Face of Death in Cisco Kid

I recently caught an episode of The Cisco Kid, an old TV Western that aired before my time. If you're not familiar with the Kid, here's the story:

The Cisco KidThe Cisco Kid is a fictional character found in numerous film, radio, television and comic book series based on the fictional Western character created by O. Henry in his 1907 short story "The Caballero's Way," published in the collection Heart of the West, as well as in Everybody's Magazine, v17, July 1907. In movies and television, the Kid was depicted as a heroic Mexican caballero, even though he was originally a cruel outlaw.Face of Death--Season 3, Episode 6--aired Oct. 19, 1952. You can watch it here.

The basic plot:Cisco and Pancho try to avenge the murder of an archaeologist who was murdered when on the verge of discovering the tomb of an important Aztec.Details

** spoiler alert **



In a prologue cut from the version I saw, an Aztec priest named Quetzal leaves a treasure under the watchful gaze of a god-like "Face of Death."

In the present, a professor type helps a couple of desperadoes locate the treasure somewhere near the Mexican border. They're watched by Tecia, an Indian boy in an Apache-style shirt and headband. After killing the professor, the crooks enter a cave and encounter the Face of Death, which naturally frightens them to death.



Cisco and Pancho encounter the last dying crook and learn the story. Back in town, they tell what they know to the professor's daughter. She's kidnapped by more desperadoes who want the treasure, but Cisco and Pancho rescue her. They all converge in the cave, where they find the treasure and the Face.

A crook shoots at the Face before Cisco corrals him. Turns out Tecia was using the Face to imitate the Aztec god while guarding the treasure with blow darts. He sadly dies and Cisco decides to seal the cave with explosives.



The Native aspects

With his weird beard, Quetzal looks like something out of the Bible. I'm not sure Aztec priests ever wore a vulture headdress like his--but I'm not sure they didn't. At least Quetzal isn't a Plains chief or a generic Indian.

The northern Mexican location isn't a bad place for the Aztec to hide their last treasure. It was within their sphere of influence but away from the Spanish invaders. It's a plausible premise on which to base a story.

Although Tecia appears only briefly, he's a noble character. There's nothing especially savage about him. He dies honorably to protect his people's heritage.

The "Face of Death" is by far the silliest aspect of this episode. It looks more like an African idol than anything Aztec. It conveys the stereotypical idea that Native religion is ungodly and evil by definition.

All in all, Face of Death was a decent effort for television in 1952. We've seen things in the last decade or two that were much more stereotypical.

"Tolteca Aztec Indian" supports Redskins

This "Native American" suggested we should take his support for the Washington Redskins seriously.

Column: Vietnam veteran, Native American voices support for the Washington Redskins



Why should we? Because:My son, Senior Airman Daniel P. Cortez II, stationed at Hill Air Force Base, Utah and I are proud American veterans and humble descendants of the Tolteca Aztec Indian tribe. We ARE Redskins.A Facebook response:Uh-huh. And no doubt, as closely identified with their 'Tolteca Aztec Indian Tribe' as these two clowns are, they've made repeated visits to their Native community as they fiercely cling to their heritage. (Question: What self-respecting Native refers to their Nation as an 'Indian Tribe'?)Alas, there's no such thing as the "Tolteca Aztec Indian tribe." The Toltecs and Aztecs were different cultures separated by hundreds of years. They were akin to empires or confederations containing many tribes.

What I think he's trying to say is, "I'm a Mexican American, but that doesn't give me any credibility on Native issues, so I'll make something up."

For more on the Redskins, see Davies: Mascot Foes Aren't Reasoning and More Boycotts of the Washington Redskins.

Historical Atlas of Ancient America

Historical Atlas of Ancient AmericaWhen Christopher Columbus landed on the Caribbean islands, he found tribes of people still firmly rooted in the Stone Age. Within decades, however, Spanish explorers made contact with cultures in the Mesoamerican isthmus which lay beyond the Caribbean that possessed far greater technological prowess. "The Historical Atlas of Ancient America" describes in vivid detail the highly developed religious, political, economic, and agricultural systems of the wealthy and highly influential Aztec and Maya civilizations, along with those of their predecessors, the Olmec and Toltec. The key features of this title include: superb full-color photographs of temples, towns, and artifacts; timelines that compare developments in Mesoamerica to those in the rest of the world; and, specially created maps that highlight the movements and influences of the Mesoamerican people and identify their major social and cultural centers.

From Library Journal
Hunt, the author of over 15 books on Native America (e.g., People of the Totem), here presents a lay reader's overview of the Mesoamerican cultures from about 1500 B.C.E. to about 1500 C.E. (e.g., Olmec, Maya, and Aztec). After defining terms and giving a summary of the cultures to be presented in a two-page introduction, Hunt moves on to explore each culture in seven enlightening chapters. The energetic and readable text is accompanied by many color illustrations and maps (either in the first two pages of most chapters to pinpoint major sites or within the text to show building locations at given sites). Perhaps the most refreshing quality of this attractive tome is the author's uncompromising honesty whenever little is known. Suitable for both public and academic libraries. --Mary Lynette Larsgaard, Univ. of California, Santa Barbara

A very enjoyable and highly informative atlas
By timothy mulvey on February 5, 2013

This book was a joy to read, a great addition to my ancient culture and metaphysical library. I read it just before going to southern Mexico for 2 weeks, it was the perfect Mesoamerica primer for me. Beautiful book!Comment:  For most people, this is a great introduction to the field. It breaks down every aspect of Mesoamerican cultures into two-page spreads of easily digestible info.

Two pages per topic is just enough to satisfy but not overwhelm a reader. If someone did a study on breaking a large subject into bite-size chunks to increase readability, this book would be Exhibit A on how to do it.

My only complaint is with the final few pages on Aztec mythology. It's a bit too much on the subject.

Why devote so many pages to the Aztec gods but not the Maya gods? It was almost as if Hunt was trying to fill his page quota. Or as if he were an expert on Aztec mythology and wanted to show off his knowledge.

But that's a minor quibble. This book is a perfect starting place for those interested in the Maya, Aztec, and other Mesoamerican peoples. Rob's rating: 8.5 of 10.

Review of The Lacuna

The LacunaThe Lacuna is a 2009 novel by Barbara Kingsolver. It is Kingsolver's sixth novel, and won the 2010 Orange Prize for Fiction and the Library of Virginia Literary Award. It was shortlisted for the 2011 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.

Plot

The novel tells the story of Harrison William Shepherd beginning with his childhood in Mexico during the 1930s. His parents are separated so he lives back and forth between the United States with his father and Mexico with his mother. During his time in Mexico he works as a plaster mixer for the mural artist Diego Rivera then as a cook for both him and his artist wife Frida Kahlo, with whom Shepherd develops a lifelong friendship. While living with and working for them, he also begins working as a secretary for Leon Trotsky who is hiding there, exiled by Stalin.

Later in life, living in Asheville, North Carolina, Shepherd becomes a novelist and is subsequently investigated by the House Un-American Activities Committee. He instructs his secretary, Violet Brown, to burn his papers and returns to Mexico. However, she saves his diaries and letters and it is these papers that form the bulk of the novel. There are gaps, or lacunae, in the story, hence the title.Barbara Kingsolver’s Artists and Idols

By Liesl SchillingerLeaving his mother to her Mme. Bovary messes, Shepherd parlays his domestic skills into a job mixing plaster for Diego Rivera’s murals (“It’s like making dough for pan dulce”) and joins the Rivera household as cook and typist for Rivera, his artist wife, Frida Kahlo, and later for their guest, the exiled Communist leader Leon Trotsky. In this incendiary, revolutionary household, Shepherd keeps mum and lets louder egos roar, just as he did on Isla Pixol. Baking bread by day, he records the daily dramas of this entourage by night, along with a draft of his first novel, an epic of the Aztec empire. But in 1940, when Trotsky is assassinated, Shepherd leaves Mexico, spooked by the virulent press that denounces his employers and their murdered ward “like the howlers on Isla Pixol.” At the age of 24, he returns to the United States and settles in Asheville, N.C. There he becomes a reclusive, gentlemanly author of swashbuckling Mexican historical novels (“Vassals of Majesty,” “Pilgrims of Chapultepec”) until the ungentlemanly House Un-American Activities Committee drags him into the spotlight, rewriting his character in crude strokes for the public stage.And:“The Lacuna” can be enjoyed sheerly for the music of its passages on nature, archaeology, food and friendship; or for its portraits of real and invented people; or for its harmonious choir of voices. But the fuller value of Kingsolver’s novel lies in its call to conscience and connection. She has mined Shepherd’s richly imagined history to create a tableau vivant of epochs and people that time has transformed almost past recognition. Yet it’s a tableau vivant whose story line resonates in the present day, albeit with different players. Through Shepherd’s resurrected notebooks, Kingsolver gives voice to truths whose teller could express them only in silence.Review: 'The Lacuna' by Barbara Kingsolver

And from Kingsolver's own website:

The Lacuna | 2009In her most accomplished novel, Barbara Kingsolver takes us on an epic journey from the Mexico City of artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo to the America of Pearl Harbor, FDR, and J. Edgar Hoover. The Lacuna is a poignant story of a man pulled between two nations as they invent their modern identities.

