Posted on 05/06/2004 9:08:36 PM PDT by primeval patriot
One clear message surfaced during last week's three-day Latino Civil Rights Summit 2004: This country mustn't ignore or suppress the needs or economic and political potential of Hispanics.
Jose Angel Gutierrez, a Dallas lawyer and author, said it best as Friday's luncheon speaker: We are the future of America. Unlike any prior generation, we now have a critical mass. We're going to Latinize this country.
People who were white, black, Asian American and Native American also attended the Crossing the Bridge summit to learn how the growing Hispanic population will affect the nation.
Gutierrez said people from Mexico, Central and South America are not immigrating to the United States. They are simply migrating because this land had been theirs. Spain had held it, and before that it had belonged to the indigenous people. Hispanics should never put up with others telling them to go back where they came from. You don't have to apologize to anybody, Gutierrez said. But he urged Hispanics to develop a plan.
We're talking about crossing the bridge, but is it to get across or is it to come back? Gutierrez asked. Is it a one-way bridge or a two-way bridge? You've got to have a plan.
On Saturday at the action planning session, Gutierrez pointed to Hispanic businesses on Central Avenue in Kansas City, Kan., as examples of America's future. The potential is tremendous, he said.
What we have at the moment is labor power and consumer power, he said. We work and we buy. Political power will come later.
That's because half of the Hispanics in the United States are younger than 21. We're spectators at the basketball game, Gutierrez said.
However, that also means that for every one Latino who dies, five white people will die because they are older. But that leaves five empty houses and five vacant businesses, Gutierrez said.
The vacuum has got to be filled by somebody; otherwise all our economy and neighborhoods will collapse, he said. More people of color and minority businesses must fill the void for America to remain vibrant.
The third Latino Civil Rights Summit left Hispanics with a greater sense of empowerment than the previous ones. The numbers are in their favor.
In 2000, the nation had 35.6 million Hispanics, representing 12.6 percent of the U.S. population. Census projections show the Latino population will rise to 102.6 million people by 2050, amounting to 24.4 percent of the country's 419.9 million people.
In 2000, African-Americans made up 12.7 percent of the population. By 2050 that will increase to 14.6 percent. Audiences at the summit were told Hispanics and blacks must form more alliances to increase their economic and political strength.
Each must leverage the numbers to their advantage, Rogelio Lasso, a University of Missouri-Kansas City law professor, said at a forum on collaboration. We are thinking Who is No. 1?' instead of thinking If we are 30 percent together, how are we going to get 30 percent of the pie?' he said.
The summit included sessions on education and how the No Child Left Behind Act will negatively affect students of color. Resegregation also is occurring, stranding black and Hispanic children in poor schools, said Ruben Garza, an Austin, Texas, educator.
Patriot Acts I and II keep making life more difficult for immigrants. That's occurring as the nation is enjoying a record 33.5 million foreign-born residents. They are 11.7 percent of the population, Steve Camarota, director of research with the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, said in a telephone interview.
The foreign born represented a record 14.8 percent of the U.S. population in 1890 and 14.7 percent in 1910. It's very possible by the end of the decade we'll pass the all-time high, Camarota said.
But Lasso voiced concern about the rise in anti-immigration feelings since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
It feels like it's acceptable in this country to be anti-immigrant, he said. I fear if we have another terrorist attack it will affect the immigrants first.
But our intertwined fates may be our salvation.
The state of the Latino community cannot be separated from the state of America, said Elias L. Garcia, executive director of the Kansas Advisory Commission on Hispanic Affairs. Our destinies are inextricably tied.
I hope more people develop an appreciation for that.
Lewis W. Diuguid is a member of The Star's Editorial Board. To reach him, call (816) 234-4723 or send e-mail to Ldiuguid@kcstar.com.
And, in the case of a place where the government is elected, this means that the relocatees can eventually vote to simply confiscate the previously accumulated hard-won wealth.
The US had a good run, just like Egypt, Greece, Rome, & Europe before
Would seem to have been a bit short relative to the examples.
Jose Angel Gutierrez, a Dallas lawyer and author, said it best as Friday's luncheon speaker: We are the future of America. Unlike any prior generation, we now have a critical mass. We're going to Latinize this country.
Here's another quote: "We have an aging white America. . . . They are dying. . . . They are ******** in their pants with fear! I love it!" "We have got to eliminate the gringo, and what I mean by that is if the worst comes to the worst, we have got to kill him."
The K.C, Red Star is about as left wing of a paper as they come. They realize that most of these immigrants like social programs and vote democratic.
I don't think it takes a democracy. Even in a monarchy, there are competing factions all lobbying for influence. Some appeal to the patricians, some the plebians, but either way, power accrues to (and corrupts) those who control economic wealth.
(The US) would seem to have been a bit short relative to the examples
I was being a little bit liberal in generalizing from 1620, with the basic Anglo-Saxon ethic already in place long before the country was formed. Still, it's hard to see the US making it another 100 years in it's current shape/form.
Calif is toast no matter how you slice it. The economy is coming back, but the social/cultural/economic divide is too pronounced and the demands too great for the state to ever get back to where it was in terms of infrastructure, etc.
A red light that never turns green? Will this country then become a banana republic too?
I expect the Washington Post and the New York Times to give this nutcase ink as well.
I thinks all the newsprint get their marching orders from either of those two papers you mentioned.
I also know families who are mixed --- part Mexican and part American-hispanic--- and it doesn't seem any different than those who are mixed Mexican with American-non-hispanic and it would probably surprise a lot of Americans to realize that. Some are insular --- but many are not --- a lot of families have a gringo ancestor somewhere even if they consider themselves hispanic-American and vice versa. It seems that almost all those families with the Spanish land grants are mixed but I don't know any of them who think their land should be part of Mexico. Plus the culture of the northern states of Mexico are different than the southern states --- it's common enough to hear people from northern Chihuahua complain about the people moving up from the south to work in maquilas. People will tell you how nice Ciudad Juarez used to be --- before all the others came moving in and they're probably right because it sure isn't very nice now.
That's true --- but there are still scattered American-hispanics and non-hispanics throughout the SW --- but in some areas where the middle class is fleeing, both groups are leaving.
Irish legend has it that their "race" came from the northwest coast of Spain (which is now called Galicia). The legend doesn't make it a fact. But it is a fact there is a lengend-a widely held one.
Ainu are considered to be Caucasians, Indo-Europeans like Europeans, Indians and Persians, while Native Americans are Mongoloid like the Japanese, Mongolians etc.
I have read of physical anthropologists which trace American Indians to the Ainu, notwithstanding your comments. It is not a scientific fact they are "caucasian"; rather an item for further study, controversy, uncertainty, etc.
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