AAICC

AAICC)- Alliance for the Advancement of Indigenous/Chicano Culture, a nonprofit cultural organization in Corpus Christi, Texas.
Please visit our website... www.geocities.com/aaicc2000
PURPOSE: The purpose of AAICC is to 1. Proclaim, establish, expand, promote and support the true and undistorted education and study of the Chicano/Indigenous culture, history and heritage, among the world's richest and most advanced civilizations. 2. Obtain and disseminate authentic, accurate and current accounts of our heritage from; recorded history, ancient codices and writings, archiological finds, and most significant, from the oral wisdom of our native forefathers passed down through generations.
MISSION: It is hoped that through a sincere and collaborative effort of individuals and supportive organizations of similar interests and objectives, this alliance may discover, develop and utilize ways and means to progressively expand and continue the education of the history of the Chicano/Indigenous culture/s for our prosperity and that of future generations. This will be accomplished through the process of discussing, exchanging ideas and opinions, researching, analyzing, investigating and most importantly through cooperation and working together as a team. Some prospective measures that may be utilized to distribute, teach, and perpetuate, our cultural heritage are: exhibits, displays, workshops, seminars, lectures, readings, performances, productions, presentations, music, poetry, art, dances, danza, museums, cultural centers and any and all legal and feasible means at our disposal.
GOAL: It is the goal of AAICC that eventually, through extended knowledge and a deeper and unclouded understanding of our immortal roots, every descendent of our indigenous ancestors will renew his/her feelings of self-worth and self-respect. It is the contention of this coalition that if our people could obtain a higher degree of insight into the history and study of the splendor and magnificence of many of our great ancestral civilizations, cultures and cities such as, Cahokia, Teotihuacan, Tenochtitlan, and Chichen Itza, the dormant pride in their heritage would be awakened to seek further knowledge of our historical roots. Therefore, by the realization that we are descendants of a proud and highly intelligent bloodline, we may be inspired to pass this knowledge on our children and they turn to theirs, etc., hence, reversing the long self-degradation and downward cycle prevalent in so many of our people. We believe that early acquired pride in heritage will help develop a more positive self-image and self-assured attitude, thus facilitating achievement and excellence in academics, fine arts, sports, professions, careers, relationships, etc., consequently, setting and reaching higher goals for the attainment of the highest degree of integrity, dignity, self-respect and ultimately, success, prosperity and happiness in this great nation of liberty and justice for all.
____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ __________
IN KEEPING WITH THE TRADITIONS OF OUR FOREFATHERS, WE PRAY OFTEN TO THE CREATOR FOR OUR EARTHLY AND SPIRITUAL NEEDS.
____________________________________________________________ ____________________
Our People's Despair - Why?
So Many young ethnic minorities today are so intensely focused on assimilating and blending into society, trying so hard to be accepted that they have not only forgotten and neglected their heritage but now, because they are ashamed of what they are, they turn their backs on it. If we listen carefully we can hear our young people pleading for help, understanding and compassion. What is really sad is that most of them do not even realize that they are sinking and in desperate need of help. Every time a juvenile gets drunk, smokes crack or shoots up; every time a teenage girl gets pregnant out of wedlock; every time there is a drive-by shooting and every time an at-risk kid is handcuffed and incarcerated, their cry for help is deafening. Instead of extending a helping hand, we lash out in anger and criticism. Almost always, as if there were no other options, our solutions are, to beef-up law enforcement, stiffen the laws and repeatedly lower the age limit that a child can be tried, imprisoned and executed. Where does it end? What happens to the preventive programs that fail or produce little or no results because of insufficient funds and inadequate staffing and supervision? Ironically, the highest financed and supported programs are the sports programs, especially high school football. Not that sports are unimportant, but where are our priorities?
Records show that Mexican American and Native American young adults in the US continue to have higher status dropout rates than do either their white or black counterparts. Furthermore, in a study conducted by the Ford Foundation, during a 10-year period, from 1980 to 1990, the report addressed the under representation of Mexican-Americans in the faculties of U.S. universities. A total of 91, 837 women received doctorates from U.S. universities and of these, 751(0.7 percent) were Mexican-Americans. Of the 148,352 men who received doctorates during this period, 1,189 (also 0.7 percent) were Mexican-Americans. Presently, these statistics have improved but very slowly and insignificantly. Finally, the study noted that the single most important factor in obtaining a doctoral degree was a positive mentoring experience. That’s where we come in, not just this organization, but you, and all of us, for we must all work together in a consensus effort to try to resolve this monstrous crisis.
