I’ve been connected and deeply involved with MEChA for 8 years. Never in that time did I or my peers try to incite an armed revolution in a reconquista of Aztlan. We didn’t consider ourselves to be superior to other races or ethnicities. Instead, we worked with students of many different ethnicities on common concerns. MEChA is completely misrepresented on right-wing blogs, talk radio, television, and even Flickr. I’ve realized that MEChA haters (critics are different, they have some logic involved usually) are ultimately scared of a bunch of college and high school students. We’re nerds. We got our heads in the books. In 35 years of existence we haven’t started a war for Aztlan. We just want to help our families and communities by becoming entrepeneurs, politicians, attorneys, professors, teachers, social workers, community organizers, etc.
I know in my heart that MEChA is good, but the hateful and false words still get to me.
My friend, Hector, sent me a link to a YouTube video titled Aztec Al-Qaeda. I was offended and sickened by the video. There are outright lies, irresponsible speculation, and some massaging of the truth. They got it all wrong. This is not an investigative mini documentary spreading the truth about an insidious organization. It is hateful, racist and libelous. By the video’s logic, I could end up trying to kill or sacrifice people because (a) I was in MEChA, (b) know a little bit of Nahuatl, and (c) participate in a Danza Azteca group.
The video bugged me enough to do something about it by flagging it as inappropriate on YouTube and sending in a complaint. It’s easy for me to count the many ways in which the claims made in the video violate the Terms of Use
C. In connection with User Submissions, you further agree that you will not: … (ii) publish falsehoods or misrepresentations that could damage YouTube or any third party; (iii) submit material that is unlawful, obscene, defamatory, libelous, threatening, pornographic, harassing, hateful, racially or ethnically offensive, or encourages conduct that would be considered a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability, violate any law, or is otherwise inappropriate
I am a strong believer in our First Amendment rights to free speech, but I also remember high school government. Some speech is not protected. Furthermore, the video is hosted on a privately owned site and the user agreed to those terms stated above when he registered.
Some may say the allegations made in the video are harmless and just those of some nutjob on the fringe. That’s what I thought when I heard about KABC radio host Doug McIntyre’s criticism of Academia Semillas del Pueblo, a charter school in El Sereno. He argued that the school was racist and separatist. A few weeks after McIntyre launched his verbal attack on the school, Academia Semillas del Pueblo received a bomb threat.
Perhaps these folks can find another hobby other than making videos full of lies and attacking a school. Or maybe they want to make a video on the octogenerian (a white man) who drove down a crowded farmer’s market in Santa Monica and killed 10 people including a 3 year old and a 7 month old. That was an accident because the man was 83 (and white), but according to the makers of the video Juan Alvarez committed murder because he had been part of MEChA and was in Danza Azteca.
Making people and ideas into caricatures in order to attack them is a tried and true method, something the right-wing has embraced because they know it works. Of course, there are some Mechistas with loopy ideas, but that shouldn’t be a basis to blame the whole organization. KPFK has a few people fixated on 9/11 conspiracy theories but nobody seriously questions the value of the radio station.
Did you see this weeks Ask a Mexican column? http://www.laweekly.com/index.php?option=com_lawcontent&task=view&id=14422
He has a critique of Chicano Studies as a whole (!) where he should narrow it down to a much smaller group of offenders. Even the left wing likes to paint issues with a very simple caricature brush, which (I’ll have to admit) can be a very fun tool to use!
Saludos, EL CHAVO!
Hey Chavo: I stand by my Chicano Studies brush and also throw my own MEChA-defending piece in!
I was going to ask you if you had read the latest “Ask A Mexican” and I’ll be damned if not only Chavo but the actual “Ask A Mexican” wirter beat me to it!?!
while I agree with you that the Aztec Al-Qaeda video is a bunch of crap, I’m not sure how I feel about trying to get it booted.
Chavo,
Apparently people just understand things these days in brief soundbites and don’t take the time to explore the issue more deeply… I hadn’t read Ask a Mexican in a while, but I don’t really take Gustavo Arellano seriously. Really, he’s from Orange County, that should be enough to discount his opinion.
