Indigenous, Not Illegal
In response to Russel J. Lorraine, and his letter in response to Xochitl Rodriguez’s letter on the term “illegal alien,” (“Term Should Be Dropped,” Valley Edition, Dec. 20.):
Lorraine should ask himself if he really knows the heritage of the Mexicans, indigenous people who suffered rape and colonization by the Spanish, a people displaced from their roots but who nonetheless remain indigenous.
By the time the United States began to occupy Mexico, Mexico had already ousted the Spanish, making it an indigenous-run country (albeit psychologically still colonized).
Hence, Lorraine is correct when he says that native Americans are the rightful owners of this land.
That is the reason that the conscious Chicano states that the Mexican did not cross the border, but that the border crossed us. This is what makes indigenous people legal and European colonizers illegal.
YAOTL
San Fernando
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