Baldwin Park Controversy Public Responses

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Baldwin Park resident
Written by David
on 2005-06-28
Is anyone else amazed by today’s L.A.Times article on Turner. The hate group, SOS, appears to have a fan in the Times. B.P. cannot be the battle ground for the immigration issue. It cannot afford it and state legislators are not coming to assistance. The only strategy possible is to treat SOS the way we typically treat insignificant thirty member organizations. Ignore them.


Still the same
Written by SPARC Guest
on 2005-06-28

BACA has shown throughout her “career” that she IS A RACIST and that she HATES “WHITE AMERICA.” I am convinced that she REPRESENTS COMMUNIST ACTIVISTS who are intent on PURGING america of any one who is against open borders and a socialist america.

WE ARE AMERICANS HERE, YOU PROMOTE DIVISION AND HATE against anyone other than latinos.

CEASER CHAVEZ TRIED TO STOP ILLEGAL ALIENS also, do some research about this you REVISIONISTS.


Message to SOS folks
Written by SPARC Guest
on 2005-06-26

I’m very confused about this whole argument. It seems like a waste of everyone’s time and money. The phrase “It was better before they came” is ambiguous! I read it and thought the “they” were Mexicans. I read the quote to my friend and he thought “they” were immigrants. The phrase is what it is to the reader. You can’t fault the artist for that. If it said “It was better before whites came” or “It was better before blacks came” I could understand the uproar. It might be time to take a step back and reconsider this whole protest. Put the money to better use. Heck I don’t even agree with the Minutemen, but they have a better argument in their situation than you have in yours.


A Challenge
Written by SPARC Guest
on 2005-06-25

Members and supporters of SOS have been so closed-minded about the reasons for those words being on the monument and the monument’s cultural relevance to the Baldwin Park community that they will only believe what they want to believe, which is to say they believe these words are anti-White, anti-American and “seditious”.

Nevermind the fact that their objections are so petty and self-inflicted, that the only brutally honest reason these people are up in arms over a piece of granite is because they can’t stand people who are unlike them in appearance, language and culture. It’s straight up myopic fanaticism couched in the overused platitudes of patriotism.

What’s even more ridiculous is that those in the SOS camp are mainly from Ventura, California, which according to the city council members of Baldwin Park, is geographically far removed from Baldwin Park. For my own edification and as an added bonus, I checked the actual location and distance between these two cities on Google Maps. There are 85.4 miles separating these two cities, a one-hour and twenty-six-minute drive! Plus, the Baldwin Park Monument was erected in 1993!! Now, all of a sudden, these bigots want to mix it up with the good residents of Baldwin Park over a public art piece that has been standing there for 12 years without comment? This is not only simply audacious on their part, but also betrays their true intent, which is to antagonize and provoke people whom SOS believes are a bunch of “illegal aliens” who have no right to live in the United States, much less exist.

My one question for this group, the one question that could break open and expose these people for who they really are, is: “What exactly is your point in attacking this public monument that is a good hour away from your home base and has been standing for 12 years without controversy?” I doubt that any of them would be so self-critical and brutally honest with themselves to answer: “Because our self-esteem is so low that we constantly have to find new enemies onto which we project our self-hatred and disgust. Because we have nothing else to do than to make other people’s lives a living hell. Because we just don’t like Mexicans and anyone else who doesn’t look or think like us.”


In response to Chicomozteca
Written by SPARC Guest
on 2005-06-24

“We have been here forever – or, as your anthropologists would have it – for 30,000 years or more.”

I would love to pick you apart item by item, but this one stood out as such lunacy, I just could not pass up the opportunity.

For the sake of brevity I will consolidate my argument by combining your two points – Your pipe-dream of “forever” residence is pitiful if not insane. All credible anthropologists agree on the 1959 (Phil C. Orr) find as the oldest human remains in America. This find initially carbon dated (CD) the remains at around 10,000 years old, but more recent tests have shown the remains to be 13,000 years old or more. The funny thing is that the Mexican Anthropologist (Dr. Oneida Menendez. PhD, MD, LLM) who ran, re-ran, and again ran the dating procedure, then sent the skull fragments out for independent review and dating to John Moores University in Liverpool (under the care of Dr Silvia Gonzalez, also of Hispanic decent).

For years the scientific (anthropological) society has operated as stated by As Dr. Albert C. Goodyear, when he said “You don’t look for what you don’t believe in” I.e. no one was looking for Asians or Europeans as the ancestral plank owners of America, because we have been institutionally conditioned to believe that we would find Indian or Hispanic legacy. Obviously this is not how the general science community works in principle, but it sure looked to be the case in this field for years.

The Kennewick Man’s remains found in 1996 on the banks of the Columbia River only date back to 8,000 to 9,300 years old, and are claimed as Indian by the National Park Service. Of course the NPS would not allow any Anthropologist to verify the ancestry, largely because the few that have seen it swear it to be of European origins (Red hair, over 6’ tall, etc). As a matter of fact the top five oldest human remains (homo sapiens) are either Ainu – Japanese Asian/Polynesian or of Norse/Celtic origins. Thanks to BLM bureaucracy further studies have stopped at the fact that the Kennewick Man cannot be tied to any Indian Tribe, but further findings have been blocked for and in the name of Politically Correct Sovereignty. It should be noted that the Clinton administration opposed the bill to allow study of Kennewick Man in June of 1998. In 2004 the Supreme Court ruled in favor of scientific study.

The oldest Mexican/Hispanic remains found in America to date are just over 3,500 which do not bode well for your wildly emotional rant. If you were able consume the above facts, logically order them, and understand that the Mexican/Indian mythological origins of America are all based in folklore and barbaric religious * rhetoric, and then you would cap your argument with an apology and move on.

Unfortunately those with IQ’s not equal to warm water are seldom able to make such logical associations, are given to the ongoing emotional and illogical rants as displayed in your post.

My closing would read something like this: If you are not Asian or Western European any claims of ancestral ownership of America will always fall short when measured against scientific fact.

* I am not anti-faith. I am anti-religion when it is an organization of man, and he gets to pick and choose what is right and wrong for himself.


Lawmakers seek to crack down on illegal immigrants
By Alan Elsner Reuters
Thursday, June 23, 2005

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Life for the estimated 10 million illegal immigrants living in the shadows in the United States could soon get even tougher as states and the federal government pass new legislation cracking down on them.

In several states, legislators have proposed and in some cases passed bills barring illegal immigrants and their families from receiving health, welfare and other public benefits.

Maryland will soon begin cutting off thousands of children of legal as well as illegal immigrants from health care benefits and may also cut immigrant pregnant women off the state’s health rolls.

Virginia recently passed a measure denying illegal aliens public benefits, including access to Medicaid, welfare and local health care services.

Arizona voters last year approved a measure requiring state employees to report illegal immigrants to federal authorities if they apply for benefits.