Born in the United States, reared in a series of provisional households in Mexico—from a coastal island jungle to 1930s Mexico City—Harrison Shepherd finds precarious shelter but no sense of home on his thrilling odyssey. Life is whatever he learns from housekeepers who put him to work in the kitchen, errands he runs in the streets, and one fateful day, by mixing plaster for famed Mexican muralist Diego Rivera. He discovers a passion for Aztec history and meets the exotic, imperious artist Frida Kahlo, who will become his lifelong friend. When he goes to work for Lev Trotsky, an exiled political leader fighting for his life, Shepherd inadvertently casts his lot with art and revolution, newspaper headlines and howling gossip, and a risk of terrible violence.

Meanwhile, to the north, the United States will soon be caught up in the internationalist goodwill of World War II. There in the land of his birth, Shepherd believes he might remake himself in America's hopeful image and claim a voice of his own. He finds support from an unlikely kindred soul, his stenographer, Mrs. Brown, who will be far more valuable to her employer than he could ever know. Through darkening years, political winds continue to toss him between north and south in a plot that turns many times on the unspeakable breach—the lacuna—between truth and public presumption.

With deeply compelling characters, a vivid sense of place, and a clear grasp of how history and public opinion can shape a life, Barbara Kingsolver has created an unforgettable portrait of the artist—and of art itself. The Lacuna is a rich and daring work of literature, establishing its author as one of the most provocative and important of her time.

“Kingsolver's exploration (through all five senses) of Mexican and American geographies, weather, people, food, cultures, politics, languages and era-bound events—Hoover through World War II, Truman, Nagasaki—is masterful, and a reader receives the great gift of entering not one but several worlds.”

— THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

“The novel is a brilliant mix of truth and fiction, history and imagination … [making] for a compelling and utterly believable read.”

—BOOKPAGE

“As in The Poisonwood Bible, Kingsolver perfects the use of multiple points of view ... This is her most ambitious, timely, and powerful novel yet.”

— LIBRARY JOURNALAbout The LacunaI spent so much time thinking about Harrison Shepherd’s hard-boiled Aztec novels, I even designed their dust-jackets in my head. Immediately behind my desk is a shelf where I keep my dictionaries, the thesaurus, and the reference books I’m using most during a given project. A couple of times without really thinking I turned around to reach for Harrison Shepherd’s Vassals of Majesty or Pilgrims of Chapultepec. And then laughed at myself, out loud.And:I traveled to all the settings, on both sides of the border: Washington, D.C., Asheville, North Carolina, the Blue Ridge Parkway, on this side. On the other, I hiked through Mexican coastal jungles, hung out in villages, went to see a brujo, visited Mexico City’s archaeological and art museums, the preserved homes of Rivera and Kahlo and the Trotskys, and their personal archives. I climbed the pyramids at Teotihuacán. I’ve spent a lot of time in Mexico over the past thirty years, living near the border in Arizona for most of that time, so I drew on the past too, digging out old notebooks from assignments in the Yucatan and elsewhere. I only set scenes in places where I’ve been myself. When I create a world for the reader, I want to do it right, using all my senses.Comment:  As in her first three books--The Bean Trees, Pigs in Heaven, and Animal Dreams--Kingsolver deals with Native and Hispanic themes in The Lacuna. I'd rank The Lacuna with Pigs in Heaven as two of the best Native-themed books ever, even though Kingsolver isn't Native. Rob's rating: 9.0 of 10.

Aztec mascot is violent and savage

San Diego State University's Aztec mascot hasn't been in the news lately. Apparently the school, like the Washington Redskins and Cleveland Indians, are feeling pressure to change.

I try not to bother with minor mascot battles, but this article included a point that was too much to pass up.

Aztec for life? Possibly not

Students propose dropping Aztec Warrior and name

By Barbara MedinaThe Queer People of Color Collective of SDSU submitted an official resolution to the Associated Students (AS) to get rid of the Aztec Warrior and the Aztec name in all affiliated organizations, including Aztec Shops.

The group says that using people as a mascot perpetuates racism. It refers to the Aztec Warrior that often appears at sports events and the slogan “Fear the Spear,” arguing that they portray Aztecs and Native Americans in general as savages and violent.How is this matter even open to debate?

Think about it. You have Lions and Tigers and Bears; Vikings and Pirates and Raiders. But unlike every other team, the Redskins, Chiefs, Braves, and Aztecs are supposed to represent pride and honor?

No, they're about violence and savagery. Exactly like a predatory beast or ethnic group or occupation. They're about destroying one's enemies--figuratively killing and scalping them.

That's why no one has had or will ever have a modern-day Native mascot in a suit and tie. Modern-day Natives represent the same pride and honor, but they don't represent violence or savagery. And that's what teams are looking for: a spearchucker or tomahawk wielder to strike fear into the hearts of opponents.

You can see this in the old fight song and mascot images. You can see it in the fans dressed up as redfaced savages. There isn't even a legitimate counterargument here--not one consistent with the facts. Indian mascots = violence and savagery.

In fact, I'd love to hear a sports fan say, "We share the values of the Wolverines, Hornets, or Diamondbacks." Most animals don't have values, obviously. They're just dumb beasts.

Below:  A savage, bloodthirsty Aztec warrior mascot.

Latino comic books with Native roots

Latino Comic Book Artists Explore Roots, Culture

By Monica CampbellGrowing up in Los Angeles, Javier Hernandez worshiped superheroes like any other kid. But he went a bit further.

“When I was a kid my brother gave me his collection of comics, and I started just drawing,” he says. “And then at one point, after college, I go you know I’ve got to make my own comic. You know, I want to see stuff that maybe you don’t see a lot.”

Like characters called Weapon Tex-Mex, El Muerto or Sonámbulo, a Mexican wrestler turned private eye. One of Hernandez’s latest comics teams up a young Aztec boy and a dinosaur.

“It’s basically about a boy who during the Spanish conquest of Mexico realizes there’s a Tyrannosaurus Rex embedded in a block of amber in a cave,” Hernandez says. So, the T-Rex gets released and the boy rides him to battle the conquistadors.And:[S]ome artists here go beyond superheroes. Illustrator and writer Liz Mayorga, 31, drew as a kid growing up in Los Angeles and then saw art as a way to connect to her Mexican roots. One of her newest stories is called “A Caxcan Guerrilla Takes Over the Awkward Girl.”

“Caxcan is a tribe of indigenous people that were in my mom and dad’s hometown of El Teúl, Zacatecas,” Mayorga says. “I always asked my parents about our indigenous background and they could never give me any answers. And it made me really angry to know that my parents had no concept of that.”

One of her favorite cartoonists, Mario Hernandez, is also here and he stops by Mayorga’s table. Hernandez and his brothers pioneered the comic “Love and Rockets.” The cult favorite broke ground in the early 80s with its smart Latino characters, steeped in California’s punk rock scene.

“The stories would just tell stories about everyday people who happened to be gay, or happened to be Hispanic or they happened black,” says Hernandez. “At the time there was no other Hispanic names that were putting out original things like that.”Comment:  For more on Native-themed comic books, see Superheroes in Native American Encyclopedia and Manifest Destiny Comic Book.

Below:  "A print titled Preying Aztec Mantis by cartoonist and illustrator José Cabrera, who grew up in a Dominican family in New York City." (Courtesy of José Cabrera)

Aztec dancers support liberal causes

Dancing Aztecs step up for leftist causes

Dancing to support gay rights or oppose police brutality is all part of the routine for the hardest-working group in Southern California's leftist protest circuit.

By Hector BecerraAztec dancers have shown up to support gay rights and oppose police brutality. They've been invited to protests by African American groups and Asian ones, including the Korean Immigrant Worker Assn. They've protested Christopher Columbus. Three years ago, they danced and beat drums in Westwood at a pro-Palestinian rally.

"Aztec dancers at a protest for any leftist cause in Southern California are as ubiquitous as 'si se puede' chants and posters of Emiliano Zapata and Che Guevara," says Gustavo Arellano, editor of the OC Weekly and author of the syndicated "Ask a Mexican!" column.

They also frequently dance at antiwar protests, which might seem a bit strange, seeing as the Aztecs weren't exactly known as peace-loving lotus-eaters.

Alexei Hong, 30, an activist for the antiwar, anti-hunger group Food Not Bombs, says the thought sometimes occurs to her when she sees the Aztec dancers.

"I think of war and empire, and then it's funny to see them at these anti-imperialist and antiwar protests," says Hong, who rode her bike at the May Day protest.

The Aztecs, Garcia says, get a bad rap.

