The Mexicans

This is a column by Demetria Martinez of the National Catholic Reporter regarding my recent complaint against the U.S. Border Patrol.

"When a Clean Car Makes You Suspect" by Demetria Martinez Jan 15, 1999 National Catholic Reporter

A friend who lives in Tucson, Ariz., recently said to me, "Remember the good old days when United States citizens could drive freely from city to city?"

We were commiserating about how life for residents of the Southwest has changed. A continuously beefed up U.S. Border Patrol working with the U.S. military has meant that more of us, particularly people of color, are being stopped and searched in the course of our travels within the United States. Not crossing international borders -- just driving from point to point inside the country.

My friend, Native American author, Leslie Marmon Silko, herself has been subject to several random searches. No matter that she is a winner of a Pulitzer Prize for fiction and a MacArthur fellowship. To agents, she is just another brown face, another "illegal alien" and/or potential drug smuggler threatening the American way of life.

The same thing happened to nationally syndicated columnist Roberto Rodriguez, who also happens to be an acclaimed champion of civil and human rights. In 1979, police clubs rained down on his skull, causing extensive injuries, when he dared to snap pictures of Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies beating up a young Chicano, Rodney King style. Rodriguez was charged with assaulting officers with a deadly weapon -- his camera. Eventually, he was cleared of charges, and in 1986, he won a lawsuit against the deputies.

click the link for the full story and a web site about basic human rights.

http://www.latinovote.com/
Blue States, Latino Voters

"For almost 40 years now, the white South has been moving steadily into the Republican ranks. Indeed, white Southerners now run the GOP and provide a very high proportion of its cultural shock troops. Given these facts, we believe it's past time to target the electoral map in a different way. The new path to the White House runs through the Latino Southwest, not the former Confederacy, especially for a Northern nominee. Hope blooms as a cactus flower, not a magnolia blossom."
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The new America
The demographic makeup of the U.S. in 2000, and what is projected for
2050.
Non-Hispanic Whites
2000: 69.4%
2050: 50.1%
Hispanics
2000: 12.6%
2050: 24.4%
Asians
2000: 3.8%
2050: 8%
Blacks
2000: 12.7%
2050: 14.6%.CHART (2)
Projecting U.S. racial makeup through 2050
New projections for 2050 from the U.S. Census Bureau show a growing
population that will be older and more diverse. Asian and Hispanic populations
are expected to triple, the largest increases of any ethnic groups - all of
which are projected to grow.
TOTAL 419,854 million people
White 302,626
Non-Hispanic White 210,283
Hispanic* 102,560
Asian 33,430
Black 61,361
Other 22,437
* Can be of any race
Source: U.S. Census Bureau
Chronicle Graphic

What is it about Mexicans that so bothers the U.S?
By
Patrisia Gonzales and Roberto Rodriguez