Gustavo,
I’m such the stereotypical MEChistA. I had two majors, one of which was Chicana/o Studies. I benefitted from the work of the hunger strikers and other student activists in the early ’90s.
And now, well I feel victimized and objectified all the time. I’m oppressed by the man and I can’t get a job so I went to grad school.
But hey, I had some really cool professors who served as mentors and I graduated with honors. So it’s all good. I don’t mind my brain being corrupted, after all I chose those classes, no?
Joel,
Hey, there’s a “flag as inappropriate” button for a reason. I don’t think it’s censorship if the YouTube user agreed to the terms of service. I feel it violates the terms of service, they might not, but I’m going to make my opinion known. If it gets booted, it gets booted. The film makers can always host it on their own website and focus on selling the DVDs.
Whatever floats your chalupa, Cindy (although I must admit Professor G-Q, though a mumbler, has one of the biggest hearts in academia). I and the rest of your beloved El Cargadero Norte, however, don’t appreciate the Orange County dig. O foolish El Lay cargaderense–repatriate to la patria que es la naranja!
I saw that Chicana/o Studies dig too and got annoyed for like a second and then tossed it in the “File as Irrelevant” part of my brain with all the rest of Axe-the-Mexicans’s nuggets.
I don’t know, I think while Arrellano’s stuff shouldn’t be taken too seriously, it should be identified for what it is, and for how it feeds into and contributes to more serious stuff. While people like El Chavo! & Cindylu are doing great work to validate, develop and disseminate Chicana/o epistemology, cultural production, and discourse, and to challenge and resist dominant Eurocentric ideology (with a great deal of humor, by the way), Arrellano’s track record indicates that he thinks that being funny and not taking oneself too seriously = aligning oneself with the dominant ideology, or at the very least, distancing oneself from any resistance or challenge to dominant ideological paradigms because they are “too self-serious” or “political.”
Mr. Arrellano: I’ve been following your stuff for a while and I get where you’re trying to come from with all the humor and stuff, but the humor doesn’t hide the harmful ideological identification that seems to form the foundation of your work. I think it’s possible to be funny and not take yourself too seriously, and at the same time, not sell out by playing the buffoon (however much you intellectualize and dress it up with linguistics academese). Also: It seems to me that before people turn others into caricatures, they must first do the same to themselves.
But you know, speaking with all humility from experience, I think it’s never too late to reverse this kind of ignorant behavior, to rehumanize and regenerate, to decolonize. And hey, you’re already a leg up if you know how to laugh at yourself!
–KIKO
i flagged the video too.
could you give more background re: what happened at the 4th of july thing?
To balance out the discussion here, I thought I’d chime in and give my full support to both posts by ¡Ask A Mexican! Gustavo Arellano, especially his response on Chicano Studies, oh so true! That’s exactly what I’ve been saying for years now…
As far MEChA goes, I agree more with Gustavo than Cindylu’s account. Cindylu makes it seem that MEChA is just another organization like SHPE, which is certainly not the case. It has far more leftist tendencies and is far more political, but like Gustavo said, all of that is secondary to their overall comendable goal of trying to get more minorities into college and graduating. So overall I see them as harmless and an overall respectable organization.
Oh and Gustavo, if you’re still reading this, while I think Cindylu was kidding with the Orange County comment, even if she wasn’t, don’t let those comments bother you – personally, I take those and ‘sell out’ comments by Chicano Studies type Mexicans as a badge of honor. So do what everybody else does when a Chicano Studies person starts whinning, ignore them.
Oh yeah, that video – especially that Aztec remark at the end – is downright offensive. Although, just like with Fahrenheit 9/11, I wouldn’t call for its censorship.
Kiko: Thanks for the invite to “decolonize” and “rehumanize,” but, to paraphrase Emma Goldman again, I don’t want to be part of a Revolution that has me speaking in jargon.
…oh, right, I forgot…we must stick to the jargon of “folksy”, anti-intellectual BushSpeak–otherwise, we might betray our ideological foundatio—
woops, there I go again! trying to sound all smart & stuff. using big words, like I can actually read & think & analyze things. bad Chicano! I mean, bad Hispanic! I mean…
some people don’t want to be part of a revolution, period. it’s okay, just own up to it. & hey don’t be all invoking Emma unless you can back it up. she was a badass anarcha-feminist who would have wiped her ass with your AAM column and then stomped your huevos with her dancing boots, laughing the whole time.