"The myth is that we are a bloodthirsty people, but that's not true," she says, picking at her salad at a Denny's the day before the big march. "It's one of the struggles we've had as an indigenous people, the image that has been forced on us to justify all sorts of things that have been done."Comment:  For more on the Aztecs, see Humboldt Republic's "Chief Life" T-Shirts and Aztlán the Board Game.

Below:  "Costumed members of the Danza Mexica Cuauhtemoc political Aztec dance group perform on Broadway in downtown L.A. earlier this month. (Don Bartletti/Los Angeles Times)

Humboldt Republic's "Chief Life" t-shirts

These Northern California images--the original and revised "Chief Life"--have created a stir on Facebook. An academic named Cutcha Risling Baldy (Hupa, Karuk, Yurok) does a good job of telling us what's wrong with them.



Humboldt County T-Shirt Controversy that's all up in my Facebook OR Native American Mr. Potato-Head--now with Aztec Parts!

By Cutcha Risling BaldyFirst--a quick and dirty run down history. There is a company. This company wants to make a tshirt. The artist at the company designs one. It’s has an Indian looking guy on it with some feather headdress and earrings and whole bunches of generic “Indian” looking designs in the background. And underneath it says “Chief Life.” A bunch of people respond. Some like it, some don’t, some are concerned, some are concerned about people being too concerned. Friends of mine get involved. The artist asks for honest feedback about the design. People give it to him. He says some people are rude, some people aren’t, but mostly he thinks they are rude. He is surprised by the response so he “redesigns” it to be an Aztec guy, and not some generic Indian guy. (This seems to mean from the pictures I’ve seen that he changes the generic designs in the background to Aztec writing symbols and also adds some Aztec design looking earrings and an Aztec shield to the guys forehead. Everything is the same. It’s like, Mr. Potato-Head Indian Style. Exchange your cultural appropriation parts for others, make an entirely new Indian Mr. Potato-Head.) Again he asks for feedback. People still aren’t happy. And suddenly he’s writing on Facebook that:“I think it kind of comes down to what happened to Native Americans in the past That makes this so sensitive… The thing is I wasn’t here for that and neither was my genetics.. And what happened to the Native Americans was simply a byproduct of war that happens in every culture and region that has war…”And“Native Americans are not the only ones that have gone through genocide… Many many cultures go through it… Like I said before sometimes it’s a byproduct of war… So when I’m having fun with art I’m not trying to read bring up bad memories of genocide that did not happen when I was alive..What is "Chief Life"?

Ms. Risling Baldy addresses the "Chief Life" slogan and Plains chief image:Now, as a Native American person I don’t like the shirt. You can put me in that category. I don’t know if you’re adding it up and waiting to take a poll to democratically decide on using your artwork, but if you are, I’m firmly in the no, don’t do it, it’s not a good idea, yes it’s problematic, yes it’s sad, and no it’s never going to work, no matter how many different sets of earrings you stick on the poor man, it’s not going to ever be an image that portrays “respect”, “dignity” or even “honor.” It’s just going to be a stereotypical, Native image that you are using to make money, glorify stereotypes and continue to ignore why these problematic images are damaging, destructive and ignorant.

Also, truth be told I had no idea what “Chief Life” was. According to my younger, cooler friends (and Urban Dictionary) to “chief” is to smoke marijuana. Me, as an old person, I want to over analyze it. I’m assuming it has something to do with the old stereotype of “smoking the peace pipe” and how Chiefs were supposed to have been big smokers who smoked the peace pipe and did all that smoking (all, completely distorted by the way and in many ways totally wrong, but that’s an entirely DIFFERENT letter). Blah blah blah, it’s “chief” dude. I’m probably using it wrong.

I haven’t seen you at all address that side of this issue. So far it seems like you’ve been focusing on the image. To paraphrase (quickly): Oh you don’t like the feather earrings? I’ll replace them with Aztec earrings? Oh you don’t like the weird generic designs, I’ll replace them with Aztec writings. The image is too “Plains Indian” and not “Humboldt,” why don’t you look at some Humboldt stuff? Etc. etc. It looks like a mascot, mascots are honorable, no they’re not, yes they are, why aren’t Buccaneers offended? Pretty soon Vikings will start complaining. Something about how anybody can be offended by any image but Chief is an honorable image, etc. etc.

Except, we’re talking about “Chief Life.” Which, for your company, I’m assuming has something to do with marijuana, and drug culture, and drugs. I ain’t mad atcha dude. I know that this whole “weed” thing sort of lives where we live. I get it. I’m not trying to play super narc-y innocent girl who “oh my word” “I declare” I can’t believe you’re talking about drug stuff. But, Chief Life--it’s just sad.The past is the past?

She addresses the artist's notions about war, genocide, and the past being the past:Did you know that it used to be policy in Humboldt County that you could hunt Indian people? There were Indian hunting days. Did you know that it used to be policy in Humboldt County, that it was easier to exterminate Indian people then to have to deal with them? Did you know that on the very places you walk, or live, very near where your business is located, there were massacres of Indian women and children. There were rapes of young Indian girls. And after all that, there were continued attempts to erase a people from the land. And then after that, there were reservations, there was poverty, there was trauma, and there were drugs. It’s health thing. It’s hard to separate sometimes from what we think of as “recreational” but lots of our “recreational” habits, are ways of coping with trauma that passed itself along through generations. This is the part of our people that is overwhelmed when we stand at the edge of the bay, look out and realize that one night, as a tribe was holding a world renewal ceremony, a group of people showed up and tried to kill every single one of them.

Now, you weren’t there. I know that. This doesn’t mean it isn’t written on the landscape where you live. It doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t feel it every single day. It doesn’t mean that it never resonates in our waking lives. Because it does. In policies, in ignorance, in forgetfulness, in the way we talk about ourselves, and each other. Maybe your “genetics” weren’t here, but you are here – now. It’s time to know. It’s time to know where you are. And to “know” this place, is to listen. And to “listen” is to realize that we aren’t talking about an ancient history, we are talking about a recent history. And maybe, just maybe, what you consider “simply a byproduct of war” is, surprisingly, not. Genocide is not a byproduct of war--genocide is tool of an aggressor. Genocide is a choice. It doesn't just happen because war is hell. Genocide is systematic. Genocide is deliberate. It is not a "byproduct" of aggression, there is intent--an intent to annihilate a group of people. We should not tie genocide to just another "byproduct of war" and erase this intent. Systematic murdering of a people, enslavement of children, raping of women, massacres, these are not byproducts of war, these are tools of genocide. The "byproduct of war", is the trauma. The byproduct war, is the destruction. The byproduct of war is the loss of life, land, resources, brothers, sisters, mothers, daughters. And for many, many Indigenous peoples the byproduct of war has been survivance. It’s been strength, it’s been coming together, it’s been healing. The byproduct of war has been a culture that refused to die."Chief Life" = "Good Life"?

What if Chief Life" is just a way of saying "be cool"? Risling Baldy addresses that too:Let’s say “Chief Life” is just like the “Good Life.” It probably is, if you consider responsibility, respect, reciprocity and consciousness to be the “Good Life.” Let’s talk a little about that then, you’re just telling me to live the good life. Chief Life, Aztec Life, whatevs. So then let’s take it another step-–

Sambo Life. (If you don’t know much about Sambo, you should check out here, or here, or watch this.) If you want Sambo can wear sunglasses. Of course he should have big red lips. Super dark black skin. Maybe a backwards cap, some gold/ diamond teeth. How about some watermelon earrings? How about some chicken and waffle earrings? How about he just looks like Kanye West. Although Kanye’s gone all Kardashian so he may not be stereotypical enough for your more discerning audiences who expect to recognize right away what image they are trying to appropriate.

Ooo, Jew Life. Let’s put a dude in a Holocaust outfit, complete with tattooed number on his forehead. Some star of David earrings. If you want you put menorah’s as your background. Genocide is a byproduct of war after all. A lot of other cultures go through it. You’re just trying to have fun with your art, so Jewish people should understand. You’re not trying to “bring up bad memories of genocide that did not happen when [you] were alive.” And we all know that the “Jewish Life” is the good life too--like a Chief Life--because Jewish people have money and own Hollywood.

Asian Life. They’re all the same anyway right? We wouldn’t want to get too specific with the whole Japanese life or Chinese Life or any other number of “Asian” cultures. So let’s go generic. Slanted eyes. Big straw hat. Maybe some buck teeth. If you want they can be kung-fu-ing something. The background can just be “ching, chong, chang” written over and over again. If somebody doesn’t like it you can just change the earrings and make it “Bangkok” life, cause that’s different right?

Mexican Life--sombrero, something to do with gardening, maybe a taco.

No matter how many compromises you make--these images won’t work. These images--don’t work.Comment:  This controversy is reminiscent of the "skulls with headdresses" t-shirts I wrote about. The basic problem is the same. Someone's ignoring America's history of killing Indians, and the Indians' continued existence, and trying to turn them into a fun, edgy symbol. "Look at us!" these shirts seem to say. "We're not just plain-vanilla suburban white boys and girls. We belong to a global 'tribe' of people who have declared themselves to be hip and trendy.