For years, right-wing ideologues have littered the country with anti-Mexican billboards and filled the airwaves with other kinds of hate filled propaganda. But now, it's not just nut cases or hate-radio "discussion leaders" any more - academics and legislators have also entered the fray.
The least of what they call for is the full militarization of the U.S./Mexico border. And yet these ideologues - who warn us about the Balkanization of the nation and the coming "Reconquista" of the U.S. southwest - insist they're not bigots. They say they're not anti-Mexican, but, rather, anti-illegal immigration, pointing to the absence of the word "Mexican" in anti-illegal immigrant legislation or initiatives nationally as proof. Great. Equal opportunity hatred.
Truthfully, anti-illegal immigrant fervor begets an anti-immigrant climate, which in this country targets brown faces. Here, brown translates into Mexican - all 25 million of them.
Since bigots can't tell the difference between Mexican and Central and South Americans, add another 15 million "other kinds of Mexicans" into the mix.
"lies," the bigots cry out. "We don't hate anyone; we just think illegal immigration is ruining America." And then along comes Victor Davis Hanson's book, Mexifornia in 2003. The author, of course, was not trying to stir up fears or hatred against Mexicans. It's just that Illegalfornia doesn't quite pack the same punch.
Now here comes Harvard's Samuel P. Huntington, who continues to advance the theory (Foreign Policy magazine March/April 2004) that Mexicans pose a fundamental threat to the cultural and political integrity of the nation. And, once again, there's lots of scurrying - not to denounce the unadulterated bigotry, but to prove that Mexicans can and are assimilating. It's a big day for pie charts and diagrams.
In this discussion it's assumed that assimilation is nirvana and that there's a consensus as to what values should be assimilated. For instance, are immigrants supposed to adopt trickle down economics that favor the rich, militarism, interventionism, cultural chauvinism and racial supremacy?
Enter well known anti-illegal immigrant crusader Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado. Recently, in a strike against "the cult of multiculturalism" (there's another nice racial code word), he entered into Congress a resolution that affirms the importance of Western civilization to the nation's heritage and origins (talk about more loaded code words). More scurrying (memories of the Inquisition)? What's next? An official language and an official color?
So what is it about Mexicans that so bothers this country?
No doubt their color, perhaps a reminder of their indigenousness. And Mexicans do serve a useful purpose in the politics of blame. Traditionally, if there's a problem, blame Jews or blacks, Asians or American Indians. Such finger pointing is no longer in vogue, though it's seemingly still acceptable to blame Mexicans, as there's no price to pay (don't forget to use the code term "illegal aliens"). But the pretense is over. And don't forget to call them "Hispanics" when you want them to go to war or want their votes.
Incidentally, anti-Mexicanism is no longer limited to red-necks. While it's sad to see anyone adopt these attitudes, it's painful to see people of color pitted against each other, to turn on each other and, in this case, also adopt the same anti-Mexican attitudes: They're taking our jobs, they're aliens and they're a threat to this nation, etc. (It must feel good to blame others). And, most tragic-comic is that no one seems to hate the Mexicans more than people of Mexican origin. They're the ones doing the fastest scurrying - trying to prove that they're genuine, loyal and patriotic Americans … and even white. It's called self-loathing.
Perhaps Sen. John Edwards and Harvard's Huntington have it right: There are two Americas and two cultures. If people of Mexican Central and South American origin are expected to assimilate, then perhaps they should assimilate not into Fortress America Inc, but into the one that respects all peoples and cultures and honors and treats all people as full human beings.

The Waiting Game
Mexican Immigrants Face Tough Choices Amid Recession, Terror Fallout: Stay Jobless or Go Home

By Jason Felch and Todd Dayton


photo by Jason Felch

Work is scarce for Mexican day laborers on Cesar Chavez Street.

SAN FRANCISCO ?- Eutimio, an undocumented Mexican immigrant who slipped into California across the southern border two years ago, has been doing more waiting than working since September 11th.


A few months ago, Eutimio, who preferred not to give his last name, found work five or six days a week, usually earning $10 an hour. Lately, he isn't making enough to pay rent for the three-bedroom apartment he shares with eight others, much less send money home to his wife and four-year-old daughter in Puebla, Mexico.


Like hundreds of undocumented Mexicans, Eutimio spends his days loitering along San Francisco's Cesar Chavez Street, the city's largest informal day labor pick-up strip. With no work to be done, he passes time telling jokes, learning English by listening to talk radio, and hoping for a landscaping truck or moving van to stop on his corner.


If work doesn't pick up, he says, he'll return to Mexico.


More information:

Sending Money Home
Rising Worker Remittances Highlight "Overlapping Societies," Help Fuel Mexican Economy

By Jason Felch

SAN FRANCISCO ?- Remittances - money sent home from Mexican workers in the US - play an vital role in the Mexican economy.

Immigration by the Numbers
Vital statistics about trends in immigration



Related links:
California Policy Research Center

Mexican National Council on Population

Center for Immigration Studies

National Immigration Forum

Immigration and Naturalization Services

In California, where the terrorist attacks and anthrax scares can seem as distant as Kabul, it is Mexican immigrants, both legal and illegal, who have seen their world immensely changed. As recently as three months ago, California's vibrant economy offered jobs and security to millions of Mexican immigrants. But with the economy in recession and immigration policy in flux, the United States is fading as a beacon of opportunity.