Kiko,
I go back to books and articles I read in Chicana/o Studies classes all the time. It’s interesting to me that there are critics out there who have never even taken a class because they consider it a waste of time. Fine by me, I have different values and that’s cool.
You should know that Gustavo doesn’t represent all Cargaderenses de Zacatecas. Some of us are actually cool and don’t live in the OC.
Gustavo,
GQ’s mumbling is one thing, but have you ever tried to read his writing?!
I’m only half Cargaderense, so I won’t be repatriating to la Naranja anytime soon and it’s okay if I’m banished. I like LA.
HP,
I see a lot more whining by the anti-Chicana/o Studies people, especially those who have never taken a class. At least when the Chicana/o Studies people complain, they actually do something about it either through volunteering or making it their career.
I’m a Chicana/o Studies major, why didn’t you just ignore my “whinning”?
K,
According to the video, “American citizens were brutally attacked by illegal aliens and Communist Chicano radicals.”
They massage the truth to prove their point.
Who attacked who? Well, I wasn’t there, but a more objective source, the LA Times, states that there were people on both sides of the issue of undocumented immigration fighting. The two organizations involved were the Voices of Citizens Together (anti-immigrant) and the Progressive Labor Party.
I doubt there is proof to say that Communist Chicano radicals and illegal aliens attacked the VCT. No one was arrested, and even if they were, I don’t think immigration status would have been written down. It also was probably not all that brutal, only 1 person was treated for injuries that day. No arrests were made either, which means it probably didn’t get that crazy considering LAPD isn’t really known for restraint. You and I know that plenty of non “illegal aliens” show up to march for immigrants’ rights so that is probably not true.
According to newspaper accounts of the protest-gone-violent there were about 500 people on each side of the issue. They were separated on opposite sides of Wilshire Blvd after LAPD showed up to break up the fight. There were different organizations present. The article I read dated July 5, 1996 does not say who started the fighting, but that both groups were involved and both point the finger.
If you want to read the articles, I can forward them to you. I just did a quick search on Lexis-Nexis.
thanks for the additional info. that’s more or less what i figured the deal would have been. that much i guessed from the video’s source. what i wouldn’t have guessed was that there were no arrests and no serious injuries (or just one) on either side. just goes to show how powerful a strategically manipulated few seconds of video can be in creating whatever image one wants to create.
wow, how did i miss on this out on this conversation?
Well, if my two cents count now, all i have to say is that we (yes, those on the left, those who stand for social justice, who think that imperialism is wrong, and who are anti-capitalist just as we are anti-racist, and anti-sexists, and anti-any form of oppression) we need to be strong in our convictions. we do not need validation from those who see undocumented workers as less than human, and who have historically not cared enough to intervene to alliviate the suffering of people throughout the world, but will rather fill their mouths with self-serving talk about how great amerika is.
Ethnic studies is a truth factory, only those that are unconfortable with U.S. history of imperialism, racism and genocide feel threatened.
one more thing, there are Chicanos in all part of the political spectrum, from center, to progressives to radicals. but in all truth, radicals are in the minority (and I say this as a fact, not to put down radicals).
Hey KIKO, allow me to take this opportunity to ‘own up’ to the fact that I don’t want to be part of the revolution.Just an FYI
wow thanks for clarifying, HISPANIC PUN!
because I was, like, really not sure? you know, where you fell in the political spectrum? radical leftist? or another Richard Rodriguez-clone like Gustavo? it was so hard to tell. Note to other revolutionaries: Hispanic…Pun…is…not…interested…in…the…revolution. Pass it on.
ok I’m done.
And here I was putting him on the invitation list, guess I’d better scratch that. Besides, to paraphrase Marx (Cmdt. Groucho) I don’t want to be part of any revolution that would have him as a member! EL CHAVO!
I really get sick of this anti-Latino propaganda that’s around so much these days, what with the swill that the Minutemen and their fellow 5th-grade drop-out fuck-ups spew forth in such abundance.
Me enoja tanto que mi rabia me possede a veces!
