The greatest fear of people like Tom Tancredo, Joe Arpaio and the Minutemen is Latinos voting in large numbers, and exercising our voting rights. We’re very close to attaining a definitive level of political power in Arizona, Florida, Nevada and Colorado, just as we have done in California and New Mexico already. Soon, even in Texas, we’ll have the demographics and political power to decide the state’s government.

We need to mobilize and maximize our resources and voting participation in the following areas:

1. Registration. Massive Latino and other minority voter registration everywhere, especially in states such as New Mexico, Florida, Colorado, Nevada, Texas, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, Minnesota– and particularly in Arizona, for reasons detailed above.

2. Voter turnout. At present, Latinos have among the lowest voting levels of any group. That needs to change.

3. Ballots en español– by law now well-established for over a decade, ballots in any region of the country where a particular language is prevalent in the community, whether Spanish or Hawaiian or French, must be made available in that language in large numbers exceeding the count of registered voters. We have to ensure this is the case en nuestras comunidades.

We are on the verge of basically dominating the Arizona political establishment, just as we’ve done in California, and New Mexico, Florida and Nevada won’t be far behind. Soon, even Texas and Colorado will have a Latino political face. But we need to mobilize to bring this about. Y llevarlo a cabo es nuestro deber mas importante!

The birthing process is an exquisite mix of pain followed by joy, and I also see this as a metaphor for our people in the region today. Certainly in Arizona, where I hail from, this captures the mood exactly– the storm before the sun emerges, the hatred and racism against la gente by the Minutemen and other anti-Latino racists. It is a painful time of labor now, as we withstand the racism and malice of the bigots like the Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his henchmen, but it will be followed soon, likely within three years, by our rebirth and re-emergence as a people with respect and power in Arizona, as in the rest of the region. Today in Arizona, we bear the brunt of the Anglo imperialists who hate us and want to wipe out our people– tomorrow we hold the reins, and stand up for ourselves in a spirit of social and cultural coexistence.

BTW, just to spread the palabra to anyone out there– please, do your part to register your Latino and other minority hermanos and hermanas to vote, especially in states like Arizona, Florida and Colorado where we face such concentrated hatred against our people. Voter registration and high turnout in 2008 is the single most important step we can take to stand up for ourselves!

Y espero que todos mis hermanos y hermanas aquí se unen en los esfuerzos fomentar que nuestra gente ejercitan nuestro poder y derechos en las urnas. Nuestro día de fuerza viene pronto, todos nosotros tenemos que participar realizarlo! La lucha empieza!

While writing this (and clearly, when titling it) I was thinking over and over of birth. And how surprising it was to me that Xipe Totec was not a feminine god, because clearly, well…you said it. So I was looking through the post for ways to add that a child-bearing woman knows this entire story better than any, but the musician and editor in me couldn’t find a way to add it without throwing off the lingual/textual/wordish rhythms I had set up.

So I told myself that in the comments I’d have a chance to add it. But then came you and the fate of this post and took care of it. Thank you. And I’m glad you enjoyed it so much. I was hoping some would.

You spoke of the pain of childbirth. Having experienced the pain of bearing life three times, it is bliss in the moment of life’s manifestation.

We are collectively manifesting transformation, still in the egg ready to break free.

In light and love

Danielle