Introduction
Dismantling Settler Imaginaries
If you grew up in Texas, you might remember carrying a bible-size -Texas History textbook to your Texas history class and pledging to the Texas flag every morning. You might also remember having to memorize names of proclaimed heroes and fathers of Texas, like Stephen F. Austin and Davy Crockett. What we don’t remember is the erased history that would have told us that Stephen F. Austin was a founding member of the Texas Rangers, who committed state sanctioned violence against Mexicanos,and were known as “los Rinches”. Davy Crockett fought during Texas independence, at the battle of the Alamo, to keep the institution of slavery, which Mexico had already abolished. (Harvest of Empire)
Image from a racist comic strip that was run between 1926-1928 in the Dallas Morning News. It was published into a hardcover book and taught in Texas Public Schools for 30 years after that. (citation)
Texas children were taught a white washed version of history, one that erased Mexicanos, Natives, and African American stories. The state of Texas has banned more books than any other state in the nation. The issue with erasing our history is that we, people of color, have internalized these narratives as true. Therefore, we have been robbed of our own personal and collective histories.
If you grew up on the South Texas border, the false narrative of there is nothing here permeated both in our self-identities and our understanding of the place we live. This is a common narrative that seeps into our daily lives and how we navigate our worlds. In addition, this false narrative invites us to leave. There is nothing here, so that means we are nothing, and we need to leave our community to become someone. Nuestra Delta Magica frames this false narrative as a direct result of the erasure of our history and the indoctrination of Anglo Texas history in Texas public education. “There is nothing here” stems from the systems of oppression of colonization.
Comic strip written and illustrated by Nansi Guevara, titled, Nuestra Delta Magica, addressing the false narrative of there is nothing here.
Most importantly, this exhibit will demonstrate how “There is nothing here” has been used throughout history to justify violence, extraction of land, and exploitation of brown, black, and indigenous labor in the Rio Grande Valley Delta.
This exhibit, at its core, is an invitation to learn about our own history in the Rio Grande Valley. We believe that if we learned our history, our violent and difficult history, as well as our history of resistance, we would understand ourselves better and would see our role in protecting the beautiful and abundant Rio Grande Valley Delta.
References:
(10) Harvest of Empire
https://www.texastribune.org/2022/09/19/texas-book-bans/