“There are people out there who believe the answer to our broken immigration system is to make the lives of illegal immigrants so miserable they will go back home, and they are working at the federal and state level to do so,” said Michele Waslin of the National Council of La Raza, the nation’s largest Hispanic group.

On the federal level, the Real ID Act, signed by President Bush last month will require anyone seeking to get or renew a driver’s license to provide proof of citizenship or legal immigration status.

Now, several lawmakers are looking at ways to enforce an existing 1986 law prohibiting employers from giving undocumented workers jobs.

“That is the only way to eliminate the job market for undocumented workers. It is the only way to reduce the magnet for illegal immigration,” Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn said in a recent speech.

TOUGHER PENALTIES ON EMPLOYERS

Cornyn, who wants to create a guest worker program for foreigners to work legally in the United States, is co-sponsoring a bill that would create a nationwide electronic system to verify the immigration status of prospective employees. It would also increase the penalties for hiring or continuing to employ illegal aliens and require the Department of Homeland Security to hire 2,000 new personnel annually for each of the next five years to enforce the law.

“So many illegal immigrants are already living in the shadows, afraid of being caught and deported,” Waslin said. “In the workplace, they are incredibly vulnerable and exploitable. They don’t join unions, they are not protected by labor laws, they have high rates of workplace accidents and death and they are vulnerable to crime.”

In recent years, the government has done almost nothing to enforce the law banning the employment of illegal immigrants.

Richard Stana, director of homeland security and justice at the Government Accountability Office, told a House of Representatives subcommittee this week the number of notices of intent to fine employers for knowingly hiring unauthorized workers fell from 417 in 1999 to three last year.

A computerized pilot program is available for employers to verify their employees’ Social Security numbers but last year only 2,300 of the nation’s 5.6 million employers used it.

On the other side of the debate are the industries that benefit from millions of low wage workers doing jobs that most Americans are simply unwilling to do.

“Our immigration system has no legal way for peaceful, hardworking people to come in and find those jobs,” said Daniel Griswold of the conservative Cato Institute.


Opposition to Illegal Entry
Written by SPARC Guest
on 2005-06-22

Opposition by American citizens to illegal entry into our country is not racist.

We have the right, and the duty, to control who lives in our country as much as each of us has the right to control who lives in our homes. Americans who oppose illegal entry come from every ethnic background. Noone condones the illegal entry of any one ethnic group over another.

The problem confronting us, however, is the
predominance of illegal entry across the U.S.-Mexican border, primarily by Mexican citizens. Many Americans of Mexican-American and Spanish-American ancestry are as opposed to this illegal entry as Italian-Americans, Jewish-Americans, or Americans from any other ethnic origin.

Perhaps the greatest reason why so many people from around the world hope to emmigrate to the U.S. is the success we have achieved in integrating into a single culture people from so many diverse backgrounds. This integration is far from perfect, but no human endeavor ever is. No other country (not a single one) has even attempted to accept and integrate such wide diversity. Over 35 years ago, I served in the U.S. Navy with shipmates of European, Chinese, Texian-Mexican and African ancestry and it never occurred to any of us that this should be unusual.

The vast majority of immigrants in the past have come here legally, and in numbers small enough to be accomodated into American society. My own ancestors immigrated from Ireland, Germany, Poland and England about 100-150 years ago.

The current wave of “immigration” from Mexico comes in violation of our laws, and in numbers impossible for our culture, social institutions and services to accomodate. American culture is NOT European or Anglo or any other old world template, but a unique New World institution which has proven to be durable. But durable as it is, it does have limits. We are a people who want each and every citizen to live in peace and security. Peace and security can only be achieved by adherence to the Constitution and to the laws which dervive from it. The lawlessness deriving from this illegal entry is a danger to us all, illegal aliens included.

The behavior, as captured on video, of the individuals opposing SOS in Baldwin Park was uncivilized. Such behavior, now widely reported, will only increase support for laws to restrict immigration and deport those aliens now living illegaly in the U.S.


I watched all the videos and read all the posts
Written by SPARC Guest
on 2005-06-21

I watched all the videos and read all the posts, and the only people I saw screaming racist things were the counter-demonstrators. The counter-demonstrators chanted “Zarqawi Zarqawi Gringo Killer Yes yes!” at one point.

I think you need to realize what an effect that has on people. Don’t you realize that most people in the USA found that very offensive? The video from that demonstration has been made into a TV show and has aired in at least one city that I know of. Chanting “intifada intifada” and screaming “Europeans go home” has just proven everything the SOS people were claiming! You folks are you own worst enemies! 10’s of 1000’s of people have seen those videos nationwide.

As far as I am concerned Baldwin Park has already be reconquered and is no longer part of the United States. I am telling all my employees and all our contrators to no longer do business there. Period.

And Judy Baca continues to say people mis-understand the message of the monument when the counter-demonstrators proved there is an active Anti-American Reconquista movement in the USA. Every last one of you is now under surviellance! Your Anti-American ways are under observation.

And the REAL ID act is just the beginning! The wall will be finished! The border will be secured! And there is nothing racist about that! I don’t care what color you are, if you are against the USA then you’d better change your ways. If not, I’ll come visit you in Gitmo!
Reply to the SOS Declaration of War
Written by SPARC Guest on 2005-06-13 00:12:51

A Chican@ / Indigenist reply to the threats of impending “civil war” by the Euro-racist organization “Save Our State.”
______________________________

“The man from Europe is still a foreigner and an alien. And he still hates the man who questioned his path across the continent.

But in the Indian, the spirit of the land is still vested; it will be until other men are able to divine and meet its rhythm. Men must be born and reborn to belong. Their bodies must be formed of the dust of their forefather’s bones.”
~Luther Standing Bear (Lakota)

A Reply to the SOS ***************

It is time for the white man to wake up from his illusions. He imagines that he has “conquered” the native peoples of this land, North American Indian and Mexican Indian alike.

He is deluded.

He thinks the land belongs to him, and that we plan to “reconquer” it.

His mind is upside down.

The Earth, the land, does not belong to us.

We belong to the land.

It is a relationship that cannot, in the end, be disrupted, although our roles as caretakers of the land can and have been deeply harmed.

The land does not belong to the white man, and he does not as a rule, belong to or with the land.

He is a restless and violent stranger, tossing in the bed of his “power,” ever uncertain of his relationship to his relations and to himself, always tormented with the knowledge that his “conquest” is illegitimate. He is fearful. The only way he can rationalize his vicious history to himself is by imagining himself “superior,” while in reality he feels himself uprooted and, for that very reason, out of balance and “inferior,” – alone and afraid.
He is disconnected.

The white man claims our children, the children of the Mexica people, are “anchor babies,” and that we use our own children to give us – as “illegal” “aliens” – a legal pretext to be here.

In some perverse way, he is right, but for the wrong reasons.

We are anchored here.

We are anchored here by our ancestors, by our children, and by our closeness to the land over untold generations.

What he describes as “anchoring: is natural law, a law he considers a perversion and a manipulation. His mind is upside down.

