San Antonio, Kick off of PMA tour

foto: "El Alamo"

by: Reynaldo Padilla Teruel

Peoples Movement Assembly Southwest Organizing Tour

June 3-July 4, 2011

San Antonio-

The Peoples Movement Assembly Southwest Organizing Tour, led by Southwest Workers Union a 23-year-old social movement organization, starts on June 3^rd and goes until July4th, of this year.  The kick off of the PMA tour is from San Antonio because historically it sits a the crossroads between the south and south-west regions and the regions north and south, making it a strategic geo-political center since the time of the European arrival of the Spanish and then later the invasion or take over or land grab by the United States.  The Spanish established 6 missions in San Antonio, or six military bases and held the region in colonial status for 300 years.  The United States has 8 military bases in and around San Antonio making it a geo-political strategic center for global south domination by the United States, and the very same domination of the Southwest united States, previously the Northwest part of Mexico and before that Indigenous land held I collective trust.

Photo: Che Lopez

organizer Southwest Workers Union

Reynaldo Padilla Teruel

San Antonio, originally known as Yanoguano, inhabited by Coahuilteco people, it came under Spanish occupation and colonial control in the beginning of 1520’s until 1821.  In 1821, Mexico became independent and included Texas.  In 1836 Anglo Saxon protestant settlers and slave owners rebelled against Mexico for prohibiting slavery and for controlling trade.  Texas became an independent slave republic in 1836 after the battle of the Alamo and San Jacinto.  The United States annexed Texas in 1845 to have more slave state votes in Congress.  The US invaded Mexico in 1845 provoking an unjust war of expansion signing the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 taking the northern half of the Mexican nation, making the northwest of Mexico the Southwest of the United States.  Mexican@s and Chican@s in the US have been an ‘internal colony’ since 1848.