Date: Wed, 29 Mar 2000 08:30:15 -0700 (MST)
From: raza graduate student assoc <rgsa@unm.edu
To: raza graduate student assoc <rgsa@unm.edu
Subject: "The Road to El Dorado" aka "The Road to Hell"
We the members of the Mexika Eagle Society call upon our
indigenous brothers and sisters to join us in openly
protesting and boycotting the animated film "The Road to El Dorado,''
scheduled to be released March 31, 2000.
This film, produced by Dreamworks SKG, is a blatantly
racist misrepresentation of native culture and history,
masquerading as an innocent children's movie. It is
extremely ignorant for the makers of "El Dorado'' to use the slaughter
and genocide of a people as the backdrop for a children'scartoon.
The film exacerbates every stereotype associated with native
people, including the alleged (but never proven) practice
of human sacrifice, the even more ludicrous notion of native people
worshipping white men as "Gods" (even though the concept of
"God" did not exist in any native society), and of course, the
European fantasy of native women falling in love with the
first white man they lay their eyes on.
The story revolves around two white men (the heroes of
course) who stumble upon a map to El Dorado and journey to the "New
World'' in search of gold. Once there, they encounter an ignorant
group of savages who quickly pronounce them "Gods,'' and an
enticing, voluptuous native woman who quickly takes on the role
of faithful sidekick. Then, of course, there's the fanatical native
"priest'' who lusts for personal power and calls for human sacrifice.
Portraying native people in this fashion is like passing
off Al Jolson and Amos & Andy as black culture. Students learn
very little about native people as it is. Making light of the European
invasion of our land, even in a cartoon setting, is like making
a movie about the Holocaust in which Germans are the heroes.
This misrepresentation of history only serves to reinforce and
validate the American public's total disregard for true
native history. To dismiss it is as a mere cartoon suggests that
feeding racist lies to unwitting children is perfectly fine. It
would be better for children to learn absolutely nothing
about native history than to hear these lies and have to unlearn
them later. By attending Eurocentric American schools and
reading false history books, the only history we were taught was
the history of our conquest by white people. That despite 99% of
our history occuring before the arival of Europeans, the
only history that mattered was that of our being "civilized''
and coming to know the great western way. "The Road to Eldorado''
is but a link in a continuous chain of dehumanizing
propaganda unleashed upon our people by American society as a whole.
Therefore, the Mexika Eagle Society urges everyone to boycott
this film, as well as any business' which do promotional tie-ins
associated with the movie. Please note: this is not about being
respected as a "market" of consumers, or demanding respect
for our "buying power." These things mean nothing to us. This
is about human dignity and having respect for the history and
traditions of others.
In addition to boycotting this film, join us in public protest by
expressing your concerns in writing to the powers at be at
Dreamworks SKG:
Call: (818) 733-7774
Patricia Gonzalez
100 Universal Plaza Bldg. 10
Universal City, CA 91608
(818) 733-7755
Fax (818) 733-7775
pgonzalez@dreamworks.com