the first Brown Berets meeting i went to definately drew me in but this evening i’m very moved. my impression about the relationship to history and legacy is confirmed: also this meeting starts with a member briefly telling the history of the group. the 1960s, the inspiration of the Black Panthers, and urgencies provoked by police brutality and poor education. (Walkout! is a film that represents a part of that history.) the original group disbanded in the 1970s but local chapters remain. in 1994 the Watsonville chapter is established by high school kids after more gang killings in which a 9 year old sister and 16 year old brother die. the first peace and unity march takes place. sandino, who is telling the story this time, pauses on education. the each one teach one principle put forward by Malcolm X. the educational drive of the Brown Berets: educating ourselves and the community, as school were and are not teaching what we need to know.
the educational part of this meeting revolves around the alliance between brown and black power. the words of the guy running for the Santa Cruz city council at the protest serve as an introduction: we need to understand how the undocumented people from Mexico and other latin american countries picking strawberries are related to black slaves picking cotton. we watch an impressive fragment of a documentary, in which an old black woman in Mexico talks about her family history. her ancesters were run-away slaves from Florida, who sought and found refuge in a Mexican village. she speaks of a whole community of black people with a similar history, we see images of a group of black women singing the negro-spirituals that travelled with their ancestors to Mexico. the images, words and songs affect the gathering a lot, and people start talking about how “race” as we know it now was an alien concept to their black and latino ancesters. how it was about cultura. and through the imaginaries of resistance that are spun out, a strong presence of native americans emerges. stories about how the Chicapoos and Seminoles, Native American Nations, were known to provide safe places for those running away from slavery, and how it was possible for initial outsiders to become part of their nations. a recognition of how strong this Native American heritage runs through the Black history in this country.
returning to our ancestral roots, they emphasized, means understanding how these ancesters didn’t discriminate on the basis of “race” like in the system the whites brought with them. there’s a deep history of black and brown unity that needs to be reclaimed, and that finds more contemporary foundations in the alliance between the Black Panthers and the Brown Berets, and indeed the fact that the Brown Berets as an organization is modelled on the Black Panthers.
the conversation moves on into strong personal positioning. a black woman (she’s the only black person in the group) talks about what it means for her to be involved in the Brown Berets. how her family and community asks her questions about why she’s involved in someone else’s struggle. and she speaks about having Native American blood, and how that blood runs through black people in this country. a white guy (there are about three white people with myself included) speaks about what it means for him to be active in the Brown Berets. he refers to the “When they came for me, there was no one left to speak out” poem written under the Nazi regime. one of the core members of the group wants to respond to the charge of “reverse racism” that white friends of him tend to bring up. if black and brown power is okay for you, would it then be okay for me to talk about white power? his answer: listen, man, does it look like whites need more power in this world?
then a woman intervenes, almost in tears. all the things you’re talking about are very important, unity is important, don’t get me wrong. but there’s also other stuff going on. part of my ancesters are from the Cherokee Nation. but the Cherokee Nation, they also had slaves, they also participated in the slave trade. and now they exclude folks like me and my family. if you don’t have a rol number – but what kind of shit is that, i don’t even want a rol number – but if you don’t have it, you’re not considered Cherokee. but it’s part of my culture, my heritage. and they try to take that away through rol numbers, and blood quantum. what kind of shit is that… we also need to be talking about that.
the way people engage with each other is impressive. listening, hearing, taking people’s concerns and pains on, sharing them, constructing community. later during the meeting there is a time for nominating new members (i now understand better some of the dynamics of what seems quite a differentiated system of involvement and authoritative voices – everybody can come to the meetings but there’s a formal system of membership which works through nomination by a member in the meeting, followed by a vote about the person.) a guy of the core group nominates the black woman who spoke earlier. the political significance of this nomination escapes nobody and is expressed in a long round of applause. she starts crying, and i can’t help feel the tears welling up.
there so much more i learn, i’m not managing to digest and write about it all. touching upon three brief things for now. one, on October 13 & 14 the 40th anniversary of the foundation of the Black Panthers in Oakland will be celebrated. two, the impressive woman running for the Watsonville city council, mireya gomez, has been a queer latina spokesperson at college and member of the Brown Berets. the Brown Berets is mobilizing to support her, which is presented to the meeting, and especially to young people, as yet another educational activity: how to do a campaign in local politics. (and in many school programs this will get you credits, it is mentioned.) three, as part of la Otra Campaña el subcomandente Marcos & co are calling for a secret meeting with latin@ leaders from the US. secret in the sense that of course the time and place will be kept secret, but also that it will not be followed by a public communiqué. instead, the idea is to strategize for a while about possible common and complementary tactics. and so a delegation of the Brown Berets has been called for. (oh, what a smart and bold move of the EZLN, to initiate this kind of transnational coordination… and if Chavez keeps on doing his funky interventions…)