Salvador Reza, a Reconquistador”
Tonatierra’s coordinator, Salvador Reza, was born in Chihuahua, Mexico. His family moved to Ysleta, Texas when his father, a farm worker, was granted a work permit under the bracero program. Reza sees himself as a victim of racism, stemming back to his days in kindergarten.
After graduating from the University of California, San Diego, Reza began working for immigrant advocacy groups. He says he came to Phoenix because he believes it is the center of Aztlán, the original land of the Aztecs before they migrated south to Mexico. Of all the stories about where Aztlán might have been, Reza is the only one who believes its center is in Phoenix. Reza, one of the major lobbyists for the Palomino Day Worker Center in Phoenix, was quoted in an interview as saying that jornaleros, or day workers, are “forced to stand on street corners and suffer the scorn of a society which utilizes them to clean their houses.”
One of Tonatierra’s initiatives was the Macehualli Project, to organize the hundreds of day laborers in Phoenix. Reza believes the Macehualli Union de Jornaleros (Day Laborers Union) will achieve justice and dignity through the establishment of day labor centers.
Tonatierra and Reza’s goals go far beyond the day laborer centers he wishes to create throughout the city. He is pushing for increased Latino political representation and expanding the Xinachtil Program (Xinachtil means “seed” in the Aztec language) in the public school system to teach “traditions, culture, art and science of indigenous people.”
Immigrant advocacy groups no longer promote legal immigration, citizenship, learning English or any other assimilation into this country. Hispanic-rights groups talk of reoccupation and repatriation of the southwestern United States, the land of “indigenous people.”
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