WHAT AWARENESS PROGRAMS IN AMERICA USUALLY LACK

[I wrote this essay at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces and it was published in Defense Perspectives by the National Defense University in 1973. Much of it still applies, although I have appended to it some modifications I would make today.]

This is the era of Awareness. Awareness is part of the "Goals and Timetables" formula under this Administration's Affirmative Action Programs. Quotas, incidentally, never applied to the Spanish-speaking anyway, so we did not lose a thing when we went off that kick.

Awareness Programs that I have seen are invariably cast in a black vs white setting. While the process is usually adequate, in contents there is nary a word about Native Americans, Chicanos, Puerto Ricans or Asians, that is the other oppressed minorities of color. Nor does the discussion bring out any concern for any of these "other" minorities. I want to sketch out what has been passed over ever so readily.

Beginning with First Americans First. A recent archaeologic discovery under Dr. Jim Tuck of Dartmouth proved conclusively that America's early residents were a highly organized people. The Wall Street Journal, in reporting on this study stated that an ancient civilization flourished in North America at the time the pyramids were being built in Egypt and the hanging gardens were being landscaped in Babylon. Scientists call these people the Archaics and claim that they were America's first technological society. They lived some 5000 years ago, occupying a vast area from Florida to Labrador, and west as far as Texas and Minnesota, and as far south as Peru. At the time, the peoples of Europe were still hanging from trees. The Archaics eventually developed into what we know today as the North American Indians.

Then 452 years ago, 400 stalwart men landed at Vera Cruz with Hernando Cortez. These men were Spanish, they sailed across the Atlantic without women. They did have friars with them, however, who saw to it that those who took native women also married them. So it was, that the racial problems of Mexico were solved at the altar in church, in the eyes of God, and the mestizo came into being. The conquest of Mexico by the United States of North America in 1948 created the Mexican American. To complete the picture, let me remind you that the Moors of North Africa invaded and occupied Spain for more than 800 years. In those 800 years, the Moors did their thing and left their imprint, not only the obvious dark skin, hair, or eyes; for under the skin they left philosophical and religious things, esthetics things and every Hispano carries in his blood and in his culture, the African thing. The Spaniards that landed at Very Cruz were already a racial mixture when they arrived in the new world.

To generalize then, the Mexican American and most of the Spanish-speaking people of this hemisphere represent, perhaps, the most integrated identifiable group in existence. We range all the way from pale-pink blue-eyed blondes, through bronze browns, to ebony black. To illustrate, Nancy Ames and Raquel Welch are of this group. So are Lee Trevino, Vickie Carr and Anthony Quinn, as are Hector Lopez and the late Roberto Clemente. Can you imagine how far Narcisa Alfaro, Raquel Tejada, Florencia Bisenta de Casillas Martinez Cardona or Antonio Quintana would have gone in the US entertainment world, had they not taken on an anglo stage name?

Let us now turn our attention to the present day situation of these two groups, in this the most prosperous country ever. Again starting with First Americans First, the most excluded minority, except for the era of the counter-culture revolution. (I understand the beads and headbands are out again, so that even the recent attention Indians got during this period when everyone seemed to want to out-Indian the Indian was short lived.)

It is interesting that, whereas, the Bureau of the Census can refine its data collection processes to provide data that US Industry needs to the last decimal, the Bureau just is not able to provide accurate data on human beings, particularly on minority groups.

It is estimated, the Bureau does not know, that there are 650,000 American Indians in the United States today. Approximately 450,000 live on or near reservations in 25 states, and 200,000 live in cities and towns. The available socio-economic indicators give grim testimony to the devastating effects of unemployment of the individual, the family and the community.

As of November 1973, the Bureau estimates there are 11 million persons of Spanish origin or descent of whom 6 million are Mexican American, 1.7 million of Puerto Rican origin or descent and the balance of South American, Cuban and other Spanish background. In a study on Population and Median Family Income by Ethnic Origin (Series P?20, No. 221, April 30, 1971) the Bureau did not even consider Native Americans or blacks. It did look at German, English, Irish, Spanish, Italian, Polish and Russian groups. Guess who was last in median family income? But there is hope, we were first in average family size and we also have the largest percentage, 58.7%, of any group in the age group under 25 and 37.5% are under age 14. If this continues we may soon be the majority!!

Perhaps, we can best understand the frustration faced by most minority group persons through the words of Eddie Benton, Chippewa, of the American Indian Movement (AIM). Eddie is a friend, who on sharing his prayer with me admonished, "Use it in good faith." It is in this spirit that I quote the following: A Prayer of Thanksgiving; By Eddie Benton: "Oh, Dear Lord, we thank you from the depths of our hearts and the wellspring of our souls. We beseech thee to accept our humble words of gratitude for all that you have done for the Indian people. Dear Lord, we thank you for poverty, starvation, infant deaths, a 44-year life span, diseases like smallpox, diphtheria, tuberculosis, and VD. We thank you for alcoholism and suicide.

