My Name is Contreraz...and I am America.



My name is Contreraz.  I am America.  How is that for bold? When I say America, know I am using it as a synonym for diversity.  America is diversity.  Contreraz is diveristy.  Get it?  All it took was going to the Contreraz Family Reunion last weekend to be reminded of this.  Someone should have warned Billings, MT that this was going to happen.  The Magic City had a right to know it was being invaded by this bat-shit crazy clan of Mexicans.

Billings, MT before the "Brown Tornado" that was the Contreraz Family Reunion

We gathered for our first gathering on Friday.  About 125 of us at South Park.  It was a typical Montana-Mexican potluck:  Albertsons fried chicken, soggy taco salads, and $5 Little Caeser's pizza.  As I surveyed the gathering I saw lots of colors: brown, white, black, lots of economic diversity, and maybe a few cousins with criminal records. 

Then on Saturday, we had the Mexican Fiesta, the annual fund-raiser for Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church, the backbone to my family's faith. 

All day long, we imbibed in food, music (both live and recorded), folklorico and popular dance performances and drunken people watching. Oh and cascarones.  If you aren't familiar with the tradition of cascarones, basically you spend 25 of your hard earned cents on a confetti-filled egg, find some unassuming individual and slam the thing on their head without them knowing its coming.  The confetti part is only half the fun.  You also get to inflict a mini concussion all to the amusement of the those arround you.  Trust me, after 32 years on God's green earth, it never gets old. 

Later on, Saturday night, we had a Mexican Dance.  This was a blast.  As tradition dictates, my siblings, their spouses, my wife and I all gathered prior to the dance and drank heavily.  The original point of the gathering was to save money by drinking at home before the dance.  One of our family's many  Mexican-like qualities of being cheap. Sorta like bringing your own snacks into a movie theater.  On a side note, I have to mention this:  In an earlier post, "What were they thinking" I blogged about a Mexican monstrosity known as Botas Picaduras.  Guess what!  There was a guy at the dance wearing them!  This fad has spread quicker to Montana than Tiajuanan Herpes! 

Then on Sunday, was the big gathering.  A Menudo/Posole brunch at my cousin Mary's house.  Yes Menudo, the soup made from cow stomach and hominy, that every Mexican pretends they love, but secretly loathes. And here, I really got to see my family's diversity. 

First, as you could probably assume by the fact that I am both Mexican AND Catholic, I have a huge family.  Immediately there are 7 siblings with spouses and kids, etc.  Dad, Mexican (American Born, but Mexican for sure).  Mom white.  Me, mixed (but you already knew that).  I have two adopted sisters.  One fully Mexican.  The other, Mexican, Black, American Indian. Wife and Sisters-in-Law are white.  Brothers-in-Law, both Mexican (the real kind, born there and everything). On top of that, throw in 20 or so nieces and nephews, and we are quite the crew. So that's my immediate family. 

Here are some of my immediate family, before the dance

Then things get colorful. 
Within my extended family, as mentioned above we have some very successful, educated members.  And we also have some who never finished high school.  We have some Teachers and Nurses, as well as some Welders and Welfare Moms.  We have the preppy pink polo-shirted white cousins, and the cholo prison tattooed, "don't f-with-me" cousins.  We have the red-neck Uncle who, though he's Mexican, wears a "Welcome to America, Now Speak English" t-shirt, as well as the deported paisa brother-in-law who couldn't be there because of *a-hem* border issues.  We have alcoholics, drug addicts (both recovering and embracing) as well as workaholics and work-a-phobics.  We have the Pro-lifers (my aunt was wearing a "What if Mary had an Abortion" t-shirt)as well as the Pro-choicers (my cousin works the Planned Parenthood booth at the fair).  We have the sanctified as well as the sanctimonious. All were gathered to celebrate our our roots as Contreraz's. 

It was great to see and talk with family I either only see once or twice a year or rarely if ever.  With some family members, it was like I had seen them just yesterday.  Others, it was great to catch up and find out where life had taken them in the months and years since I had seen them last.

A lot of family weren't able to make it of varying circumstances.  Some too poor. Some too tired. Some too lazy.  Some serving our country in the military.  Some too apathetic.  But they too represent the many facets of the Contreraz family.  It was pretty amazing seeing all these different people, coming from the same ancestry coming together and sharing the love our parents, grandparents and great grandparents had for us all, and taught us all. 

Now, I'm not going to be all "utopian" about this.  Our family has had its falling-outs and fights.  We have family members who would rather not talk to each other let alone see each other.  But that is what makes my huge family so great. With so many options you can find someone who you can connect with, get along with and laugh with.  And to be honest, even for the family members who aren't close,  we can still manage to get along. To tolerate each other.  To love each other.  Why? Because we were taught to.  Our parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins all invested time and modeled for for the younger generations  how to act.  We have a bond that opens the doors of diversity within our own family:  Contreraz spirit. 
Given the climate of our country, I sometimes wish I could bottle it up and sell it to the rest of America.  But until I can figure out how to do this, I will simply just model the behaviors and beliefs towards diversity and respecting others that I learned from my family to those I teach and work with.  Then they too will see how I indeed am Contreraz, and I am indeed what America not only is but should be.