"We're just like '60s counterculture hippies. Except we don't want to drop out, grow our hair, take drugs, or protest anything. We want to be different by putting on a shirt we can take off so we can return to our safe white homes without sacrificing anything. We want the illusion of being different while we conform to mainstream fashion like everyone else with cool tribal emblems."

For more objectionable shirts, see Ecko's "Weekend Warrior" Line and Zazzle's "Indian Name" T-Shirts.

Aztlán the board game

Battle or Coexist in Aztlán

By Jonathan H. LiuOverview: With 2012 over, we can stop obsessing about the Mayans and start digging into other ancient civilizations. How about the Aztecs? Aztlán, named after the mythical homeland of the Aztecs, is a struggle for territorial control among four tribes, and each tribe’s strength waxes and wanes over the course of five ages. War isn’t the only path to victory, though—sometimes peaceful coexistence will be rewarded.

Theme:

There are four tribes, the People of the Quetzal, the People of the Serpent, the People of the Ocelot, and the People of the Coyote. Each of them is trying to thrive and prosper—peaceful coexistence can bring wealth and prosperity, but sometimes the gods prefer war. But at the end of the Fifth Age, only one tribe will be allowed to remain in Aztlán.Comment:  Going by Liu's review, Aztlán doesn't say much about Aztec history or culture. I can't even tell if it uses the word "Aztec." The four tribes are Aztec-like even though they have animal names.

Judging by the art, though, Aztlán looks decent. It uses several Aztec words and concepts. And not just military concepts, but religious concepts as well.

At least the game offers peaceful coexistence as an alternative to war. Since the Aztecs created an empire by conquering neighboring tribes, that's noteworthy. And there's no evidence of the most salacious aspect of Aztec culture: the human sacrifices.

That's about all you can expect from a board game: superficial images of an "exotic" culture with no glaring mistakes or stereotypes. Good job.

For more on the Aztecs, see Race in Revealing Eden and Aztecs Favored Universal Education.

Race in Revealing Eden

Here's the first book in a new young-adult fantasy series. First, let's have a summary and critique of the book from Amazon.com:

Revealing Eden (Save the Pearls Part One)Eden lives in a dystopian world where the darker your skin, the more desirable you are because those with dark skin can more easily stand the excessively hot environment that the earth now nurtures. Eden is a Pearl, a white person, which pretty much categorizes her as the dregs of society. Eden can only hope that a desirable Coal, a black person, will pick up her mate-option. But the story really begins when Eden and her father are swept away by Ronson Bramford, one of the most desirable and wealthiest Coals, and taken to a secluded part of the rainforest. This is after Eden compromises her father's vital experiments and Bramford is turned into something between beast and man. But Bramford's new transformation might be the key to helping society gain a semblance of what it once was, with everyone on more equal footing and with a better adaption to the environment.Revealing Eden has a two-star average rating, with 167 of 224 reviewers giving it one star as of this writing. Some of the comments:Julie
This book is nothing more than racist drivel.

Halobium
I'm not sure how this novel is supposed to be dystopian fantasy and/or sci fi. It purports to 'reverse racism' while, yes, it does invert today's racial heirarchies, it actually just serves to be a modern day expression of racism today.

First...the blackface. Blackface is a relic of old American minstrel shows. It is considered very offensive and racially charged today.

Second, and other reviewers have mentioned this, a true inversion of today's racial hierarchies would not involve calling people with white skin 'pearls' and people with very dark and/or Black skin 'coals.' Rather than an inversion, this is really an invocation of common, everday notions of beauty, where light skin is heavily prized and often seen as the most beautiful. Pearls are more beautiful than coals. It is clearly seen from the fact that one is considered a precious jewel and the other is not.

The entire concept of this novel is unoriginal and trite. It is poorly executed with little sensitivity or understanding of how racism operates in the real world.

KJ
Blackface is not edgy or progressive.

Naming a race of people "Coal" is not a compliment.

Telling us that "Pearl" is a slur does not make it so.

Claiming that the world's hierarchy is dependent on skin tone does not mean that you can separate people based on race while ignoring their actual skin color.

Calling your heroine's love interest a "beast" does not imply his supposed beauty and high status.

Questioning the existence of an African-American community of readers will make me side-eye you damn hard.

We get it--you believe that special white snowflakes always deserve to be the heroine because their lives are oh so hard. Why not just come out and admit to all the racist imagery and insulting propaganda you'll publishing? This book is disgusting.

There is never a reason to make racism about white people. Repeat that as many times as you have to before it finally sinks in.Has Foyt ever heard of black pearls? If she really wanted to subvert our expectations, she could call the blacks "pearls" and the whites something unpleasant. Perhaps "spit wads" or "bird turds." Then we'd start to get the message that whites are worthless in this society.

The Native aspects

Debbie Reese discusses the Native aspects in her American Indians in Children's Literature blog (8/5/12):

Indigenous peoples in Victoria Foyt's REVEALING EDENWriting about Foyt's book lets me call attention to the ways that Foyt (and those who like the book) are caught up in stereotypical ideas about Indigenous people.

Yeah... Indigenous people are in her book, too.

But they don't have a category like Coal or Pearl. They don't live in the tunnels. Instead, they're on the surface near the equator, and they're the Huaorani. Somehow, they've made it into Foyt's future, but she doesn't tell us how they were able to survive the Meltdown.And:When they land, Eden sees "a half-dozen, short, muscular Indians wearing a rag-tag assortment of clothes" (p. 50). Some have machetes, some have blowguns (and poison darts), and, "Despite fanciful feathers tucked into simple bowl-cut hairstyles, the warriors appeared fierce" as they stood by their vehicles (p. 50).So...the Huaorani are a bunch of savage warriors. You might think they, as the sole surface race, would be smarter, more advanced, more technologically savvy. Apparently not.Anyway, it turns out that the Huaorani think Bramford is El Tigre ("the Jaguar Man") who is the "long-awaited Aztec God" and because Eden is with him, they look upon her with "equal reverence" (p. 51). I guess Foyt want us to think that the Huaorani and Aztec have the same gods. Indigenous people, whether we're in North or South America...some writers think our ways are the same, no matter our location or history. Monolithic, ya' know! Interchangeable!Not only are the Huaorani primitive, they're superstitious. They worship Aztec gods even though they live thousands of miles from Mexico and the Aztec culture is mostly extinct even now.

And unlike everyone else, they're too ignorant to understand the concept of a mutated human. Apparently they haven't watched Avatar or other movies available to Amazon Indians. Just like the stereotypical Indians who met the Spanish, anyone strange or exotic is a god.The Huaorani take Bramford, Eden, and her father to a village where (p. 54):Native women and children in tattered rags stood by, staring blankly at the arrivals. They looked ill with patchy hair, and red, scaly rashes on their brown skin. Their stomachs were swollen, their eyes lifeless. Two drunken men sprawled in a heap of garbage. One of them raised his head, eyed the commotion, then spit and turned over.Blank stares and lifeless eyes? This portrayal of the Huaorani isn't consistent across the novel. Here, it sounds like she's looking at a 'save the children' commercial. And drunken men?! Why is THAT there?Reese's review continues in that vein.

As the movie White Man's Burden demonstrated, you don't learn much simply by reversing the races. You have to have a plausible explanation how one race came to power and continues to rule. Revealing Eden doesn't seem to have that.

In this context, I don't know if blackface is bad. But how about if the "Pearls" go outside and expose themselves to deadly radiation to darken their skins? That would be more thought-provoking.

Seems like Revealing Eden would've better if there were no racial distinctions at all. The ruling class could've been scientists or simply the wealthy. The "Save the Pearls" subtitle seems like a big unpleasant clue about where the series is headed.

Indeed, the whole series seems to exist so Eden can have a "forbidden" love with a vampire werewolf were-jaguar. Where have we seen something like that before?

For more of Debbie Reese's reviews, see Brave Mr. Buckingham and Hanging from Jefferson's Nose.

Aztec dog breeds

Ancient Aztec breed now lauded as new top dogIt has been around for over 3,000 years, but Mexico's famous, usually hairless, "Xolo" dog made a big splash as a "new breed" at the Westminster Kennel Club dog show last week.

Tiny Chabella, descended from a breed the Aztecs considered sacred, represented the Xoloitzcuintli (which means "hairless dog" or more broadly "dog of the god Xolotl") for the first time at the show.And:The Xolo is considered rare and prized in Mexico. Its more than 3,000-yearold history is intertwined with that of the ancient Aztec indigenous people.

Xolotl was the Aztecs' god of lightning and death; the xolo's name makes reference to him because Aztecs believed the dog's mission was to accompany dead people on their journey to the afterworld, Chabella's owner Stephanie Mazzarella told AFP.Ancient Chihuahuas Once Roamed, and Eaten, in Southeastern U.S.?The dog effigy pots are not the only evidence of Chihuahuas in the southeastern United States. The early Spanish conquistadors who explored the region in the 1500s noted that several tribes raised “little dogs” which they kept very fat in order to eat. Apparently this food was reserved for the elites of the towns. The Spanish also noted these “little dogs” were mute.

