Congressman Tom Tancredo, 2008 Republican presidential candidate, calls the book “Great read!” in a handwritten note to its author, Lee Cuesta. As the rising tide of “illegal immigrants” in the United States demands amnesty, Cuesta’s book relates the self-autonomy movement in the Mexican state of Chiapas, to a similar movement occurring in the American Southwest.
As a speaker and journalist who lived and worked throughout Mexico (and Guatemala) for eight years, Cuesta has met both with leaders in Chiapas, and also with members of Estudiantes Contemporáneos Del Norte (ECDN), at the University of New Mexico, including Dr. Charles Truxillo. Many experts are now predicting that the Southwest shall secede from the US, unite with the northern tier of Mexican states, and create the autonomous “República del Norte.” A professor of Chicano Studies, Dr. Truxillo envisions this new, sovereign nation within this century. He has stated: “I may not live to see the Hispanic homeland, but by the end of the century my students’ kids will live in it, sovereign and free.” As Cuesta’s book predicted, Truxillo also said: “Its creation will be accomplished by the electoral pressure of the future majority Hispanic population in the region.”
Furthermore, Cuesta’s book points out that there is an historic precedent to this current trend. He writes that the document known as “The Plan of San Diego, Texas,” was signed on January 6, 1915, and envisioned an armed uprising against the government and country of the United States on February 20, 1915. The original Plan endeavored to reclaim the territory comprising Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and California. The uprising failed to materialize, but two years later, in 1917, the German influence in the Plan led to the United States’ entrance into World War I.
Likewise, some modern observers believe that there is a silent conspiracy behind the overwhelming immigration from Mexico. They call it “La Reconquista.” One analyst concluded: “Just as their national plan clearly dictates, the Mexican government is preparing for an attack on America – an attack perpetrated through ideology and assimilation rather than with bullets and blood.” For this reason, an international newspaper based in Manitoba, Canada, described Cuesta’s book, “Like a story lifted off the page of today’s newspaper.”
Cuesta discovered that ECDN’s purpose statement reads: “Dedicated to the Chicanos del Norte in the hope of recovering their lost sovereignty and assuming their place among the independent nations of the world.” Many of the members express their views in an online newsletter called El Norte. A link to this newsletter is provided at www.leecuesta.com. One of them writes in El Norte: “Since 1848 Mexican people have been engaged in a slow process of regaining lands that they lost to the United States as a result of war.” Another one writes: “We seek to re-ignite the embers of self-determination and nationalistic thought and stand in solidarity with all indigenous people of the world in their struggle for sovereignty.”
Besides a link to their newsletter, El Norte, the ECDN website also contains links to essays associated with maps that detail the evolution of the American Southwest (or El Norte) in sequential order from 1000 A.D. through 2080, when it will be known as La República del Norte. The essay for the map of “North America circa 2080 A.D.” is written by Truxillo himself. A link is also provided to Dr. Truxillo’s paper entitled, “The Inevitability of a Mexicano Nation in the American Southwest and Northern Mexico.” In it, Truxillo states: “A new age of nationalism is sweeping the planet. Norteños are like Palestinians, Quebecois and Sri Lanka Tamils – new nationalities.” In fact, when Cuesta visited the campus in Albuquerque, and mentioned his experience in Chiapas, the ECDN members immediately identified the Zapatista movement as a similar phenomenon.
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Copyright (c) 2007 by Lee Cuesta