I never joined MECHA myself but I’ve come to admire just about every Mechista I’ve met, if for no other reason than that they work hard to remind the Anglos in the Southwest about a part of history that they always seem to want to whitewash, and make sure that we ourselves remember it and remember why we must always maintain our solidarity. The US invaded Mexico in 1846– herself a republic that was in many ways much fairer and more egalitarian than the USA (Mexico abolished slavery, the US did not, a big reason why Mexico was invaded)– due to clearly racist Manifest Destiny/Lebensraum conceptions about how those Anglo-Saxons were so superior in every way to the “corrupted brown skinned darky hordes” from Mexico. It was the same bullshit that Britain was using to enslave and mass murder millions of their own Darkies in India.
Of course, as much as the US might have liked the Mexicans to just lay down and surrender, the Mexicans fought back hard, all over the map. Even when the US forces occupied Mexico City, the Mexican resistance was so strong that President James K. Polk himself had to sue for peace prematurely with his emissary, and over the next decade sign the treaties (Guadalupe-Hidalgo and many others) that would guarantee Latinos in the region a very special set of rights– to our homes, to our religious beliefs, to our customs and to our LANGUAGE. Spanish was made equal to English in the new territories and that right has never been revoked, something that the Minutemen and their fellow morons with too much time on their hands would like to forget.
Por lo tanto, aqui tenemos derechos especiales de trabajar, de ocupar nuestra propiedad, de hablar en espanol, de hacer todo lo que nos define come un pueblo, y se protege estos derechos por una charta. Es la ley. Nunca permita que los “Minutemen” o los otros idiotos traten de quitarlos. Ellos son los verdaderos criminales!
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Um, actually, NO, the Americans were invited to live there, then the Mexicans got “concerned” because Americans were getting too numerous there to control…Mexico was still a Spanish colony, but requests for reinforcements were refused, Spain had its own battles to fight on THAT side of the world, so Mexico realized they couldn’t win, and ceded land to us, BUT America gave them a lot of money in return: (Even back then, America pays when we “win” a war!)
“Mexican officials and Nicholas Trist, President Polk’s representative, began discussions for a peace treaty that August. On February 2, 1848 the Treaty was signed in Guadalupe Hidalgo, a city north of the capital where the Mexican government had fled as U.S. troops advanced. Its provisions called for Mexico to cede 55% of its territory (present-day Arizona, California, New Mexico, and parts of Colorado, Nevada and Utah) in exchange for fifteen million dollars in compensation for war-related damage to Mexican property.
Other provisions stipulated the Texas border at the Rio Grande (Article V), protection for the property and civil rights of Mexican nationals living within the new border (Articles VIII and IX), U.S. promise to police its side of the border (Article XI), and compulsory arbitration of future disputes between the two countries (Article XXI). When the U.S. Senate ratified the treaty in March, it deleted Article X guaranteeing the protection of Mexican land grants. Following the Senate’s ratification of the treaty, U.S. troops left Mexico City.”
Please note that only the property and civil rights of Mexican nationals living in the newly American lands were protected…Mexico has GROSSLY neglected arbitration of diputes from millions of tresspassers…They don’t care about AMERICAN properties or AMERICAN rights…And America is under no obligation to Mexico or any other country to recognize their land grants or claims–Mexico LOST the war, and has never declared war on America OFFICIALLY since!
EPAGH,
For all your knowledge of history, I would have guessed that you would have known that Mexico was NOT a colony of Spain at the time of the Mexican American war… or even when Santa Ana was fighting the Texans.
There are many examples when the US Congress has enacted laws that supersede those in the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo. I’d go back and look at those, hey you might learn something and become even more of a history buff.
I’d stick to just quoting your sources…
That’s true, but remember, the original concept was that of any 5-year-old: You stay on THAT side of the line, and we’ll stay on THIS side of the line.
