Category: Ramsey Muniz

  • Ramsey's Leavenworth Dream Continued

    Is It Time?

    "They did not wish to join with the foreigners (Spaniards), nor did
    they desire Christianity. They did not know that they would have to pay
    tribute. The lords of the birds, the lords of the precious stones, the
    lords of the carved stones, the lords of the tigers had always guided
    them and protected them. One thousand six hundred years and three
    hundred years more and then their life had to come to an end!

    "For they had always known within themselves the length of their
    days. The moon, the year, the day and the night, the breath of life
    were fulfilled and they passed. The blood was fulfilled and came to the
    place of its rest. As also it had come to its power and its dignity.
    During their time they had repeated the good prayers; they had sought
    the lucky days when the good stars watched over them. Then they kept
    vigil, when the good stars watched over them. Then all was good.

    "In them there was wisdom. Then was no sin. In
    them there was holy devotion. Life was wholesome.
    There was no sickness then; there was no aching of
    the bones; there was no fever for them; there was no
    small pox; there was no burning in the chest; there
    was no pain in the stomach; there was no consumption.
    Raised up straight was the body then. It was not
    thus the foreigners did after they came here. They
    brought shameful things when they came. Everything
    was lost in carnal sin. No more lucky days were
    granted us. This was the cause of our sickness."

    Chilam Balam of Chumayel

    The Storm

    It will be born out of the clash between the
    two winds, it will arrive in its own time, the coals
    on the hearth of history are stoked and ready to
    burn. Now the wind from above rules, but the one from
    below is coming, the storm rises, so it will be.

    The Prophecy

    When the storm subsides, when the rain and fire
    leave the earth in peace again, the world will no
    longer be the world, but something better.

    –Ramsey Muniz – Tezcatlipoca. 2005.

    Is it time? Yes, our time has come as a race,
    as a people, and as a nation within all nations. Our
    time has come to rediscover our most precious ancient
    spiritual and cultural past. It is life within life
    to reach into the hearts and minds of our ancestors.

    They knew beforehand, many years before the arrival
    of the foreigners (Spaniards), that they would come
    only to destroy and conquer the essence of our people.
    The teachings and writings of our ancestors were for
    the purpose of the day that we of the Sixth Sun,
    los Mexicanos of Aztlan, would once more engulf the
    spirituality and history that would set us free once
    again.

    History has a purpose, history tends to repeat
    itself. Our history, our cultura, and our spirituality
    as Mexicanos will bring about liberation, justice,
    and the return of Aztlan.

    The roots of all revolutions come from our past.
    Our history carefully reveals how great Mexicano leaders
    rose with the desire and power of fulfilling prophesies. Is it
    time? Unless we return to a past which is not yet
    past, we will continue to be modern day slaves of
    the oppressor in the world today. Why must we as a
    race change who we are? Why must we deny the power
    and spirituality of our past? Why must we as a people
    change every ten years to what the oppressor decides to
    label us? These and many more are the qualities of
    life we have changed for the sake of acceptance.

    Our history, our cultura, and our spirituality are so powerful that for
    the last five hundred years the oppressor has attempted to destroy
    them. But we resisted with our lives and have sacrificed like no other
    race on this earth. During my confinement in solitary for three years,
    I journeyed into our ancient Mexicano past as if I were a student at
    the "university of unfaithfuls." Gradually I came in contact with all
    our Mexicano and Mexicana heroes of our times and they too returned to
    their ancient past.

    It was during these times of darkness that I also found my brother,
    Ricardo Flores Magon. He too was confined in the same dungeons of
    America which we shared for the sake of our liberation and justice for
    our people. Magon constantly
    spoke of the past. Near the end of his life in 1921, he wrote to a
    friend in our Holy Land of Mexico and stated:

    "They are rich, famous and powerful, while I am poor, unknown, sick,
    almost blind, with a number for a name, marked as a felon, rotting in
    this human herd, whose crime has been to be so ignorant and so stupid
    as to have stolen a piece of bread, when it is a virtue to steal
    millions. But my old comrades are practical men, while I’m only a
    dreamer, that that is my fault."

    Eighty-four years later I find myself also a dreamer, in the same cell,
    in solitary confinement, recreating our purpose of existence on this
    earth for the creation of our liberation and for the purpose of
    demanding the return of our history, cultura, spirituality, and most
    important of all, the return of our land (Aztlan). Is it time?