____________________________________________________________ ____________________
Crime, violence, drug abuse, gang involvement, teen pregnancy, poverty, disparity, indifference and low living standards are neither innate nor self-spawned faculties of any individual or peoples, past, present or future. This seemingly, endless, bitter strife stems from a more serious and deeply rooted degenerative affliction that attacks most ethnic minorities in all countries of the world. It is a tragic disease of the spirit, a downward self-degrading cycle of self-evaluation as an individual and as a people. The deficiency of self-esteem and self-respect that exists and persists in many ethnic minorities is a result of the continued, long term (for hundreds of years) teachings, indoctrinations and complete acceptance of misinformation and an abundance of incomplete, inaccurate, omitted, and very often false accounts of historical and cultural education. It is generally accepted that most mainstream history books and published documents, especially the ones used in schools, were and continue to be written by the conquerors and dominant culture of that society. In the aftermath of any conflict, almost always, the victor sees their defeated foe as the weaker and most definitely the inferior people, merely because of their defeat and because their ways and beliefs are different. Consequently, this narrow-minded, arrogant and ignorant point of view compels the conqueror to subjugate, oppress, suppress and to impose their faith, customs and ideas upon this supposed dreadful, dumb and barbaric subculture. Much of this long-established biased, stereotypical, erroneous and detrimental information has been presented, disseminated and perpetuated as undisputed fact by various misguided sources in our society for countless of generations. Therefore, throughout time, this relentless and very powerful negative cycle of beliefs and way of life has come to be fully accepted, fulfilled, fueled and even embraced as their own by the very people it has destroyed. The implementation and execution of the perpetual momentum of this self-propelled descending gyroscope has been very successful. As they are no longer essential for the existence and continuation of this seemingly hopeless situation, racism and bigotry, the original catalyst for this end, are very slowly and surely being purged. Finally, this entire seductive, programming and misleading process gives the false impression that all the negative stereotypes and preconceived notions about any and all ethnic minorities are true, simply because of the tragic misconception that, " these people are just that way".
Thanks to the wonders and achievements in science and technology, pathways to the past, never before thought accessible, have come to light via recent archeological discoveries. We know so much more today about the history, culture, achievements and wonders of the indigenous people of Mesoamerica than we did just last year. Almost daily, new discoveries are bringing forth knowledge of the highly advanced and intellectual inhabitants of Pre-Columbian America. So, equipped with this newfound knowledge and the oral wisdom and traditions passed down to us by our forefathers, it is the desire and purpose of this organization to progressively teach and continuously disseminate authentic and accurate historical accounts of our ancestral roots. These historical and cultural corrections, NOT REVISIONS, will not only benefit all Chicano and Native Americans but will also serve as an inspiration to other ethnic minorities to seek further knowledge and truths about their heritage.
AAICC strongly believes that all the negative brainwashing and garbage that afflicts and burdens our upward movement, as a people, can be deprogrammed and reversed if caught at an early age. This can be accomplished through a continued and relentless barrage of positive reinforcement and a corrected attitude toward ourselves, our people, our history, and our culture, stemming from a deeper understanding and undistorted view of history and the world. This positive and uplifting education must be directed primarily toward young Chicano and Native American parents, or soon to be parents, so that they may pass this process on to their children and their children’s children etc... By enlightening our young ones with knowledge of the many magnificent cultural, architectural, mathematical, medical, scientific and other achievements of our indigenous ancestors, their thirst for further knowledge of their roots will be awakened. Via true and accurate accounts of the beauty and grandeur of our native forefathers and by the knowledge that we are descendants of a highly advanced and intelligent bloodline, our young people may regain self-respect and a more positive self-image so that they may set and reach higher goals and standards. By means of a higher level of self-assurance their accomplishments and achievements may be infinite. Therefore when they marry and have families of their own, they may teach their children at a very young age to have pride and dignity in themselves and in their heritage and to respect, embrace, and love their culture, their roots, their families and their life. Early pride in heritage leads to dignity, integrity, respect and pride in self, thus respect for others and pride in country.
Our ultimate goal is to help, enlighten, motivate, guide, and empower our young people towards a productive, prosperous and happy adultlife.
