People Of The Sun

This song is not only just about the zapitista movement, it's about the whole history of the mexican country and its people, and the injustice it's endured over the years by various countries. Though it could be about the aztecs, aztecs were primarily in south america, not central america. The natives there were the mayans more so. 1516, obviously refers to the spanish as well as the french who occupied mexico later on. "Back cracked for tobacco" refers to spanish enslavery and forcing the natives to pick tobacco plants, as it was a blooming buisness back in the late 1500's and 1600's, and even more so when the first american colonists set up a colony in the 1600's. "Troops strippin' zoots, shots of red mist, Sailors blood on tha deck Come sista resist From the era of terror check this photo lens, Tha city of angels does tha ethnic cleanse" all refers to the los angeles riots in the 40's. "Zoot suits" were primarily mexican american kids (some were fillipino as well) who openly defied the impliment of cloth limits by the U.S. to reserve more cloth for the war effort. These zoot suits were very large and baggy, so it took a lot of cloth to make. One night, sailors who's ship had docked in the los angeles port went around the town and accosted some mexican girls. Because of this, a local group of zoot suits fought them and beat the sailors. The next night, hundreds of sailors flooded the streets of L.A looking for any mexican american or even hispanic kid and stripped them of their clothes, which is where the "troops strippin' zoots" lyric comes from. It was not just white sailors however, it was also african american sailors who took part in this, despite the racism geared towards them, many african americans had racism towards hispanics and asians. Even though the sailors were the ones beating all the hispanic and fillipino kids, the zoot suits were the ones being put in jail. It was a very corrupt time.