In preparing next term's calendar for my classes, I use the At-A-Glance PM3-28 over-sized item. Sprinkled throughout the calendar are Christian, Jewish, and Muslim holidays, information about daylight savings, and the like.

Apparently since at least 2012 (if not before) the calendar manufacturer saw fit to note The Day of the Race on Sunday October 12, 2014 as well as Revolution Day on November 17, 2014. Next to the name of the holiday there is an (M). 

Curious, I went to investigate these two holidays which I had never paid much attention to, only to learn that these two dates are anything but benign commemorations.

The Day of the Race refers to a "Mexican national holiday known as Dia de la Raza. This date is honored in other countries as Columbus Day and under other names; but the event it commemorates and the way in which it is observed have become quite controversial." 

Though the date that Columbus arrived in the Americas is celebrated in many Latin American countries, there has been a decidedly negative cast to the celebration in recent years. In 2002 in Venezuela the name was changed to the Dia de la Resistencia Indigena (Day of Indigenous Resistance). Thus, "originally conceived of as a celebration of Hispanic influence in the Americas... it has come to be seen by some in Latin America as a counter to Columbus Day; a celebration of the resistance against the arrival of Europeans in the Americas and of the native races and culture."

Beginning in the 1960s, Dia de la Raza "has served as a time of mobilization for pan-ethnic Latino activists." In fact, "La Raza has served as a periodic rallying cry for Hispanic activists" with the first Hispanic March on Washington occurring on Columbus Day in 1996. Additionally, the largest Hispanic social justice organization is called the National Council of La Raza (NCLR).

At Discover the Networks, one learns that

The words 'La Raza (Spanish for 'The Race') in NCLR's name have long been a source of considerable controversy. Critics claim that the name reflects an organizational commitment to racial separatism and race-based grievance mongering. By NCLR's telling, however, such critics have mistranslated the word 'Raza.'

The NCLR maintains that it translates "into English most closely as 'the people' or, according to some scholars, 'the Hispanic people of the New World'.'' According to NCLR, “the full term," which was coined by the Mexican scholar José Vasconcelos, is “la raza cósmica,” meaning “the cosmic people.” NCLR describes this as “an inclusive concept” whose purpose is to express the fact that “Hispanics share with all other peoples of the world a common heritage and destiny.”

But Guillermo Lux and Maurilio Vigil (professors of history and political science, respectively, at New Mexico Highlands University) note in their 1991 book, Aztlan: Essays on the Chicano Homeland:

The concept of La Raza can be traced to the ideas and writings of Jose Vasconcelos, the Mexican theorist who developed the theory of la raza cosmica (the cosmic or super race) at least partially as a minority reaction to the Nordic notions of racial superiority. Vasconelos developed a systematic theory which argued that climatic and geographic conditions and mixture of Spanish and Indian races created a superior race. The concept of La Raza connotes that the mestizo is a distinct race and not Caucasian, as is technically the case.

In short, "Vasconcelos was not promoting 'an inclusive concept,' but rather, the notion of Hispanic racial superiority."

Strong supporters of the DREAM Act, the NCLR teaches that “Colorado, California, Arizona, Texas, Utah, New Mexico, Oregon and parts of Washington State make up an area known as 'Aztlán' -- a fictional ancestral homeland of the Aztecs before Europeans arrived in North America.” Dinesh D'Souza discusses this in a chapter entitled "The Myth of Aztlan" in his book America: Imagine a World Without Her wherein he interviews American Latinos who wish to "create a new country, encompassing northern Mexico and the southwestern United States" based on the idea that America stole and conquered parts of Mexico. D'Souza smartly debunks their arguments by saying if "allegedly the U.S. stole the country from the Indians, [and] then... stole a large part of Mexico from the Hispanics... [and] if the two continents of North and South American once belonged to the native Indians, then how did the Hispanics become owners of that land? There is a simple answer: they conquered it." In fact, the "Hispanic presence in the Southwest was itself a product of conquest." 

Yet the NCLR world view thus seeks to "bring about a Mexican 'Reconquista' (Reconquest) of these southwestern states." Michele Malkin in "15 Things You Should Know About 'The Race'" notes that "The Race supports driver's licenses for illegal aliens; demands in-state tuition discounts for illegal alien students; opposes cooperative immigration enforcement efforts between local, state and federal authorities; and opposes a secure fence on the southern border."  Moreover, "[f]ormer 'Race' president Raul Yzaguirre, Hillary Clinton's Hispanic outreach adviser, said that

'U.S. English is to Hispanics as the Ku Klux Klan is to blacks.' He was referring to U.S. English, the nation's oldest, largest citizens' action group dedicated to preserving the unifying role of the English language in the United States.

Most striking "The Race" also pioneered Orwellian open-borders Newspeak and advised the Mexican government on how to lobby for illegal alien amnesty while avoiding the terms 'illegal' and 'amnesty.' Recall now that in Obama doublespeak, illegal aliens are "refugee riders."

With the currently known information that Mexico, Honduras, Ecuador, and Belize have been making it easy for illegal immigrants to cross onto the United States and with a president who actively works to destroy the southern border of America while blatantly ignoring federal immigration law, it is easy to see how La Raza is successfully implementing its final goal of "reconquest" of the Western U.S. as so aptly explained by Representative Charlie Norwood. How intriguing that the former prime minister of Greece decided "to lecture the United States regarding the current flood of Central American immigrants... arriving in the U.S.. illegally." Since 2006 Papandreou has been the president of Socialist International and also supported "affirmative action, allocating 5% of university posts for the Muslim minority in Thrace."

The other date in question on my once formerly innocuous calendar is November 17th known as Revolution Day. Dia de la Revolucion is "a [Mexican] national public holiday that celebrates a 10-year revolution that began in 1910 to end the struggle against dictator Jose de la Cruz Porfirio Diaz Mori. It also began a decade of civil war leading to Mexico's constitution in 1917. 

Odd that there is no calendar mention of the United States Civil War which ultimately freed black slaves or a note of when the American Revolution began which ushered in a liberating system never before seen in the world. Why would Mexican historical dates be mentioned in an English language calendar unless it is to foster a certain allegiance to Mexico over any other country?  

Recall that Obama, who claims to be concerned about the border crisis "that he manufactured with an illegal alien amnesty," found time to visit the home of filmmaker Robert Rodriguez, director of the film Machete. The film is a "call for revolution: Mexicans against Americans" and "ends with illegal aliens massacring the fictional version of the Minutemen" as noted in this July 4, 2014 post of Daniel Greenfield.

And these two dates are being commemorated on a calendar used by instructors and teachers! In fact, the progressive agenda has insinuated itself in everything in this country to such an extent that it is breathtaking. No wonder young Americans are reciting a history alien to the one we learned while sitting under the pictures of Nathan Hale, Patrick Henry and George Washington.

Eileen can be reached at middlemarch18@gmail.com