Rafael Montán Final Reflection – Movimientos Zine
My zine, “Movimentos: Anti-Colonial Struggles in Latine History” was created with the intention of synthesizing some of the readings and topics that we discussed in class. Specifically, I examined the Puerto Rican independence movement and the Chicanx student movements from an anti-colonial perspective. I would say that my work most closely relates to our studies on the Young Lords, the Chicanx student movements, and the “afterlife of illegality” reading from Alan Pelaez Lopez.
Though we did not discuss the broad Puerto Rican independence movement in class, we did go over the Young Lords, a group that I also wrote about in my zine. The activism of the Young Lords was particularly inspiring for me, and watching Millie and the Lords opened my eyes to the work of this organization. Coming into this class, I would’ve liked to say that I knew a lot about Puerto Rican history, but I could not believe that there was a Puerto Rican equivalent of the Black Panthers. Being able to further research the work of the Young Lords and their ties to the broader Puerto Rican independence movement was a great opportunity.
I would say that our studies of the Chicanx student movements were what was most drawn upon in my zine. I discussed the Plan of Aztlán, the Plan of Santa Barbara, Chicanx culture, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and other ideas from that mini-unit. The combination of these concepts and stories added to the pro-liberation, anti-colonial narrative I was attempting to create with my zine. The idea of self-determination for a people is something that I found to be threaded along each of these smaller subsects of the larger mini-unit, and I tried to emphasize this throughout my project. Though not precisely anti-colonial, I would argue that it falls into that same category, and I particularly wanted to cover it because of the role of students. The East LA walkouts and the Plan of Santa Barbara manifesto are particularly inspiring to me, and I can see how actions/movements like these have influenced other movements. I give a little aside at the end of the zine about the activism here at Cornell, something that I have personally studied for my organization, and I would contend that the Chicanx student movements inspired the movements that Ithaca has seen over the years, namely the 1993 Day Hall Takeover.
The other major course material that relates to my final project was the Pelaez Lopez poem: “the afterlife of illegality.” Before settling on this topic for my project, I was considering doing something about my family and migration patterns. However, our discussion of Pelaez Lopez’s poem and getting to write my poem in that same style pushed me to choose anti-colonialism as a topic for the project. I was so inspired that I wanted to include a poem of my own to close the zine, which is on the back cover. Colonialism has drastic effects on the person, and Pelaez Lopez’s poem beautifully encapsulates that feeling of not belonging while also trying to remain hopeful. With my poem, I tried to do the same, especially that latter part.
A zine on anti-colonialism also is very salient today. Struggles continue to this day, and I hoped that my examination of two major struggles could further that important conversation. Researching for this project has proved to me that standing against oppression and fighting for yourself has been a long part of our Latine history. This semester, we discussed in many ways how Latines have done this, and their struggles are what ultimately inspired me to create this zine. They’ve taught me that the fight is not yet over, and I hope that I can carry the torch forward. However, it is imperative that I and no one else lose hope: that we continue to “dream gloriously.”