Daniel Stange Acatl
Posted May 28, 2026
My commentary last week about the dream world was a bit all over the place. I guess dreams can be like that too? So, I wanted to return here this week and bring some ideas to a deeper revelation. Certainly, personal dreams are filled with ideas relative to recent events, work, family and perhaps some hidden desires. Woke dreams of collective ambition have historically been a manufactured or at least manipulated affair. Generally, some person in leadership can speak a few words of enlightened encouragement and others will gravitate because they have some shared experiences or some familiar hopes.
Education has programmed much of the limitations and motivations into the mind of our children. People that are educated in schools outside of the United States can share some new perspectives. Public education in most countries however, have been largely monitored by global institutions and maintain the same linear view points about human experiences. Always a historical past that overcame some challenges and then a current effort to improve social lives and some future ambition of increased technology. Maybe the machines do write our curriculums?
Most of us have the belief that slavery was abolished and that physical bondage is no longer accepted across the globe. This is not true in under-developed countries but, even the mental and emotional bondage that keeps us economically enslaved is a form of slavery. Not counting the increasing number of people ICE is detaining in detention center that will force labor onto prisoners. I cannot imagine that this dream was a collective ambition.
We increasingly see further division and conflict in this “modern” world. The way to manage our collective hysteria has been the increased social workers and psychologists that lead our self-help or mandatory support groups. I hear them speak more often about having to leave our family of birth or abandon our friends that we grew up with due to their poor choices and toxic behaviors. A further ploy to divide and conquer the family and community.
The Presidential clown show and religious zealots have shown their ability to divide us. There are so many people that no longer speak to family members because of the media portrayal of the insanity of the “other side”. Liberal or conservative is not a logical separation. The majority of Americans are moderate and share values and beliefs that are both liberal and conservative. Another need for third party politics, also a chance to transform the corruption that has polluted our government.
Culture values have helped us to maintain a sense of identity and our Indigenous prophecy is filled with dreams of return. ¡Volver, Volver, Volver! More than anything our language is the key to trans-acculturation and to help us interpret the best way to navigate society. ¡Si se Puede! Decide to study some of the real native languages that our Chicana/Latinx/Hispano heritage developed. Hozho! Just like you, they were people that wanted to conserve some of the values of our past. And just like you, there were people that wanted to liberate the social conditions that enslaved us physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually.
Obviously, most readers here follow these cultural values because we embrace the Chicana/o experience. Yet, our dreams include so many other family, friends and neighbors that interact with us. Do you dare to also dream with them? I also have family members and friends that call me loco. I choose to give them the same grace that I can for elders and children, and find something we share in common. I might not be able to change the collective perspective because technology has high-jacked the minds and ambitions of even my own children. So, I have a dream that heals my community and provides for my family. Still, I comprehend that our dream of the planet unfolds continuously and beyond my control.
Sometimes, I am connecting with that dream and it is feeding me. Sometimes, I let my personal dreams be shared with others, so that it can feed the dream of the planet. More than this, I continue to educate myself about the forgotten or stolen wisdom that American Indian nations have sheltered. I can tell that they still have a lot to teach the world. My children were given a deep respect for those lessons, and they have grown into mature, loving and respectful citizens. The dream of our family is balanced between what Mom and Dad worked for.
Danny Stange de Acatl is a Denver Native and Cultural activist that serves his community on various levels.
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