    Those that left us are coming back. Those who came are leaving again.
    Say welcome, then farewell.
    Our time has come! How can we as a people, as a raza of the 21st
    century ever forget the spoken spiritual words of our last Emperor,
    Cuauhtemoc as he stated for the last time before his death:

    "Now we mandate our children also not to forget to transmit to their
    children how it will be, how we will reunite, how we will rise again,
    how we will reach out, and how we will fulfill the great destiny of our
    race."

    And here we are tonight confined in the dungeons of America stating to
    her that we of the Sixth Sun, los Mexicanos de Aztlan, will carry forth
    the destinies of our emperors, of Citlalmina, of Padre Hidalgo, of
    Guerrero, Juarez, Flores-Magon, Zapata, Villa, Lucio, Chavez, Marcos,
    and all our revolutionary Mexicanos/Mexicanas of the 21st century.

    Our sisters and brothers from the Holy Land of Mexico continue to die
    at the borders of America as if we were not human at all. As families
    of all families, we must begin to take care of each other. We are no
    longer strangers or enemies of each other, for we are all Mexicanos.
    Some prefer to call themselves Hispanics, Latinos, etc., and that is
    fine for now, because soon we will all return to who we are from the
    birth of our own creation as a race, as a nation, and as a people.

    Our time has come and many are aware of what we will discover about the
    past, atrocities committed against us, as we cross into the land that
    calls for our return.

    The key to understanding ourselves as a people today remains in
    discovering and living our Mexicano cultura! We are building our temple
    in Aztlan by working together and helping each other for the new
    millennium by growing in love, building character and awareness,
    learning Mexicayotl, and by sharing this knowledge.

    Our time has come to rediscover our most precious ancient spiritual and
    cultural past. We will plan the foundation through our
    spiritual/cultural temple and school, and it will be based on love,
    truth, acceptance, dignity, respect, and honor.

    In exile,
    Tezcatlipoca


    www.freeramsey.com


    Received via email from Irma L. Muniz 10 July 2005.

  • Letter from Ramsey: July Fourth 2005

    "I covered my face with my hands, and sat still in pure
    unconsciousness, neither hearing nor feeling nor knowing, in the
    darkness of the dungeons of America, like the deep of the sea. With no
    time and no world, in depths that are timeless and worldless. It was
    then that the spirituality of our ancient Mexicano ancestors reached
    into the depth of my heart." — Tezcatlipoca. R. Muniz

    Please forgive me for not writing and/or sharing the essences of our
    spirituality, cultura, and politica. The reason for my not
    communicating has now become a struggle for the beginning of my freedom.

    My family, friends, and others have retained the services of an
    attorney from San Antonio, Texas, named Mr. Jesse Gamez. He was
    retained because the Bureau of Prisons of America has decided to
    convert this hard-core penitentiary into a lower level Federal
    Correctional Institution. I have suffered, sacrificed, and struggled
    for 11 years in this medieval mazmorra.

    Legally and administratively, I should have never been confined in
    one of America’s hardest penitentiaries. I’m not a violent person nor
    does my entire life’s record reveal violence. Yet I was chained and
    shackled in the violence of America and its prisons.

    From the beginning of this most horrible nightmare of my life I was
    determined to overcome the oppression, discrimination, and unusual
    punishment. I confronted the authorities here in this penitentiary and
    I was instructed that if I would bring to them perfect, clear conduct
    without violence, with perfect testing for drugs and alcohol for 10
    years, I would qualify for a transfer to a Federal Correctional
    Institution.

    Well guess what! I reached into our spirituality and decided that I
    could accomplish the latter because I had a responsibility to fulfill
    this not only for myself, but most importantly for my family, my
    friends, mi gente, mi raza, y Aztlan! Yes, I accomplished the
    impossible!

    For the past 11 years my prison records reflect perfection in all
    classifications of this prison. I also took the time in the darkness of
    this prison to teach, to share, and embrace ancient Mexicano
    spirituality, cultura and political ideology. The teachings are now
    available for all. Many years I took the time to teach classes on our
    history, cultura, and future. If some doubt my words, please make
    reference to the new, fresh Mexicano/Chicano/Hispanic/Latino who is
    rising into the midst of our struggle.

    I’m not a criminal. I’m a spiritual/cultural leader
    of the 21st century.