Remember, entering America is a CHOICE, and all CHOICEs have consequences…If you do not like America and the American language, you don’t have to enter, and certainly don’t have to stay…
Even the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, which I think might be your “Laws that supersede…the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo”, the illegals’ status was only adjusted to TEMPORARY residents, and even then, there was an “Ellis Island” type of filter applied. Among them were certain residency requirements, no felony convictions, less than three misdemeanor convictions, medical examinations, etc. They can be found in the following subsection:
“Sec. 245A. (a) Temporary Resident Status.–The Attorney General shall adjust the status of an alien to that of an alien lawfully admitted for temporary residence if the alien meets the following requirements:
Secondarily, if America’s so horrible to Mexicans, why do they want to come here? And isn’t 158 years long enough for them to learn English if they want to stay?
Tertiarily, this thing about Mexican “culture” vs. “sellouts” is interesting, but irrelevant: If you act like a thug or enemy, you will most likely be treated as a thug or enemy. If you act as a respectable American citizen, you will be treated respectably BY THE RESPECTABLE parts of American society. More importantly, if you sneak in, you are repudiating all the hard work, effort, and fees that the LEGAL immigrants had to go through!
“And isn’t 158 years long enough for them to learn English if they want to stay?”
I would like to know how many people of Mexican descent are out there that STILL don’t speak English whose families have spent 158 years living in this country, or even 30 years. Most second-generation Americans speak English, and that includes those of Mexican descent, speak English. Hell, I’m Mexican living in the US (legally) for 15 years and I already speak the language.
To those that speak Spanish, I recommend the book “Mexico Mutilado” by Francisco Martin Moreno. The Mexican elite and religious (read: Catholic) groups were a big reason why Mexico lost half of its territory.
Please, look around any business, heck, call a tech-support hotline, the first question isn’t “What problem are you having?”, it’s, “Press 1 for English, press 2 for Spanish.” Oddly, other languages that would be much more profitable aren’t even mentioned, like Chinese or Japanese (China being the new big “bloc” of buying-power) Why cater to Spanish-speakers, ESPECIALLY now that America has finally announced an official language–English–230 years after our founding, of course, but better late than never…?
Basically, why should America change for THIS group of newcomers, when others can learn our language, why not expect the same from Mexicans?
Please, look around any business, heck, call a tech-support hotline, the first question isn’t “What problem are you having?”, it’s, “Press 1 for English, press 2 for Spanish.”
Let me ask you something back: how many second or third generation Mexican-Americans press 2 for Spanish? I’m sure the Germans and the Italians spoke perfect English the minute they got off the boat, right? Why do companies cater to Spanish speakers? Easy, because they are businesses, and they exist to make money. If these newcomers were Polish instead, I can ASSURE you that the message would say “press 2 for Polish”. Anything to take their money.
“Oddly, other languages that would be much more profitable aren’t even mentioned, like Chinese or Japanese”
In what way would catering to those languages be profitable for companies? There isn’t a significant number of people who speak those languages in this country, so I don’t understand your reasoning, unless you are trying to belittle Spanish like I see so many do (“that worthless language!” is another one I’ve heard).
“Basically, why should America change for THIS group of newcomers, when others can learn our language, why not expect the same from Mexicans?”
Once again, this is exactly the same complain that Americans had about the Germans and Italians. Studies have shown time after time that children of immigrants (and that includes Mexicans) favor English over whatever language their family spoke back home after the first generation. Besides, have you tried to learn a new language after becoming an adult? Think it’s easy?
I’ll finish my post with this:
“Americans discriminated against Italians mainly because they were the biggest Immigrant group coming to America at the time. Because they didn’t have very much money, most Italian immigrants chose to live in poor conditions and because most of them didn’t understand much English, most of them worked for very low wages, seemingly taking the jobs themselves from Americans. Americans seemed to think that Italian immigrants were not strong enough or smart enough to get good jobs because most of them worked construction jobs and other manual jobs which required no intellect.
Newspapers critizied them in editorials, schoolboys taunted them, calling them ethnic slurs such as “Guinea” and “Dago”, and threw things at them, and politicians complained and called for restrictions on the amount of immigrants being let into the country.”
Looks like things haven’t changed much, have they. Oh yeah, and before the Italians, it was the Irish (who weren’t even considered “white”). I’m sure Pat Buchanan would love to hear about it.