Scholars apparently thought the Spanish accounts couldn’t be trusted and suggested the animals referred to as “little dogs” were more likely opossums. Yet a similar custom of elites eating fattened dogs was common in Mexico. The breed usually eaten was the Techichi which was a mute dog that the modern Chihuahua is thought to be derived from. The dog pots in Colima in west Mexico show fattened Techichis which provide visual evidence for this practice. The dog pots in the southeastern U.S. show fattened Chihuahuas which suggest this tradition was also practiced in the southeast. Thus it is likely the early Spanish eyewitness accounts were accurate descriptions of Native American traditions in the region.Comment:  Who wants hot dogs for dinner?

Since neither article mentions the breeds in the other, I'm not sure if the Xolo and Techichi breeds are related. They look like they could be.

For more on Native dogs, see Is "Indian Dog" a Breed? and A History of Indian Dogs.

Below:  "Armani, a Xoloitzcuintli, at the Westminster dog show." (Mike Segar, Reuters, Agence France-Presse)

Aztecs favored universal education

All Aztecs went to school? A lesson for Mexico.

An unearthed school shows that universal education got an early start in Mexico. Today, the system lags with the indigenous receiving less schooling than the rest of the population.

By Sara Miller LlanaThe school, built between 1486 and 1502, was a sacred place of study for the children of Aztec nobility.

And though commoners inside the school walls would have been few and far between, the Aztecs of central Mexico played an important role in the world of education.

They are believed to be among the first to offer universal education at a time when other societies reserved study only for the privileged.

"All Aztec children went to school," says Harry Patrinos, the lead education economist at the World Bank. "It all disappeared after the [Spanish] conquest, and it took a long time before the colonies had any education system."Comment:  Darn those socialist hippie Mexicans! Even back then, they were plotting to overthrow the US!

Because universal education => overthrowing the established order of politics, economics, culture, religion, and so forth, you know. In other words, everything conservatives hate and liberals love.

Which is why education and "liberal arts" are synonymous.

For more on the subject, see Educators Protest Tucson Book Ban, Republicans want to "Keep America America," and What Conservatives Consider "Objective History."

Below:  "Archaeologists found Aztec ruins during construction work in 2007. A new exhibition has spurred talk about the current education system." (Courtesy of Centro Cultural de España)

Latin American Native films

The same site that lists Latin American Native children's films also lists films about Central and South American Indians.

Movies Featuring the Native Peoples of Central & South America

As before, it looks like a great resource on the subject.

The site has a list of Top 10 films that includes Apocalypto, The Mission, and The Emerald Forest. In a poll on Facebook, fans overwhelming said they liked Apocalypto the best of these three movies. Probably because it's about 20 years newer than the others.

Long-time readers know what I think of the racist and stereotypical Apocalypto. I still have no plans to see it. I voted for Emerald Forest as the best.

For more on the subject, see The Best Indian Movies.

Below:  The super-scary, phony-baloney Maya culture in Apocalypto.

The Aztecs ruined it

Just a thought:

The Aztecs ruined it for other Indians. Most anti-Indian arguments end up with, "Just look at the Aztecs and their practice of human sacrifice." Without that argument, the Indian haters would have nothing.

A quick recap of Aztec history:The Aztec empire ... originated in 1427 as a triple alliance between the city-states Tenochtitlan, Texcoco and Tlacopan. ... The empire reached its maximal extent in 1519 just prior to the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors led by Cortés who managed to topple the Aztec empire.Let's put this into proper perspective. The Aztecs ruled for fewer than 100 years out of the 10,000-year Native history. They ruled only part of the modern territory of Mexico, which is only 1/20th of the area of North and South America.

So the Aztecs represent less than 1% of Native time x 5% of Native space. In other words, the Aztecs represent less than 0.05% (1/20th of 1%) of Native history.

To put that into perspective, it would be like understanding US history--the Revolution, the Constitution, westward expansion, commerce, foreign policy, slavery, the Civil War, immigration, etc.--by looking only at California from 2000 to 2001. It's about as close to irrelevant as you can get without being totally irrelevant.

And this doesn't begin to address the reasons for the Aztecs' human sacrifice. For many if not most of them, it was a deeply held religious conviction. I'm not sure we can prove a single Aztec felt an unhealthy lust for blood or a depraved indifference to human life.

For all these reasons, citing the Aztecs in a Native debate is ridiculous. It's like citing one white man who gave an Indian a hand to counteract 500 years of conquest and genocide. It's a joke.

For more on the Aztecs, see The Origin of Yaomachtia and Alternatives to Dark Horse's TUROK.

The origin of yaomachtia

Speaking of Aztecs, here's an update on the Update on Aztec Martial Art from last September. It's another e-mail from Manuel Lozano, the "founder of modern yaomachtia," the alleged Aztec martial art. Apparently the poor guy uses a computer with a malfunctioning shift key, but never mind.Dear Rob,

listen Rob, i have researched this lost forgotten art all over Mexico for the past 32 years, a famous Mexican Archeologist from a famous University in Mexico City initially helped me back in 1977 - 78

the word Yaomachtia is found in old Mexican history books, this term translates as the art of war, the word Yao means war in ancient Nahuatl, as far as machtia, this is a term with latin/roman/greek connotations meaning training, so it looks to me that this word was invented by the spanish, it doesn't sound full nahuatl

my research took to many places all over mexico to witness the little training that was left, but this training was with the knife, machete and several types of sticks, throughout these 32 years i found many scattered fighting techniques dealing with bladed weapons, stick weapons and wrestling techniques

there was also a special type of old wrestling techniques as verified in person
by the Mexican Wrestling Legend himself (Mil Mascaras - the man of a thousand masks) who is a personal friend of mine, i produced his first ever course on self-defense based on his personal wrestling experience

the old Mexican wrestling techniques is called (Chingadate) by the old school guys, Mil Mascaras is the last of the old guys that knows this ancient Mexican wrestling techniques

this (chingadate) term is a vulgar term used by the old guys, meaning to do somebody in if they mess with you - the (te) part of it has nothing to do with any japanese thing

(date) means to give you - chinga means to do you in

i have not made a big deal of it because i haven't wanted to, but now i know that i must as people that do not know me are saying ugly things about me and they do not know my life story

at present,

i teach private intensive courses to many private executive groups from all over Mexico

i have also taught at several Mexican Military bases many times

The ex U.S Mexican Ambassador appointed by our ex-President George Bush is a personal friend of mine as we were in High School together here in Brownsville, Texas at St. Joseph's Academy, he knows personally of my efforts since the early 1970's

i don't mean any disrespect to you Rob as i don't know you as you don't know me

but the Mexican martial art history comes in three eras, the pre-colonial, the colonial, and the modern

in order to complete my research i had to train in the european fencing arts, mainly spanish fencing called "La Verdadera Destreza", my teachers are Maestri de Armas Ramon Martinez and Jeannette Acosta Martinez who is the world's foremost authority in french foil fencing and small sword

Destreza was brought to Mexico by Spain's greatest teachers, and it was taught here in new spain (Mexico), duels were fought all over mexico as i have proof, so Mexico's martial arts have to include destreza, and ecole d' armes (french fencing) i know all of Mexico's martial history and i have written a book on it, all i need is the actual filming of the techniques and from there i will get the pictures for the book

i could talk all night about this subject, but please don't trust anything on the internet, a man of your intelligence should better that to trust anything out there by people who never even crossed the border, especially now with the drug wars going on 5 minutes from here, i'm 2 miles from the rio grande river

and as far as the term yaomachtia, i use it to pay tribute to Mexico's Aztec Culture which most of us have direct roots to, the art as i teach it includes pre-columbian exercises and movements as taught to me from many friends that i have all over mexico

i've been training for 37 years and 32 of those i have researched and trained in these blade, stick and fighting techniques from mexico

my martial art resume is included for you to see what i've done

Rob please do no trust everything you find on the internet, as it most all false, you should know that by now

if you want to set the record straight for your readers about me please do a good job, i will send you some fighting techniques with the machete for you to see

i have 3 intensive courses to teach in the next 2 months to special interest groups from mexico that are coming to learn Yaomachtia as taught by me, these are 5 days of training 8 hours each day, many groups from mexico are in line waiting to come train

if i have been disrespectful to you then i'm sorry but you have to understand that many people that write opinions of others on the internet are false and have no factual basis

they must have nothing else better to do in life,

the training i had in mexico has been for many years and all over mexico, i have witnessed many traditional celebrations that included martial art techniques all over rural mexico i even participated in some of these rituals

like i said, my new book is ready and all i need is the filming of the techniques for the book, and soon i will do that

presently i sell 3 courses;
1. Secret fighting Techniques - one book and 8 dvds
2. Mil Mascaras Advanced Self Defense
3. The Secret Martial Art Newsletter - published monthly (launched Jan. 2010)

let me know how i can help you

Sincerely,

Manuel Lozano
Founder of Modern Yaomachtia

P.S. I didn't even bother to check that link out at all it's all false, it seems that everybody has an opinion, i doubt they have ever spent 32 years researching in MexicoComment:  Umm, I sure hope someone is helping you write your book, Mr. Lozano. And on a computer with a fully functional shift key.