We have been here forever – or, as your anthropologists would have it – for 30,000 years or more.

The recent arrival – white man – is an alien, not by law, not by nature, but by condition. His primary relationship to this land has been to destroy it. Even his concept of “illegality” is alien to this land and its nature. It is perverse, inside / out.

He talks of a “great American culture” that is disappearing, being “replaced by other cultures that are inferior and contradictory to everything this country was built upon.”

But the truth is that it is natural law that is bringing his culture to an end.

Its coming death is the fruit of his own labors, of the horrors he has committed – Auschwitz, Hiroshima, and the murder of over 100 million of our ancestors in the “conquest.” This is what stares back at him from the mirror and makes him fear the end that he has wrought.

He has built a world on the rape of his own mother, the Earth, and now his mines and oil wells are running dry. His economy and way of life are impossible to sustain.

It has nothing to do with us. His civilization is collapsing under the weight of its own madness. It is very likely that millions, even billions of people worldwide will die in the transition, the collapse of the wrongful and unjust world he has created.

The white man says he and his fellows must respond as his ancestors responded.

His fathers “responded” with mass murder. They took control of their mother the Earth through mass murder, and now, the son wants to defend the rape with more mass murder. He cannot look himself in the heart or in the eye.

The tree of “liberty” he wants to water was said by his fathers to be fed with blood.

He is hungry for blood.

He is boiling with madness and a consuming fear. He is tired of feeling like a foreigner in “his own country” but that is what he remains, in truth, a foreigner with no feeling for the Earth, and with a hatred for the cultures, the Peoples, it birthed.

The white man thinks he is instilling fear in us, and that we are not used to being “challenged.” He has remained blind to the unending resistance of our peoples for the last five hundred years, imagining it as “savage” recalcitrance, an animalistic resentment of our “superiors.” Not a decade has passed in 500 years in which we have not arisen in arms against him, and still he thinks we fear him.

He imagines that his aggression is “a new paradigm” with which we are unfamiliar, and that his arrogance, like that of Custer, is unknown to us. Custer… whose ambition made him unable to retreat…

He imagines that everything has just been invented, new, with him.

He has no memory.

If Custer could return from the grave, he, too, might say his opponents relied on “intimidation and the threat of violence in order to achieve victory” when he invaded their quiet villages.

Like Custer he invades us, and his declaration of war is a declaration of his intent to finalize the American genocide, to tear the native nations, Northern and Southern, apart – casting us again into third and fourth world “reservations,” apart from the clean, “superior” white race and its culture.

He never learns.
A Lakota man, Good Fox, said this: “I was told that after the battle two Cheyenne women came across Custer’s body. They knew him because he had attacked their peaceful village on the Washita. These women said “You smoked the peace pipe with us. Our chiefs told you that you would be killed if you ever made war on us again. But you would not listen. This will make you hear better.
“The women each took an awl from their beaded cases and stuck them deep into Custer’s ears.”
And now he says, he has a border to defend, that he must defend the laws of the white nation – laws he wrote to justify and “legalize” his own bloodthirstiness and theft.
But the “border” he would defend is a scar on the soul of our mother, the Earth. And he cannot hear her crying.
He would drive a stake through her heart, claiming her as “American land. Today. Tomorrow. Forever.”

But his flags and the swastikas of his allies can never bring him peace. Only listening can bring him peace. But like the ghost of Custer, he no longer has ears.

He has declared a war he cannot win, one that can end only in defeat or prison.

Perhaps his people, maybe his women, those with sense, who can speak to him in his own language, can reach him, can warn him, before it is too late.

Author: Chicomozteca

SOS Declaration (FYI)

********TAKEN FROM THE “SAVE OUR STATE” INTERNET SITE:*********

As a result of our brand of aggressive, in your face activism and the response that has been displayed by our opponents, Americans are growing more and more emboldened and empowered to take a stand against the ‘reconquistas.’ Americans are beginning to learn how serious the illegal immigration problem is becoming.

Americans are tired of the unchecked third world invasion of illegal aliens. They are tired of porous borders open to terrorist exploitation. They are tired of watching millions of illegal aliens and their anchor babies flood our schools and devastate the quality of learning afforded to our very own children. They are tired of illegal aliens abusing emergency rooms for medical treatment which has resulted in numerous closings and subsequent loss of services to the taxpaying public. They are tired of watching their great American culture disappear, only to watch it be replaced by other cultures that are inferior and contradictory to everything this country was built upon.

AMERICANS ARE TIRED OF FEELING LIKE A FOREIGNER IN THEIR OWN COUNTRY.

For too long, our citizens have desecrated the memory of our great founding fathers as they stood quietly by and allowed this devastation to occur. Enough is enough. We have reached the point where we can no longer sit back and allow our government to aid and abet the illegal alien invasion. We must respond as our founding fathers would have responded. We must refresh the tree of liberty.

We are angry! We are seething with anger and boiling with rage.

And we are motivated and determined to fight back. This is our land. This is our fight. And we are willing to bleed to defend it.

We have seen a rapid escalation in violence and posturing by our enemies. The Baldwin Park and Garden Grove attacks demonstrate the fear we are instilling in our enemies. They are not accustomed to being confronted and challenged.

Gone are the days of the old paradigm where Americans reacted to the whims and actions of our open borders opponents. Gone are the days when we allowed our opponents to define the terminology of the debate.

Save Our State was founded on the belief that we could create a new paradigm. A paradigm which consists of taking the battle to our opponents on our terms; ensuring that our enemies respond to our actions.

Although we do not seek out violence, it must be said that we will not run from it. Although we seek to peacefully defend and protect our national sovereignty, we will not be fearful or intimidated. We must not acquiesce and we must not retreat.

Make no mistake, our opponents are savages. In a pack, they grow incredibly brave. When alone they are as impotent as a church mouse. Our foes rely on fear, intimidation and the threat of violence in order to achieve victory. We must not waver and we must not withdraw from the fight. We must stand strong and beat back the enemy. For this is the only thing our opponents understand.

Many suggest that violence is coming to California. Many suggest that a civil war of sorts may be on the horizon. I cannot control the actions of our opponents. For they ultimately decide whether or not violence will break out over this issue that is tearing our nation apart.

Save Our State will not initiate violence. However, in no way will we attempt to appease our enemy out of fear that they might resort to violence.

The monument in Baldwin Park is not just a rock. It is a disgusting testament to how pathetically apathetic Americans have grown in response to the hostile takeover attempt by the Mechistas and the massive illegal alien invasion. It is a slap in the face to all Americans and an insult to us all.

We have a patriotic obligation to ensure that the seditious language on that monument is removed. And one way or another, it will be removed. Together, we will drive a stake through the heart of the ‘reconquista’ movement. This is American land. Today. Tomorrow. Forever.

Baldwin Park, CA
Corner of Pacific & Downing (at Metrolink Rail Station)

12 PM – 2 PM
Saturday, June 25th

Please bring your own signs and/or American flags. It is imperative that you spread the word.