Yes, but that is why we TRY to limit immigration, Hispanics seem to just get better at dodging our limits. The idea being, you limit the NUMBER of people coming in, they can’t make their own little enclave where American law and language disappear, they HAVE to assimilate…That, and the mob-mentality of Mexicans marching in American streets under their own flag, and complaining when the jobs they left for that little “demonstration” were filled behind them…
Also, if as you claim, Mexicans who have just come in are poor, then the businesses don’t need to cater to them (What need have Spanish-speakers of DSL service, for instance?) And you also just argued against yourself, in that immigrants are poor, so how could the businesses take their money?
Whether or not you believe Americans “exploit” them with substandard wages, please remember that it’s their CHOICE to take those job, rather than staying in Mexico and say, building computers for DELL and Zenith, who so considerately moved their factories south so Mexicans wouldn’t have to be bothered invading America to get jobs!
And you’re right, it IS an ancient argument, that speaking another language implies divided loyalty (Or just loyalty to the other country, rather than America)
Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt himself said, “There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn’t an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag, and this excludes the red flag, which symbolizes all wars against liberty and civilization, just as much as it excludes any foreign flag of a nation to which we are hostile…We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language…and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.”
– Theodore Roosevelt
As to the idea that learning languages is had, some foreigners have learned English BEFORE coming to America, which indicates that it is possible and preferable. Our qualifications for immigration ORIGINALLY included a working knowledge of English, a “good moral character”, and no criminal record. We had a “firewall” in the form of Ellis Island, where potential immigrants were examined, both physically and historically, if they were found to be diseased, then they were returned to sender, at the expense of the steamboat companies. Through the dark magic of corporate greed, most criminals and physically diseased persons were filtered out BY THE COMPANIES!
Mexico has no such “incentive”, so we keep getting basically the dregs of their society, who believe that birth-control is an American conspiracy, or “unholy”, or whatever…Go to your nearest store, watch as one woman has 12, 14, or more little hellions, and they proceed to tear items off shelves, yell, scream, whatever…Yes, that is what kids do, but that can be controlled–or are only American kids controllable?
America is NOT–or at least should not be, Mexico’s penal colony, nor their retard-asylum, nor their day-care-center, and even if we were, Mexico has not paid for the upkeep of their invaders.
In the past, assimilation, with its implications that there is a legitimate and worthwhile national identity and immigrants choosing to come here should, in good faith, try to accommodate it, was both the expectation and the reality.
Today, neither is true. Assimilation is equated in some quarters with forced and unnecessary demands for conformity to a culture that has little legitimate basis for asking for it. Maybe we don’t have a legitimate basis, but outsiders also have no innate “right” to come here…
There is also a question as to which America immigrants should assimilate. Is it the traditional America of personal responsibility and initiative, hard work, and an eye to the future? Or, is it the America of narcissism, self-indulgence, and entitlement-level expectations? Both exist and operate here, and the latter may be WHY more Mexicans come in lately, the Government will take care of them and their brood, despite calls for birth-control, better parenting, abiding by the laws (Including the stupid ones, like MANDATORY car-insurance), all of these concerns only exist for actual AMERICANS. The idea lately seems to be, “You’re immune to American law because you’re not American”–that’s quite an incentive to invade and not abide by any of the laws!
That, though, is a feedback loop to the main problem with immigrants: They’re seen as undesirables, criminals, disease-bearers (And in some cases, as a disease themselves, because they breed more than any other multicellular organism) But, in turn, whether because they see it on TV, or just the explosive decompression effect of coming into an area with so much potential that it overrides their inhibitions/judgement, they DO misbehave on American soil–Not all Mexicans are evil, criminal, or even stupid, but the ones that are make the news and ruin it for those who arent, the ones that aren’t are accused of being “sellouts” or worse, and greatly pressured to help, and even cover for, the criminals, further leading to a perception of people from one country as a monolithic evil bloc, rather than individuals, some of whom are good.
To wit, celebrating Mexican heritage in America is only slightly less counterproductive than say, celebrating American heritage in Iraq (Americans USUALLY won’t kill for it), but still, your past holds you back. America’s birthright is technology, Mexico’s is corruption…or at least that’s the outward appearance. If Mexican culture is better than American, there would be no reason for Mexicans to come here other than tourism, and after a brief sojourn into America, possibly in a linguistically and culturally-shielded “bubble”, they’d return to Mexico, their own superiority reinforced by what they saw…But immigration is the opposite, it’s a desire to STAY here, with the tacit admission that what they’re leaving behind is worse, or at least less, than what they can get in America (Again, feeding into the idea that Mexicans come here to leech off the American government).
