Reies López Tijerina Speech at the Peace and Freedom Rally

song. My name is Reyes Lopez de Herina, September 21, 1926, Fall 30, Texas, there was a woman beaten cotton. His husband, by his side, her side, I mean, for the children playing with rucks. The woman was pregnant. Her time arrived. She laid in the cotton sack. She

bore a child, a fifth, and the cotton field. And she named this baby Reyes Lopez de Herina. So I was born in the cotton field in Fall 30, Texas. Ladies and gentlemen, it's a pleasure to be here. This is a great world. Our nation is a great nation. And it's committed to the destiny of the whole world through international treaties. I belong to one of the minority groups. With many names, Chicano, Espano, Mexican, Mexican, La

Raza, and there's many names for this breed, these people. This people was born October 191514, by law two, law two, title one, book six, or also the Indian, out of Indian blood, Indian and Spanish blood. We have, like many other minority groups, been struggling to survive. We have come a long ways. We have fight. And we have a work hard to find our identity and our place under the sun. Many obstacles, many discriminations. Our fathers had been forced, were forced to fight against their own blood in the war of 1898

in Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and many other places. As a son and a child of the new breed, the Mexican-American, Spanish-American, the Indio-Espano, I speak. We have tried in many ways to convince our brothers, our government, the white power which I used to, ever since I was a child, reading in the restaurants and many places, white folks only, this white power, this white power, breed it, the black power, and later on the brown power. And now I am confronted with dilemma of colors, white, black, and brown. It is not that we believe in colors, but destiny, and the force of nature. The course of events

are precipitating and forcing us to choose. So it is that I speak about, sometimes about colors. We have tried again and again to prove to our government that we are faithful citizens, that we are ready to die for our flag, our Constitution, and also the crack Liberty Bell. And though we understand that for three times, that Liberty Bell was wrong, and we, I read the letters, the scripture in the Liberty Bell that says, let freedom ring throughout the

world. While this scripture was there, and while they were ringing the bell, hundreds and thousands of black people were in chains, slaves, like beasts, like animals, deprived of all the blessings of God. That is the reason why the Liberty Bell cracked and rebelled against the white power. So we have the Liberty Bell as a symbol, as a monumental evidence, that this government was founded on fraud and conspiracy against the rights of mankind. In the nick of time, you people and myself are here. In the nick of time, we are only

trying to save the greatest giant ever built by taxpayers, Uncle Sim. Yes, this is the greatest power ever built by ourselves, by our money, taxpayers. I am here to speak the truth. Ladies and gentlemen, I appreciate, and I think, my brothers here, my black brothers, and white, unorganized, whites, for I'm afraid, I'm afraid of the organized whites. But those whites that are not organized, they're not in the conspiracy against mankind, and they're my brothers. Yes, the Indians were here first, but I like to state tonight that an Indian

woman, an Indian lady was my mother, and a Spaniard was my father. After 300 years of Spanish rule, the white, the Anglo-ing company succeeded in driving Spain out of the continent. Then after that, he put my mother in a reservation, called the Indian Reservation, and he kicked my father out of the continent, and we, the Spanish Americans, were left here as orphans without the heat, the support, the counsel of father and mother, not as why we are called step children of a nation, step children of a nation. We have learned for the last 120 years that it is not so pleasant to live under the rule of a step mother. For we all know that a step mother will never treat a step child the way she treats her own children.

It's just impossible, and it is from this standpoint of you that I speak tonight, ladies in general. I am one of the many who are and who have discovered that we can no longer fool God nor fool mankind, and we can no longer temper and fool around with the rights of mankind. Now, there are many crimes committed, and there are many crimes prohibited in the book of law, but one of the greatest of crimes is to deprive of a people of his language, which is one of the accumulated fruits of centuries, and I am one. I belong to a people who even though in the land of the free, he is told in schools not to speak Spanish. And so,

we have gone through that experience, the Spanish-American, the Mexican-Americans, we have gone through that experience. It is these reasons, it is for this reason that we are included, and we want to be confident and included among those people that are fighting, and stand up, and are fed up, and want to resist the giant, these bearded, I don't mean castram, I mean Uncle Sam, with long bearded. Of course, Uncle Sam bearded is a democratic beard, castram bearded is a communist beard, and there is a difference between the bearded. While anyway, ladies and gentlemen, there is only one potential, one element left for mankind

