By Francisco “El Chavo” Romero
RPMA Editorial Board Member
A little over two months ago, from deep within the streets of Barrio Logan, the oldest Mexican neighborhood in San Diego, Califas, Ernesto Bustillos, a veteran Raza Liberation organizer, was hacking away at the keyboard, digging through boxes, and dusting off old diskettes. In worst case scenarios, Bustillos had to re-type entire writings in a humble attempt to compile them from the 1st edition of Chicano Journalism, which was printed over 17 years ago, to add them to this new book, which is an essential tool for progressive, radical and revolutionary media workers, entitled “Chicano Journalism: Its History and Its Use as a Weapon for Liberation.”
This compilation of 264 pages of thought and analysis on the question of Raza Media is arguably the most important historical text on Raza Media of this new millennium. It is a book that “dissects and reconstructs-from a liberation perspective-the foundations of many of the major problems facing our people and the movimiento activists who are trying to find solutions to our oppression”.
It is a book that divulges into what the role of Raza Media is in raising political consciousness of Mexicanos living within the Belly of the Beast. It arm media activists, with the knowledge needed to defeat the Oppressor’s Imperialist agenda of domination through information control. Bustillos adds on the importance of the book by stating,
“There can be no revolution, without revolutionary consciousness, and this book, is an extension, tied to, and is the product of the hundreds of thousands who, historically and presently, are struggling for the liberation of the masses, from violence, poverty, an oppression in all its forms.”
A unique aspect of this book, is that it comes from the Barrel of the Pen, a reflection, from the point of view of an activist and revolutionary. The writings in this book are not that of an ivory tower professor in a privileged elite campus, they are not words coming from a full-time professional media worker on the clock, rather, they are palabras, words, coming from a barrio street organizer committed to liberation for nearly four decades.
The book is organized into seven sections, beginning with articles from the original edition, and contains close to fifty speeches, articles, and presentations which have been preserved from the past two decades of contributions to the history of Raza Media, critical analysis and resistance. In the final section of the book, Bustillos, inlcudes the “Detroit Papers”, which was a plan of action, a guiding document for liberation-oriented media fighters, developed at the 2003 Raza Press and Media Association’s Michigan summit entitled, “Develop The Means to Wake Up the Masses-Become Part of History, Help Build an Independent Raza Press Association.”
Bustillos ends, one of the final sections of the book by stating that,
“Revolutionary Media Workers must be in the Front Lines of Struggle…” and that this book is dedicated to “to those, who in the face of the most terrible obstacles and sacrifices, never give up and continue to struggle…”
Only a limited amount of “Chicano Journalism: Its History and Its Use as a Weapon for Liberation has been printed. To order this historical book, click here.