"so basically, I am lucky enough to have grown up in wonderful L.A. and even luckier to escape from it's evil wrath whenever possible....I love northern california just as much as southern cal & I am going to move to New York within the next 4 years...I am happiest on an airplane and I realized that I love escaping reality through travel, only it seems that I find myself learning more about reality through it...I will be in Israel and Argentina this time next year, and I plan on visiting my roots in El Salvador soon enough...I have come to the point where I know who I am and what I want...I'm not completely there, but am damn well into it.I am excited for God's plans through my proletariat perspective and bourgeois tendencies..culture defines me and I define culture...I am finally content!"
There are still struggles and injustices in the world, however every great revolutionary took the time to find him/herself to figure out what exactly he wanted to fight for.[i.e. che's motorcycle travels] A revolutionary mind needs to be at ease with itself and have a sense of self. I am finally figuring out what is important to me. I still love fashion, but I am fascinated by culture, travel and politics.
so why can't I like gansta rap and indie rock?
The lines are being blurred, intersectionality and interdependence is what our world has become...no way can China attack us because their high development is due to United States and other hegemonic corporations that give China such an important role in our world economy, therefore their interest is our interest and vice versa. There are more politics and details in this, but that's the gist of it....
so for my always present political/social input, I'd like to write about something that is probably going to make me seem "sketchy" or an advocate for violence. nonetheless I naively seem to believe that those who really matter will look deeper and ignore my bias and just think about both sides rationally.
Okay so without further ado, let me introduce you to MS13 aka La Mara Salvatrucha.
group of MS
the trauma caused by the civil war..La Mara Salvatrucha is one of the biggest and most organized gangs in the United States and Central America. Their crimes range from small theft to premeditated murder. Drugs, human trafficking and even claims of terrorist alliance with Al Qaeda [right...rolls eyes] are other crimes that the MS is synced with. Yes, it is true that they are one of the most terrorizing gangs around with crude and inhumane acts, but I would like to present its origins...
El Salvador is a small country with a visible hierarchically system. About 90 percent of the wealth is controlled by privileged bourgeois 10 percent while the other proletariat 90 percent has to manage that 10 percent of the wealth. It is needless to say that this third world country is suffering from great poverty and underdevelopment. With public school only being offered until 4th grade and the poor cannot afford to survive and go to school as well. At an early age these poor kids are forced to work at sweatshops by controlled by greedy corporations trying to keep up with our current globalization. These working kids are paid just enough to not starve. Without an education, these kids grow up trained to be the proletariat worker while the privileged few get to study in private colleges and get to study abroad for college at places such as Harvard or Cambridge. With this type of their education, the political power is kept in the interest of the bourgeois.
Latino America is a huge colony of countries whose presidents are cowards in the face of economic imperialism. You see, third world countries are rich places, abundant in resources, and many of these countries have the capacity to feed their starving people and the children we always see digging for food in trash on commercials. But plutocracies, in other words a government run by the rich such as this one and traditionally oppressive European states, force the third world into buying overpriced, unnecessary goods while exporting huge portions of their natural resources.
You see, most of Latinos are here because of the great inflation that was caused by American companies in Latin America. Aside from that, many are seeking a life away from the puppet democracies that were funded by the United States; places like El Salvador, Guatemala, Peru, Columbia, Nicaragua, Ecuador and Republica Dominicana, and not just Spanish-speaking countries either, but Haiti and Jamaica as well.- Immortal Technique "The Poverty of Philosophy."
So why can't this cycle be changed? Well if you attended 7th grade, I am sure you learned about Karl Marx and his Communist Manifesto then you know exactly what is going on. None of the situations in these system are coincidences. These systems are strategically planned, from how much a worker is paid to who gets into the Police Academy. This system is designed so that no one person can break it. The only way to break this cycle is through a revolution caused by the proletariat class gathering up and overthrowing the bourgeois. However, because of idiotic and mindless conflicts between the proletariat class, there is no joining therefore no revolution.
I am not a communist, I am not a marxist...even Karl Marx stated that he was not a Marxist.
In El Salvador, some proletariat had finally had enough and formed a revolutionary group named FMLN(Frente Farabundo Marti de Liberacion) which, to the convenience of those in power, was dubbed a terrorist group. However, if you know ANYTHING about politics, you know that the crimes they did were in no way terrorist but guerrilla attacks...and YES THERE IS A DIFFERENCE. Terrorist consciously attack civilian to cause casualties while guerrillas attack government building. The murder of el monsenor Romero [archbishop Romero--an outspoken and revolutionary minded archbishop shot in his own church my a conspiracy involving the CIA] sparked anger and then the civil war. To make a horrible and long story short, this war was bloody and gruesome. There were many civilian deaths in the most atrocious ways. The Reagan Administration viewed El Salvador as the ultimate barrier to stop the communist take over in Central America, therefore they backed El Salvador's conservative bourgeois government party. With the United States helping, the guerrilla groups had a difficult time trying to win this war, but maintained a defense. This war was so terrible, that it caused international attention. Many countries all around the world took in refugees.
Many young children came to the United States after being traumatized by seeing their parent be tortured and murdered in the civil war. As these children came to the United States, they had no parents and no examples nor limitations. This new liberty as well as their trauma made them long for some sort of family.
The United States was in the mist of the Contras scandal in Nicaragua which was the origin of what we now know as street gangs and drug related violence. As these children in El Salvador came to the U.S. they settled in the ghettos where gangs were. Gangs, no matter how terrorizing they are, offer a brotherhood [bros for life till the day we die]. So these children grew up and become accustomed to the gang life, the clothes, the tattoos, the drugs, the crimes--hence the birth of the MS or Mara Salvatrucha.
These crimes committed by the MS caused many of them to be deported back to El Salvador since the civil war had ended in 1992. Going back to El Salvador with their tattoos and their newfound gang ways, these MS gangsters introduced these ways to the Salvadorian proletariat. This seemingly appealing lifestyle is due to the respect the MS receives as a result of fear. Little by little, this gang has become one of the most powerful gangs that now include people from all races and nationalities and gender.
Many crimes include one of the most famous cases: Brenda Paz
The gist: Brenda Paz was a MS gang member at age 12. She was a witness to many crimes and testified to authorities because she was offered protection, however the MS found her and murdered her. She was 17 and pregnant.
So this was a short narrow version of their history but my main point is that the United States is trying stop the MS when in reality, their intervention in the civil war and the gruesome ways the innocent civilians were tortured and murdered caused the birth of this gang. I am neither for nor against...
basically if you want to know more in a visual way watch this:
today: Immortal Technique "The Poverty of Philosophy"
life is a struggle, but as of now, I am happy and am sure to make a difference soon enough
Tiger Heat tomorrow<3
-melidee