____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ______________
____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ _____________
THE NAHUA PEOPLE
The Nahua were and are today the descendants of a people whose scope of the sciences, the arts and the cosmos confound the minds of modern scholars. In less than 200 years the Mixika (Aztec) transformed themselves from a band of wandering nomads to one of the greatest civilization the world had ever known. What records remain of this amazing feat indicate they did it through brilliant military campaigns and by ingeniously applying technology to master the harsh environment they faced. They built their capital city where no city should have been possible: in the middle of a lake. They employed methods of architecture and technology contemporary scientist and engineers can only speculate upon. With all of our mechanized high tech equipment we can still not duplicate the precision of their pyramids, or even approach the calculations of the heavens with as much accuracy.
object width="425" height="355">.. .. .... ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ _________
The Sun Stone ( La Piedra Del Sol ).
The Aztec Calendar : Math , Geometry and Design By Charles William Johnson Earth/matrix Science in Ancient Artwork.
The possibilities of analysis are infinite, just as infinitely beautiful is the open-ended design of the Aztec Calendar. In spite of the efforts of so many individuals over the centuries since the discovery of the Aztec Calendar at the end of the eighteenth century, we have not been able to comprehend its original meaning in all of its intended splendor. It is beyond the comprehension of this author how some analysts, however, have gazed upon this exquisite sculpture and only imagined its purpose as that of counting kernels of corn or beans, or for counting ripped out human hearts. The mathematical and geometrical knowledge that must have surely gone into its making stretches far beyond our imagination as to exactly what its purpose may have been. The implications of the mathematics and of the geometry, somehow test, even defy, our own capability for analyzing its internal design as of its own elements. The Aztec Calendar was discarded, buried, detached from its origins; yet, its basic design seems to reflect many clues to its possible meaning. With a little persistence, we may come to know a few of those original meanings, if we can look past our own inherited views of history.
____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____ ____________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________
PYRAMID POWER
Consider El Tajin's famous pyramid of the Niches (top left), built by inheritors of the Olmec culture. Thousands of small stone blocks came together just so, like a Chinese block puzzle, to produce a structure that rises 20 meters in seven tiers. A staircase climbs the eastern face. Curiously, there are 365 square recesses set into the sides of the pyramid - one for each day of the year -. Was the pyramid a giant calendar? Did the niches serve as a markers for a three-dimensional clock? Another curious pyramid is that of Chichen Itza in the Yucatan Peninsula, often called "El Castillo" (top right). Here there are nine tiers with a three-room temple on top, and stairways climb each of the four faces. Every year, at the vernal and autumnal equinoxes, tens of thousands of people flock to the pyramid - a mix of Mexican villagers and foreign tourists, the latter including New Age pagans with their crystals and incense. Why? On those two days at the rising and setting of the sun, the corner of the structure casts a shadow in the shape of a serpent - Kukulcan, or Quetzalcoatl - along the side of the staircase. Remarkably, the shadow slithers down the side of the pyramid with the sun's movement. To produce this effect, the Mayan architects and astronomers must have employed calculations of incredible precision. Just outside Mexico City is Teotihuacan, "The place where the gods were conceived," or "The place where men became gods." Aztec priests made pilgrimages to Teotihuacan, which was by then in ruins, remnants of a previous, still greater civilization about which almost nothing is known. The mammoth, five-tiered Pyramid of the Sun (bottom) stands to the east of the orienting avenue, the "Street of the Dead." The pyramid's base is immense, larger even than the pyramid of Khufu in Egypt (but shorter in height). The Pyramid of the Sun measures 221 meters to a side - or about two-and-a half football fields long. At the base of the western face there is a long tunnel, called a "Volcano tube" by archeologists, in which the Teotihuacanos performed rituals. Amazingly, the cave opening points directly at the setting sun on the days of the equinox, May 19 and July 25. Architecture and astronomy mix yet again. On April 29 and again on August 12, the sun sets directly opposite the pyramid and in a direct sight line from the volcano tube. August 12 is significant. The present age of the Maya calendar (which they partly inherited from the Olmecs) began on that very day in 3114 BC. There is something older still about Teotihuacan. Much older. In the 1970's, a civil engineer by the name of Hugh Harleston Jr. made some 9,000 measurements of Teotihuacan over a 30-year period. He concluded that the entire site was constructed according to a system of measurement he named the STU, Standard Teotihuacan Unit, which is equals 1.059 meters. This unit features into the length of a side of the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon - and even into the distance between the two pyramids. In short, Harleston concluded the entire city could be made sense of not in feet or meters but in STUs. What is odd about this is that one STU is equivalent to the width of the Stonehenge lintels and to the "Jewish rod" of 3.4757485 feet. It gets even stranger, as Graham Hancock describes: "In brief, the angle of the fourth level of the Pyramid of the Sun is set at 19.69 degrees, the exact latitude of the pyramid itself (which stands at 19.69 degrees north of the equator). It is therefore, a self-referencing monument that makes use of geometry to tell us that it 'knows where it is'. What is the ultimate significance of the pyramid shape? Pyramids are simple: a solid base rests on the earth, and four faces rise to a peak in the sky. Pyramids unite earth and sky, embodying the essence of each in one form. Such a shape, some speculate, serve to preserve the bones - and DNA - of those buried in the pyramid's tombs. Even wilder imaginations have claimed that dead souls (or live meditators) can use the pyramid to spiritually catapult themselves to nearby constellations. Perhaps pyramids can be understood only in relation to the location they inhabit, concentrating, like a giant battery, earth's magnetic energy. Or perhaps, like puzzles, pyramids contain the mathematics or geometry of the entire planet or even of the universe. No one knows the true function of the pyramid. However, pyramids are surely more than monuments or tombs; they suggest something grander than an ancient version of "Kilroy Was here". Unlocking the secrets of pyramids - be they in Egypt or Mexico - would be majestic indeed.
