Chema Hernández Gil

Someone should lend him Cattle Colonialism: An Environmental History of the Conquest of California and Hawai’i. https://uncpress.org/book/9781469636061/cattle-colonialism/

And here's the graphic for the May Day Workers over Billionaires Labor March at 4PM at the Embarcadero Plaza here in San Francisco. #SanFrancisco #BayArea #MayDay #ShutItDown

It might also be that forcing the question of wealth and class into the urbanist discourse leads to the very uncomfortable conclusion that high- and middle-income households will continue to be disproportionate resource sink even in dense urban neighborhoods. They will still travel across the world for vacation, they can better afford to have children, many will still have cars for weekend trips. They can consume more and often will.

Maybe my favorite part is when Chimalpahin describes the suede sandals the Japanese wear and then goes on to say that they wear them without any shame, and that they walk proudly, like eagles. I think he says this because sandals (huaraches) were associated with the #Indigenous population and not something to be worn with pride. Even today, people will use the racist term “indio patarrajada” (Indian with rough/slashed feet) in reference to people wearing sandals as opposed to shoes.

Maybe it is also because I actually lived in Europe. Having spent 13 years over there taught me that urban neighborhoods all have their positives and negatives. For sure it’s better than a suburb, but that’s a low bar.

Again, if you read Spanish, give the PDF linked above a read. It is a super fascinating bit of New World meets Old World, #Nahua meets #Japanese. And follow me for random bits of #Indigenous history (and random political thoughts and photos of dogs and SF).

Many thanks to @chaprot for uncovering an actual physical item from this amazing story: The actual 1613 letter to the Pope from Date Masamune brought by the #Japanese embassy, and which the #Indigenous #Nahua historian Chimalpahin documented as they passed through #Mexico https://pouet.chapril.org/users/chaprot/statuses/109567485037898582

Not just colonization, but also immigration driven by capitalism! Someone whose family helped colonize Mexico or Argentina, who is fully of European descent and more wields more privilege at home than many white people in this country can emigrate to the US and have the "immigrant" experience of poverty and marginalization and then legitimately cloak themselves with the broader Latino mantle. It is super strange.

In my experience is isn't so much from Native Americans in the US, but from non-Native peoples. It is easier to see the Maya Yucatec cook in your restaurant as an immigrant than as a poor Indigenous Native American fleeing his homeland due to colonial and capitalistic policies.

I think there's more debate and nuance about this. I consider former Mexican President Vicente Fox to be both Mexican and Latino, but his family arrived in my Indigenous town in Mexico as a colonizing force from Europe and the United States generations ago, making them very much part of the colonization that "latinicized" my people. I think that Indigenous-led Los Angeles community org CIELO position towards Latinidad is spot on: https://mobile.twitter.com/MyCielola/status/1573450868724183040

I did not know that, that's great to know!

Agreed, thank you! I am bookmarking it to share with folks.

@cathitza@mastodon.world I identify more with the so-called Oregon Trail microgeneration, right in between Gen-X and Millennials. https://mashable.com/archive/oregon-trail-generation

And on the flip side, you've got folks like my family, who left their ancestral Indigenous lands in what is now Mexico to come to what is now California because of capitalism and neoliberal policies, but because our town is on the other side of the border, we're no longer perceived to be Native American by many, but just immigrants.

I gifted myself a single-volume edition of the Lord of the Rings. I last read it when I was half the age I am today, and it's an entirely different experience now. This edition is not very bulky and the cover is a bit flexible, so it makes for good comfortable reading.

I'm delighted that SCOTUS reaffirmed birthright citizenship today, but the threats are far from over. Europe remains a cautionary tale on why it must be protected here in the USA. https://sanfranciscan.org/2025/02/26/birthright-citizenship-and-europe-a-cautionary-tale/

Thanks for doing this. Will they work on allowing hardware security keys for 2FA? That would be swell.

@oatmeal@mastodon.social So happy you're here!

Hi! Great to see y'all here. You keep my family and me connected.