[EyeGuy]

No one is disputing pride in one’s heritage. You are drifting WAY off the original thesis of this thread.

Rivera was arguing basically in favor of illegal immigration. Many Americans are puzzled as to why native-born and legally immigrated Cubans, Mexicans, Salvadorans, Venezuelans, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Paraguayans, Brazilians, Columbians, Chileans, Argentinians and at great risk I say, etc, would come down on the side of illegal immigration. Sorry, but on the surface it appears to be a cultural/language alliance thing, trumping their Americanism.

To me, these people are Americans first and should worry about the consequences of our current immigration enforcement and what that means to the safety and health of our country.

Thank you for your service to our country.

[Polybius]

No one is disputing pride in one’s heritage. You are drifting WAY off the original thesis of this thread. Rivera was arguing basically in favor of illegal immigration. Many Americans are puzzled as to why native-born and legally immigrated Cubans, Mexicans, Salvadorans, Venezuelans, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Paraguayans, Brazilians, Columbians, Chileans, Argentinians and at great risk I say, etc, would come down on the side of illegal immigration.

I, however, was commenting solely on the Hispanic and "hyphenated American" references.

I am against illegal immigration as are probably most legal immigrants.

What bothers me, however, is that the irritation that many justifiably have with illegal aliens is sometimes transfered to "Hispanics" as a whole and the expectation that being a full American means becoming a generic American with no ancestral history or ethnic uniqueness.

The generic "Heinz 57" American with no ethnic or even American regional heritage is a relatively recent phenomenon in American history. Prior to World War II, most Americans described themselves along those ethnic and regional lines as "Irish" or "Italian" or "Southerner" or "Yankee" or "Okie" without any more thought than describing themselves as being tall or short or blond or redheaded.

Back then everybody knew that Joe DiMaggio was "Italian" but nobody doubted that he was as American as apple pie ....... or pizza.

Back then, being a "Southerner" meant more than having grandparents from New York, Chicago, Las Vegas and Seattle and having worked for Coca-Cola and lived in Atlanta for the past 17 years.

To this day, much is made about the Scotch-Irish and the term is almost synonymous with "those men that forged the United States of America". Yet, nobody that speaks of his Scots-Irish heritage is called a "hyphenated American".

In our family tree, we have a somebody that commanded a Spanish frigate during the Battle of Pensacola when Spain defeated the British in Florida during the American Revolution and secured the American Colonies' southern flank.

That is unique to our ethnic heritage and is very "American".

Yet, unless our ancestors came from Scotland, England or Ulster, the rest of us are expected to hide our non-British ethnic heritage in the closet or not be considered full Americans when we take pride our ethnic heritage that may even include combat in the American Revolutionary War.