INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE & GOVERNANCE RECOVERY

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Evictions and Condemnations for the Poor and Brown, Special Status for Historical Slave Owner Property Owners



My mother, Eloisa Garcia Tamez,  is sending this message.  She does not have access to the internet in El Calaboz, and so sends this message to supporters.  I add my own comments at the end.
Eloisa G. Tamez (EGT)
Margo Tamez (MT)
 
(MT): Following up on the story this morning about the plantation owner who went to D.C. to deal directly with DHS and got a different deal (at: http://www.valleymorningstar.com/news/border_38183___article.html/fence_irwin.html) :
 
(EGT): There were 5-6 Poor Hispanic, Land Grant descent families, who were forcibly removed, given a 90 day eviction order, when the U.S. condemned their lands which abutted right up against the levee.
 
(EGT): Their condemned properties are West of La Paloma Rancheria, off Cantu Rd, which is right off Military Hwy. 
 
(MT): My mother went to visit them personally months ago when she heard about the U.S. condemnation order, and she was deeply agitated and angered at the desperate condition in which the families were living, and that the U.S. DHS had the gall to forcibly relocate these poor families, to where, we do not know. These are farmers on U.S. land which their families have worked for centuries.  They are poor farmers, and had no access to basic communication technology in the area due to low income. 
 
(MT): My mother is extremely frustrated that this white land owner, Irwin,  in the above referenced story, is being given special status by the U.S. DHS, especially given the fact that this 'waiver' is yet again for a white land owner.  Irwin is being selected for a special deal, and the article insinuates that her deal is somehow connected to the historical significance of her position as the owner of a former slave plantation.  Are we to understand that white land owners in the Lower Rio Grande, with 'historical' slave quarters and buildings, --a place of human rights abuses on multiple levels-- will be held up as a special condition, and given a green pass?
 
This is the way Michael Chertoff, the son of immigrant Jewish Holocaust survivors, will mete out his personal injustice and his own unresolved historical trauma on South Texas 'ethnic' 'refusers'.    
 
 

No comments: