Its been a hundred years since the Mexican Revolution of 1910. What does this mean to me and thousands more like me who are Americans of Mexican decent?
To me, it means getting back to the books I studied on Mexican and Chicano history while a student at the University of Colorado at Denver. What I was reading and learning at the University had never been taught to me in elementary or high school and I was angry that it had taken me a life-time to discover my Mexican heritage.
Both my parents were born in the United States, but my grandmother Luz Lujan-Torres was born in Chihuahua, México in 1884. My grandmother was one of many who journeyed north during and after the Revolution and settled in Denver, Colorado in the Auraria neighborhood.
Today, as I ponder the history Im reading, my sentiments are that México has never recovered from the Spanish Conquest in the 14th and 15th centuries. Throughout Méxicos history, politics have taken different directions, some good but most often bad. México has always been divided by the rich and the poor. The Mexican Revolution of 1910 was the climax of a nation trying to survive under the dictatorship of Porfiro Díaz. He sold México out to foreign countries including the United States, who raped Méxicos land of all its natural resources and when they had no more use for México, they pulled out and left Méxicos economy in shambles. Millions of people lost their lives and their land during the Revolution and millions more fled north to escape the ravage. The flight from México has never ended as is evident in the new surge of Mexican immigrants today trying to cross the border. No wonder Arizona wants to ban Chicano/a Studies at the Universities. If ...