Anyone bringing any racist signs, clothing, regalia, etc. will be ejected from our group. Obviously, we cannot control who comes out to protest. However, in no shape or form will Save Our State be affiliated with any supremacist organizations.


Mexican Hordes?
Written by SPARC Guest
on 2005-06-07

Why do you use a term that implies barbarians? Your patriots hurled racial slurs at the counter protesters. (see the video calling us mongrols as if we were animals). These terms are all too familiar in American History. our record is poor on racial equality and brave people fought against you before. we must remember Martin Luther King standing up to the klan and deep seated racism. “We shall overcome” again.

For your information the “facial masks” are zapatista masks and represent the indigenous struggle in Mexico for equal rights. It is your ignorance that associates them with criminals or bandits. We are sorry you were afraid but if you would inform yourself you would not be. Ignorance breeds fear.


Written by SPARC Guest
on 2005-06-07
Hispanos pay taxes.


Written by SPARC Guest
on 2005-06-07

We are Americans! I am offended by the terms “pro-American” protesters at the Baldwin Park Protest. There was nothing Pro-American about flag waving and screaming racial slurs against other Americans. You cannot not be allowed to determine what America is, or who is, or is not an American. You miss the point of a democratic society and people all being equal under the law.


A response to posted hate
Written by SPARC Guest
on 2005-06-07

What is truly remarkable is the depth of the hatred evident in the postings from Save Our state Supporters on the SPARC site. Death threats are unacceptable from any side of this argument and are most frightening, as your supporters know since they are making them, when they are specific. It allows those receiving them to peer into the minds of those who make them, which is indeed terrifying. Ask the Baldwin Park elected officials and the artist who have received them.

Your fear that there are Mexicans advocating/fighting to give back California to Mexico in a “reconquista movement” is just plain ridiculous. There is no such movement except the one you have made up to play to an audience of those alarmed by demographic changes in Los Angeles and California.

Your elderly woman is minuteman not a harmless patriot but a hostile person. She was not hurt seriously and was put in harms way by your leadership Joseph Turner who is a provocateur (watch the video with him screaming “bring it!” to an angry crowd) wishing to incite violence even if it is against one of his own and an aging woman. Who is to say that the bottle was not thrown by one of your own for the express purpose of making a pretend martyr of Dottie the self proclaimed “undocumented border patrol agent”?

“The only way to deal with people such as this is brutal force” is a call to violence, which is the most primitive form of human communication. Name-calling and race baiting is also not dialogue. A poet who spoke about a mystical place not a piece of defined territory invented the term Aztlan.

No one is enlightened by your vitriolic contribution to this dialogue so consider elevating the discussion to something worthy of people’s time. We are interested in free expression and shared ideas and by the way a discussion about art in this time. The monument has nothing to do with your agenda of stirring up hatred against immigrants, as it never was about immigration. It seems clear to me that it was an indictment against an idea that “life was better before they came” whichever they it is this time, in the xenophobic world you foster.


emobiles
Written by SPARC Guest
on 2005-06-07

Remarkable how SPARC’s presss release was edited to imply that the death threats were made by white supremists or such types. Remakable that the threat against Councilman Bill Van was to be buried in “brown soil”. Strange that white racists would use such specific descriptions. But of course it was not the whites who made those threats but the Hispanic aggressors who are filled with resentment and hatred for “Anglo” Americans. If they only knew how much of “their” “Aztlan” was actually owned by Asians…Japanese own something approaching 60% of downtown Los Angeles is it? And all those Vietnamese in Westminster, once a Mexican barrio…and the Chinese, and Russians and Armenians and, well the list goes on. But land grabs throughout history rarely rely upon facts for justification, but myth and prejudice and popular force. From the video clips posted by Charles Kirby were plainly and all too graphically evident the violent, reverse racist reconquista attitude prevalent among many of the Latino, Hispanic, Chicano, Mexican-American (whatever is the preferred dialectic of name these days?). That more objective coverage by Kirby belies your claims on this site that the pro-American protestors were the trouble-makers. Some in the Hispanic crowd were actually calling out “Death to rednecks!” not only racist a statement in its use of ethnic slur but criminal in its violent threat! What hypocrites you folks have become, false and shoddy in your myths as in your politics. Sinverguenzas y tontos! And the assault of an elderly woman! The only way to deal with people such as this is with brutal force. Too bad President Bush isn’t willing to be as “fuerte, feo y formal” with the Mexican agitators as he is with the Iraqis.


i love art
Written by SPARC Guest
on 2005-06-07

ummm i wanna contact for murals !!!! i am an student at LATTC ummm my email adress is arthur_r@asianavenue.com


Hellfire USA
Written by SPARC Guest
on 2005-06-04

Lies and distortions and proganda…nothing more. Anyone at the rally knew exactly who the racists and hatemongers were – the 300 or so Mexican separatists who showed their hate and contempt for te laws and culture of the United States – who stomped on an American flag, yelled racist epithets all day long at the patriotic Americans who came to voice their opinions in a peaceful manner. It was these hateful Mexican hordes who attacked a 66 year old woman and who donned ski masks and facial coverings to take on a terrorist appearance.


Better before YOU came
Written by SPARC Guest
on 2005-06-03

I’ll tell you, California was better before the latino hordes started flooding into it by the millions. Just ask anybody who lived in Los Angeles just 25 years ago, and the cesspool its turned into nowadays.
Can you stop it from raining!!! I don’t


Written by SPARC Guest
on 2005-05-28

reality scaring alot of people specially these so called save our state people. But sooner or later they had to face it. “La Verdad Duele”(The truth hurts). Good looking out Judith and supporters. This is only a grain of sand.


FINALLY !!!!!
Written by SPARC Guest
on 2005-05-27

OUR FELLOW BLACKS HAVE MANY STRONG LEADERS. MLK, MALC.X,J.JACKSON,ALSHARP,MAXINE WAT. FINALLY MY FELLOW BROWN LADY JUDY BACA !!! KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK, AND REMEMBER IT WAS 40 RACISTS TO 500+ GOOD PEOPLE !!! THE DAY THE BROWN & BLACK PEOPLE GET THE STUPIDITY ON THE STREETS OVER WITH , IT WILL BE THE WHITE SUPREMACISTS (THAT INCLUDES LAW ENFORMENT) GREATEST FEAR!!!


sad to hear this news
Written by Claire Bergen
on 2005-05-25

I am sad to hear that SPARC and its mission have come under attack in the wake of SOS’s targeting of the Baldwin Park mural. In my experience of taking Judy Baca’s tour of the Great Wall of Los Angeles, and later as a volunteer at SPARC, I saw a nuanced, wide-reaching approach to intercultural relations and conflict resolution through art. I developed a great amount of respect for Judy’s approach to her work, which reflects an understanding of and respect for communal memory – that of any community with which she happens to be working on a particular project – like few others that I have been exposed to.

