Q: Given that Aztlán may be, as you say, a spiritual concept rather than a geographical one, is it still important to try to document the existence of Aztlán? And if so, how might that be important to Chicano activists?

A: It is very important to have documents. That is the aim [of all historians]. The more documents we have, the better.

Now, these documents help the activist because they have to prove that what they say is fact, that they are not just demagogues. [We always hear]: "Where are your documents? Can you prove it?" That's why I think this is very important. The more documents we have, the better it is to establish this history, especially the written history. Because the oral history is something else. The oral history is very important, but it is difficult to document, and that's what the Chicano scholars have been doing for the last thirty years. Thirty years ago you didn't have a single document written by a Chicano about our own history. It has been the work of the Chicano scholars that has recovered this history. [Our history] has been completely ignored [by the] majority [of] historians, because they consider it [not] worth studying. They say [we didn't] have any history, [we didn't] have any literature, [we didn't] have any arts. But the [Chicano] scholars, in the last thirty years, have documented these [things], and more documents are being discovered. That is why it is so important to have these maps, these texts, and so forth, in hand, to prove that we have had a history.


Q: As you said before, the concept of Aztlán was formed in the '60's, and once that happened, it unified Chicanos. In what ways has the concept of Aztlán motivated Chicanos in the struggle?

A: The concept of Aztlán has several meanings. One of them is finding our roots, especially [our] indigenous roots that have been forgotten. Now, once this concept was established and accepted, it has given Chicano scholars and activists and others a concept, a sense of a homeland. A sense that they are a people that have something in common, a common identity. They are not just [members of] regional groups. [This gave us] a unified vision. I've just now written a manuscript called La Posia Angelina that is going to document the history of [over two hundred Chicano] poets, in one city only, that up till now have been forgotten. And the same thing has been done by scholars in history and in folklore. So that's why it is so important to have an overall concept uniting all Chicanos, whether it is in the Southwest or elsewhere.


Q: In recent years, some people say to us "Why don’t you go back to Mexico?" Does the concept of Aztlán turn that argument around? Doesn’t it say we are where we came from?

A: [That idea of "go back where you came from"] was used before to all ethnic groups: Italians were told to go back to Italy; Germans go back to Germany. But in the case of the Chicano, you cannot say that. You can tell a Frenchman "go back to France" if you want to, but you cannot tell a Chicano "go back to Mexico" because he has never been in Mexico. He [and his ancestors] were born here. This is his home.

So how [the idea of Aztlán] helps, well, with the maps, it shows that [we] were here before 1848. [We] were here before Texas became independent. [We] were here before 1821. When Mexico became independent. And [we] were here even before the Spaniards came. The natives were here, in the Southwest, even before Columbus discovered America. So why should they go back to [what is] a foreign country to them? Of course, if you were born in Mexico, and they tell you "go back to Mexico," well, why don't they go back to where their ancestors came [from]? I think that would be the answer. Most Americans came from somewhere else.

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