The Chicano Whales
They are the largest creatures on the planet; the Blue whales migrate
thousands of miles each year, from the cold waters off Alaska (where
the ice caps continue to melt as a sacrifice to Capitalism) to the warm
and green waters of Baja California and the gulf of Cortez (named after the European Rapist of our homeland). Though they speak in such
low tones that we cannot hear them, with their movement the Whales
tell us the truth: that this continent is one ecosystem, one sacred and
whole land. There are no borders and walls in nature; there is no independence, no individual with their greed. There is only everything, and
everything is one, like a great connection and web woven b whatever
great spirits there might be. From when I was little and first came to
California I have always gone with my family to see the whales as they
migrate by the coast. It made my dad very happy, and he found joy in
knowing that the whales came from Mexico like him. The Whales are
huge; you only see their enormous backs and the very tips of their fins
above the water. The rest is a mysterious green shadow of light surrounded by the dark waters. The whales can be found easily off the
coast of California in the months of spring and fall when they are migrating; look on the horizon for their spouts. One day I will take my
sons, and my grandsons, to see the whales, that they might know from
me who we are and where we come from.
The Whales migrate the thousands of miles for their families. Sound
familiar? When they are newborn, their skin and blubber is not thick
enough to survive in the cold waters of the north. They are born in the
warm waters of Mexico. For the whales, as for me, Mexico is where the
family comes from, and the family is the most important thing. Soon
the Whales grow to be the largest animals in the history of the earth.
That is why they migrate north, where the food is, to the cold waters
of the United States. For them the opportunities are also in the north;
there they look for a means to live for their family. But they never forget where they are from; every year they return south and they remind
me where I am from and what I am made of. The whales are from both
sides, always migrants, and for them there are not yet walls and papers
to worry about. For them there is only the open sea, borderless.
by Antonio deLoera-Brust, Film and Television Production ‘17
Loyola Marymount University
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