Inter-American Commission press statement re: Texas-Mexico Border Wall

Dear friends:

 

We have just received great news that the Inter-American Commission's press release issued at the end of its period of sessions includes an explicit statement of concern about the Texas/Mexico border wall!  

 

Here's the link to the press release–

 (In English) http://www.iachr.org/Comunicados/English/2008/46.08eng.htm

(In Spanish) http://www.cidh.org/Comunicados/Spanish/2008/46.08sp.htm

It says:

" During another hearing, the Commission received troubling information about the impact that the construction of a wall in Texas, along the U.S.-Mexico border, has on the human rights of area residents, in particular its discriminatory effects. The information received indicates that its construction would disproportionally affect people who are poor, with a low level of education, and generally of Mexican descent, as well as indigenous communities on both sides of the border."

 Dice:

"

En otra audiencia la Comisión recibió información preocupante sobre el impacto que la construcción de un muro en Texas a lo largo de la frontera entre Estados Unidos y México tiene sobre los derechos humanos de los habitantes de la zona y, en particular, su efecto discriminatorio. La información recibida indica que su construcción afectará desproporcionadamente a personas pobres, con menor nivel educativo y generalmente de origen mexicano, así como a las comunidades indígenas que viven en ambos lados de la frontera."

 

--Margo Tamez

 

 

TEXAS-MEXICO BORDER WALL HEARING: INTER-AMERICAN COMMISSION--ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES

TEXAS-MEXICO BORDER WALL HEARING AT THE INTER-AMERICAN COMMISSION--ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES. UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS WORKING GROUP AND RAPOPORT CENTER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS AND JUSTICE (SEE BRIEFING PAPERS).

Gun Culture--South Texas: Columbus' Legacy of Violence & Indigenous People--October 12, 2008

On the Cavazos-Garcia land in El Calaboz Rancheria, the ground is frequently rifled with bullets and shotgun shells. One need not walk but a few feet from the levee to see the shells and casings in plain site. There are more of these along my mother's land and her portion of the levee than on the lands on either side of her's. She has been the most vocal and publically outspoken against oppression, racism, and violence. The border wall is but one of the numerous 'events' which the people of El Calaboz have endured.

Since the arrival of the Europeans, our families have lived for centuries propelled into conflicts and tension with settler societies. Settler immigrant groups from other continents arrived in several waves since the late 1400's. They have contributed many harsh memories to the indigenous people's oral history of life, and death, along the Lower Rio Grande.

In addition to deprivations and depredations the indigenous suffered under Jose Escandon and Spanish-Basque settler hacendado regimes, Cameron County would continue to be an epi-center for pogroms, ethnic cleansing and genocide. Between 1910-1915 nearly 5,000 indigenous people were lynched, burned alive, dismembered, decapitated, and sexually assaulted by the "South Texas Machine." Many of our ancestors--men, women and children--lost their lives at the hands of para-military forces mechanized and supported by the regions' elites--the white-ethnic ranching families, whose colonizing ancestors had dispossessed earlier generations of Apaches and other indigneous peoples. History repeated itself with a new immigrant-white group of Southern Creed cotton industrial capitalists. In South Texas, the system's prey are our ancestors, and our living and breathing and very much alive families-- the indigneous people of this region.


The unexamined 'customary' privilege of the mainstream culture of South Texas, which glorifies the use of armed violence also sustains the myth of "Texas" masculinity as a celebrated icon of white settler identity. This social construct empowers a system of structural violence, privileging an elite few, and has bloody consequences for Native American people of the Lower Rio Grande. Like our foremothers and forefathers who were victims of white xenophobia and the ranching class systems--we have not 'vanished', nor have we been 'conquered.' However, those of us who have stayed on our lands--under Texas private property laws--have done so with increasing threats to our lives and livelihoods. The border wall is yet one more pogrom, ethnic cleansing and genocidal policy against Native American people on both sides of its proposed perimeter.

Removing the cobwebs and rust off of the so-call buried histories of the genocidal past gives us opportunities to see reflections and understandings of the current situations we face under the threat of tyrannical government. Uncovering the bloody histories upon which the wealthy agriculture and ranching elites in South Texas is founded allows a critical space for Native American survivor communities to speak, be heard and claim political and social spaces.

