People of the River

The other day, I was reading something about interactions between Spanish and Catawba people in the 1500s in what is now North Carolina. The Spanish were driven out of the area, but I wondered what happened to the Catawba?

They are still there, in the Carolinas; the official Catawba Indian Nation (so designated circa 1993) holds forth within present-day South Carolina's borders, and Catawba people continue to abide elsewhere, too. The Catawba Indian Nation is located near Rock Hill, South Carolina, and Charlotte, North Carolina. On one of my next visits to the Carolinas, I plan to visit and report. Last checked, there were about 2,200 members. Astonishing, at least to me.


Pretty good reversal of fortune for a people who were almost wiped out before the American Revolution. Here's a link to their national website: http://www.catawbaindiannation.com/

Today's Rune: Joy.

Star Trek

The first Star Trek episode I remember seeing as a kid in real time was "Who Mourns for Adonis?" (either in 1967 or 1968). I was hooked. Not much of a comics fan, at the time and instead I already loved bizarre and campy TV shows ranging from Twilight Zone, One Step Beyond, Outer Limits, Batman, Dark Shadows, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, My Favorite Martian, Lost in Space, Land of the Giants, Time Tunnel, the nightly national news with VC body counts, and just about anything else put before me. My family moved in the middle of all this, from Pennsylvania to Chicago to St. Paul, Minnesota, to Durham, North Carolina.

I never really kept up with all the Star Trek spin offs (unlike my sister Linda and brother Jamie), but the original, I saw every episode by the end of the 1970s, in North Carolina by the time I graduated high school (as did several of my closest friends).

The characters in Star Trek are all appealing, likable, the stories varied and thought-provoking. These are enduring, and I've kept a fond place for them in my mind and heart all these years. And so, though it may not be tomorrow or the day after, I do intend to see the new movie, which looks promising as a "reboot" of the original series; in fact, a prequel to it. Like the James Bond theme, Star Trek terminology like "warp speed," "Full power to the shields," "beam me aboard, Scotty," "arm photon torpedoes" and "phasers" are in my blood. You betcha.

How about y'all in the blogosphere? Any favorite episodes, characters, or themes? I honestly like all the original characters and play no favorites -- it's still a great ensemble with excellent chemistry.

Today's Rune: Partnership.

Cinco de Mayo & The Franco-Mexican War

Cinco de Mayo has evolved into a nifty celebration of Mexican culture, eh? Seems like ever more so, even in the last twenty years, and I'm all for it.

Which reminds me of how interesting it would be to consider and absorb North American history as a seamless web, giving more serious weight to developments in Canada and Mexico, which would include much more about Mexican and French as well as Spanish and British influence on politics and culture.

Back to Cinco de Mayo. Besides being fun, the date commemorates the 1862 Battle of Puebla, a Mexican victory over French invaders. Probably less known in the USA is the French capture of Mexico City afterwards, and the installment of Maximilian, a young Hapsburg, as Emperor, during the American Civil War. And how about a dose of the French Foreign Legion -- in Mexico?


Not to mention the withdrawal of French forces, followed by the defeat of Maximillian's own loyalists by Mexican republican forces under Benito Juárez and others. While in charge in 1865, Max had ordered the summary execution of republican prisoners, so it was no accident that when he himself was captured by republican enemies, he was executed, too. The practice of shooting prisoners was an old one. (Painting by Édouard Manet, 1868).

If we go beyond the basis for Cinco de Mayo, we'd also take a closer look at the Mexican-American War, since the French had basically followed the American (and earlier Spanish) route to Mexico City. And then we'd come across how the entire area of California and present-day Southwestern US was sheared off from Mexico. And then what would we do with that knowledge? That's a complication with history: the more you look, the more there is to consider.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Earlier related posts: http://eriklerouge.blogspot.com/2008/05/another-war-another-celebration.html

http://eriklerouge.blogspot.com/2006/05/el-cinco-de-mayoback-in-late-1861.html

http://eriklerouge.blogspot.com/2006/04/smoke-and-mirrorsamerican-society-has.html

Today's Rune: Warrior.

Cuatro: The Alamo

After Old San Antonio and walking around the actual Alamo, finally watched the John Lee Hancock version of The Alamo (2004), the latest of several films about the 1836 battle. It's commendably sophisticated, attempting to give context and character nuance and some attention to the Mexican perspective. I liked it. Could write a lot more and probably will at some point, but that's the gist. Good for anyone interested in what has long since become immortalized and aggrandized, and certainly good for discussion.

Above: Travis (Patrick Wilson), David Crockett (Billy Bob Thornton) and Jim Bowie (Jason Patric). Fighting for a free Texas, and in some cases, for the freedom to own slaves (an oxymoron if there ever was one. Note: Mexico abolished slavery more than forty years before the USA). Worth some comparison to HBO's Deadwood, with even a dude or two from that series. Dennis Quaid is believable as a hard-drinking Sam Houston.

