Marching Students: Chicana and Chicano Activism in Education, 1968 to the Present

Chapter 7: The Las Vegas Activist Crew

167 c h a p t e r 7 The Las Vegas Activist Crew a n i t a t i j e r i n a r e v i l l a e v e l y n m . r a n g e l - m e d i n a This research is a multidimensional consciousness analysis of the experiences lived by the immigrant rights activists of Las Vegas (see Covarrubias and Revilla 2003, 466). The focus of this study is im/migration status, but it also provides a critique of race, ethnicity, class, gender, phenotype, sexual orientation, age, and religious and spiritual orientation discrimination. This study is a counterstory that examines the collective experience of the Las Vegas Activist Crew, the desire of activists to create social change, and their ability to transform their communities.1 Undocumented im/migration is perhaps one of the most pressing dynamics of inequality in the United States and the world today; this issue is compounded by socioeconomic and political inequality. In the United States, the scope of this problem is federal, although it intersects at all levels of government. State and local entities grossly benefit from the exploitation of noncitizen populations, and they provide them with limited social services (primarily public education that is financed through property taxes paid by both undocumented and documented citizens). The “im/migration debate” is interwoven with racist and citizenist ideologies (defined below). At the core of the mainstream debate lies the impact that noncitizens have on this nation’s economy, national identity, national security, and the changing racial and ethnic demographics of the U.S. population. What is overwhelmingly left out of this discourse, however, is the recognition of human, 168 m a r c h i n g s t u d e n t s labor, educational, sociopolitical, and civil rights violations of a vulnerable population that ensure the economic sustenance of the world’s hegemony. Sadly, this is a global reality. citizenism Contemporary nation-states, immigration policies, and the socioeconomic and political marginalization of immigrants have created a global system founded on the subordination of noncitizens; we refer to this phenomenon as “citizenism.” This term was coined during the course of this research, and it was developed through a communal production of knowledge by the authors. Broadly defined, citizenism is the ideological practice of inherent citizen superiority, the right to dominance of citizens over noncitizens, and a system of unearned advantages and privileges based on citizenship granted at birth. These systems discriminate, disenfranchise, exploit, dehumanize, and subordinate noncitizens living within mostly “developed” nation-states. Therefore, activist struggle begins with questioning the very legal foundations that relegate a marginalized existence to immigrant communities. Furthermore , we argue that the terms currently used to identify anti-immigrant discrimination, such as “nativism” and “xenophobia,” do not adequately relay the ideologies used to attack and subordinate undocumented immigrants . For example, according to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary, nativism is “a policy of favoring native inhabitants as opposed to immigrants,” and xenophobia is “a fear and hatred of strangers or foreigners.” Clearly, nativism is a misnomer because “native born” can be confused with being native or indigenous to the land. Nativism is an ideology primarily espoused by U.S.-born people of European descent (that is, socially constructed “white” people) and is often used against Latina/o (and other nonwhite) immigrants, many of whom have indigenous ancestry to the Americas and the Southwest United States, such as Mexican-origin immigrants. Clearly, there is an irony that does not go uncontested when people who do not have indigenous ancestry are arguing their “native” right to the United States and are actively attempting to discriminate against people whose roots are native/ indigenous to the Americas (north and south). The term “citizenism” is a rejection of white people’s claim as “natives” of the United States, especially when used for the purpose of anti-immigrant or racist discrimination. In addition, xenophobia does not address the structural and institutional forms t h e l a s v e g a s a c t i v i s t c r e w 169 of discrimination experienced by immigrants. “Fear and hatred” of strangers or foreigners do not account for the systematic legal restrictions enforced upon immigrants by governmental, state, and local authorities, which lead to outright abusive and dehumanizing behaviors at both individual and institutional levels. The U.S...