Naming Winds
It’s hot again. And the wind is beginning to speed up. The solstice just past and already the hills are gold. The milky oats are dry and the soil is barren of moisture. I don’t hear as many songbirds but there are some still out there. Some goldfinches are still passing through. At least, for now, as the sky is endlessly clear, the wind isn’t a devil wind. It’s just a soft welcoming breeze.
In southern California, the southwesterly winds of summer are called the Santa Ana winds. Or the Santana. Or the Santa Anna. It is often disputed what the name refers to. Some believe that the name comes from Saint Anne, and the day that the Santa Ana mountains in Orange County were “discovered” on the feast day of this saint, the mother of Mary. The winds pass over these mountains. Others believe that it refers to the eleven-time president of Mexico, Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, who lost Texas. But there is another guess as to the origin of its name. Some people believe that it is not Santa Ana but a phonetically similar word, Santana. Santana means Satan in Spanish. Often in English, these winds, and winds like it to the north that pass over Mount Diablo, are called devil winds. With these dry currents from the inland range of the Sierras that pass through in the summer, comes fear of terrible fires. These winds bring genuine worry to people across California. They endanger everything to an extent that, in modernity, we are not used to. So Santana makes the most sense. Regardless, it is still a powerful and dry wind.
A week or so ago, in a town called Bethel, Ohio, a group of Black Lives Matter protesters marched through their predominantly white town to show support for their black neighbors, their black countrymen. The event was started, as many events are today, on social media. The small group of protesters gathered. But others heard of this, who did not like the idea of this event happening in a mostly white town. The counter-protesters showed up in a group of about seven hundred. Some carried rifles and other weapons. According to Insider the counter-protesters are responsible for ten incidents which are under investigation. One such incident, highlighted by many news sources, shows a man punching a protester in the back of the head in front of a police officer. The police officer appeared to do nothing.
An idea held (still holds) strong in the Anglo controlled “frontier”: fires should be suppressed. According to the National Interagency Fire Center, “Fire exclusion was believed to promote ecological stability. Now we know this is not true.” In 1935, the 10AM policy was enacted, which mandated that firefighters had to extinguish a fire by 10AM the next day. Over the many decades that this policy was enforced, it created a major surplus of kindling in the forests all across the United States, but it was much more pronounced in the West. As we have seen in recent decades, this policy was a complete failure. Suppressing the fires just made them, when they did come, worse. Fires are what define the American West. Without them there really isn’t the west. You have to let the fires burn. It’s the best way to let it be seen and ease the damage it could do to us all. The only way to stop large fires is with small controlled burns. Otherwise, Santana will get the best of you.
People are afraid of awakening frightening things. And more often than not, they are even afraid of naming these things. This makes sense. They wouldn’t be so frightening if the name itself didn’t instill fear. No one wanted to say Voldemort’s name, even after he was “dead.” However, there are things that exist as great beasts, that breathe within us, that move either known or unknown to a northern fox. People are afraid to awaken these things, to talk about them, like the racist subconscious within us. It breathes within anyone who calls themself white, even if they do so with a perverted remorse. But by seeing it, by recognizing it, what kind of kindling would it have to burn? Isn’t that why, in general, you admit to your mistakes? So you can be better in the future? Shouldn’t we admit our racism and how deeply embedded it is within us, within our society? Shouldn’t we admit our country is racist? Shouldn’t we name it?
For the Santa Ana winds and the terrible fires they bring, we have begun to change. We know we can no longer build homes the way we do. We cannot suppress fires the way we once thought. We must let it burn. Slowly, we are coming to our senses. When will this be said for racism, for the killing of people who were once literal commodities, like our national forests still are? When will we come to our senses? Is this that moment when we stop denying this oppressive truth, as white people, just because it hurts and start to really change?
As the counter-protesters marched to meet the Black Lives Matter protesters in Bethel, they chanted, “USA, USA!”