I trust Lozano just set the record straight for Newspaper Rock readers. Now we'll continue to set the record straight.

First, let's dispose of our previous argument. Lozano accused me of not doing enough research on yaomachtia. The only sources he alludes to are "old Mexican history books" and his own course materials, neither of which are available to me.

Therefore, I continue to assert that I did all the research necessary and possible. If "yaomachtia" exists only in some musty old tomes in a Mexican biblioteca, it's ridiculous to expect me to know about it. Only a handful of people in existence may have seen the word in print.

And what about the claim that "the word Yaomachtia is found in old Mexican history books"? It's nice, but I don't necessarily believe it unless I see. I suggest Lozano scan the pages containing the word and include them in his materials and on the Web. It would bolster his dubious credibility.

Etymology of "yaomachtia"

Lozano doesn't seem certain about the origin of his own word. Some research suggests that in the Nahuatl language, yao means "war" and machtia means "to teach." So "yaomachtia" could mean something like "war training."

But a few huge caveats to that:

1) "War training" could mean anything from exercising to preparing one's weapons to fasting before a fight. There's zero evidence that it refers to a martial art, which one dictionary defines as:any of the traditional forms of Oriental self-defense or combat that utilize physical skill and coordination without weapons, as karate, aikido, judo, or kung fu, often practiced as sport.2) "Yaomachtia's" existence in old Mexican books suggests it was invented by the Spanish, not the Aztecs. Supporting this this is the origin of the word machete:1598 (in pseudo-Sp. form macheto), from Sp. machete, probably a dim. of macho "sledge hammer," alt. of mazo "club," probably a dial. variant of maza "mallet," from V.L. *mattea "war club" (see mace (1)).So machetes seem to be a Spanish import from Europe that didn't exist until after 1598. Sure, the Aztecs used something called a macuahuitl, a wooden club with cuts in the side to hold the sharpened obsidian blades. It's sort of a club/axe/sword hybrid, but it isn't a machete. So a martial art involving machetes probably didn't exist in Aztec times.

Even the Nahuatl word "yaomachtia" doesn't mean the training was invented in Aztec times. It's easy to imagine an alternative explanation. For instance, a Spanish soldier sees a post-Aztec Indian exercising in the year 1600 or 1700 and asks him about it. The Indian says he's practicing "yaomachtia." The Spaniard says, "Great! I just invented a martial art that uses machetes. I'll call it 'yaomachtia' to honor your people."

Despite the name, yaomachtia could easily be a Spanish rather than a Native invention. Without more evidence, there's no way of knowing.

Conclusion

In short, there remains zero evidence that the Aztecs practiced a martial art similar to "karate, aikido, judo, or kung fu" in pre-Columbian times. Best guess is that Lozano heard the word "yaomachtia" and decided to apply it to various "bladed weapons, stick weapons and wrestling techniques" he encountered in Mexico. In other words, he has no documentation about what the original "yaomachtia" was; he invented the amalgamation of practices he calls "modern yaomachtia."

So everything I've said about "yaomachtia" has been correct, basically. End of story.

Incidentally, Wikipedia has this to say about Native martial arts:Native peoples of North and South America had their own martial training which began in childhood. Most groups selected individuals for training in the use of bows, knives, blowguns, spears, and war clubs in early adolescence. First Nations men, and more rarely some women, were called warriors only after they had proven themselves in battle. War clubs were the preferred weapon because Native American warriors could raise their social status by killing enemies in single combat face to face. Warriors honed their weapons skills and stalking techniques through lifelong training.Well, of course they learned how to use their weapons. In that sense, yes, they had martial arts. But again, there's zero evidence they had the kind of unarmed combat we usually mean when we refer to "martial arts."

Below:  Aztec warriors practicing a martial art but not yaomachtia or an Asian-style "martial art."

Alternatives to Dark Horse's TUROK

In Review of Dark Horse's TUROK, I said what I thought was wrong with the new Turok comic book. But suppose Jim Shooter came to me and said he had a great idea for a new Turok series. It was based on a group of "bad savages" chasing Turok and Andar the "good savages." Rather than just saying "no, it's stereotypical," could we make it work?

Answer: Yes, of course.

For starters, I don't see why TUROK has to be set in pre-Columbian times. If you want, you can ignore the advent of Europeans and do the same stories. But setting it after 1492 means you can send conquistadors, monks, and other Europeans down the rabbit hole. Why should indigenous people be the only ones chomped by dinosaurs?

Use two real tribes

Okay. Instead of the horrible cliché of the bloodthirsty Mesoamericans (see Apocalypto), use two actual Indians tribes who are traditional enemies. Then they'll have a real, credible motive for fighting each other.

For instance, the Lakota and the Crow. Turok and Andar are Lakota who were trying to steal the Crow's horses. The Crow caught them in the act and a few of them chased our heroes down the tunnel.

You wanna stick with pre-Columbian times when there weren't any horses? Okay, Turok and Andar are Lakota who were trying to steal the Crow's women so they could keep them or trade them. The Crow caught them in the act, etc.

To make it (even) more interesting, Andar the Lakota was trying to steal horses or women from Turok the Crow. Turok and his men caught Andar in the act, chased him down the tunnel, etc.

But wait, you say. Turok and Andar are the good guys. They can't be shown stealing anything. It would mean they're not noble savages. Not...perfect!

Response: First, traditional Indians would consider these legitimate acts of war, not crimes. They might punish someone who stole their property, but they wouldn't be morally shocked and outraged. Rather, they'd admire the perpetrators for their courage and daring--for doing what they would've done in the same place.

Besides, comics companies have made millions off of anti-heroes such as Wolverine, the Punisher, and Deadpool. What's wrong with adding a little moral complexity to Turok's and Andar's cardboard characters? As with Wolverine, maybe they'll grow from selfish savages into self-sacrificing samurai. And make Dark Horse some money in the process.

What would enemies do?

Once our heroes are in the Land of the Lost, what next? In the present TUROK comic, murderous Aztecs hunt Turok for revenge or bloodlust or because they're there, I guess. Cardboard characters don't have to have real motivations. In my version, the Lakota and Crow find they have a lot in common compared to the dinosaurs and beast-men and other creatures they meet. They have to overcome their age-old differences and work together to survive.

Maybe the Lakota and Crow are enslaved for a time and learn that enslaving others isn't as justifiable as they thought. As a result, maybe they decide to lead a revolt against the lost land's slavemasters. Or maybe they're appalled to see all the barbarian kingdoms fighting and killing each other. Maybe Turok becomes this land's Hiawatha and forms a league of nations united under one law.

There you go. I've just taken Turok's limited premise and made it several times more interesting. If Shooter wants, he can still tell his one-dimensional stories of "evil" Indians chasing "good" Indians. But now he also can tell stories about rich characters who learn and grow.

This is why I'm trying to publish comics, kiddies. I think I can come up with better ideas than someone's who's been in the business 45 years. Who's been an editor-in-chief at several companies. If you need my help on TUROK, Jim, give me a call.

For more on the subject, see Shooter on Dark Horse's TUROK and 3.5 Arrowheads for Dark Horse's TUROK.

P.S. I'd give TUROK only 2.5 or 3 arrowheads on the five-arrowhead scale. And a couple of those would be for the attractive art.

Below:  A previous version of Turok.

Review of Dark Horse's TUROK

I recently read Jim Shooter's new comic book starring Turok, Son of Stone. It was about what I expected from the comments in Shooter on Dark Horse's TUROK.



Turok himself is a generic Indian. His appearance, almost identical to his look in his 1954 debut, is fine. As Shooter said, he's a "warrior wise and strong. He's not particularly interesting.

His background, such as it is, is also generic. He's traveled across the American continent. He knows a few Indian words, including one in Ojibwe. He has a steel knife and axe he got from a Viking. He had no other tribal or cultural markers--nothing except generic talk of spirits and shamans.

His initial adventure is also generic. He saves the boy Andar from the evil Aztecs. Turok and Andar flee down a mystical tunnel to the Land of the Lost with the bad guys in hot pursuit. After a couple of attacks and escapes, Turok comes face to face with--wait, you've probably never heard this one before--a scantily-clad high priestess and her dark-skinned minions.

Those evil Aztecs

The big problem here isn't Turok, it's the evil Lord Maxtla and his men. They're portrayed as renegades, too cruel and barbaric even for the Aztecs. But since they're the only Aztecs I think we'll see, it's fair to treat them as representative.

Naturally, the comic portrays these Indians with the usual indicators of evil: bones, piercings, warpaint, earrings, necklaces, claws, plates, and the ever-popular shaved heads. No evil Indian ever goes unadorned. It's important to look like a scary demon or skeleton 24/7, even when no one else is around. Imagine going to the mess hall with your fellow evildoers and not looking like a vision from hell!

Maxtla is the evillest of the evil because he wears a dinosaur or crocodile skull over his head. Never mind that this headgear occurs only in bad comic books and jungle movies, or that it would interfere with his peripheral vision and hearing during combat. Scary people wear scary skulls...case closed!

There's plenty wrong with this portrayal of Aztecs, but most readers won't notice the flaws. Among them:

Aztec emperors usually didn't lead military expeditions. Rather, they sat in magnificent palaces and tended to administrative affairs while lackeys and slaves pampered them. Generals lead soldiers, not monarchs.

Maxtla and his small band of followers are supposedly seeking Aztláan--i.e., "paradise." What will they do when they find it? Meekly join it as common laborers until they prove their worth?

When they find themselves in dinosaur land, they decide they'll conquer that too. Right, because a few dozen Aztecs can do pretty much anything. They could conquer Europe if they happened to wind up there.

In reality, they might be able to conquer a small tribe or two, but any substantial civilization would quickly crush them. It's ridiculous to portray them as sticking to their psychotic goals no matter where they go or what they do. It means they're cardboard, cartoon villains, not worthy adversaries.

The sacrifice issue

The Aztecs wouldn't perform a ritual sacrifice on the ground in the middle of nowhere. These sacrifices occurred in ceremonial plazas on top of pyramids for a host of religious, geographical, and astronomical reasons. A few Wikipedia quotes hint at how complex the matter was:

Human sacrifice in Aztec cultureA strong sense of indebtedness was connected with this worldview. Indeed, nextlahualli (debt-payment) was a commonly used metaphor for human sacrifice, and, as Bernardino de Sahagún reported, it was said that the victim was someone who "gave his service."

Human sacrifice was in this sense the highest level of an entire panoply of offerings through which the Aztecs sought to repay their debt to the gods. Both Sahagún and Toribio de Benavente (also called "Motolinía") observed that the Aztecs gladly parted with everything: burying, smashing, sinking, slaying vast quantities of quail, rabbits, dogs, feathers, flowers, insects, beans, grains, paper, rubber and treasures as sacrifices.And:A great deal of cosmological thought seems to have underlain each of the Aztec sacrificial rites. The most common form of human sacrifice was heart-extraction. The Aztec believed that the heart (tona) was both the seat of the individual and a fragment of the Sun's heat (istli). To this day, the Nahua consider the Sun to be a heart-soul (tona-tiuh): "round, hot, pulsating."And:[T]he strong emphasis given to human sacrifice may have stemmed from the great honour Mesoamerican society bestowed on those who became an ixiptla--that is, a god's representative, image or idol. Ixiptla was the same term used for wooden, stone and dough images of gods.And:Most of the sacrificial rituals took more than two people to perform. In the usual procedure of the ritual, the sacrifice would be taken to the top of the temple. The sacrifice would then be laid on a stone slab by four priests, and his/her abdomen would be sliced open by a fifth priest with a ceremonial knife made of flint. The cut was made in the abdomen and went through the diaphragm. The priest would grab the heart and tear it out, still beating. It would be placed in a bowl held by a statue of the honored god, and the body thrown down the temple's stairs.

Before and during the killing, priests and audience (who gathered in the plaza below) stabbed, pierced and bled themselves as autosacrifice (Sahagun, Bk. 2: 3: 8, 20: 49, 21: 47). Hymns, whistles, spectacular costumed dances and percussive music marked different phases of the rite.

Exactly none of this appears in Shooter's TUROK. None of this complex cosmology is equivalent to: "Butcher the innocent victim because we're evil and our evil gods demand blood!" This is why people think Indians were uncivilized: because the media fails to show the civilization.

Conclusion

Alas, TUROK gives us little but stupid stereotyping. Turok the noble savage is the exception to the rule: that most Indians are savage beast-men with no goal except fighting and killing. Shooter and company have "successfully" reinforced a century-plus of Native stereotypes.

Ironically, the reprint of Turok's 1954 debut shows the original series was less stereotypical. Here Turok's and Andar's speech is somewhat stilted, and Andar sometimes grunts "ugh." But there are no huge swaths of savagery on display--just a man with good hunting and survival skills.

For more on human sacrifice, see Human Sacrifice in Aztec Pantheon and Human Sacrifice "Prevalent" Among Indians?

Review of When Worlds Collide

Yet another documentary I watched on PBS for Native American Heritage Month:

When Worlds CollideIn 1492, two worlds that for thousands of years had developed completely independent of one another suddenly came into contact. In the following decades, those two worlds painfully and haltingly began to merge. Below, follow the story of When Worlds Collide; a story that examines power, religion, wealth, and the nature of identity and ethnicity in the Americas right up to our own times.You can read the entire transcript or watch the entire video online. Here's the key first segment:

Chapter 1:  The Missing Branch of the Family TreeAfter news reached Europe in 1493 that Christopher Columbus had reached land west across the Atlantic Ocean, suddenly two worlds came into contact that for thousands of years had developed completely independently of one another. In the following decades, those two worlds painfully and haltingly began to merge, transforming the nature of identity and ethnicity in the Americas and resulting in a vibrant Mestizo culture that lives on to this day.

For people who have ancestors from Europe and the Americas, the story of the European side of the family tree before contact has long been known. But it has taken far longer for the true story of the peoples of the New World before contact to become accepted in popular culture.

Great New World Cultures

According to the conventional narrative of the last five hundred years, before Columbus arrived the Americas were filled with primitive peoples who were easily conquered by a vastly superior European culture. Although scholars have long known that pre-Columbian America was home to some of the greatest cultures of the age, only recently has the general public's view of the New World started to change.

We now know that, at the time the Spanish arrived in the New World, the Inca empire in South America was far larger than any in Europe, stretching 2,400 miles from modern day Colombia to Chile. Their 10,000-mile network of stone roads snaked through jungles and over mountain passes, all leading back to their capital, Cuzco, in present day Peru. Capable of great feats of engineering, the Incas created their cities, including their spiritual retreat Machu Picchu, with a standard of precision that far exceeded the abilities of European artisans at the time. The Indians who built these great South American metropolises still live and thrive in Peru today.

It would be very ignorant to write the Incas off as just “Indians.” [In Cuzco] we can see the highest expression of a higher culture. It is evidence of how sophisticated their technology was for the time, their engineering, hydraulics and architecture. And it also reveals the relationship the Incas had with nature. They believed in maintaining an equilibrium between man and the earth. . .Man doesn't destroy nature to build something, but rather adapts his architecture to the setting.

--Carlos Paz Sanchez, director, Peruvian Cultural Center, Cuzco

In central Mexico, major civilizations had flourished since the time of the Romans. Later came the Mayas with their advanced mathematics and writing,

and the Mexica, leaders of the Triple Alliance once called the Aztecs. The Mexica capital of Tenochtitlan was home to 200,000 people and cleaner than any city in Europe.

Other civilizations lived farther north, including the Pueblo tribes with their planned communities built around one of the most sophisticated social structures in the world, and the cultures of the Mississippi River valley, who were among the most successful and productive farmers on earth.

New World Advances

The New World cultures were neither better nor worse than the cultures of Europe, but simply different. One difference was that the greatest advances of New World cultures did not involve inventing new machines but were instead driven by the effective use and management of the natural environment.

New World inventors, for example, made a major advance in one of the most important industries of the age, textile manufacturing, by growing and harvesting cochineal, an insect that lives on the prickly pear cactus, to mass-produce a true red dye. In Europe, where true red dye was so rare and expensive that only the rich and powerful wore red, this New World dye would rank only behind gold and silver in value.
See how New World inventors created a red dye that made Europeans swoon.

The talent of the New World peoples also made possible a vastly more important set of inventions: new kinds of food. In one of the great food revolutions in history, Indigenous Americans succeeded through selective breeding in turning a weed called teocintle into maize (or corn), an achievement many botanists consider the most important feat of genetic engineering in human history.

First of all, corn is a human invention. It is a creation of man. Ten thousand years ago, corn did not exist. . . Together with the early Americans, it built cities, it built cultures.

--Amado Leyva, agronomist



When corn was first introduced as a staple crop in the ancient Americas, it made tremendous population growth possible, from the Mayan peninsula all the way to what is today the United States and Canada. The people lived not just on corn but also on other crops like potatoes and tomatoes that they were the first to domesticate.

Based on this diet, some scholars believe that in the 15th century, the average person in the Americas may have been better fed than the average person in Europe. They also might have been healthier—without pigs, goats, and cows, the Americas had no small pox, measles, or similar diseases that people on other continents had caught from those animals.More interesting points

Some of the interesting points from the rest of the documentary:

Isabella and Ferdinand took another momentous step in 1492 in pursuit of religious unity: they ordered the Jews of Spain, some of whose ancestors had lived there for more than 700 years, to convert to Christianity or leave the country. Many of the Jews who converted and stayed in Spain, known as "conversos," were still suspected of being insincere in their conversions and arrested on charges of heresy by officers of the Spanish Inquisition.

