Posted by We are mitú on Wednesday, September 28, 2016
If Harry Potter and Hermione Granger were Latinos what would they use their magic for?
To protect themselves from an evil dementor or to protect themselves from a chancla coming at full speed? Check out these Latinos with magic wands and find out!
Long before America was “discovered”, the indigenous people of Mexico — the Mexica — lived in harmony with the Earth, celebrating it through their traditions and culture. It wasn’t a perfect time, but it was much better than what followed. Persecution came in the form of European colonizers who tossed these people and their heritage into the thresher of industrialization. And this is what makes the imagery in the video for “Mexica,” a new song by Prayers, so compelling.
“As Mexicans, we often portray ourselves as ‘just humble people that want to come to this country to work.’ I say no — screw all that,” Leafar Seyer, Prayer’s frontman told UPROXX.
“The truth of the matter is,” Seyer told UPROXX, “people of color are oppressed, and we have been since 1492 when the settlers came to the Western Hemisphere and started raping us and pillaging our land.” Seyer added, “Everything we’re being accused of? The settlers did that to us. They killed 95% of our people and the 5% that actually survived had to convert to Catholicism and Christianity. We lost our identity and we lost our roots.” According to Seyer, the face paint of his ancestors has been replaced with the tattoos of today. And the tribal drums have been replaced with the angry percussion of Prayers.
The struggle for cultural identity is as important now as it was for our ancestors. In today’s growing climate of isolationism, immigrants are facing yet another wave of persecution, and anything that’s different is feared and politicized as evil.