We thank you for slum landlords and outhouses. Dear Lord, we thank you for unemployment, relief rolls, and food stamps. We thank you for missionaries and their hollow words which have divided our people until now. We thank you for 389 broken treaties. We thank you for programs of extermination, termination, and assimilation of a proud and noble race. And bless all those anthropologists who dig up our graves and dust our bones and destroy the dignity of our dead."

Benton's prayer goes on, but perhaps we have an insight as to the desperation of our most oppressed people.

I now want to turn to the Mexican American, the Chicano, or perhaps a better term, the Indo-Hispanic.

I am borrowing heavily from Dr. Sabine Ulibarri of the University of New Mexico to highlight differences and similarities between the Spanish Mexican and the Anglo American cultures. He says, "These differences are very important in our relations with one another. The language is the best conduit of cultural realities and I will begin with it. The expression that I'm sure all of us use, `Get on the Ball", when translated into Spanish is `Pongase En Pelota' and means `Take off your clothes.' So when you tell your Spanish-speaking secretary, `I want you to get on the ball,' if there is a smile on her face, or if she registers some shock, well, now you know. There are cultural differences and thank God for cultural differences. Differences are what make life worth the living and death worth the dying.

"Take a simple timepiece, a watch. As you know, it `runs' in English as so many things do. There are many meanings for `RUN' in the English language and in the English culture. You have everything from a `RUN' in your stockings to a `RUN' on the stock market. In the English culture, people spend their time running - it seems. Well, a watch RUNS, in English, but it `WALKS' in Spanish. We say, `El reloj anda.' See how there is an entirely different philosophical outlook? The point of view, the interpretation of a phenomena is entirely different, because everyone interprets reality from a different vantage point.

"Viva La Diferencia - another difference is ethnic. The Anglo-American, regardless of how he spells his name, is essentially European. The Hispano-American is only partially European, plus Indian, plus Moorish, plus Visgoth, plus Jewish, plus Arabic, etc. as I have already pointed out.

"Still a further difference is a way of life. For the Anglo-American, we can say that he has a conception of life that can be called the Epic way of life. The Mexican American has a concept of life that we can call the tragic sense of life. The epic sense of life functions in a homogeneous culture, in a homogeneous society; and the tragic sense of life functions in a heterogeneous society in a heterogeneous culture. Perhaps we can describe the epic sense of life something like this; the Anglo-American sees himself as a noble knight on a white horse who sallies forth to slay dragons, the good guys with white hats. He is (in his eyes) a heroic optimist in the war between good and evil. He is a firm believer in the tenet that God helps him who helps himself. Franklin D. Roosevelt expressed the epic sense of life when he said, `We have a rendezvous with destiny.'

"What about the tragic sense of life. And more than sense, it is a sentiment because it arises in the heart. The Hispanic soul has been split down the middle from the beginning of time. He is reverent on the one side, irreverent on the other. He is conservative on the one side, liberal on the other. Aristocratic, Democratic, Spanish-Indian, Spanish-American, Mexican American, Puerto Rican, Cuban; with resulting permanent internal conflict, that never finds solution. His religion stresses faith as the avenue to salvation. Christianity tells all Christians that this world is a vale of tears, but in our affluent society it is very difficult to convince many of the believers that the bad life is here and that the good life is going to come after death. But you go to Martineztown in Albuquerque or Guadalupe in Phoenix or West San Antonio or in Denver and tell a Mexican American that this life is a vale of tears, Un Valle de Lagrimas, and he will agree with you, because all the evidence supports that thesis. His entire historical perspective proves that this is indeed a vale of tears, that the only justification for this life is the good life that must come later because it certainly is not here."

The 1970 census revealed that there were 18 million Spanish-speaking Americans in this country. How does the predominant society view the soon to be largest minority? Contrary to the general pattern of ethnic minorities in the history of the United States, we Mexican Americans have retained our distinct identity and have refused to disappear into the "great American melting pot." Not having the good grace to quietly disappear, we have then compounded our guilt in some of America's eyes by committing the additional sin of being glaringly poor in the midst of this affluent, abundant, and over-developed society.

