Lalo Alcaraz -- award-winning editorial cartoonist and Latino journalist -- captures the essence of the country’s changing cultural and political landscape. Alcaraz has produced editorial cartoons for LA Weekly since 1992 and also creates cartoons in Spanish for La Opinion, the United States’ oldest Spanish-language newspaper. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Village Voice, Los Angeles Times, Variety, Hispanic Magazine, Latina magazine, La Jornada in Mexico City, BUNTE, (Germany’s People magazine) and many other publications. Add instant variety to your Web site’s news and opinion offerings with Alcaraz’s intelligent, youthful and thought-provoking perspective.
Lalo Alcaraz - All Rights Reserved.
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Comments (58) (Please sign in to comment)
Kylop said, over 3 years ago
The drawing looks crisp
Bruce4671 said, over 3 years ago
There is -of course- a lot of controversy on this subject. There is a faily good article at this site. http://thefurtrapper.com/indian_smallpox.htm
Generally, it says that us white guys brought it over and it spread during the normal course of events. Native americans had no natural immunity and so it was bad bad bad for them.
There is some evidence that two blankets and a handkerchief infected with smallpox were given to the Delawares during the siege of ft. pitt in 1763 by the british. So the cartoon could be fairly accurate.
Wikipedia also has a good write up on smallpox that mentions this event as well.
there were a couple of pages of response on bing so read up before you start blaming bush for this
believecommonsense said, over 3 years ago
… all the worst recorded treacheries were instigated by the Indians, NOT the settlers.
you truly frighten me, there are no limits to the lies you’re willing to espouse to promote your view of how the world was, is and should be.
dtroutma
said, over 3 years ago
The cartoon is accurate, and understated. A review of the later 1760’s and the “Indian Wars” with vast atrocities coming down on the native populations by those “kindly” Europeans, French, English, German and others is an exception only with the Quakers, who those other kind Europeans also attacked.
tpenna
said, over 3 years ago
scottfreitas, is that “Christian restraint” the same restraint that you’ve shown in your multiple posts on these pages eagerly calling for a bloody civil war against any and all liberals in America?
That “Christian restraint”?
Yeah, no thanks. We don’t want what you’re selling. Try down the street at Fox News. I hear they’re pretty gullible.
tpenna
said, over 3 years ago
I mean, GOOD LORD!
People keep telling me that they just skip past your posts because they already know you’re hopelessly misinformed and nasty to boot. But I really want everybody in America to be able to read your splenetic rants. Perhaps if we could all get a good look at such unmitigated hatred, we’d be shocked enough to start acting more decently toward one another.
Warrior77 said, over 3 years ago
Today different tribes of Native Americans still hate other Native American tribes.
They really hate the African Americans that are on there roles and getting there tribal benefits. This was done due to the Native Americans had slaves.
They also love there casinos. It makes them a lot of money from the white man.
"Friendly"Kitty said, over 3 years ago
Another cheery ‘Toon from the Latino-American-Lib.
HUMPHRIES said, over 3 years ago
Another BS “lib” blast by the poopy.
"Friendly"Kitty said, over 3 years ago
I believe combining commentary on a dubious health care reform bill with the “rumor” of infected blankets given to Plains Indians in the late 1800’s AND then to further combine those issues with the historical Pilgrim celebration of a thanksgiving to God for their blessings after their trip across the Atlantic is indeed evidence of an extreme ideological bias on the part of the cartoonist. But at least this one is also “crisp” as kylop stated afore.
hank197857 said, over 3 years ago
you guys remind me of that one public service announcement that was out a few decades ago - the one with the tear rolling down the face of some native american guy. this time, however, he’d be lamenting all the pollution posted here and elsewhere. sad.
michael
said, over 3 years ago
“The Indians were NOT the quiet, peaceful, intelligent heroes the libtards of today claim.”
Stop putting everything in terms of modern political stereotypes– it doesn’t fit.
Yes, some indians were warlike and attacked other tribes and white settlers. Others didn’t. The US was also cruel at times, not simply defending, but actively murdering entire families of indians.
The backdrop of all this was an invasion of by modern standards lightly populated lands– any time you’ve got two societies vying for the same natural resources there’s going to be violent conflict.
Bruce4671 said, over 3 years ago
Jeezes michael, root cause it why don’cha. The problem with reading historical accounts is that it was usually the victor that gets to write (or re-write) history. It’s good to peruse the past via original documents. It’s also good to have an underrstanding of basic human nature (thanks michael). The more you point to supposed differences in the saperate groups the more you show them to be the same. Whe’re ALL of ONE race - the human race. Like all dogs are dogs and all cats are cats and so on and on- and tend to react to stimuli in the same ways.
Yes, scott a lot of the “invaders” were fleeing religious intorerance (government saying you had to be part of the state religion of face sanctions) and didn’t know or care to know that they were intorerant as well. That problem still exists in this country with many denominations saying they have the only true religion and all others are bound for hell.
So, was biological warfare conducted on the native peoples in this hemisphere? The “historical” documents tend to indicate that it was true in at least one case. BUT you can’t know for sure unless you were there (see above).
Corosive Frog
said, over 3 years ago
Christian restraint may be real, in theory, but it is naive to think all christians practised it. Religions may be different, people are not.
churchillwasright said, over 3 years ago
I recently watched ”The Story of Louis Pasteur”. While the movie was made in 1935, some comments from biology teachers on IMDB say the story is so historically accurate, they show it to their students.
In any case, according to the movie, although scientists in the mid 1800s could see viruses and bacteria through their microscopes, none of them (except Pasteur) believed that anything so small could lead to sickness and death in humans or animals. So they refused to sterilize medical equipment (or even their hands) and wouldn’t accept his theories on how infections spread and immunization (much of this was because of peer and political pressure and ridicule). If I recall correctly, it wasn’t until the late 1800s that his theories were accepted.
So my question to any medical historians out there: I know that we infected Indians with smallpox by giving them infected blankets and they had no natural immunization, but how much did we know about how infections spread, did we know anything about natural immunization at the time,and did we do it on purpose or was it an unfortunate accident that we didn’t even understand but that historians with an agenda glibly say was mass murder?