to survive, and that is the element that has been overlooked by scientists. Every scientist, the money, the power of nation is being dedicated to process minerals and various elements to convert them into means and ways and power to destroy the world. This element that has been overlooked is the element and potential of justice, which up to date has been written in books, but has not been processed in the life and blood and hearts of mankind. Justice is a word, but it's not been processed in the laboratories of the heart of mankind. This

is what we in New Mexico are trying to do. Bring that element to the laboratories, human laboratories, the heart, and we are interested in that potential, in all its glory, in all its power, justice, justice. If we are to survive, if we are to be forgiven by Africa, Asia, and all the countries, all the countries we must start building our lives, our economy, our education around our potential, which up to now has been forsaken and overlooked the potential of justice, justice, justice. I mean, the justice. I mean, the justice that knows no color, the justice that knows no barriers, the justice that has no color, no language,

just like the breeze, the air, the oxygen, which cannot be called Japanese oxygen, Chinese air or German air oxygen. It's something that is good for everybody, every human being. This is the justice that we want here on Earth. It's not too late. It's not too late. Ladies and gentlemen, it's good to see people and assemble, united, and trying to oppose to rebel against the giant, who is only in the pursuit of destruction. The pursuit of happiness, yes. But what kind of happiness? The pursuit of happiness at the expense and

the price of the black man, the peace of the black man, the joy of the Mexican-Americans. What happiness is not the happiness, the true happiness. I don't like to enjoy and find happiness at the expense of other human beings. No. The American way of life as far as we are now discovering is the American way to hell. The American way of life is the American way to hell or to war. We see it throughout the whole world. I've been in Latin America in many places and ladies and gentlemen, we are running out of time and out of friends.

It is our responsibility and our obligation to do whatever we can. We cannot do the utmost. We cannot save probably country. For only God can save this country. And maybe God does not want to save this country. For God did not want. And God did not save the Roman Empire. God did not save the Great Syrian, the Egyptian Empire. And he will not save this criminal empire called United States of America. We were born and reared under terror and fear in New Mexico. For these reasons, when we discovered that this was the era of collective bargaining, we discovered that everybody had

to be united in order to be heard by the government. So we decided that the Spanish Americans in New Mexico, they only restored their own salvation. Their only hope was to copy from the black man, from the politicians and the religious people. They all unite in order to be heard. And in order to give importance to their issues to the rights, it was this way that we succeed in breaking the barrier of silence. In New Mexico, 120 years, our forefather had been crying and crying and crying. All we got in exchange for justice and respect for the Treaty of Guadalupe D'Algo was state welfare powder milk, which is no good not

even for dogs because they die sometimes drinking that powder milk that they get in the state welfare. That is what we had been getting for years and years in New Mexico until a group of men, women and children decided to experiment. They took over the village of Tiramarilla. They surround in the courthouse. They arrested the state police. They arrested the people. And for the first time in history, meet people, pour people to command themselves to get weapons, to get bats and pin it on their jacket and went to arrest these so-called cops, policemen, protectors of the public. It was June the 5th, 1967 in Tiramarilla, where we succeed for the first time, ladies and gentlemen, to put our cry, our needs, our rights

in the front page of the newspaper. Something we had not gotten for the last 20 years, we asked the news media to report the destruction of our properties between Casa Grande Niloia and Arizona. 17 houses, 17 homes of Spanish-Americans, one church, one school, one grocery store was burned by teenagers, college kids, you know, civilized kids, civilized. In the United States of America, we went to the Republican, the Republican New Paper in Phoenix, Arizona. They refused to print anything in the newspaper. We went to took sonaries on the refuse. We went to Lawrence White, the sheriff of the Penal County, and asked him and bag him

to investigate the burning, the destruction of the Valley of Peace, the village that we had settled and established there. He refused to investigate. We went to Don Pelton, the FBI agent in Casa Grande, Arizona. He refused to investigate. This was the turning point of my life. Then I was persuaded that the white man was not for justice. That the white man was spoiled. Spoiled because in the year 40 or 44 somewhere before Christ, a man called Julius Caesar, conquer the world, he went to a place where he found men and women in caves with blue eyes and blonde hair. He called them angels, uncl as in Italian or Latin. These people really believed what Julius Caesar called them angels. On of a sudden they developed,

