Mexican-American professor
predicts race war in Arizona
Ernesto Cienfuegos
La Voz de Aztlan
Los Angeles, Alta California - August 17, 2010 - (ACN) Dr. Rodolfo F. Acuña, author of the seminal Chicano Studies textbook, Occupied America: A History of Chicanos, stated that Arizona is headed towards a violent race war! Professor Acuña made the prediction in a recent video taped interview by Gabriel Buelna of The Non Profit Network.
At 2.30 minutes into Part 2 of the below taped interview, Gabriel Buelna asks Professor Acuña, "Where do you think this is ultimately headed?" Dr. Rodolfo Acuña without hesitation answers, "I think there is going to be violence!"
Dr. Rodolfo F. Acuña, a senior faculty member in the Chicano Studies Department at California State University, Northridge, is very qualified to make such a prediction. He is an eminent scholar and distinguished historian of Mexican-American history and is considered to be the "Father of Chicano Studies" by his colleagues. He also grew up as a child in Tucson and has numerous ancestors in Arizona going back to the 1770’s.
Professor Acuña says that Arizona has had a history of ugly racist violence against Mexican-American families. In the interview, he provides a documented case of a massacre of Mexican men, women and children that occurred in the town of Ray, Arizona on August 19, 1914. According to historical documents and an article by the Los Angeles Times titled, "Race War in Arizona; Death List is Sixteen" published that year, a racist Sheriff and his posse composed of Ray town bigots invaded the homes of families in the Mexican part of town.
The Mexican families resisted the invasion and seven were immediately killed. The rest fled to the hills. Later that night, a mob of hundreds of White racists hunted the Mexicans in the hills vowing to kill everyone. A few Whites were also killed in the short but bloody race war but the exact number of Mexican men, women and children murdered in the massacre is still not known. Ray, which was a copper mining town is now a "Ghost Town" about 40 miles east of Phoenix.
Part 2 - Interview of Professor Rodolfo F. Acuña
UPDATE:Since we published this article on August 17, 2010, the following racist cartoon is being circulated by White supremacists in Phoenix:
Dr. RODOLFO F. ACUÑA received his doctorate in Latin American Studies, concentration in history, in 1968. His concentration is Northern Mexico and the study of the Mexican in the United States. He is the author 20 titles, 32 academic articles and chapters in books, 155 book reviews and 188 opinion pieces. Three of his books have received the Gustavus Myers Award for the Outstanding Book on Race Relations in North America and more recently Corridors of Migration: The Odyssey of Mexican Laborers, 1600-1933 (Arizona) was named a 2008 Outstanding Academic Title by CHOICE Magazine (American Library Association). Acuña has received the National Hispanic Institute, Lifetime Achievement Award, Austin, Texas, 2008 and the Center for the Study of Political Graphics (CSPG), Historian of the Lions Award, among others. In 1989, Acuña received the Distinguished Scholar Award, National Association for Chicano Studies, the Emil Freed Award for Community Service, Southern California Social Science Library, the Founder's Award for Community Service from the Liberty Hill Foundation among others. Black Issues In Higher Education selected Acuña one of the “100 Most Influential Educators of the 20th Century. In 1973 he negotiated a Ford Foundation grant that initiated Operation Chicano Teacher. Among his best-known books are Occupied America: A History of Chicanos 6th edition (Longman, 2007); Sometimes There is No Other Side: Essays on Truth and Objectivity (Notre Dame, 1998); Anything But Mexican: Chicanos in Contemporary Los Angeles. (Verso Press, 1996), US Latinos: An Inquiry (Greenwood Press, 2003), Community Under Siege (UCLA, 1984), The Sonoran Strongman (University of Arizona, 1974). As an activist and scholar, he has been a leading voice in the Mexican American community.
