Page 4
June 7, 2000
In Print
Soul Sister
By Grace Halsell
Crossroads International; 1999
Grace Halsell, the white woman who left her White House job
as speech writer and darkened her skin to live in segregated
Mississippi, looks back on her experiences in a 30,h anniversary
edition o f her best-selling book. Soul Sister, released in
November, 1999, by Crossroads International.
“If today I returned to re-live my Soul Sister experiences, it’s
not likely I would be arrested, as I was back in the late 1960s
for stepping from a segregated black section o f a bus station
into a more commodious white section to use a telephone.
Indeed, the wooden walls segregating blacks have been
removed.
In some ways, she concludes, “conditions have changed for
the worse - we know there are more black men imprisoned,
for instance. We have more prisoners, per capita, behind bars
than any country o f the world. And a large percentage are men
of color. Yet, based largely on the changes that resulted from
the struggles o f the 1960s, African-Americans have made
significant economic and political progress in the past 30
years.”
Still, she insists, the United States remains largely a divided
nation, still without equal rights for those of color. And with
mushrooming “hate” movements. “The Ku Klux Kian no
longer operates with impunity, but we have a new generation
o f w hite supremacists fostering racial hatred and using
affirmative action as their main target.”
Halsell points out that when her former boss, President
Johnson, first defined affirmative action, “he made no reference
to racial preferences or quotas. He defined affirmative action
as creating a level playing field, providing minorities with an
equal opportunity in education and employment. The enemies
o f civil rights have today organized a nationwide effort
against affirmative action, that they have redefined to mean
racial preferences and quotas.”
She concludes by observing that while much has changed
politically and economically for blacks, “not much has
advanced in social terms o f integration. The tragedy and
severity o f our racial problems remain.”
Focus
^.lovflanb (Jfiieeruvr
s-
Malinche’s Conquest
By Anna Lanyon
Allen & Unwin; 1999
Book
R eview
by
Thiemeyer
Jay
chapter devoted to m ythologies
explains links to the goddess ‘Woman
S erpent’, a potent force in pre-
Spanish Mexico. Indeed, the folklore
and legend - there is a volcano named
for her, a river, ritualized seasonal
dance practiced in myriad versions
throughout the countryside offer up
a h ig h ly sy m p a th e tic , n e a rly
archetypal figure. Nobel laureate,
Octavio Paz’s most famous work
was an essay on ‘The Sons o f
M alinche’, whose point is similar to
L an y o n ’s ow n. Ws the sim ple,
courageous Myan girl, sold into
slavery, thrown back for survival on
her own wits, whose words literally
unlocked the door to a new world, a
traitor or was she a monumental
victim o f history which sacrifies
whom it wishes and “constructs the
heroes and villains we need” - more
specifically, history according to
those in power at this point in time.
In Mexico a ‘malinchista’ is a traitor,
the lowest o f the low. The original
Malinche was the Mayan interpreter
or go-between for Heman Cortes,
whose conquest o f Mexico inspired
the new category ‘C onquistador’.
Cortes was a no-nonsense adventurer
(and womanizer, etc. - brutal, not to be
denied) but without Malinche, the
simple aboriginal woman o f amazing
c o u ra g e , p re se n c e o f m ind and
fortitude, Cortes would never have
gained entry to the Court o f Moctezuma
and with it the heart o f the Aztec
Empire. He would have been a reckless,
fearless scout for the Spanish throne
forever lost to history. M ALINCHE’S
CONQUEST is as much a travelogue
as history. A solution to M alinche’s
mystery can hardly be expected. The
event ofher life, that
o f a M ayan girl
abandoned
to
slavery, took place
five hundred years
ago. T h e re
is
p re c io u s
little
e v id e n c e o f any
k in d , m uch less
concrete verifiable
d e ta ils.
C o rte s
mentioned her by
name only once in
h is
n u m ero u s
dispatches across
the A tlantic. But
w ith these scarce
ST
resources, Lanyon
writes an involving,
s o m e tim e s
mesmerizing story.
M a lin c h e ,
the
w o m a n ,is
m ost
fa sc in a tin g
as
nationalist symbol
and as myth, a link
with the ‘cosm ic’
Mexican past. She
was made a symbol
o f b e tra y a l by
Mexican nationalist
politicians. But she
is only seen that way
by those in power -
the well-to-do and
Spend $ 2 5 d o lla r s a n d g e t $3 o ff y o u r p u r c h a s e .
powerful in Mexico
C ity. Am ong the
F r e e d e liv e r y w i t h p u r c h a s e o f $ 2 5 d o l l a r s o r m o re.
m ass o f M exican
folks, especial ly the
rural poor for whom
M exico C ity is
another world, the
m y stiq u e
of
M alinche is large
and persuasive. A
W E R E O PE N
LAQUISHA’S
BEAUTY SUPPLY
309 N.E. WYGANT
P hon e: (503)249-7329
„
A n th o n y H u f f
O w n e r : Tiajua/ a H uff
M a n a g e r : Q i a n n a E n g li s H
jfm i_ P a g e r : 7 3 1 -0 8 5 9
1 É Ì