One of the saddest elements of this university is that, although it is an institution of high learning and intellectual discourse, it still allows such a degrading and racist event like Frontier Fiesta to continue. This, despite the yearly letters written against it and friendly attempts to change the name to something more inclusive. Administrators and so-called student leaders seem not to care, all because Frontier Fiesta has the backing of old racists, alumni and the students with money.
Yet this year proves to be different and will confuse many. Unlike in the past, Latino student groups will be participating. Some are going to build their own "front" and participate in some of the events, just like the white folks. This is sure to draw fire from some of the more political Latino student groups on campus.
But Latinos and the few blacks who participate in Frontier Fiesta are not sell-outs. These good- hearted people are just uninformed. They are not haters of their own cultural pasts, just naïve. They have let them define it for them, through myths and legends, not through actual facts. What their participation does say is they want to be accepted into something, even though it is on someone else's terms.
They, like many others, counter the usual criticism that this event is just a party. There is no political statement in it (which is a lie). The event is just a chance for UH students to relax, have fun and enjoy life with a beer and a band. Critics, the counterists argue, are just uptight and should just come to check it out for themselves.
I, however, feel differently. If the argument in support of the event is going to exist in terms of getting drunk and having a good time, then there is no debate for those who are against it. How can one put together a good intellectual and epigrammatic argument against people who support such frat events as "The Best Little Whore House in Texas?"
Case in point: The settling of the frontier was one of the most violent and brutal periods in our history. Adolf Hitler was even said to have admired it. During the Mexican-American war, U.S. soldiers often raped women, massacred Mexican and Indian families, castrated men of color and did such actions that one U.S. general said, "If half the things that are said are true, heaven would blush."
The period from 1848 to 1900 is a period that Mexican American historian Juan Gomez-Quionez called "the bloodiest in our history." Land was stolen, segregation was implemented and lynching was the judge of the time. Because southerners were settling the land at such a high rate, black slavery was introduced in Texas and was one of the most brutal in the country. At one time, the Texas Rangers killed 5,000 Mexicans (a whole town) because they believed that they wanted to create a separate Chicano state.
In short, the real history of the American frontier is not pretty. John Wayne would have gotten his ass kicked.
Frontier Fiesta has even a more recent degrading history. In the 1950s, UH advertised the event by warning partygoers to watch for greasy "Mexican" bandits. The Daily Cougar put out a paper which read, "The South won the Civil War" (Blacks, by the way, were not allowed at UH during this time due to segregation). Recently, Confederate flags often flew over vendors, and whites have reportedly picked on partygoers who dared to wear Mexican hats. One vendor even turned up his music when a Chicana poet was reading her work because it "was political."
Because I and many others are against FF, do not mistake me as anti-UH, for I am a proud product of my school. I have always supported UH's student groups, giving then a little extra money at their bake sales and going to their many events when time allowed. I have participated in recruiting new students from the Houston area, inner-city schools, and I am always here to give advice for incoming students of all colors. And yes, even though I am critical of our athletics program, when a fellow UH athlete scores a touchdown or slams a home run, I do get out of my seat and yell at the TV screen.
But if you search for me at Frontier Fiesta, you will not find me. This is different and not an event that reflects UH's beautiful present, but its shameful past. As in the 1950s, the event today is a celebration of white supremacy, exaggerated cowboy myths, man over woman, a distortion of history and a lot of dollars that could be used for something else.
During these three shameful days, I will be as far away from UH as possible. Rather, I will be dancing at Crystal, typing a column to a Selena CD, or, like a good graduate student doing his thesis on Mexican Americans, reading Juan Gomez-Quionez in a dimly lit cafe.
Russell Contreras is a
graduate student in history.