foundation of this project is derived from the work of Mexica Movement as well as the academic works of numerous scholars, historians, archaeologists, ethnographers, scientists, and learning theorists.
This project builds on that foundation by adding more resources: "21st-Century" learning technology as well as a focus on promoting "Nican Tlaca Cultural Literacy".

 

 

Description

 

NicanTlaca.com is a project to consolidate and transmit the collective Indigenous history of Nican Tlaca (mixed-blood and full-blood Indigenous People) across Cemenahuac ("the Western Hemisphere").
The emphasis is on decolonizing our history and liberating our people from over 500 years European Colonialism/White Supremacy.
The ultimate goal is to provide a consolidated body of knowledge from which future generations can reconstruct a new version of Nican Tlaca Civilization. This new civilization will thrive on high-tech genius, cultural courage, and total freedom from European Colonialism (which has been continuous since 1492).