Tragically, indigenous communities along the Lower Rio Grande have become enmeshed in numerous forms of colonial violence used as tools to keep subordinated groups under the control of colonial systems and in perpetual dependency. De-Colonial history recover is necessary in order to publically confront the ghosts and demons of our collective histories, and to recover public spaces for commitments to truth and healing.

These bullet casings pepper the ground and levee, in El Calaboz all the way up to Redford, Texas, where I filled yet another ziplock bag full.

I fill gallon-size, zip-lock bags of shot-gun shells and bullets all along my grandfathers', great grandmothers', great aunts', and great great grandfathers, and great great great grandfathers...... and on and on and on and on... our home, our lands.

This is the archaeology of contemporary Lipan Apache women, the archaeology that documents and archives the negative impacts and consequences of the gun culture. The current generations confronting these issues sometimes must take on the past terror and its evidences in order to re-fuel and re-mobilize productive work of dismantling structural oppression --for all people in South Texas, where we live, and where we will live on and on.

October 12, 2008
Margo Tamez

Eloisa Garcia Tamez to Receive Civil Rights Award on Friday, October 3, 2008

The Bernard and Audre Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice, The University of Texas, School of Law

The University of Texas Law Working Group and the Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice recently announced that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights /Organization of American States has granted a hearing in response to the legal briefs submitted on behalf of indigenous, farming, ranching, individual land owners, and ecological life systems negatively impacted by Texas-Mexico Border Wall.

"Obstructing Human Rights: The Texas-Mexico Border Wall"

Margo Tamez, co-Founder Lipan Apache Women Defense-Strength, will be present at the hearing in Washington D.C. in support of this effort. She will provide a brief statement and will be available for questions by the Commission.

What is the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights/Organization of American States?

Excerpted from the IACHR/OAS Website:

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, (IACHR) is one of two bodies in the inter-American system for the promotion and protection of human rights. The Commission has its headquarters in Washington, D.C. The other human rights body is the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which is located in San José, Costa Rica.

The IACHR is an autonomous organ of the Organization of American States (OAS). Its mandate is found in the OAS Charter and the American Convention on Human Rights. The IACHR represents all of the member States of the OAS. It has seven members who act independently, without representing any particular country. The members of the IACHR are elected by the General Assembly of the OAS.

The IACHR is a permanent body which meets in ordinary and special sessions several times a year. The Executive Secretariat of the IACHR carries out the tasks delegated to it by the IACHR and provides legal and administrative support to the IACHR as it carries out its work.

[...]The Commission may decide to take the case to the Inter-American Court. If it wishes to take the case to the Court, it must do so within three months from the date in which it transmits its initial report to the State concerned. The initial report of the Commission will be attached to the application to the Court. The Commission will appear in all proceedings before the Court.

TEXAS CIVIL RIGHTS PROJECT HONORS ELOISA G. TAMEZ

Texas Civil Rights Project to Honor Border Wall Activist Dr. Eloisa G. Taméz at 18th Annual Bill of...
Sep 26 (2 days ago)


TCRP to Honor Border Wall Activist
Dr. Eloisa G. Taméz
at 18th Annual Bill of Rights Dinner

This year the Texas Civil Rights Project proudly honors Dr. Eloisa G. Taméz with the Henry B. González Award.