In response to this embarrassing situation, American ingenuity has arisen to the occasion and produced an ideological rhetoric that serves to politely explain away both the oppressive and exploitative factors maintaining Mexican Americans in an economically impoverished condition, and also our refusal to enthusiastically embrace the American way-of-life with all of its various trappings. Although recitations of this rhetoric vary in emphasis and degree of sophistication; the essential message is the same; Mexican Americans are simple-minded but lovable, colorful children who because of their rustic naivete, limited mentality, and inferior backward "traditional culture", choose poverty and isolation instead of assimilating into the American mainstream and accepting its material riches and superior culture. This is the stereotype. There is an even cruder version, and advertisers have made extensive use of this. In general, they portray Mexican Americans as indolent, armed, serape-clad, dozers-in-the-sun. Others add "sneaky" and "thieving" and some even show an empty bottle of tequila to cap the message. This kind of advertising is very damaging to Mexican Americans because it perpetuates the work of historians and story-tellers of the Southwest who have already robbed us of our contributions to society by deliberately distorting the Mexican American image. Formulated and propagated by the intellectual mercenaries of our age, the social scientists, and the advertising agencies, this rhetoric has been professionally certified and institutionally sanctified as the ideological premise and general attitude towards Mexican Americans. Yet, this great rhetorical structure is a grand hoax, a blatant lie - a lie that must be stripped of its esoteric and sanctified verbal garb and have its intellectually spurious and vicious character exposed to full view.

This essay is an effort to accomplish the collapse of this and other such rhetorical structures by the exposure of their fallacious nature and the development of intellectual alternatives. If there is to be understanding, both sides have to reach out and try. There is more to the predominant culture of the United States than Coca Cola and Hot Dogs. And Anglo Americans must realize that there is more to the culture of the Spanish-speaking than Taco, Tamal, y Tequila.

Both sides have much to learn from one another. There are different attitudes, that is true, and as I have said before, Thank God for that difference. These differences must not be antagonistic to one another. These differences must complement one another. Both peoples, both cultures share the same faith, they share the same noble and heroic concept of man; both peoples have the same humanistic vision of life, we both have the same democratic and individualistic posture. So if you would understand my people, the Indo-Hispanics, for God's sake, don't try to make us into Anglos. Don't interpret us in Anglo terms. Take the Hispanic as he is; it will work out better. For you see, you will never make him into an Anglo. No matter what! For several reasons, the majority of us do not blend into the Anglo human landscape; the color of our hair, the color of our skin, the color of our eyes prohibits that. Besides we are too many and we are constantly increasing and most of us don't want to be Anglos. We make dammed good citizens and we make dammed good workers and soldiers, but we make lousy Anglos. Finally, it is from diversity that we as Americans get our strength. WOULD YOU BELIEVE THAT?

(Note - As you can see I never took any prisoners. That was my style then and it still is.)

(Added in 2003) Let me throw in the Dimensions of Diversity to clarify the issue some more and bring it up to date.

They are more than gender and race. There is a vast array of physical and cultural differences - which are called "otherness." There are two dimensions.

Primary dimensions - those that are inborn and exert an important impact on our early socialization and in our ongoing lives. these can not be changed.

1. Age
2. Ethnicity
3. Gender
4. Physical abilities and/or qualities
5. Race (caucasoid, negroid, mongoloid)
6. Sexual/affectation orientation

Secondary Dimensions - those that can be changed - those that add contour and breath to our self-definition.

1. Educational background
2. Geographic location
3. Income
4. Marital status
5. Military experience
6. Parental status
7. Religious beliefs
8. Work experience

One should not look at dimensions in isolation but rather as inter-connected and look for the dynamics of interaction that make these dimensions so powerful in shaping our personal identities.

Impact of dimensions - differences provide a unique perspective on our environment. we develop a style of communication based on these primary as well as secondary dimensions which distinguish us from others who possess a different world view.

We must learn to accept and value the dimensions of difference that we each represent. without this acceptance both dimensions serve as roadblocks. particularly myths and stereotypes get in the way.

We must learn to value and manage diversity as a vital resource that affects the "bottom line" however this is defined in your organization.

Managing diversity is a skill - it can be learned. it requires considerable knowledge, sensitivity, patience, flexibility, and training, however, many managers are still reluctant to do this. their objection is based on:

1. Otherness is a deficiency
2. Diversity poses a threat to organization effectiveness
3. Expressing discomfort with the majority view is over-sensitivity - whining
4. Members of all diverse groups should become more like the "in" group i.e. assimilate
5. Equal treatment means the same treatment
6. Managing diversity to them means changing the people, not the organizational culture

This is all discredited assimilation philosophy - it is unreal we can not change the primary dimensions of diversity!!!

Dr. Jose A. Chacon is a native New Mexican. He received his B.S. degree from the USMA, West Point, New York in 1951, his MA degree from the University of New Mexico in 1959, and the Doctor of Business Administration degree from The George Washington University in 1974. Upon graduation from West Point he was commissioned in the USAF, and holds a total of twelve awards and decorations including the Distinguished Flying Cross. He is a member of the Class of 1973 at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces. Dr. Chacon has been a syndicated columnist. His column, "The Minority No One Knows," was carried by five newspapers and two magazines.

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