Get Up, Stand Up: The Story of Pop and Protest

Program SOURCE: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/getupstandup/about.html

Last night, KPBS aired a documentary of pop’s protest music. They acknowledged many of the protest songs those of us remember from the 60s civil rights and anti-war movements.

The documentary failed to include Chicanos, Native Americans and Asians in the line up of Pop Artists. There was no mention of El Chicano, Malo, Tierra - all who wrote protests songs. Red Bone and Hiroshima were also excluded – they contributed protests songs in the 60s & 70s.

The documentary made it look as if only whites and blacks participated in the civil rights and anti-war movements. Once again, we have been ignored in the annals of US history.

In the US, Chicano music has not been accepted as pop and in my opinion is looked on as “Race Music”.

Songs like El Chicano’s Chicano Chant, Viva La Raza and their album Revolucion; Red Bone’s Alcatraz and Hiroshima’s 1984 were all movement songs. There were plenty of other protest songs written by Lalo Guerreo, Danny Valdez and Agustin Lira. Almost every teatro has written a protest song. None were mention in the documentary.

Please join us and write PBS to express your disdain over our continued exclusion from the US historical landscape here is their email: viewer@pbs.org


Gracias,

Pachuco


Letter by Serg Hernandez:

PBS has chosen to ignore the "Chicano" contribution to protest music. Since 1848 when Mexicans were decreed American citizens by The Treaty of Guadalupe Hildalgo we have been writing and singing, "protest songs."

The Mexican American population suffered great injustices at the hands of the American government and white settlers. Mexican Americans wrote and sung about these incidents in "Corridos."

During the sixties Mexican Americans contributed to the Civil rights/Anti-war Movements and the Chicano Student movement with a myriad of songs. The United Farm Workers were responsible for many of these songs. The Smithsonian Institute recognized this contribution and just released "Rolas de Aztlan: Songs of the Chicano Movement".

PBS has conveniently been struck with a case of historical amnesia by eliminating our contributions. I thought PBS was better than that.

you primitive punk bastards cant read or write not to mention run a taco stand how are you going to oversee all of the American southwest when you get your greedy bronze hands on it

Don't get so stress out. Take up yoga or something.

Ask anyone in the world to give you an example of American culture and they will say Cowboy. The Cowboy culture practically defines Americana. President Bush is a Cowboy.

The Cowboy culture is in essence and substance Mexican. Mexicans cattle drivers called Vaqueros were the first cowboys of the American West, arriving in what is today the Southwestern US (Aztlan) two decades before the pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock.

If it weren’t for Mexicans, the American Cowboy would be some guy in tights, ruffled cravat, red waistcoat and a felt skullcap riding on a horse chasing sheep and shouting Tally Ho!

The next time you put on a Cowboy hat, boots and vest, think of how Mexican that makes you look. Especially when you dance the two-step, which also has its origins with the Vaquero.

Cowboy Lingo With Spanish Roots

Buffalo—from the Spanish word bufalo.

Wrangler—corrupted from the Spanish word cavarango.

Chaps—corruption of the Spanish word for chaparreras, chaparajos, and chaparejos, leather leggings used to protect the legs of horsemen from cacti and brush.

Lariat—the vaquero's tool on the range, a rope designed to be thrown.

Lasso—from the Spanish word lazo.

Ranch/Rancher—from the Spanish word rancho, the land upon which stock was raised.

Rodeo—from the Spanish word rodear, to encircle the herd.

Stampede—from the Spanish word estampida, meaning a mass bolting of a herd of animals.

Tabasco—liquor or sauce, which was named after the Mexican state of Tabasco.

Vamoose—from the Spanish word vamos, meaning "let's go."

National Geographic Reference: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/08/0814_030815_cowboys.html

Cowboy Lingo With Spanish Roots

Buffalo—from the latin word Bison.

Jet--- meaning fast airplane with jet engines the spanish didnt even try to come up with a word for this, they call it El JetO.

Wrangler—corrupted from the Spanish word Wranglo.

Sewage---what flows openly in the gutters in Mexico but not spain.

Chaps—English word referring to a group of gentleman and stolen by the hispanics to mean leather pants with ass cut out, in spanish culture all gentlemen swing that way.

Lariat—the vaquero's tool on the range, a rope designed to be thrown, also known in English as a rope.

Correct pronunciation is Lasso—imitated in Spanish with the word lazo meaning lazy rancher who has sex with sheep.

wet back-----those who steal across international borders in the dead of night to hide their criminal activity often wading through swamps leaving them with a wet back.

Ranch/Rancher—A hard working American who raises cattle and livestock and employs numerous lazy and ungratefull Mexican illiegals.

Rodeo—This English word was copied by the lazy Spanish with the word rodear.

Stampede—from the latin root Stamp.

Crystal Meth----a popular drug used in many Mexican families and exported to the United States by Mexicans. See Heroin, Coca, Cocain, Marijuana.

Chevrolet-----built in America by English speaking Americans and corrupted to El Cheffy by spaniards.

Vamoose—from the Spanish word vamos, meaning "let's go."

Vamoose----what we wish the wet backs would do meaning get out of our country.

> wet back-----those who steal across international borders in the dead of night to hide their criminal activity often wading through swamps leaving them with a wet back.


no refer's to working in the fields in the hot sun or in a poorly ventilated factory with sweat running down your back


working one's ass off in the heat



> Crystal Meth

mostly white people make it here


'a popular drug used in many white people and exported from the United States by white people. See XTC, LSD, magic mushrooms, Marijuana.'