Dr. Taméz is currently a nursing director at the University of Texas at Brownsville. She lives in El Calaboz on three acres that are the remnant of a 12,000-acre land grant to her ancestors in 1747 by the King of Spain. Dr. Taméz is a co-founder of the Lipan Apache Women Defense/Strength to protect sacred sites, burial grounds, archaeological resources, ecological bio-diversity, and way of life of the indigenous people of the Lower Rio Grande, North America.
At the age of 15, Eloisa Garcia Taméz led the rancheria of El Calaboz in de-segregation of public schools in Cameron County.
In 2007 she was the first landowner to stand up against the Department of Homeland Security's plan to put an 18-foot steel and concrete wall through her backyard. The non-continuous wall, planned to be built along 700 miles of the Mexican border, bypasses the wealthy and politically connected.
Dr. Taméz's legal battle against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security/Michael Chertoff to stop the construction of the Mexico-U.S. border wall is documented in the constitutional rights case, U.S. Department Homeland Security, U.S. Army Corps Engineers and U.S. Customs Border Patrol v. Eloisa Garcia Taméz.
In a January 2008 profile of Dr. Taméz and her struggle with Homeland Security, CNN asked her how long she will fight. "As long as I have to," she said.
The TCRP 18th Annual Bill of Rights Dinner will be held on Friday, October 3rd, at the University of Texas Alumni Center. (reception at 6:30 pm; dinner at 7:30 pm).
Famed U.S. attorney and professor, Sarah Weddington, will serve as master of ceremonies. Actress and activist, Vinie Burrows, will receive the the Michael Tigar Center Human Rights Award. Political cartoonist, Ben Sargent will be presented with the Molly Ivins "Give em' Hell" Award.
The Pat Dobbs Civil Rights Student Leader Award will be presented to the winner of this year's high school student competition.

The Texas Civil Rights Project (TCRP) promotes racial, social, and economic justice through education and litigation. TCRP strives to foster equality, secure justice, ensure diversity, and strengthen communities. TCRP has offices in El Paso, San Juan (in the Rio Grande Valley), Austin, and Odessa.
The anniversary dinner honors the time, commitment, and dedication of the civil rights community, and celebrates the Bill of Rights to the United States and Texas Constitutions. This event helps TCRP to raise funds to support its work for poor and low-income Texans.
For sponsorship and further information, please contact Susan Harry at 512-542-9744 or susan@susanharry.com.


Support Civil Rights and the Arts in Texas:
Order your Tickets Today!
Your Tax-Deductible Gift Will Help to Keep
TCRP Active in the Most Needed Places

Texas Civil Rights Project

Lipan Apache Restore Na'ii'ees Isdzanlashe in 2008

SLIDESHOW

Apache Cultural Endurance & Restorations

'Sunrise Dances' or the Apache Puberty Ceremony (Na'ii'ees Isdzanlashe) are central to Apache identity as aboriginal people in the lands that comprise the MX-US border region. The restoration of ceremonies, language, religion and their innate relationship to land-based cultural survival are important to the Lipan Apache and Jumano Apache people of the Rio Grande communities of Texas.

'Speak Out'--The Importance of Cultural Survival & Restoration

The grandmothers and women relations have traditionally and historically been the center of Nde' culture all along the Rio Grande River, Lower Rio Grande and Upper Rio Grande (Big Bend). Elders continue to stay strong today, and they remind us about the centrality of our ancient and enduring culture in our lands, and the violent methods used to remove us from our aboriginal places. Young people of the region are 'waking up' and this short film is a beautiful example of that important conversation between the generations. Watch this important video, and share the message. This is Loreen Marin.

Apaches Visit Bay Area to Share Message RE: Militarization on MX-US Apache homelands

El Polvo Women's Network, Redford, Texas

Join Apache Activists in Berkeley, California! August 28, 2008, 3 p.m.

Berkeley NO WALL! Reception for Apache Activists Fighting U.S. DHS in the MX-US Border Wall Conflict.

Click on image (left) to enlarge and get the details of the event.

NICAN TLACA INTER-TRIBAL GATHERING--SOUTH TEXAS

SEPTEMBER 19, 20, 21
EL CALABOZ, CAMERON COUNTY, TEXAS
HOSTED BY ELOISA GARCIA TAMEZ (LIPAN APACHE), AT THE TAMEZ LAND IN EL CALABOZ RANCHERIA

A Gathering among people of this Land. We continue opposing the Border Wall by proclaiming our land. Join us in this exciting event co-sponsored by The Children of the Earth Foundation and Coalition of Amigos in Solidarity & Action, CASA.

This will be an event for the entire family, a unique opportunity to learn about mother earth, Indigenous cultures (Lipan Apache, Azteca-Chichimeca), outdoor survival skills, and much more!

For more info, please contact Ryan at 203-6801 or Elizabeth at 459-3205.

CLICK ON 'REGISTER' FOR REGISTRATION FORM AND MORE INFORMATION