Camino Cesar Chavez - An Editorial

Do you guys think this is fun for me? Sitting around, talking about superheroes like they're the only thing that matter in what must be a meaningless existence of mine? And also talking shit about Wolverine all the time because I mentioned hating him once so now it's part of my blog persona?

I mean honestly he isn't as awful as I make him out to be. He's really just a symbol for a lot of things I do hate, like dark and edgy "heroes," the need to include fan favorites into every plot line whether it works in context or not, and Hugh Jackman, my real enemy.

Javert should have shot your punk ass, 24601.

Well I fucking love it. In real life, I'm a regular nerd who falls in love with crazy people and knows too much about English culture at the turn of the century. But here, I'm an angry nerd with opinions and stuff.

But occasionally, real life becomes slightly important. For example, they're renaming a street in my city after Cesar Chavez. This matters especially to me because my sister is an activist who organized the first Cesar Chavez day in this city, and worked with the people who were instrumental in getting this street renamed, including Cesar Chavez's niece, Mimi Chavez.

"Who is Cesar Chavez?" you ask. Well, he was a Mexican-American, raised by migrant farm workers, who got a law degree but went back to the fields to organize protests that would seriously improve conditions for Latino and Filipino farm workers.

Now, if you know something about Cesar Chavez but not a lot about him, you're thinking "Wait, he helped Filipinos? Was this some sort of indirect side effect?" No, it wasn't. Cesar Chavez was actually instrumental in uniting farm workers of all races so they could form a meaningful union. Unless you had a really liberal history teacher with a boner for civil rights, you probably didn't learn that because it doesn't fit in with the narrative that says people of minorities can only really help people of the same minority.

Why do you think that no one ever talks about Martin Luther King Jr.'s radical pro-labor views? Or about how Harriet Tubman worked as a spy for the Union? I think the reason Barack Obama freaks people out so much is because he's a black guy with views on things other than black rights.

And for all of you guys who were thinking this wasn't going to be a superhero-related post, you're slightly wrong. I've mentioned before about my, ahem, concern that minorities in comic books are handled badly, if they're handled at all. You either get minority characters who are so whitewashed that their ethnicity is only mentioned in a footnote somewhere, or they're a walking stereotype, like a teen growing up in the rough side of El Paso, struggling in school and having a drug-dealing aunt as an enemy.

Also he gets his powers from an evil alien race that illegally immigrates to Earth. Real subtle, DC. 

We have this idea in our heads that Latino is something that has to define someone fully, if it defines someone at all. Superman is the boy scout. Batman is the brooding loner. Lantern Stewart is the Marine. Jaime Reyes, the third Blue Beetle, is the Mexican. And if you're the Mexican, you don't get to be anything else.

Anyway, so they're renaming this street - which is a major street, by the way - Camino Cesar Chavez. Now, this is a pretty long name for a street, but I guess it's a small price to pay in exchange for recognizing that Latino-Americans did things in America once. So I won't complain, because representation happens in small steps that are usually slightly offensive at first. Right, Immigrant Alien Blue Beetle?

Jaime Reyes approves his slightly stereotypical portrayal.

But, with Camino Cesar Chavez, people are still complaining. Specifically, people are complaining because "camino" in Spanish refers to a little street, not a big street. Never mind that the street being renamed is a major street, probably bigger than our MLK Boulevard. The name doesn't connotate the level of grandeur these assholes are looking for.

Like, seriously? I love complaining as much as Batman loves feeling sad on rooftops and Speedy loves shooting up heroin. But some things are actually important - even more important than that rush of joy you get when you tell people that the guy who plays the archetypal badass in the Marvel Universe also portrayed a gay guy in a musical.

I'm the best at what I do, and what I do is look fabulous!

But this is real life. Latinos everywhere are desperate for someone - anyone - to serve as a Latino role model. The closest thing we have to that right now is Tony Stark, the alcoholic who's apparently too embarrassed of our community to ever talk about us, and Cesar Chavez, a historical figure that our society keeps mentioning vaguely, in passing, before getting back to the white folks.

So why, when people are taking the small steps necessary to bring attention to this historical giant, are you trying to bring these small accomplishments down? Now isn't the time for your goddamn negativity. Now is the time to make change.