____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ___________
THE MAGNIFICENT MAYA
To the foreigner, the words 'Maya' and 'Mayan' conjure up images of archeological ruins and a lost society and culture. Currently, the word 'Chiapas' brings to mind rebellion, Sub Commandante Marcos and a sense of confusion. What many do not understand is the relationship between the historical Maya and today's living expression of that culture in the form of many indigenous groups. What is also not clearly understood is that the so called Chiapas crisis is not a recent conflict but, in fact, a modern expression of issues and conflicts that reach back over 400 years. The Maya make up the largest homogenous group of Indians north of Peru, inhabiting a vast area that encompasses Mexico's Yucatan peninsula and parts of the states of Tabasco and Chiapas, as well as Guatemala, Belize and parts of western Honduras and El Salvador. While not the earliest of the great Mesoamerican civilizations, the Maya are generally considered the most brilliant of all the Classic groups. The culture's beginnings have been traced back to 1500 BC, entering the Classic period about 300 AD and flourishing between 600 and 900 AD. Mayan settlements were situated close to cenotes, natural water holes that allowed for survival in an inhospitable tropical climate. The basis of the culture was farming, which included not only the cultivation of maize, beans, squash, and chili peppers, but also "cash crops" of cotton and cacao. Considered the most outstanding intellects of ancient Mexico, the Maya devised a complex style of hieroglyphic writing that has yet to be fully deciphered. They refined the exact sciences learned from other prehispanic civilizations. Through their knowledge of astronomy and mathematics they calculated the lunar cycle, predicted eclipses and other heavenly events with great precision and formulated a unique calendar system more exact than the one we use today. For the Maya, science and religion went hand in hand, forming the core of daily life. A baptismal rite was commonly practiced for children who survived infancy. Each year was marked by a series of festivals that included ritual ceremonies and the imbibing of an intoxicating mead called balche. Among the most revered universal energies or forces, which have been mistakenly labeled as deities were Itzamna and Ix Chel, the most powerful of all other life’s forces, and Chac the energy of rain. Kukulcan was the Mayan name for the feathered serpent, power of the ruling caste. The Maya's highly complex pantheon and multi-faceted cosmology continue to fascinate and perplex archaeologists and other students of the culture. In building their ceremonial centers the Maya followed the design typical of all Mesoamerica, constructing tall pyramidal temples, warren-like single story palaces and the ubiquitous ball court around a broad central plaza. Distinctive architectural features of Mayan pyramids include corbel vaults, towering roofs and elaborate embellishment with stucco reliefs. There is a baroque quality to the artistic style of the Maya, as evidenced in their exotic murals, polychrome ceramics, finely detailed stelae, altars and other stone work. As opposed to the geometric designs typical of other cultures, the human form is common depicted in Mayan art. Speculations of Insufficient food supply, earthquakes, pestilence, invasion by outsiders, internal rebellion or a combination of these factors have all been suggested as possible causes for the fall of the Mayan eminence. What appears certain is that by 900 AD the Maya's numerous ceremonial centers had been abandoned. Swiftly disappearing beneath dense jungle growth, many sites avoided destruction by Spanish Conquistadors, remaining hidden and remarkably well preserved until the 19th century. Notable sites of the northern lowland region (Yucatan peninsula) include Chichen Itza, Dzibilchaltun, Tulum and Uxmal. Located in the southern lowland region, the Maya heartland, are Bonampak, Copan, Palenque and Tikal.<p.________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ __________________