Two more things: 1.  Its been a couple of weeks since I have blogged, and for anyone who has checked to see if I had blogged, I apologize if I disappointed.  I am back to my regular Sunday schedule for blogging.
2.  I have almost had over 2,000 hits on my blog so far, so for that I thank you! As always I encourage you to leave messages or comments regarding my posts.

Wabbit Season...Duck Season...Immigrant Season

Big fans of the fence, avid fans of shooting my people for sport.
By-the-way, take America back?  Back from whom?  Maybe these folks should spend some
time talking to some American Indians...

Earlier this week, my father sent me the link to this story from cnn.com: 

http://www.emailthis.clickability.com/et/emailThis?clickMap=viewThis&etMailToID=771405534 

The Headline:  Immigrant Hunting?  What's happening to my country?  If you haven't read it, please take a moment to check it out before reading this...If you are a person who isn't into "reading" per se, I will summarize the first part of the story.  There is a gas station owner in Racine, Wisconsin (a mere 6 hours from my home), that started selling bumperstickers in his store that say, "Illegal Immigrant Hunting Permit." A woman named Maria Morales saw the ugliness of the situation and called him out.  Amidst pressure the store owner ceased from selling the stickers, but Ms. Morales was harrassed and had her life endangered as a result of her opposition to the ugliness. 

I have to agree with the headline, What is happening to my country?  While this is an upsetting story, its pretty admirable of Ms. Morales to stand up against the injustice that she saw.  Not to get all preachy, but Jesus, whom most of the anti-immigration Mexi-haters claim to be followers of, does say, "Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."  And I assure you, as a person who has spent some time studying Christian Scripture, this woman's cause is textbook righteousness.  The ugliness of the gas station owner has me flummoxed.  The ugliness of some Americans regarding the immigration has me upset, and at times, admitedly a bit paranoid. 

I spent some time in graduate school studying the "hate" of dominant populations towards the minorities of varying societys throughout history. I learned, in sociological terms, societies and communities, through history have a tendency to create something reffered to as the "other."  The "other" is the person, or persons that the dominant population deems as deviant, counter-progress (or too progressive at sometimes), anti-establishment, and eventually, something equivalent to the boogie-man.  It's funny, I just so happen to be in the middle of the watching the TV series "Lost" in which the enemies on the island who are terrorizing the surviors of the plane crash are named, "THE OTHERS!"

* I am only on the beginning of the 3rd season, so I am not sure how it all plays out, however, I find it amusingly ironic that I am choosing to talk about the "other" with this show so fresh on my mind....or maybe its not ironic at all! Maybe its fate, maybe the Island wants me to... But I digress, back to my topic at hand, the creation of the "other."


 To put it as simply as possible, this is the patern that seemed doomed to be repeated by society after society:
1.  Figure out who is the minority "other" based on race, religion, etc.  
2.  Ostracize  and marginalize the "other" pushing them to the fringes of society 
3. Dehumanize the "other" which makes persecution and unjustified punishments all the more easy
4.  Demonize the "other" which makes hurting and killing them all the more easy on the conscience

Medieval Jewish depiction

post-slavery political cartoon

Et tu Bugs?

Here are just a few examples of how the "other" has been dehumanized and demonized by past societies.  So now to American society, circa 2011.  Who is the "other?"  Well, I read about things like the bumperstickers in Wisconsin.  I read and hear about the racial profiling law in Arizona and I can't help but think Latinos are, specifically those who are deemed, "illegal."   Heck John McCain was, only a couple of weeks ago making claims that the forrest fires in AZ were being caused by my fresh-from-Mexico bretheren. Or how about the TSA agents, mentioned in the above artilce, who in LIBERTY Airport got the reputation as the "great Mexican hunters?"  I stated above that whats going on with our country is a bit scary.  I am scared for those young people who will only know an America where racial-profiling is seen as ok.  I am scared for those who risk life and limb to get to our country only to experience a hate and resentment that eclipses their poverty and dire need to get to our country in the first place. 

I know the creation of the "other" has been a vicious cycle throughout history.  But I also believe that human-kind has supposed to have evolved.  I believe if we can advance so far as to put a man on the moon, that we can overcome our tendency to ostracize, dehumanize and demonize our brothas (and sistas) from other mothas.  We just need to have enough people like Ms. Morales, mentioned above, to stand up for those actions that are blatantly unjust and hateful.  Afterall, if we do, the Kingdom of God's is ours.  And that, my friends, is guaranteed to be a community that is absolutely free of the "other."