the Unapologetic Mexican

ON JULY FIFTEEN OF 2008, Rhode Island Republican Governor Donald L. Carcieri signed an executive "Illegal Immigration Control Order" [pdf] into law. It begins with some storytelling.

WHEREAS, most Rhode Islanders and most Americans are descendants of immigrants from all regions of the world

Stop. Most are, true. And you know who aren't "descendants of immigrants from all regions of the world"?

Mexicans, for one. We are not "immigrants" on this land. We are Indians who have been invaded and occupied (just as Iraq has) by Imperialist Euro-forces, and who eventually blended with our greedy, self-justifying, resource-thirsting overlords by means of rape, occupation, an eventual perverse desire to blend and be like the rulers, and in time simply because we've all been living on the same land since then.

Not immigrants. Indians. People indigenous to the continent long before map lines were drawn by invading forces.

Farmers. Workers. Campesinos. For the longest time, we (this is how my nanita and abuelo made their living with my father) have been migrating farmers on this land, for thousands of years we have been quien lo trabajo esta tierra. And for all this time, we have been moving about with the seasons and the flow, just like rivers, just like pollen, just like water through the soil.

It was los perfumados with their WHEREAS clauses who blew in here with butchery and deception and greed and now want to tell stories about opportunity and ownership.

SOME OF MY regular readers (I do not, at this point, necessarily refer to the bran-eating amongst us, though they are a well-stirred crew, I'm sure) remember the day back in August I casually (you should have seen me, I was sipping a mint julep as I typed) posted on the MTV Choose or Lose '08 Vlogger competition. Others came to this ongoing Chronicle of Nezua when I created a short video auditioning to represent Oregon for the 2008 Presidential Media Hellfest Cycle (that is the proper name, qué no?). And still others joined our Videolicious adventure when I was named one of the three finalists for my state.

Well, I'm sure you can tell I am not winding up this big delivery to announce that I lost! So here is the day I say ¡Órale vatos! for I am now officially operating as the Oregon Street Team Vlogging Citizen Journalist Beauty Queen. Or will be from January 7 to mid-November of '08, at which point I will accept the inevitable invitation to model the next iteration of the iPhone. Anyway, all blushing and preening aside, I am very excited about the larger platform and greater exposure, and I plan to use it to bring as many gorgeous pixels to as many computer and television screens as I can, perhaps sandwiching a few factoids in there as well. Please see me as your personal man on the inside. Of Oregon, too. And who will be sending moss-scented missives out through the mighty mouth of MTV Vloggerland. In fact, if you live in Oregon and have local news, please get in touch. (And Nike, can't you see my face on a sneaker, come on! WRITE MUH PEEPLES! We'll call it the "Sweatshop Stomper," no? We can make it out of hemp. COME BACK!!!)