I hope that SPARC comes away from this controversy strengthened.


Indian or Mexican?
Written by SPARC Guest
on 2005-05-19

“This land was mexican once, was Indian always and Is, and will be again”

Okay I’m have Indian from Arizona what tribe is my question? now americans were is my money I been trying to get somewhere with this! I’m half mexican too so that means this art by judy baca affects the americans then you should left the land to us the indians and mexicans and we won’t be going through this.


Let’s smell the coffee America! (DELETED)
Written by SPARC Guest (DELETED) on 2005-05-20
THIS COMMENT WAS DELETED. OBSCENE LANGUAGE IS NOT PERMITTED.
Moderator.


The piece of art
Written by SPARC Guest
on 2005-05-19

I will like to thank Ms. Judy Baca for you monument. I have something for you Don’t let no one bring your dreams, your thoughts and expression down. I once learn from America these words “we have the freedom of speech, this is a free country” We are these words now? Is it because it comes from a Mexican? or because Arnold has hammer against Mexicans that now they are against us? No matter what they wan’t they wan’t to call it Art, racism or whatever, they have to be realistic WE the mexicans are taking over!! Don’t get me wrong I’m not racism but, we have to understand that if it wasn’t for those borders the Americans place we could been mexican-americans. Now if you look around you us the mexicans, chicanos, latinos,cubanos,puerto riquenos etc.. are the one’s that make america stay strong. The hard working people field workers, farm workers. What have we done to you America for not to accept us? The only thing we want is for us to have the same rights, a better future for ourselves and children. For them to have the opportunity to become a “orgullo Hispano” This land is our land taken from us we don’t have no hate or want war. We just wan’t to have a share. Yes what we did was wrong stomping on the flag etc..but, when are we going to raise our heads and say I’m and Mexican. When are we goint to stop living in fear of the border patrol, the Texas killers and the words that always seperate us from America. Let me mention a few words wetbags, bean eaters and tortillas. Let’s remember the word engrave in the monument “It was better before they came” Who? The mexicans? Lets focus on If we never came the crop will spoiled, the restaurants will close and the rich people’s home will be a mess,, I just wan’t to say these last words “We are not starting a war against America but, it’s ENOUGH we have rights,laws that protect us and this is our land” Believe us the immigrants go through alot to get here to live the dream. What dream if we are always stomp by some americans or get deport, can have a license or plan as simple is the color that don’t help because you are MEXICAN, I should know the border is what divides me from my MEXICO!

Senoritazteca


NOT ART. Politics.
Written by SPARC Guest on 2005-05-19 05:19:35
The Baca piece is more politics than art. Artists can easily avoid this kind of response if they avoid disguising political statements that advocate threats to the territories of the US behind artistic freedom.

The numbers listed in this piece are wrong. SOS had about 50 people that were faced by around 500. Once again a lie is spread to make a point.

Another big lie is from Baca. She has told the press this art is not seditious and that SOS is anti-American.

A closer look at her website illuminates statements contrary to her recent press statements.

“My land and memory pieces are my attempt to spiritually reclaim land illegally acquired from Hispanos and indigenous peoples of the Southwestern United States.”

Those that would equate artistic freedom with an angry, hate filled mob of illegal aliens threatening Americans that are exercising their free speech rights and rights to assemble are terribly misguided.

America has done more for the arts than any other nation on earth. You should support those that are trying to defend her from rampant illegal immigration and loss of territory.

Before the angry mob at Baldwin park starts patting theirselves on the back, be advised… America is waking and our eyes are focused on the occupied territory of Baldwin Park.

SOS was successful in illustrating the danger that is growing there to our land, our rights, and the Unite States of America!
Remember, SOS called this protest


Written by SPARC Guest
on 2005-05-19

SOS, who says it’s about illegal immigration, called the protest, against an artwork that was not about immigration. It’s SOS, not anyone else, who is playing the “race card”. It’s SOS that’s creating this racist conflict.

The loud response *was* intimidating, and threatening. However, consider that SOS, on its site, publically attacked several groups. These words and actions are direct provocations against very specific parties. No amount of lengthy smoke-and-mirrors rhetoric about the divisiveness of Chicano nationalism, or Judy Baca’s alleged politics overrides the fact that SOS is the antagonist in this situation, and anything that happened was, first and foremost, a response to this antagonism.


SOS are Brownshirts
Written by SPARC Guest
on 2005-05-19

I just saw it on the SOS site. The leader, Joe, is unapologetic about his use of racially charged rhetoric and conflict to grow his organization. He intends to make it more militant and intimidating. This was the organizing strategy of the Nazi brownshirts, or stormtroops, who were a large, organized street force that eventually started to terrorize regular Germans.

People of good conscience, including those who are sympathetic to the SOS’s stated position on immigration, should shun this group until it whithers away, or is rendered irrelevant.

Those who are opposed, we must make our own political networks to preserve the values of diversity, history, integration, and cooperation. We must stop groups like SOS in their tracks.


That’s right a Chicano Mayor of LA
Written by SPARC Guest
on 2005-05-18

SOS- if you can’t beat’em…join ’em. Ha! Ha! a victory for “Los Angeles” accent on the “o”. And for the the alleged Baldwin Park resident who made the obsurd comparison of the monument to the Berlin Wall…you probably have never bothered exploring the city beyond your house and didn’t realize we had this in our city until the backwards SOS group high lighted it…Thanks 🙂 Now we have more support for freedom of speech and public art than ever before.

SOS we spent $250,000 to allow you your first ammendment right to protest in our city…now move on, move out and realize that you benifit most from low-wage immigrant labor (with or without papers)
Ciao 😉


American
Written by SPARC Guest
on 2005-05-18

In the videos that I saw, counter protesters were stomping the American Flag and making threats against SOS. Let’s no forget the 66 year old woman who was hit by a water bottle from the anti-American counter protestors. One person’s art is another’s trash. SOS is not an anti-immigrant organization; it is an anti-ILLEGAL immigrant Organization. Immigrants are welcome once they have gone through the legal channels to become an American. THANK YOU SOS FOR STANDING UP FOR AMERICA.


SOS was more than right
Written by SPARC Guest
on 2005-05-18

Unfortunately, the events of 5/14/2005 prove that SOS was right.
The divisive, Aztlan reconquista inspired messages on Baca’s “artwork” were proven by the vicious hatemonger Mexican nationalist groups stomping on the US flag, cursing and attacking US citizens.
Shame on the City of Baldwin Park for spending taxpayer funds on this monument. Judy Baca’s own statement on her website indicates “My land and memory pieces are my attempt to spiritually reclaim land illegally acquired from Hispanos and indigenous peoples of the Southwestern United States.”
Any question in anybody’s mind, as to what the messages on the arch are referring to (was Mexican once … will be again?).
If there is, you probably also believe that Jimmy Swaggart wnet to a motel with a hooker to pray.
I am a resident of Baldwin Park, and find the messages on the arch a slap in the face of the American taxpayer. In what it stands for, the arch is as much art as the Berlin wall was, and deserves about the same fate.