Even if their conversions were deemed sincere, Christians with Muslim and Jewish ancestors were treated as inferior to Spaniards who had Christian ancestors. Such were the origins of a policy of social discrimination, a caste-like system, which denied conversos access to important positions in church and state and reserved power for a supposedly pure-blooded Christian elite. Spain would later use similar policies in the Americas to keep native peoples at the bottom of the social scale.

In response to Queen Isabella's call to convert the peoples of the Americas, waves of Catholic missionaries flooded the New World, only to find that the people living there already had their own deeply held beliefs. As a result, the New World cultures gradually blended their native beliefs and Catholicism to create new spiritual traditions, images, and symbols.

One example involves the now-legendary experience of Juan Diego, an early Indian convert to Catholicism. According to tradition, in the winter of 1531, Diego heard a woman's voice calling him from a hillside overlooking Mexico City. The woman had a serene countenance and was outlined by a luminescent glow. She also had native features, spoke Nahuatl, the pre-Columbian language of the Mexica, and looked very much the way the Mexica depicted Tonantzin, their revered fertility goddess. She told Diego that she was Mary, the mother of Jesus.

The woman that Diego encountered in the form of an indigenous goddess came to be called "Our Lady of Guadalupe," the most important Catholic icon in the Americas. As the centuries passed, this story served as a kind of creation story for the Catholic Church in Mexico. But it is also a quintessentially Mestizo story, in which Catholic and native spiritual traditions became so thoroughly fused that it is difficult to tell one where one begins and the other ends.

For the next 300 years, virtually all of the indigenous men in the region would be forced to take turns working in deadly conditions in the mine.

The historical records reveal that millions may have died while working in the mine. A metaphorical way of thinking about it is that so much silver was mined here that you could build a bridge of silver from Potosi to Spain. And with the skeletons of all the men who died here, you could build a bridge of skeletons back from Spain.

--Soledad Fortun, expert on Potosi history

Comment:  "A policy of social discrimination, a caste-like system, which ... reserved power for a supposedly pure-blooded Christian elite." Not coincidentally, this is exactly why we're hearing so many protests against healthcare reform, welfare spending, illegal immigration, gay marriage, mosques, etc. Again, they're attempts to reserve power for a supposedly pure-blooded Christian elite.

When Worlds Collide loses a bit of its power toward the end as the cultures merge and the story gets more convoluted. I might trim or rewrite some of that section. But for the most part, this is a well-written and dramatic account of the clash of civilizations. The information will be new to most people and may provide fresh insights even to those who have studied the history for years.

Rob's rating:  8.5 of 10.

For more on Native history, see Why We Believe in Columbus and America Is Ground Zero to Indians. For more PBS documentaries, see Review of For the Generations and Review of The Spirit of Sacajawea.

Greek gods gave us chocolate?

I saw a TV commercial the other day that demonstrates our myth-making process. It shows what looks like Greek gods in a temple in the clouds. The white goddess Artemis or equivalent shoots an arrow into a pyramid of gold-wrapped chocolate balls and they fall to earth. Here's the accompanying narration:A divine secret that once belonged to the gods slipped one day from the heavens to be discovered by all: Ferrero Rocher, a deliciously layered chocolate with an irresistible taste.You can see it below. This version is slightly longer than the version I saw, which clocked in at about 18 seconds, but it's basically the same. One website says it was released in November 2007.



Comment:  Only one small problem with this commercial. Chocolate was developed by Mesoamerican Indians, not Greeks. As perhaps the most delicious substance in existence, it's one of their greatest contributions to civilization. Yet this ad attributes it to Europeans, not Indians.

If Ferrero Rocher wanted to use the "gods" theme, why not use Mesoamerican gods? The ad could've gone exactly the same way, but with brown-skinned gods in jaguar skins and feather cloaks rather than white gods in white robes. It would've given viewers exactly the same overt message.

But the covert message would've been different. And that's the point. Beneath its overt message, this ad is telling us that whites are mighty godlike beings. That they've done everything great and noble. That our comfort and wealth (represented by golden chocolate) came directly from the Greeks. That Europe is the source of civilization.

It's ethnocentric if not racist. Yet we're bombarded by messages like these hundreds of times a day. The Marlboro Man and Barbie are normal, representative Americans. Indians are strange, exotic creatures who never appear in the media. Except as savages, werewolves, or shifty casino owners, that is.

Here we see America's mainstream culture in action once again. White Europeans are good; everyone else is questionable. White Europeans rule the heavens as well as the earth. Nothing has changed since the Middle Ages, when white Europeans decided God and Jesus looked just like them.

For more on chocolate, see Chocolate Proves Native Greatness and The First Chocoholics.

Below:  White god gives life (and chocolate) to white man.

Shooter on Dark Horse's TUROK

Native American Warrior Kills Dinosaurs in TUROK Revival

By Chris ArrantNrama:  Can you tell us about the landscape Turok is in here—is it the Lost Lands of lore?

Shooter:  Lost Land, Timeless Land, whatever. That’s what we call it. Turok doesn’t know the name of the place. To him it’s just “here.” It’s one continuum removed from where we are. It’s Earth in the Cretaceous Period—except that the same phenomenon that swept Turok and Andar to this place has also swept in people and things from many other times and places. To say it’s fantastic is selling it short. The opportunities are limitless.

Nrama:  People know Turok, but can you tell us about Andar?

Shooter:  He is the son of the Chief of a Chiricahua band. His father sacrifices his own life to buy time for his son—and Turok—to escape Aztec raiders. Honor demands that Turok take the boy as his own son, finish his education and upbringing—Turok owes that to the spirit of the boy’s father. Chiricahua are forbidden to speak their own names, so Turok gives the boy the name “Andar,” which in the secret tongue of Shamans means “Strong Roots.”

Nrama:  What can people expect with this first issue—what’s the story?

Shooter:  Here’s the promo blurb I wrote:

“Blood for the Sun” Part 1—“Out of Time”

The American Southwest, 1428. Turok, Son of Stone, a wanderer, a warrior wise and strong, rescues young Andar, son of a Chiricahua chief, from death at the hands of raiders from a great city to the south. Pursued by the ruthless King Maxtla and his host, Turok and Andar seek refuge in a vast cavern—and then, a force beyond comprehension sweeps them all away to a savage, timeless land where nightmares and miracles abound, where dinosaurs thunder and rampage. Maxtla sees opportunity—power to be had, a new world to seize—but first, the prisoner who slipped his grasp must be recaptured and ritually sacrificed. Hunted by he who would be God-King in a world of monstrous beasts, with danger and death at their heels, Turok and Andar encounter an even deadlier threat—the fearsome Panther People and their mysterious, mesmerizingly beautiful Goddess, Aasta.

Nrama:  They’re facing against the Aztecs and a ruler named King Maxtla, as well as the Panther People. Can you tell us about these adversaries?

Shooter:  Here’s how “Mescalero,” an escaped, Nadahéndé slave explains the Aztec and Maxtla:

In fact, Maxtla was the Divine Emperor of one of the Aztec peoples, famous for being utterly ruthless. He murdered his brother, for instance, to become Emperor. In 1428, three other Aztec peoples suffering under his oppression rose up against him. Some say he was captured and ritually sacrificed, but some say he escaped and fled north with a small, elite force. There begins the story. Maxtla is heinous even by Aztec standards—and to them, ritual sacrifices of countless people was normal, part of the price that must be paid to keep the sun rising. There is also good evidence that they were cannibals.Comment:  The Panther People are a lost African tribe who will one day become the Zulus. So TUROK has savage blacks and savage Indians. Are there any savage white people in this series, or are minorities the only savages?

At least Shooter seems to have researched African tribes for his proto-Zulu people. Has he researched the Aztecs too? Were they really "utterly ruthless"--in politics, business, and family life? Or is this a stupid stereotype? Are we really supposed to believe that because the state religion involved human sacrifice, every Aztec individual was a murderer and cannibal? Did Aztec children cut their rivals' throats so they could win at marbles or hopscotch?

Meanwhile, Turok is a "warrior wise and strong." In other words, a noble savage. Does he have a single flaw that makes him more than a cardboard cutout? Not according to this interview. If Turok is anything other than an Indian Boy Scout (you know: trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent), it isn't obvious.

Also, the idea of a "lost land" with people and creatures from many eras has been done many times. But I don't think it's ever been done successfully. It's a gimmick, like stunt casting, not an engine for serious storytelling. Romans! Cavemen! Nazis! Pirates! Knights! Samurai! Aliens! With big dome heads! Seen it! Before!

For more on the subject, see 3.5 Arrowheads for Dark Horse's TUROK and Firehair, Joshua Brand, and Turok.