Now, as for the portrayal of Mexican leader Antonio de Padua María Severino López de Santa Anna y Pérez de Lebrón, the real Santa Anna was by most accounts vain, audacious, arrogant and cruel, but at the time of the Alamo, he was in his forties and still quite a dandy. Emilio Echevarría, who plays him, seems quite a bit older. Nonetheless, I love what Echevarría says in a related interview:

Santa Anna developed this operatic style to the highest level, like that of an actor representing a part -- they were all actors -- out of a need to act within extremely contradictory situations with authority, while totally dispossessed of an ideology. He was convinced he himself was destined to lead the country. In which direction? Any direction where he would continue to lead the march . . .

I like to think of film as a window through which we may take a good look at life. That’s why we go to the movies, in search of something; to gain something. But I can’t hope to transmit an idea or something unpredictable. I like being a part of a collective story, which will be different for each viewer . . .

Exactly right on! Full interview can be found here, part of a truly inspired Alamo website well worth exploring:

http://www.alamosentry.com/alamo-news/interview-with-emilio-echevarria

www.alamosentry.com


Santa Anna (1794-1876) in full splendor.

Today's Rune: Possessions.

El tres de mayo: Roots of a Revolution

I. I've gotten rid of most of my CDs, but am holding on to this one -- the James Brown compilation Roots of a Revolution (plus The CD of JB I & II). It samples Mr. Brown's musical output from 1956 to 1964, when he seeded the ground for a full funk revolution in the later 60s and 70s. To me, James Brown's wild style and slamming rhythms are hard to beat (pardon the pun). And his art remains subversive, the kind of music parents in many places don't really want to hear, long after almost everything else a quarter century or more old has merged into the mainstream, and easy listening acceptability. Favorite song from this one is still the last one: "Maybe the Last Time."


II. Goya is another favorite. Got to see this at the Prado in Madrid: El 3 de mayo de 1808 en Madrid: los fusilamientos en la montaña del Príncipe Pío / The Third of May 1808. This incredibly powerful 1814 painting heralds in the modern world, the one we still live in nearly two hundred years later.

In this case, French soldiers before dawn shoot down Spanish prisoners rounded up during wartime occupation and insurgency. The particulars hardly matter for the audience (compared to participants in the actual events). Substitute X for Z in Year X. Not exactly Tickle Me Elmo, but there you have it -- it's real and it's relevant.


III. Snippets from "Maybe the Last Time," at least how I hear it:

Maybe the last time
It may be the last time we shake hands
It may be the last time we make plans
Oh I, Oh I . . . I don't know. . .

Look around you over and over again
Shake hands with your best friends
You might never never never see them again . . .

Today's Rune: Fertility. Happy birthday, James Brown et alia!

Waking the Dead: May Day in Paris

Every year on or around May 1st, I remember being in Paris on that day, in the sprawling cemetery of Père Lachaise, quite a little while ago. I was humbly walking around among the cats and the tombs visiting various obelisks and markers for the departed -- in this case the one for Jim Morrison -- when loud noises broke out not far away. Sounded like firecrackers, whistles, bells, singing and honking all at once. Cats scattered among the grave stones and mausoleums. Small cars drove up the little lanes, bikes with horns, people in black and red carrying banners and placards, shouting and singing and generally carrying on excitedly. Of course! It was May Day in Paris, and anarchists were at play, at protest, in a rushing throng, aiming to wake the dead and rile up the living.

It was all over in less than twenty minutes. Then, European-style sirens, a woosh of police, and the swirl was gone again. I'm not sure how the dead reacted, but it sure woke me up fast.

That's exactly why I always remember being in Paris on May Day.

Today's Rune: Partnership.

Truth in Fiction II: The Norseman

Seeing the old drive-in last weekend in San Antonio reminded me of one of the last movies I saw at a drive-in theatre (near Atlanta, of all places): The Norseman (1978), starring Lee Majors, Jack Elam, Mel Ferrer, Cornel Wilde, Susie Coelho and Deacon Jones (football!) and written, produced a directed by Charles B. Pierce; then-secret executive producers: Lee Majors and Farrah Fawcett.

The Norseman is absurd, but the premise of Viking/Norsemen encounters with "the Iroquois" (even if depicted in ridiculously anachronistic garb) is not quite so far-fetched. The Vikings did, after all, come to what is now North America hundreds of years before any other Europeans, and they did have extended encounters with the people already there.

Between archaeological finds and genetic tracking, we'll find out a lot more in due time, no doubt. Was there a major disease exchange ca. 1000 A.D.? Did knowledge of these early encounters spread in many directions? If so, how far, and to what effect?

Folks, hard to get cheesier than this trailer:

Coming soon: Spanish forts in the interior of what is now North Carolina -- two hundred years before the American Revolution.

History keeps evolving, and myths keep dissolving. Still, many outdated notions stubbornly persist, thanks in part to certain grade school texts and plain dumb politics, I guess.

Today's Norseman Rune: Wholeness. Happy May Day!