Written by Diane Chavez
on 2005-05-18
To Eddie Torres:
Mexico claimed the American southwest for only 27 years?
Why do you have a right to it?


Written by SPARC Guest
on 2005-05-18

If America doesn’t wake up to the racist and hostile foreigners in the U.S. today (along with their offspring).
Then Americans deserve to lose the United States!
And if you think I am playing around
simply go to the http://www.saveourstate.org website
and watch the video that the National media refuses to reveal to the American public!
It will sicken you to know what our Representative have allowed turned loose among us.
Join the Minutemen!


This is Still the U.S.A., II
Written by SPARC Guest
on 2005-05-17

I would first like to take issue with “machetero from minnesota,” who speaks of his oppressed ancestry and promotes a conflict that would rend this land “asunder.” Those comments, combined with the writer’s name, bespeak a threatening stance. A threatening, belligerent stance as typified by the goon squad called out by Judy Baca last Saturday. So let’s be clear. YOU are the ones who have drawn the line in the sand with your blatant intolerance of white people. One of your members proudly displayed a sign that said, “White Trash.” But, IMO, it was not very artistic, nor were most of the signs at the little mecha melee.

I was born and raised in Los Angeles. I attended schools here and I work in a university. I remember when we did “all get along,” without undue racial or ethnic consciousness, except for the necessary phases of the civil rights movement. All colors were friends with each other.

I remember when Judy Baca had Anglos working at SPARC and exhibited artists regardless of ethnicity. Now, she seems to be part of the “ethnocentric is better” movement. It’s like regressing, going back in time. It’s like choosing ignorance. Her murals and “public art” depict a revisionist history in which white faces are absent, unless they are communists or union workers.

As I look through the comments made here, frankly I see a lot of people who are no longer interested in getting along, who think of whites like myself in derogatory terms. Maybe they are recent immigrants, maybe not.

I have always known people of Mexican and Central American ancestry who are solidly American, some of whom have proudly defended our country in the military, many of whom have kept our city humming by doing their daily jobs and treating all people the same. I know individuals of Chumash and other Native American ancestries who also go about their business, as Americans, as human beings. They know they benefit from the blessings of living in the U.S.A. and so they don’t feel sorry for themselves for being brown and they don’t hate others for being white.

Judy Baca has created this divisiveness with her monument that fosters a “people of color” self-righteousness and supremacy. Being a person of color does not make you more saintly or pure, so just get off that crock and get real. Ms. Baca’s self-importance is evident from miles away. And, to think, someone who is suppposedly a “professor” in our universities calls out the type of people who will physically attack those they hate, based on race propaganda. I truly hope that someone’s photos or video footage reveals who the attacker was. And, what is the deal with wearing bandanas over your faces and the very un-original obscene signage. Ms. Baca, you need to take a look at what a hypocrite you are, spouting your holier than thou “artist’s statement” and inciting the type of action that occurred last Saturday. You have found a way to make others act out your own anger and self-pity. That is the sum total of your art.


Written by felipe garza
on 2005-05-17

Amazing how some people don’t realize what’s happening around them. The DANZA mural was recently reported in Austin,TEX like it was a new anti-american mural. Well, too bad for them. Keep up the good work.


Baldwin Park-my home town
Written by SPARC Guest
on 2005-05-17

Having been raised in this community I just want to add that I am firm on saying Mr. Turner is misinterpreting his implication that immigration is illegal. Just because you are an immigrant not does not mean you’re illegal. Immigrants were given permits towork. Do we need togo back to read history? My birth certificate indicates “Caucasian” and I have spanish ancestry,mexican too, born in Chinatown on St. Patrick’s Day at theFranch Hospital. So how multicultural is that!!! I think we should teach our children values.We are the “United States” ofAmerica!!!! I will protest to have the monument remain. Judy Baca is a very wellknown artist and has had much recognition for all the beauty in her art. I wish to make further comments. Thank you and you have a beautiful day, Patricia Galindo Alvarado :):)


National security is THE issue. And ille
Written by SPARC Guest
on 2005-05-17

You people complaining about the protests of SOS so consistently overlook several glaring points.

Illegal aliens and legalized, hard-working immigrants are NOT the same thing. But you seem to enjoy confusing the two. Why do you believe it’s your God-given right to break our laws?? Why do you defend people who thumb their noses at those who come into our country the proper way? Why do you think you have some special right to just walk right into our country? Because you’re Latin-American?? That seems to be the prevailing wisdom in these posts.

Yes, some of the people protesting illegal aliens and this monument are racists. I’ve read some of the posts on SOS’s web site, and some of the people there do have some issues. But all of us are not hateful of you. What we hate is disrespect for our country and the idea that we should have no border controls especially in a post-9/11 world.

And that brings me to another, vital point. Several individuals of Iraqi descent were caught trying to sneak across the US-Mexican border recently. Why don’t you who bitch and moan about anti-Latino racism ever mention that?? Terrorism is a very real threat, and our porous border is possibly the most vital national security issue we have today. But all you can see is your own self-centered worldview that somehow it’s because we all just hate you. Get over it.

And that leads me to my next point. Get off the race wagon already. It’s old. It’s counter-productive. And it clouds you from seeing the harder issues here. Honestly, with all this complaining about racism, you sound like whiney children who can only see that their candy’s being taken away, with no understanding of the deeper issues at stake.

This isn’t about YOU, personally. It’s about protecting our nation from nuts who want to harm us, from draining states’ economies from overburden (NM, CA), etc. But silly me. I really ought to be more concerned with foreigners’ perceived rights to walk in whenever they wish than with some nut who wants to nuke NYC in the name of Allah (which, by the way, would hurt a whole lot of Latinos).

Get over yourselves. Start looking beyond your own, self-centered POVs. Stop using racism as a crutch or an excuse to justify other bad behavior, like the breaking of our laws. Oh… and speaking of racism, like I’ve seen some racist postings over at saveourstate.org, I’ve seen a few here, too. Remove the log from your own eyes before you worry about the splinter in your brother’s.

If you want to come to my nation to work, to become a productive member of society and maybe even become an American (i.e., learn English, adapt to the culture without abandoning your heritage), you’re welcome by me. Shoot, I’m honored when someone wants to become an American. But don’t gloss over criminal, disorderly behavior, and don’t expect us to leave our nation’s doorways wide open when Usama’s disciples want to send us all to hell. And don’t expect us to NOT be offended when you brag about being the majority and imply that you’re going to turn CA into some subset of Mexico, culturally speaking. I wouldn’t expect Mexico or Puerto Rico or Colombia to change for me. Don’t expect us to change for you. You’re in our home. Be respectful and you’ll be welcome. Well, by most of us, anyway.