    The attorney, Irma, Norma, Roland, Juan, Oscar, Dr. Guerrero,
    Clotilde, Bob, Raul, Alvaro, Oscar and Diana, Adolfo, Bobby, Erika,
    Kiko, and many more from the entire southwest are presently involved in
    trying to have me transferred from the darkness of these prisons to a
    Federal Correctional Institution.

    You will find, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the United States
    government will never confine a white-collar crime defendant in these
    violent prisons. Yet they found it convenient to shackle my soul in the
    belly of this beast for 11 years. Ya basta! No more! I will struggle
    and fight against this injustice on my life to the end. I will not rest
    until I’m transferred to a Federal Correctionl Institution!

    With my heart in my hand I ask and pray that you join me in this
    most humane struggle for justice and enlightenment. If you wish to
    assist me in this humanistic struggle, please be so kind as to contact
    my wife, Irma Muniz. For 11 years she has faithfully visited several
    times a year. It is so amazing and astonishing that I requested an
    institutional record of her visitations, and even that is beyond
    perfection. As a people, as a family, as soul-mates, we are truly
    strong and brave as we have been from the time of our creation.

    "As I embrace our ancient, sacred Indigenous
    spirituality, I’m transformed by a passion I have discovered from our
    past. Now I perceive it in my own Mexicano soul. I have been given
    access to a great and profound secret. Now I know the imprisonment,
    suffering, sadness, sorrow, grief, and sacrifice of my ancient
    ancestors, and it has become my own.”

    R. Muniz – Tezcatlipoca
    www.freeramsey.com

    Received via email from Irma Muniz, 1 July 2005.

  • Love Letter from Leavenworth

    Dear Friends:
    The enclosed letter from Ramsey Muniz describes his
    spiritual and loving disposition in spite of his
    suffering. The institution was released from lock down
    on Tuesday. Please distribute.–Irma L. Muniz


    5/24/06

    Mi Corazon,

    Yes, I’m back in the jungle of humanity of this
    United States. I have been here only one week and I’m locked down with the entire institution. I can only say that it wasn’t as bad as one week in Oklahoma. Be that as it may, I continue to ponder on one issue at this time, and that is having me transferred to a Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) in Texas.

    I have been 12 ½ years in this country’s hardest penitentiaries and that is enough for any
    Mexicano in my position who doesn’t have a violent background, is not a member of any gang or group, and has not had an “incident report” in 12 ½ years of confinement. This in and of itself is cruel and unusual punishment. I can barely walk across the entire prison compound with my cane and yet I see all these younger convicts exercising as if getting ready for
    war anytime.

    Why? Why is it that they don’t want for me to be close
    to my family and friends in Texas? Even those in this prison cannot understand what I’m doing here in this high security penitentiary.

    As I was sitting on a bench by myself praying to the
    Creator, I heard the sound of a gunshot and instructions to hit the ground, face down, on the gravel. Inside this institution there is no grass, no trees, all gravel, concrete and bars – the future of tomorrow to control your mind.

    Guess what. They forgot about this heart – this heart
    that is full of love and nothing destroys love. It doesn’t matter if there is a desert, no trees, only chains and shackles.

    This Mexicano love overcomes all. This love from this Mexicano will one day free all our people. One can be old and think young, others can be young and think old. After God gave me life once again he took my heart and mind and said unto me, “Tez, you shall
    once more think, feel, love, and lead young once again.” And when He said that unto my life, you were there standing next to me with tears pouring, holding my hand and saying, “Oh Ramsey, please get
    well, for I love you so much.”

    This is the power that embraces me this very minute even in this lock down tonight. I can feel you tonight, I can feel your corazon in my hands. Oh Irma, oh my Citlalmina, I love you, I adore you, I admire your strength.

    We must continue with the faith and courage we have in our hearts. I know at times we feel all the odds are against us, but without sacrifice and sorrow, freedom has never come about, and I know that because of our suffering and sacrificing, many others will
    never feel the pain. Imagine how Christ felt the days before His execution – the nights before knowing that He was going to die for the sins and freedom of all humanity. And how weak some people are about everything in life. No discipline, no faith, no courage, and no love. I pray for them constantly.

