Kudos to the Taos News and Jeans Pineda for revealing what I have been trying to expose all along – the Taos News is not a public service vehicle – it’s a business. And who are their most prominent advertisers? THE REAL ESTATE COMPANIES. And the real estate companies profit by driving gentrification. So we can’t actually blame the paper for calling the above anti-gentrification video “loathsome.” Where would they be if they did not defend their advertisers? Business is business, right? It must be so annoying that our video got more commentary than any other exhibit.
But let’s look just under the surface of a paragraph from the article in question.
Pineda’s contempt for and indifference to the impact of gentrification upon “long-time locals” is clearly stated, and is offensive to me personally as a generational Hispanic. Notice the subtle reverse-blaming of the victims: “the change brought on by newcomers — paradise is lost, the social fabric comes undone, people turn to drugs, the gentrifier is to blame.”
Find me a country anywhere in history, anywhere on the planet, where the colonizer, the racist, the ruling class DOESN’T blame the conquered, people of color or the poor for the poverty the colonizer or supremacist causes. That remark is embarrassingly revealing, a positively self-incriminating admission of bias.
Then, reluctantly, Pineda concedes that “The issues presented in the film about affordable housing and overdevelopment are certainly true…”
We know it’s true. Pineda, we know. You admit we are telling the truth, but you murder the messengers, “..but could be presented in a more dynamic way.”
More Dynamic. Oh yeah? Sure got you to really spill all the frijoles. First you reveal your contempt and indifference towards my people, threatened by cultural genocide by gentrification run amok, and then admit, as if by mistake or an afterthought, that we are telling the truth!
Here is the article from which I quote:
“Towards the back of the TCA parking lot, La Coalicion de Taos played a short film titled “Lo Que No Se Dice/What is Unspoken,” which could have been also titled the Loathsome Reproach of the Good-For-Nothing-Gentrifier. It is a series of long-time locals lamenting One can argue the title of the film is misguided, Lo Que No Se Dice or What is Unspoken is generally “Dicho en Claro” or stated clearly, and is a sentiment said often and outright. The issues presented in the film about affordable housing and ove rdevelopment are certainly true, but could be presented in a more dynamic way.”
We sure got a lot of coverage for our “lament” too.