they improved, they conquered and now they really think they are angels and they're taking over and they're doing and they're undoing and they're telling everybody what to do and how to do it and they have been spoiled. They really believed they are angels because they were called angels for by Julius Caesar. Emperor of Rome, history says, records it that he calls them, he calls them because they had blue eyes, blonde hair, uncl as and the word Anglo means angeles. So they really believe it and they behave like angels of hell. Ladies and gentlemen, we can no longer tolerate and we can no longer fool around and munk

around with criminal conspiracies by any race against mankind. That is the reason why I speak this way because these are the only words. This is the only message that will help the white power, the white structure. That is the reason why we hear about black power but let me tell you at the in this convention lady, ladies and gentlemen, let not the news media, let not the TV and the radio fool us saying that Carmichael is a violent man, that the harina invokes violence. That is a lie because I have no battle tanks, I have no power, I have no money, I have no bullets, I have no elements, I have no way. They say Carmichael is a racist. To be a racist, it takes elements of racism. To be a racist,

it takes power, element, potential to deprive people of their language, of their culture of privileges and rights. To be a racist, it takes money, it takes power, just what the white man has right now. And Carmichael, the harina, has no power, no money in order to inflict and deprive other people of their language, of their cultural rights and privileges and the equality. Therefore, we are not racist. Besides, our government is not afraid of racism. He likes it. He likes it. He would like for me to provoke him so that he could shoot me between the eyes as he is doing it in Vietnam and throughout the whole world. Now then, if he is not afraid of racism, why does he make such a false noise about racism

and violence and violence? I will tell you why. I will tell you why because he is afraid of his own crimes that are catching up with him. And men like Carmichael, the harina and others are bringing out and publishing these crimes and he doesn't like them. He doesn't like him. He is not afraid of me. He knows that I don't have the power to declare war, to make war. And if I started, that's what he wants. So he wants an excuse to kill me. So he is repping that propaganda about violence and racism because he is afraid of his own crimes. Our war is a psychological war, a dance, the white power. So whether you like it

or not, all I care is whether somebody upstairs likes it or not. If I feel that I'm doing what God would want me to do and what the poor would want me to do, that's all I care. That's all I care. For any way, if the race is powerful, if he is angry against me or if he is my friend, it makes no difference because he will give me no money, no privilege anyway, whether he is my enemy or he is my friend. So we might as well do what our conscience dictates us to do. Ladies and gentlemen, the Spanish American people, the Mexican American people, the Southwest, where the white says that we are 5 million and I say we are 15

million. He fights with lies and I fight with lies. I think we are 15 million in the Southwest. And I think that the Southwest is the key for the harmony and the future relations between the Latin American world and the Anglo world. John F. Kennedy before he died, he says by the end of the year 2000 there will be 600 million people speaking Spanish in this continent. And it is here what we need friends, not in Asia, not in Africa, not over there, it's here. And yes, he was right because the Amazon river is twice as big as the Mississippi and the Volga put together. If you know what that means, so ladies and gentlemen, America needs men with burning spirits, with burning hearts to represent what little is there is left.

With power you cannot reason. Power is like a math and angrily beast and with power you cannot reason. That is why in New Mexico we are dealing and using everything short of violence. Of course we don't want to use violence because we cannot face up to the battle tanks and the national guard and the power of the United States. And only we are doing that only because our government is so busy, it's so powerful, it's so committed. Now the only way you can get him to hear and listen to you is to make a loud noise in the streets. That's the only way you can get him to listen. This has been a historical experience and privilege

to me, ladies and gentlemen, to express my heart and put before your minds, your eyes, your hearts, the feeling of the Mexican-American people in the Southwest. We are not too many but very important for the destiny in the future of the United States. So we are asking all men of good will to repent and face up to the truth. Let us get together. Let us become chemists and learn how to work with colors because I think the future will be decided on colors. As the barriers of religion, the pop of Rome, leaders of religion are breaking

the barriers and bringing them down. The barriers of colors are going up and we better start doing something about that. Yes, the barriers of colors are going up. That is why we have found a must in necessity to meet with our black brothers and the non-organized white support, the good ones, the non-organized, the Indians. For it is times and days of reckoning, I hope that God will accompany us in this venture. May God bless this convention and bless each and every one of you. I am saying these just to prove that I am not a communist. Thank

you very much. Thank you very much.