But once they come here, from whatever country, they have a DUTY to ask permission before entering, and more importantly, assimilate. (You know, like when you knock before entering, wipe your feet, and act pleasant at someone else’s house) If they refuse at least this minimum politeness, then they are replacing the contrition of immigrants with the arrogance of a conquering army, without even the politeness of an OFFICIAL declaration of war!
(Which would be arguably MORE stupid, America proved its military superiority to Mexico 158 years ago, and despite the playing-around incompetence displayed in Iraq, we would still be capable of winning a war that threatened America itself–and please note, even our army over there is being taught Farsi, so assimilation is even partially present in an army!)
If you don’t like a stereotype, change to the point that it no longer applies to you. Bill Cosby made basically this suggestion, and is taking quite a bit of heat for it, but Mexicans have yet to reach this sociological epiphany.
I’ll admit, like terrorism, part of it is our own fault, we “relaxed” immigration restrictions, and we don’t have a shoot-to-kill border-patrol, but English is now the official language, and making an English-only nation would discourage a lot of the unskilled immigrants, legal and illegal alike. There is one man in the newspaper recently who was deported an EIGHTH TIME! That’s a man who clearly believes American law–is for others to follow!
Langauge, after all, is the current means of conveying meaning and concepts, so language is an important–possibly THE MOST important–part of culture! While you might think passing English-Only laws is the equivalent of telling you what to speak in your own house, it’s actually just the opposite, it prevents outsiders from coming in and telling us what to speak in our own COUNTRY!
Besides, the Minuteman Project has been calling “tips” and getting those who can’t speak English deported–they claim a 90% accuracy rate (Namely, 90% of the ones they’ve had arrested turned out to be illegals, the rest were just speaking Spanish for some unknown reason)
If you speak Spanish in America, it’s tantamount to admitting, “Yes, I’m a foreigner, I despise America, your culture, and your English language, what are you gonna do about it?” Oddly, when such challengers are deported, there is lamenting from Hispanic “rights” organizations, rather than disclaimers such as, “Don’t judge us all, we’re not all like that”…I admit, I’m just as bad, assuming legitimate immigrants want to do the right thing, as those who assume foreigners to be evil as a class…
EPGAH,
I see you’re really trying to win the commenter of the week award, at least for volume and certainly not quality.
You know, for as passionate you are against Mexicans, our culture and the Spanish language, I’m sure you could espouse your rhetoric from the comfort of your own blog. It’s simple and you can easily set one up through blogger.
I’m not against free speech (but then again, this is not “public” space since I have the domain and pay for the hosting). I like smart, witty and factual comments, even if someone disagrees with me, but I don’t quite get that from your comments. I see a lot of factual inaccuracies and gross generalizations.
I’m not asking you to stop commenting, but even when my friends start writing short essays, I tell ‘em to take it to their own blog.
And really… get some sleep.
Interesting…What factual inaccuracies do you note? Also, America has nothing against hosting people, but land is not public domain nor free, (Taxpayers have to pay for it all), I’m not asking for them to stop the Mexican culture or Spanish language, just tell’em to take it to their own country…
I will start by telling you I am very proud to see a young latina like yourself getting a good education and wanting to help others. I am 50 years old and former Mecha and SHE (society of hispanic engineers) member. I have discussion/arguments about subjects relating to latinos i.e. immigration, affirmative action almost daily. And the one thing I have come to realize is the source of the anger against our raza, is not all unjustified.
I tutor/mentor a few kids from Belmont high in L.A. And I have parents who are gang members angry at me for trying to help their get kids leave the gangs. I have been yelled at and threatened so many times I have lost track. And the problem only seems to get worse every year so now I want to stop all immigration until we as a raza can help stop this growing problem of gangs. The drop out rate at Belmont is about 50%, aarghh. I need my magic wand to educate all my gente with one ABRAKADBRA.
Now I have vented and feel better, so Mecha members keep up the good work and don’t give up, the older ones like me are getting tired.
FC