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Show L AL) 1 WINTER 1994 haos or community. This was the theme of this year's 10th anniversary of activities commemorating Martin Luther King Jr. Human Rights Day at the University of Utah. The question raised, Chaos or Community, will remain appropriate long after Black History Month has come and gone, and certainly beyond the life- times of any of us. Our world seems hopelessly rotten the entangled in a widening web of violence: Our televisions and radios feed us a distasteful banquet of violence from around the globe: In Bosnia-Hercegovina, in the West Bank and Gaza strip, and now in southern Mexico. We are then served an overdressed dessert of violence here at home: violence in our streets, in our homes, on the job and off. An entire generation of young persons is being social- ized into a world where violence has replaced bread as their daily sustenance. And what do we do? How do we respond? These are questions that will define this generation to history — A generation of chaos or of community. In a world of dissenting voices and changing ethical values allowed and power ourselves voices—voices to structures, be heard that can no longer we have by a few articulate the dismay felt in our new democracy of diversity. Examples the nation have caused us to look away from the sources of social injustice for the solutions to “the gang problem.” In the process we have abandoned the other victims: the gang members. Gang members!? Victims? Yes. Gang members too. - The prevalence of ganes in our cities and towns nas caused us to paradoxically crime: The crime without Poverty. attempt to solve two are inextricably linked, addressing the source of that but have become Pob real meaning of a non-violent separate in the eyes struggle: Choice. The choice that an individual or a group of individuals must possess to act non-violently in the face of violent repression. Many persons in the history of this country . were denied choice, denied the choice between violence and non-violence. We are caused to wonder if Sitting Bull or Washington chose the path of war in the sense that they forsake another option. When the dominant society removes all possibility of choice for the subservient, then violence becomes the only available option. On January 1, 1994, a quiet clue was dropped i:in the previously little known are easier to come by than solutions. Daily reports on the still expanding gang scare around of non-violent struggle for racial equity here in the United States, we are too quickly forgetting this state of Chiapas in southern Mexico. The rolling thunder of gunfire and the horrifying cries of the dying have been muted in our society by our traditional view of violence as an illegitimate — a view which lets us so easily look the other way in the previous civil wars of Central America. A people denied voice, denied food, education, medical services, etc., have played the last cardiin the deck: violence. Here in the United states, some might argue, we E all ss - As part of our uniquely American mythology, we have often sought to judge a person by the color of their skin, by the money in their pockets, and even by the length of their hair. Time only option remaining. This world was carelessly sculpted by the cold hands of colonialism, and if its beauty is to ever be realized we must become the hands which reshape it. Dare to question, dare to dream.. WE have a dream: A dream of a time when no person be nored to violate God's commandment, “Thou shalt not kill,” to enjoy their basic human rights. A dream of a. time when no persons shall be everyone has choice. Our constitutional democra- _ traded upon for the profits of the few. cy seems filled with alternatives to violence: The We dream of a time when society” S failures.. to right to vote, to demonstrate, the right to peaceits children are as criminal as the child's crimes ably ; assemble. But we do not guarantee the choicagainst its society. E A dream of a time when there exists no THEM > es which allow oné to exercise their rights: Jobs, Education, Justice! A person without these things and E US. Carla de un estudiante I would like to congratulate you on this wonderful creation. The Chicanos/as and Latinos/as need a newpaper that deals with more than ever, it is important to reach out to our o for input. ture. In the Salt Lake City area, As a concerned Chicano, 1 would like to express how great it is to see a publication like this in Salt Lake City. In Denver, where I the population is growing. Now, was born, there are a few such issues about us as a whole, not as an example to degrade our cul- AZTLAN'S MOST DANGEROUS come- publications, and I have read them. They, too, are helping their community. Good luck in a future. Vince E Earyl Childhood Development Salt Lake Community College : dy troupe, The Chicano Secret AS ER Service is a guerilla comedy troupe in the spirit of the Chicano political movement. The "C/S/S” mixes political satire, poetry, impersonation, rap £ hip hop dance into a MIL iS id dl y stylized fast-paced show. From the Brown Underground, these vatos ? seize the stage 8. make it their own. They are on a mission. ! VAT NE | Guerilleros de la Pluma Editorial Board o Editor in Chief: Chair: > | Layout: o e Greg Marcial Jason Settle : Assistant Chair: Karen Salas Wheeler AS , ] Translation: Alexandra Davis : E Secretary: Kay McDonough Marco Leavitt Copy Editor: Staff: y has worn away the idea of predestination for all except the violent. Our society still views violence as deviant and as a CHOICE. Our nation, and indeed our planet is a powder keg of unvented hostilities with fuse lit, every day inching closer to a seemingly unavoidable doom. Societies which can claim any significant level of ethnic purity are now the extreme minority. As events like Chiapas, and the Los Angeles riots of 1992 illustrate, violence is sometimes the - Jacinta Ramos Roy Mayoral Tomás Martínez Martial Gonzales Beverly López Parra Zaida Yvonne Ahumada Chad Alger Carlos Linares Oscar Aguilar Mateo Zavala-Brown Angela Romero Impresso la Universidad de Utah hs a e Erik Martínez : E Faculty Advisors: Jeff Garcilazo Theresa Martínez Design 8 Production: Dave Thometz Jim Geddes o AE e O is a quarterly Chicana/Chicano student publication foundand is recognized by the publication council of the University ta The views expressed in Venceremos represent the views of individual writers; and do not necessarily reflect the views of the ASUU or the regents of the University of Utah Send all correspondence to: : Venceremos 240 Union Bldg. O |
