My name is Agustín Palacios and this web site is to communicate to you and the world that I exist. I exist as a human being that is both unique and complex. I exist as a human being that seeks to communicate with others my worries, dreams and passion. I communicate to create community.
Soy un Xicano en resistencia. I resist assimilation into U.S. mainstream. I resist becoming a robot consumer or peon in this capitalist/neoliberalist system of oppression. Soy un humano que sueña. Like the Trout, I hurl through the "mainstream" to reach the spawning grounds; mi cultura. A culture that is both ancient and new, since I too create culture. Soy un poeta, a poet, and my job is to create alternatives to being, to seeing, and to naming. I am an active maker of culture and history.
In this space I document my own history; my own voice. The struggles of my parents and grandparents do not make it to the history books, but still, their veins and mine are filled with the history of resistance. Rios de sangre han sido derramados, but still, we endure. And although my skin has been scarred by the hot iron of European colonization, I still remember that my roots go deep in this land. Raizes profundas, too deep to ever be pulled out.
During this time of global capitalism, people are constantly pushed and trapped into the roles of consumers and workers. Capital is free to move across geo-political borders, but people are not. Corporations plaster the world with advertisement. United States culture invades and takes over the Third World with the goal of turning everyone into consumers, and with the message that what dark skin people have, does not compare in quality with what US transnational corporations offer. Everyone dreams with the red, blue and white.
So, I claim a space in the net for myself. I steal their technology to broadcast my opposition. I oppose their (government and the media) classifications of me, I am not a Hispanic, I am not a consumer, I am not my social security or credit card number. I have not been conquered because I continue to resist. I exist whether the capitalist system or the U.S. exist or not. I was made to forget the language of my ancestors, my indigenous tongue.
English and Spanish bitter
now I spit it back
We, los de abajo, need to make our voices heard. NOW! With urgency we need to flood the Internet. People are dying in Iraq' people are dying in Palestine, in Chiapas, in Colombia because of immoral governments and corporations who put profit over the lives of human beings. And I don't know where Presiden George W. Bush wants to take us with his war, but I know a lot of innocent l blood will flow.
According to the Dotcom industry, the Internet is a place for business, not art or personal testimony. I, Xicano border-crosser, defy such paradigm. Corporations took over the radio and television (two great inventions that could have enhance democratic participation), the internet is another opportunity for the people's voice to be heard. I will not waste it. I will assume my responsibility as witness. I will testify.
my feet
recognize
no border
no rule
no code
no lord
for this
wanderer's
heart
(from Mestizo, by Francisco X. Alarcón)