    Amor,
    Tez

    “Thus I love you, love.
    Love, thus I love you.
    thus as your hair
    lifts up and as
    your mouth smiles,
    light as water
    from the spring upon the pure stones,
    thus I love you, beloved…

    Tezcatlipoca


    http://www.freeramsey.com

  • The Inadvisable Beauty of Aztlan: Ramsey Muniz on the Minutemen

    Introduction: "Inadvisable" is the word that
    answers me when I think about posting the latest prison writings of
    Ramsey Muniz. Isn’t there a populist vigilante movement rising against
    Mexican immigration to the USA, sparked by the Minuteman Project and
    fanned by a Governor of California and a would-be governor from Texas?
    Are the Yankee border-watchers not out to personally hold the color
    line in a kind of Alamo witness against ethnic invasion? And doesn’t
    Ramsey simply taunt that movement with its Alamo futility, provoking
    from the Minutemen a predictable crescendo of strident justifications
    to remember the Alamo? And then doesn’t all hell break loose?

    And what does Ramsey’s nationalism have to do with Civil Rights in
    Texas? Is the Aztlan homeland not simply the mirror image of Homeland
    Security? How can you malign the nationalism of the Minutemen while
    aiding and abetting the nationalism of Aztlan? And why in the world
    would you knowingly contribute to a polarization that is likely to
    shake down some fence sitters onto the wrong side?

    Let’s look at the problem in its utter generality. Five hundred
    years ago an invasion of immigration began upon Turtle Island.
    Beginning in 1492 the peoples of the North American continent were
    purged and replaced. Today the First Nations of the continent still
    live, but under stress. The Aztlan nationalism of Ramsey Muniz
    celebrates the rebirth of a people, an historical and cultural
    resurrection of los Indios upon land they belong to.

    From a Minuteman point of view, however, the scenario of Aztlan
    resurrected is a violence in the making, a submergence of culture and
    people. And if there are fence sitters between camps, don’t these
    competing nationalist visions of Mexican immigration shake people down
    into predictable blocs–just in time for the 2006 elections?

    Yet, in the general vision of Aztlan, how can one not see the
    beauty? Don’t we tend to favor the underdog hero, the return of the
    vanquished, the emergence of life upon death, and redemption? In order
    to resist the beauty of Aztlan, one must assume a vested interest
    against the vision. And this is what the Minutemen have done.

    But the explicit, armed, and bodily intervention of the Minutemen
    against the Mexican people’s return to Aztlan draws upon implicit
    anxieties of English speaking peoples who find themselves increasingly
    immersed in a Spanish speaking world. Where Mexican people are rising,
    the English speaking world finds it all too difficult to say, well good
    for them. It’s good to see people rising.

    So the challenge to the fence sitter is this: will your vested
    interests prevent you from seeing the beauty of Aztlan? Then go ahead
    and fall where you must. But you don’t have to live without beauty. In
    the beauty of others, you just might find something new in the beauty
    of yourself.

    Are the words of Ramsey Muniz inadvisable? We have to be careful
    what we’re saying whenever we warn beauty to put a cover over her head:

    * * *

    Ya Basta with the American Minutemen
    at the Borders

    On or about 1920, in the Leavenworth Penitentiary, near
    the end of his life, Ricardo Flores Magon, one of the
    intellectual architects of the Mexican Revolution of 1910,
    wrote a friend, stating that his comrades from the glory days
    "are now generals, governors, secretaries of state, and
    some have been presidents of Mexico."

    "They are rich, famous, and powerful," Flores Magon
    complained. "While I am poor, unknown, sick, almost
    blind. With a number for a name, marked as a felon,
    rotting in this human herd whose crime has been to be
    so ignorant and so stupid as to have stolen a piece of
    bread when it is a virtue to steal millions. But my
    old comrades are practical men, while I’m only a dreamer,
    and that is my fault. They have been the ant and I the
    fly; while they have counted dollars, I have wasted
    time counting the stars. I wanted to make a man of
    each human animal. They, more practical, have made an
    animal of each man, and they have made themselves the
    shepherds of the flock. Nevertheless, I prefer to be
    a dreamer than a practical man."

    Ricardo Flores Magon
    Died in the U.S.P. Leavenworth, 1922

    As I have shared with nuestra gente in the past,
    the borders between our Holy Land of Mexico and the
    Southwest part of the United States will continue to be
    a most decisive and profound issue of the 21st century.