Working poor hard hit by faltering economy
Just a few months ago, the biggest concern for many Mexican immigrants in the Bay Area was the threat being pushed out by high rent and gentrification that came with the booming internet economy.


If the economy's recent downturn eased some of that rental crunch, it has been far from a relief for the Mexican immigrant community. Cancelled conventions, empty restaurants, and vacant hotels that followed the terrorist attacks have yielded huge jobs cuts in the most frequent employment sectors for immigrants, says Andres Jimenez, the director of the California Policy Research Center.


Agriculture, another large employer of Mexicans, has been largely unaffected, meaning lost jobs are focused mostly in cities.


These rest of story

http://aztlan.net/twodead.htm

Hunting of Mexicans along US/Mexico Border Escalates - Two Dead
by
Ernesto Cienfuegos
La Voz de Aztlan

Los Angeles, Alta California - October 18, 2002 - (ACN) La Voz de Aztlan has just been informed by the Mexican Consulate in Tucson, Arizona that a group of Mexican migrants came under a "sniper" attack near the town of Red Rock, Arizona killing two and injuring an unknown number of others. The consulate spokeswoman Dulce Mascareño said that the group was about 6 kilometers from Interstate Highway 10 in Pinal County yesterday when a vehicle approached them and fired a number of shots from a distance.

The Pinal County Sheriff's Department has confirmed the killing of two Mexicans that were part of a larger group traveling together. The vehicle nor the shooters have been identified by the police. The Sheriffs estimate that the two dead were part of a group of twelve.

Dulce Mascareño of the Mexican Consulate said that a 32 year old from the State of Mexico, who survived the attack, was placed under the protection of the consulate. She added that he will remain in the United States in order to bring charges against the assailants when and if they are captured.

Humanitarian organizations are presently searching the desert for at least 6 who, according to the survivor under the protection of the Mexican Consulate, were injured by the fusillade of bullets. The total number of dead may be greater after the incident is completely investigated.

This cowardly "hunting down" of Mexican workers crossing the border is similar to another that occurred near the border town of Sasabe, Arizona on May 12, 2000. In this case, two Anglos on horseback and hunting rifles ambushed a group of Mexican migrant workers crossing the border. One of the survivors, 20 year old Miguel Angel Palofox Aguerrin of Guasave, Sinaloa managed to crawl back to Mexico with half of his face torn from his skull. He informed Mexican authorities that four of his friends may have been killed. No bodies were ever recovered from this arid part of the Arizona desert.

The situation had been relatively calm along the US/Mexico border, but recently anti-Mexican hate groups in the US have been escalating their poisonous anti-immigrant rhetoric. Among these xenophobes are Congressman Tom Tancredo of Colorado, Jewish Defense League member Glenn Spencer who is the leader of a vehemently racist organization called American Patrol and the vile Arizona vigilante rancher Roger "El Asesino" Barnett. All three have ties. Spencer and Barnett meet regularly to plan actions against Mexicans. By and large these terrorists are largely responsible for inflaming the anti-Mexican hate of organized snipers and hunters of Mexicans.

continued, go to link

The History Guy®:
The Mexican-American War


http://www.historyguy.com/Mexican-American_War.html


Search the History Guy Website

The Mexican-American War was the first major conflict driven by the idea of "Manifest Destiny"; the belief that America had a God-given right, or destiny, to expand the country's borders from 'sea to shining sea'. This belief would eventually cause a great deal of suffering for many Mexicans, Native Americans and United States citizens. Following the earlier Texas War of Independence from Mexico, tensions between the two largest independent nations on the North American continent grew as Texas eventually became a U.S. state. Disputes over the border lines sparked military confrontation, helped by the fact that President Polk eagerly sought a war in order to seize large tracts of land from Mexico.

You've certainly done your research!

hi edgar, bookmarking to keep track of your thread

I plan to keep this thread running, whether it gets much attention or not. I feel that Mexicans have been getting a raw deal and that far too many Americans wish these people were invisible.

