Most Original cultures have a rites of passage for it's youth. The purpose to is prepare them for adult life's duties and responsibililties and many times serves as a sort of official orientation to what it means to belong to that group of people. Often times one of the elements found amongst different 'rites' of passage is the adoption of a new name. Many peoples take on a new name different from the one they were given at birth, to represent a new stage in life and of their own development. Even Jesus gave new names to his disciples.
Within the wilderness of North America we find the same thing. However, the adoption or taking of a new name is more common amongst adults and is usually a requirement within certain cultural, religious and social circles. Most notably is the change of name associated with religious Islam. We as well, within the Nation of Gods and Earths, take on new names or 'righteous names'. These names are usually adjectives exemplifying the attributes of divinity in man and the attributes of the planet earth in the woman. The purpose of taking on a new name is as Allah told to us...when you change your name, you change the way you think.
A name is powerful and is representative of a person's history and culture, their identity. Unfortunately, for most of us afflicted by the 514 year holocaust, our identity was stripped from us. We were forced to take on the names, language, and religion of the oppressor. Many black and latino movements and organizations within the 20th century, in the United States, had some interest in resurrecting this lost/hidden legacy in the Original people. Organizations like the Moorish Science Temple and the Nation of Islam, strove to bring us back to a greater concept of who we were and are, giving people names African or Arabic names or surnames like "Bey", "El", and "X" in attempts to confront to dilemma of a lost knowledge of self. For the Five Percenters (Gods and Earths) we were advised to draw up and create our "own" names from our value system: the Supreme Mathematics and the Supreme Alphabet.
Of course, with the vision of reshaping and structuring our realities and controlling our destinies, we then bestowe similar names upon on children who them must face the world, whether prepared or not. The subject of names is very controversial, with a noted celebrity like Bill Cosby denouncing 'ethnic' sounding names amongst the so-called African American population. This is evidence of our struggle to reclaim our reality and the confrontation we face from our our people who option for compliance with the oppressor. This of course means embracing their names, culture, religion etc. Those of us who chose to resist realize what we are in for and continue to resist and redefine the world. Our names and children's names show up everywhere and seem so different, so funny, and often times outrageous. Nevertheless, we persist to resist and define who we are. Not allowing others to define us and tell us who we are. We receive dirty looks, musings about our names and outright discrimination at the jobs and elsewhere. Still...we are here.
Below is an article about the Indigenous struggle in Mexico, a country, like many Latin American countries, steeped in Roman-Catholic tradition and colonial social structure. It is the struggle to break free from the domination of the conquistador mindset. And remember to all my latino family, you speak Spanish, however Spanish is the language of the oppressor, the devil, just like English, French or Dutch. So having a "Spanish" name doesn't fortify you as "Spanish", only your mindset. You are the Original man. The descendants of Indios y Africanos.
Please read on...
Indigenous Pride Rising With Name Issue in Mexico
"Mexico City- The daughter born to Cesar Cruz Benitez and Marisela Rivas has no official name. Which is rather strange considering the girl is almost 2 years old.
Her parents live in Tepeji del Rio, a town in an arid corner of Hidalgo state north of Mexico City. Speakers of the indigenous language Hñahñu, they call their little girl Doni_Zänä, or "flower of the world" in Hñahñu.
But Cruz's attempts to register the baby's name with the authorities have been rebuffed. The state's computers, officials say, don't accommodate the characters - including an underscore - that represent the distinctive sounds of the Hñahñu language.
For Cruz and other Hñahñu, the case has become a human rights issue highlighting what they say is discrimination against their people, an indigenous group of several thousand people in central Mexico. To some outsiders they are known as the Otomi, a name given to them by Spanish conquistadors five centuries ago.
"My daughter doesn't have a name yet, but I'm not going to give up," Cruz, an artisan, said in a telephone interview. "If necessary, I'll go to the international organizations to help me."
Proper Education Always Creates Errors
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