    For the record and for the purpose of sharing
    with Hispanics, Latinos, Chicanos and Mexicanos, we
    of the Sixth Sun and El Partido Raza Unida maintain a
    strong opposition to the formation of the minutemen
    vigilantes who have gathered at the borders. We oppose
    citizens hunting down our people, our families, and
    our friends like animals. We must not permit this
    type of action to exist against humanity. We will
    personally submit a letter to President Fox , so that
    he convey our sentiments to the president of this
    country, sharing that those types of actions by
    citizens are illegal, unlawful, and extremely
    prejudice. We will recommend that the United States
    government, by law, grant amnesty to all our people
    who at one time or another crossed the borders. At
    this point, we are not addressing legal actions that
    the United States can take, simply because we are
    more concerned about the value of lives at our borders.

    In reality it doesn’t matter how many agents,
    vigilantes (minutemen) they will station at the borders,
    because nuestra gente will continue to come across
    into Aztlan.

    We ARE here. The United States finally took count
    and found out that within the last ten (10) years our
    people have crossed the borders into American not
    only fulfilling the American dream, but more importantly
    fulfilling the destiny of our becoming the entire
    majority in the Southwest (Aztlan). There is nothing
    on this earth that can stop a movement of people whose
    history revealed that they would once more govern not
    only their lives, but their land.

    We must have the heart, courage, and concern for
    the well-being of our people. We must never forget that
    in some fashion or another we are related. "We are all
    Mexicanos — different names, different placed, different
    native languages, but at the end we are Mexicanos. The
    states within the borders know that it is a matter of
    time before we become the majority. Those who doubt
    this may study the U.S. census of people at the borders.
    It was written in our ancient history, and the battle
    cry for many centuries has been about life and death
    for justice, liberation, and land. As a people and
    race, we have returned to those times once again.
    The land (Aztlan) itself cries for us. Before the
    conquest by the invaders of 1521, our civilization was
    one of the greatest in the history of the world.

    This country has no business in the Middle East.
    The issue represents the same method that was used in
    taking possession of our land. Many refuse to address
    the issue pertaining to Aztlan. They prefer to pat
    "good deeds" on the back with words of praise for
    taking one’s God-given land. This issue will never
    end until atrocities committed are acknowledged. All
    countries, including France and Spain, were defeated
    in the Southwest of America — our Aztlan.

    It is our responsibility to undo the mental brain
    conditioning imposed, making us believe that we who
    reside in the United States of America are different
    from Mexicanos who reside in Mexico. We are one.
    "Nosotros somos uno." The same Mexicanos/Mexicanas that
    at times we see at the borders — barefooted, hungry,
    and chained — are our sisters and brothers. These
    Mexicanos are related to all of us. We are one, and
    there is no river, no border, no agents or minutemen
    that can ever stop the process of evolution. For
    hundreds of years the invaders led us to believe that
    we are different. Their history, how

    ever, is wrong
    and nature calls for the wrong to be corrected.

    We request that Hispanic and Latino organizations
    take a strong political position against citizen groups
    at the borders. We ask that Hispanic/Latino Democratic
    and Republicans take a strong political position against
    the actions of citizens and groups in America taken
    against us as a people.

    Even though I find myself confined in these
    penitentiaries of America, my soul is free with calm
    rest because I know our history, and I know that our
    time has come.

    Let the world know. Let all Hispanic, Latino,
    and Chicano groups know that our time has come. Do
    we dare to scale the heights of heaven and our land
    in Aztlan? Yes, I dare – y que!!!

    In exile,
    Tezcatlipoca (R. Muniz)
    http://www.freeramsey.com

    Note: received via email from Irma L. Muniz, May 10, 2005.–gm

  • Ramsey Muniz and Cinco de Mayo

    Email from Irma Muniz

    Dear Friends:

    Citizens of Mexico fought the French, who had occupied their land, and drove them away by force. These citizens consisted of approximately 5000 Mestizo and Zapotec Indians who were at a disadvantage, as they lacked adequate resources for battle. In spite of their limitations, however, their perseverance defeated the French against all odds.

    On Cinco de Mayo — May 5, 1862, General Ignacio Zaragoza defeated the French in Puebla, Mexico and this came to be known as the “Batalla de Puebla.” The French were eventually expelled in 1867.

    On Cinco de Mayo people throughout the world acknowledge the spirit and
    courage of those who sacrifice with moral conviction. They remember the
    spirit of those who move forward and defend the highest ideals for the
    sake of humanity.

    Feliz Cinco de Mayo

    Legally Ramsey Muniz is completely innocent — and morally too.

    www.freereamsey.com