Okay… rant about whatta racist I am. As Depeche Mode once said, it’s almost predictable.


artist Laurel Paley
Written by SPARC Guest
on 2005-05-16

The bigoted, inflammatory, and HIGHLY misinformed response of “SOS” to the work of socially responsive and globally transformative artists like Judith Baca sickens me. It is indicative of the low level of discourse in the USA today.

Nowadays, HOWLING one’s point of view for the media— in simplistic, jingo-istic soundbytes —substitutes for thoughtful exploration and debate. How frightening. Amerika has arrived, kicking and screaming.

But hey—
why bother to think when you can intimidate, dominate, and destroy instead?

Hang on, Judy.


Caron Atlas
Written by SPARC Guest
on 2005-05-16

I write to send my support to Judy Baca and SPARC and to all the people of Baldwin Park who are a part of this artwork. I send my hope for a resilient and resistant democracy that can overcome the fears and attacks of such false “patriots” as SOS.


Illegal is Illegal
Written by SPARC Guest
on 2005-05-16

I don’t know what part of “Illegal” you guys don’t get. They’re not here legally so they should be deported. How hard is that to comprehend?


we must fight against racism
Written by SPARC Guest
on 2005-05-16

it was really offending that people like “save our state” are doing this kind of things, that kind of art will open our minds, me must understand that we are brothers and it does not matter the color of skin, creed and religion. and this acts only motivate us to fight for freedom and equitative treatment. thanks judy, i’m mexican and i dont live in usa, but i have family there


Truth, Reconciliation and Consequences
Written by SPARC Guest
on 2005-05-16

Before the Mayflower was even built, my Spanish and Indians ancestors lived in what is now part of the US. Our land was conquered by force and our culture suppressed; these are historical FACTS. We need more monuments that stress our shared experienced of loss and oppression, as the only way in which true reconciliation can take place.

However and sadly to say, SOS and FAIR and other anti-immigrant groups represent the unspoken sentiments of the vast majority of Whites in America. There is no spirit of reaching out, any desire to acknowledge the past so we can then move on to the future.

One thing is for sure, that we as Latinos, as people of color, should not take it any more, and if there is the alternative to acquiescence is a conflict that renders this land asunder, then so be it. Basta ya!

Machetero en Minnesota


A Different Mirror
Written by c. lopez
on 2005-05-16

“Art is not a mirror to reflect reality, but a hammer with which to shape it.” Bertolt Brecht

Baca’s public art work provides a model for the community-based reclaiming of sites of memory. Danza Indigenas actively remembers not only the indigenous peoples of this land, but also the historical context of conquest that was ultimately about the erasure of histories. The power of Baca’s public art production and community-based process is evident by the vision it inspires for social change. I am a witness to this power and it has shaped my reality.


SOS Peacefull…PLEASE!!!
Written by SPARC Guest
on 2005-05-15

SOS is far from peacefull. They sound more like a new millenium faction of the KKK. It’s easy to target the most marginalized group in any society. The complexities of immigration to any nation include economic hardship, historical ties,and not to mention war. Perhaps if the US governments would not have invaded, provoked or backed dictatorships in countries, like Vietnam, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Guatemala the influx of immigration in the last 30 years would be different. As the US government destroys more and more communities in Iraq, Afghanistan and soon Iran the SOS group will pick a new scapegoat. On the topic of war…if SOS would have simply driven around Baldwin Park and neighboring communities, you would have seen the hundres of American and US Marine flags hanging over people’s houses. That’s right, it is our children who are fighting the rich-whiteman’s war so that you can drive your gas-guzzling SUVS. Hey if our government leader’s are such liberators why aren’t we in Sudan right now…after all there is a genocide going on over there. Oh I forgot, they have no natural resources for this administration to take.

The titles and credentials Dr. Baca and thousands of Chicanos and Latinos have poses a threat to backward groups like SOS. The 2000 Census revealed that Latinos are the majority population of California. This number reflects those documented residents and citizens. Now imagine that number including all the undocumented…WOW!! History is repeating itself…but don’t worry SOS we know and understand the meaning of the term, “Majority rules with minority rights,” which of course your group now falls under the latter.
See ya – PEACE


Ban judy bacca
Written by SPARC Guest
on 2005-05-15

Lets see according to Yahoo I can’t express hatefull abusive or any of the other wonderfull things this this judy baca did with her arch.
Lets get this straight mexicans for the most part have proven their comming here to better their lives. mexico is unable to help their own citizens without aid from the rest of the world, and every day california gets a little more like mexico. So maybe in another 50 years or so they can have it, but for now judy baca should loose any teaching credientials, state funds or any other US govenrment sponsored tidbits she may get…As punishment for acts promoting one race or people over the other.


People, politics, art
Written by SPARC Guest
on 2005-05-15

Maybe this is what art is supposed to do.
Maybe this is how art becomes something more that concrete and steel, paint on a canvas


Written Suzanne Lacy
on 2005-05-15

The timing of this attack on a monument which has stood uncontested, even beloved by its community for over a decade is indeed suspicious. Save Our State’s protest is clearly politically motivated–seeking, in the current xenophobic climate, to rise to visibility through targeting art. In a country where art is removed from schools to futher our misunderstanding, and commerce is the measure of our cultural “best”, attacking art is a cheap shot undertaken for the purpose of gaining attention. Where have we seen this strategy before? Shades of Jesse Helms– We know from the last culture wars that Helms consciously selected Mapplethorpe as a means to re-energize his electoral campaign. What does SOS have to gain here? As an anglo american and native californian I feel no threat in the changing california demographics…why should I? what is all this fuss really about?


Written by Avie Guerra
on 2005-05-15

As the years continue, the racism we as a Chicano people face continues;therefore we must continue to march on for our God given Rights! There is nothing racist about Judy Baca’s Art. The SAVE OUR State people are more than a little big mix-up. Avie Guerra, Oxnard, Ventura County , Califas


This is Still the U.S.A.
Written by SPARC Guest
on 2005-05-15
Through the generosity of Americans, Judy Baca has been able to create whatever art she wished. And now, even though there are racist anti-American quotes on one of her art works, she would suppress any dissension from those views being peacefully expressed by SOS.

The people that she summoned out to Baldwin Park yesterday were no less than thugs, with obscene signage and displaying the flag of another country. But, oh, she protests, this is nothing to do with “reconquista.”

Considering the sad racist remarks above of Eddie Torres and the type of demonstration by supporters of Ms. Baca’s “art,” your agenda to create racial conflicts is clear.


“Historical Amnesia”
Written by SPARC Guest on 2005-05-14
Hello Professor Baca-

I had the honor of “un-learning” history when I graduated from Sierra Vista HS in Baldwin Park in 1994 and went onto UCLA.

The course work I took in Chicana/o Studies with scholars like you, Dr. Valenzuela and Gaspar De Alba truly empowered me to feel proud of who I am, embrace the richness of our ancestors of all races, and to transcend that to the community around me. I also learned that mainstream US society suffers from “Historical Amnesia” and nothing proves that point more than hateful and mean-spirited organizations like SOS. I am now a high school history teacher in Baldwin Park and was so proud to stand along side many of my students as we did our civic duty of defending history, artistic expression, and freedom speech at today’s demonstration.