I agree, they have. I had a boyfiend who was stationed in Texas, and referred to Mexicans as wet backs. he justified it by saying they barely worked and "siesta" all the time.
I have worked in the same offices as people who are Mexican, and I saw quite the opposite, but he didn't care to hear it.
Part racism, part Lubbock, I think.
Inexcusable, in either case.

I have some brothers like that. Childish and irrational.

Central Ohio has been overrun by Latinos and Latinas--they're to be seen everywhere, in every type of employment. They never have any problem finding work, because they are reliable and hard-working, and employers know it. My notion is and always has been, if you show up, work, pay your bills, pay your taxes and abide by the law, you're just as American as i am--the more, the merrier, i say.

Thanks for your hard work, EB.

Thanks. I ain't finished yet.

http://www.public.iastate.edu/~rjsalvad/scmfaq/chicano.html

A scant 150 years ago, approximately 50% of what was then Mexico was appropriated by the U.S. as spoils of war, and in a series of land "sales" that were coerced capitalizing on the U.S. victory in that war and Mexico's weak political and economic status. A sizeable number of Mexican citizens became citizens of the United States from one day to the next as a result, and the treaty declaring the peace between the two countries recognized the rights of such people to their private properties (as deeded by Mexican or Spanish colonial authorities), their own religion (Roman Catholicism) and the right to speak and receive education in their own tongue (for the majority, Spanish) [refer to the text of the treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo]. Therefore, the descendants of this population continue to press for such rights, and many hold that theirs is a colonized land and people in view of the fact that their territory and population was taken over by military force.

• Mexicans first, "Americans" second?

Another and more numerous class of U.S. citizens of Mexican extraction are either descendants of, or are themselves, people who conceive of themselves as temporarily displaced from Mexico by economic circumstances. As opposed to the waves of European migrants who willingly left their countries due to class and religious discrimination, and sought to make their lives anew in the "new world" and never to return to the "old land," these displaced Mexicans typically maintain strong family ties in Mexico (by visiting periodically, and by investing their incomes in homes or kin in Mexico), and usually intend to return to Mexico provided they can become economically secure. Therefore these people maintain and nurture their children in their language, religion and customs.

However, There is great tension within this population between those of Mexican birth who conceive of themselves as temporary guests in the U.S., and their descendants who are born in the U.S., are acculturated with the norms of broader U.S. society in public schools, and are not motivated by the same ties that bind a migrant generation of Mexicans. This creates a classic "niche" of descendants of immigrants who are full-fledged U.S. citizens, but who typically do not have access to all the rights and privileges of citizenship because of the strong cultural identity imbued in them by their upbringing and the discriminatory reaction of the majority population against a non-assimilated and easily identified subclass. This group of people feels a great need to distinguish itself from both its U.S. milieu and its Mexican "Mother Culture," which does not typically welcome or accept "prodigals." This is truly a unique set of people, therefore, in that it endures both strong ties and strong discrimination from both U.S. and Mexican mainstream parent cultures. The result has been the creation of a remarkable new culture that needs its own name and identity.

Good post Edgar. I had brought this issue up a long time back in a discussion of the ending of the "melting pot" in America and the shift to clusters of homogeneous cultures in small pockets across the country. I can't think of any group that represents that shift more than the Mexican-Americans - particularly those that have come into the US in the last 30 or 40 years.

Another interesting subject for the study of such "cultural alienation" are the Spanish speakers of New Mexico. New Mexico was largely spared the indignities of the Mexican-American war, and the population continued to be a majority Spanish speaking population well into the twentieth century (and therefore, beyond the first century of American "occupation"). These people will be deeply resentful if referred to as Mexicans, in that they know of the deep, enduring prejudice of "anglos" toward Mexicans, and their families have been on the same land for, in most cases, three centuries or more. Already remote from and malignantly neglected by the government in Ciudad Mexico in 1845--although they did not necessarily welcome Kit Carson and his ilk, they were not terribly put out at being suddenly made a part of the United States. Until the 1950's and -60's, they continued to be the dominant culture, and their institutions have largely survived intact.

What is also interesting is that those settlements are very early, contemporaneous with Plymouth Mass etc. But they still don't get first banana boat status.

Good point, Acq, that had never occurred to me.