Posted on 02/15/2007 10:38:08 PM PST by lonewacko_dot_com
At a time when Americans throughout the country are frustrated by the failure of public schools to teach their children, Mexico is increasing its efforts to help struggling school systems deal with immigrant children who speak Spanish.
"We are grateful that the Mexican Consul and the Mexican government have taken such an interest in helping Denver Public Schools and its students," Jerry Wartgow, Superintendent of the Denver Public Schools, said when Mexico donated 30,000 Spanish-language textbooks for elementary students. "This donation is just one example of how we can work together to improve the lives of all children through education."
From San Diego to Orlando, from Chicago to Las Vegas, the Mexican government, through its 42 consulates throughout the United States, is accelerating its ambitious "foreign aid" program designed to deliver millions of Spanish-language textbooks to American schools this decade.
"This is more than an 'outreach' program," notes Raquel Romero, director of Mesoamerica Foundation, a Mexican nonprofit organization. "This is part of a concerted program to educate Hispanic children in the United States, and to help the United States make the transition into a bicultural society this century. It is a way of understanding that Mexican culture is expanding across the border, that it is in ascendance, and that Hispanic and Latino children in the United States will never be blond, blue-eyed Anglos."
Mexico's efforts are part of a subtle program, one that traces its origins to the presidency of Jose Lopez Portillo, who governed 1976-1982. ...Lopez Portillo feared that English would dominate Mexican business life. To defend the integrity of Spanish, he launched a program called "Palabra," or "Word," that sought to inculcate an appreciation for the Spanish language.
...Emboldened by this success, Mexico's subtle, but ambitious, effort to emerge as the leading cultural force in the Hispanic world accelerated. In 1989, president Carlos Salinas launched the "Paisano Program," designed to assist Mexicans, and their U.S.-born children, increase their cultural, social and political literacy about Mexico. This program not only reached out to Mexicans living in the United States, but it also helped them resist assimilation into the American mainstream, something seen as desirable, since Hispanics find Anglo culture cold and distant, fraught with ruined families and strained social relations...
Mexico is intent on fighting "Latino Cultural Illiteracy," or what happens to good Hispanics who grow up ignorant of their culture. Vicente Fox called Mexicans who emigrated to the United States in search of work "heroes," and launched the Program for Mexican Communities Abroad as a set of policies for empowering the Mexican Diaspora. What has alarmed Mexican officials is the loss of Spanish fluency among the children born to Mexicans in the United States.
[An official at the Mexican Consulate in New York says:] "We want them to be fluent in Spanish, so they can be successful both in the United States and in Mexico."
"Reaching out to young Hispanics in their formative years, and while they're in public school is the way to go," Raquel Romero said. "Mexico has to be there for them, reminding them that they come from a great civilization, and can be proud of their who they are, and where their families come from."
[...Refers to Phyllis Schlafly's concerns...] The books, correctly, point out that the United States reneged in its obligations under the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo which ended the Mexican-American War in 1848 when the U.S. Congress established a commission to review property titles in 1851, designed to expropriate the land of Mexican nationals who were now living in U.S. territory.
The cultural importance of Spanish was an idea that defined Vicente Fox's term as president, from 2000 to 2006. Two months before taking office in 2000, speaking before the Congress of the Spanish Language in Madrid, Fox exhorted Mexicans in the United States to speak Spanish. Fox said, "To continue speaking Spanish in the United States is to 'hacer patria' (fulfill one’s patriotic duty)."
They have done just that: the United States has the fastest-growing Spanish-speaking population in the world. Felipe Calderon, Mexico's new president, has moved forcefully, ordering that Mexican diplomatic missions throughout the United States reach out to America's failing public schools and assess their educational needs.
Mexican American folklorist Americo Paredes has called what we are witnessing as "Greater Mexico" – achieved one textbook at a time. While Americans may fret that Johnny Can't Read, Mexico wants to make sure that Juanito Pueda Leer.
Note that Wartgow left the DPS a year ago, but you can contact the current superintendent, Michael Bennet, here: superintendent@dpsk12.org
The LAUSD has also received the books, as have Minnesota and no doubt many other cities. These textbooks were also mentioned in Mexico’s Undiplomatic Diplomats.
The NEA is grateful as well for all those new public school students......
Unbelievable. This stuff just makes my blood boil. At what point are we as a country going to say "enough!" Why must we continue to put up with this assault?
You racist bastard! (That's what they will call any one who objects.)
So we spend billions each year educating Mexico's citizens who are illegally here and they send us textbooks?
The funniest part is the Mexican's patting themselves on the back for it and the school administrators kissing their butts and thanking them.
If it wasn't so absurd it would be funny.
I used to think that this was an invasion. Now, I see that it's just that the US government is simply giving up states to become Northern Mexican states.
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Texas the only state that's allowed by law to secede from the Union? Well, if the US government gives them up, I don't suppose that's the same as seceding, is it.
Mark
Mark
You are wrong. Texas is the only state that is allowed to carve itself into five separate states without asking permission of anyone. I often bring it up when we recite the pledge to the Texas flag at Republican functions. It goes, "Honor the Texas flag. Texas, one and indivisible, I pledge allegiance to thee."
Last time I saw this get any attention was during the liberal 60's, LBJ included, when conservatives (then Democrats) proposed it as a mechanism to putt 8 additional conservative Senators in DC.
Don't ever expect it to be used, but it is there in our statehood package.
Texas businesses want illegals!
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