I really hope that today’s experience serves as a catalyst to unite all present day residents of Baldwin Park of all ethnic and religious backgrounds against hate, racism, and divisive groups like SOS and Minute-Men.

Thank you for your presence today!!!

Araceli Castillo-Parrales 🙂


In Defense of Art
Written by SPARC Guest
on 2005-05-14

It is outrageous that, once again, a nuanced and powerful public work of art must face an attack by a small, mean-spirited, and vocal minority.
Artistic expression is an essential part of our ability to engage the widest possible community in dialogue about difficult issues.
With commercial media’s continued encroachment (radio, TV, billboards) on our common spaces, public art must be strongly defended!
Portland, Oregon


Save Our Country
Written by SPARC Guest
on 2005-05-14

It is a sad day in America when an artist has to be muted because of some small minded people in southern California that are afraid to loose their grip and majority in the state. What are they afraid of? That people other then themselves will actually have a voice? I think Ms. Baca is being used and abused and this battle should be fought on the basis of Freedom of Speech and Censorship, and leave the racist political issues aside. I sincerely feel for you Ms. Baca and hope that this madness stops.

Hope to see you at the rally.


Dr. Maurice Cayem
Written by admin
on 2005-05-13

Dear Council Members and Mayor of Baldwin Park,
I am writing as a long-time resident of southern California to express my
support for the work of artist Judy Baca. Please read her statement, if you
have not already done so, at:

http://www.sparcmurals.org/sparcone/

In this statement the artist destroys the specious lies being propagated by
the racist group called saveourstate.org on their website. Saveourstate.org
is making inflammatory statements which are being used to incite violence
and vandalism against innocent people and property in your city.

The monument is an expression of Free Speech and as such represents one of
the fundamental birthrights of our nation. Saveourstate is entitled to its
opinion, but to make threats and attempt to interfere with others’
expression of their Free Speech is un-American and possibly illegal. Should
any damage result to the monument, or any injuries occur in the commission
of racially motivated hate-crimes, I would hope your city would seek FBI
assistance and take civil action against the saveourstate organizers who
have made it clear that they mean to harm the City of Baldwin Park and the
Constitutionally protected rights of all its, and California’s, citizens.

Thank you for your attention to this matter,
sincerely,
Terry Burke
480 E. Del Mar
Pasadena CA 91101
626 796-5805

(for the record: I am of Irish-Welsh descent and am grateful to the people
of Indigenous and Mexican descent for their forbearance with me personally
and people of my race for their kindness in the face of a history of
genocide and repression in allowing me/us to share this land with them.)


Thank you for your gift to Los Angeles
Written by Scott Reuter
on 2005-05-13

Hello Judy,

I just wanted to write and support you as you are being attacked by Save our State, the racist anti-immigration group. I know that you and SPARC have weathered attacks based in racism and ignorance for decades, but I’m sure that this doesn’t make it any easier.

As an American of Anglo descent, I cringed when I read the Save Our State website. My first thoughts when I hear people expressing anti-immigrant sentiments are, “where are your ancestors from?”

Various members of my own family immigrated from Europe, starting as far back as the 1600’s, and most were here in North America by the 19th century. All of them were beat here by indigenous peoples by some several thousands of years.

By what right do we as U. S. citizens deny anyone the right to come here, or exist here if they were here before us? The myth of Manifest Destiny is being deconstructed as I write this, and I look forward to a time when we can participate in an honest, open dialogue over what America has been up to now, and what we can – all together – make it into in the future. I know from having seen your works of art, and having heard your inspiring words, that your work is about communication with all people, and not just any one group.

The ugly racism that we see in the media should be collected and preserved, so that it isn’t forgotten. I hope that some day we will go to a museum to see it instead of having to hear it on the radio, or read it in the paper.

Here is a very appropriate quote from Jane Jacobs, writing in her latest book “Dark Age Ahead” about the various signs of decline in a civilization:

“Cultural xenophobia is a frequent sequel to a society’s decline from cultural vigor. Someone has aptly called self-imposed isolation a fortress mentality. Armstrong describes it as a shift from faith in logos, reason, with its future-oriented spirit, “always . . . Seeking to know more and to extend . . . areas of competence and control of the environment,” to a mythos, meaning conservatism that looks backward to fundamentalist beliefs for guidance and a worldview.

A fortress or fundamentalist mentality not only shuts itself off from dynamic influences originating outside but also, as a side effect, ceases influencing the outside world.”

I’m sorry to say that I agree with Jane Jacobs that this is the direction many in our nation are trying to steer us in now. Groups such as Save Our State are the proof of it.

But I’m also confident that the creative people of the world of all backgrounds, working together to make a new future together, will write and paint and sculpt the story of humanity.

Thank you for the many gifts of art and truth that you’ve given to Los Angeles such as Danzas Indigenas and The Great Wall, those you’ve created in other American cities, and around the world, such as your World Wall project.

I’ll see you at the counter-demonstration in Baldwin Park.

Best Regards,


Beautiful Art
Written by SPARC Guest
on 2005-05-13

It sickens me that Professor Baca would at any time have to defend herself to anyone. These groups wish to remove this monument as their duty as “americans.” However, by ignoring the rights of folks indigenous to this land, they are denouncing any person of color as anything but American. What gives them the right? I guess what they are trying to say is that because my skin is brown, my voice is less important. Where is the justice?


Written by Robbin Henderson
on 2005-05-13

The notion that when one disagrees with the content of speech or imagery, one has the right to silence the speaker or destroy the work, is totalitarian. If we revere our democracy, we are obliged to protect freedom of expression. I find it particularly offensive that a group from another region takes it upon themselves to threaten to destroy the expression of the citizens of Baldwin Park as presented in Judy Baca’s public monument. I am deeply ashamed that, in the eyes of the rest of the world, our nation appears to be dominated by pre-rational citizens on the national, state and local levels.What has become of civil discourse?


Echos of “his-story”
Written by SPARC Guest on 2005-05-13 11:37:04
By: Eddie Torres

This attack against the social-political expression of the majority (Chicano/Latino) by the minority (white) is a clear example of a cultural demographic shift-taking place in CA. This obsolete way of thinking by the minority clearly reflects the desperate actions of an archaic, transient population. With time, their presence will be eliminated from history, after all, today they’re outnumbered 11 to 1.

In the spirit of our ancestors…resistance, empowerment and autonomy!!


Written by Nancy Buchanan
on 2005-05-13

I am saddened that, after so many years of work to make contemporary art more accessible, narrow minded individuals lacking the patience to consider a COMPLEX meaning can garner so much attention. It is important for everyone involved in this issue to insist that discussion be extensive and reasoned, not fueled by knee-jerk passions. Is this the result of a nation too used to platitudes without content?

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