The Guatemalan border is only 1/4 the size and ten times easier to defend topographically.
Posted on 07/28/2007 10:02:08 AM PDT by Altura Ct.
The Senate’s phone system crashed last month during immigration reform debates, when thousands of people and anti-immigrant activists called their senators to protest the legalization of millions of undocumented immigrants.
The massive, unprecedented telephone campaign was sparked by a range of complex motives based on social and economic issues. Among them was a theme that promises to reappear if the issue is revisited: the perception that Latinos are too different to assimilate, do not learn English, and are unraveling the fabric of the identity of a nation that was, ironically, created by immigrants.
“It is one of the ideas that anti-immigrant forces take advantage of: the notion that immigrants today do not assimilate and that other generations did. But it is not true,” says Cecilia Muñoz of the National Council of La Raza.
In fact, both sides are right.
Latinos are assimilating, but in their own way, keeping much of their identity. Tamales at Christmas. Turkey and menudo at Thanksgiving. English at work and Spanish at home. Dual loyalties to the San Diego Chargers and Guadalajara Chivas. The Fourth of July. Cinco de Mayo.
“Latinos are ending the concept of the proverbial racial salad,” wrote renowned journalist and writer Jorge Ramos in his book, “The Latino Wave: How Hispanics Are Transforming Politics in America.”
The big difference between European and Latino immigrants, according to Ramos and some sociologists, is that Hispanics live next to their countries of origin, allowing them to maintain ties with their family, culture and language.
In addition, there exists today an extensive network of Spanish-language media.
“Culturally, Latinos are never going to totally assimilate. Latinos are creating their own space in this country. And the characteristics of Hispanic culture are changing forever the face of the nation,” Ramos wrote.
This phenomenon plays out each day in the home of Cristóbal Castro, a naturalized U.S. citizen and son of a “bracero” who migrated to the United States in the middle of the last century to work.
“It is going to be very difficult to assimilate, at least for the first generation. What there is is a negotiation,” he said. “There will be things that we accept, like the manner of dress or the education here, and things that we don’t, like kicking your children out of the house when they turn 18, like ‘gringos’ do.”
Latinos’ tendency to cling onto their culture has led them to gradually redefine the American identity.
Assimilation, according to Tomás Jiménez, a sociology professor at the University of California, San Diego, “no longer means you have to disown your culture and adopt a new lifestyle identified with Anglo-Protestant culture.”
In an essay published in the Los Angeles Times, Jiménez said that due to Latinos, “multiculturalism and the appreciation of diversity are much more accepted than before.”
Defining assimilation is as complex as reforming immigration laws.
Can you speak Spanish and be assimilated? Do you have to like hamburgers more than grilled steak tacos? When can you say you have achieved assimilation?
“It is not easy to define,” confessed Ira Mehlman of the anti-immigrant organization FAIR (Federation for American Immigration Reform). Many Americans resent the fact that Hispanics insist on speaking Spanish and maintaining ties with their countries of origin, he said.
“But I would say that (assimilation) is when someone feels American,” he said. “And to me, people that march, yelling, ‘Nosotros somos América’ (We are America), waving the flags of other countries, are not assimilated.”
Richard Rodríguez, a writer who has published various books about the adaptation of Latinos to U.S. culture, said that assimilating is absorbing the individuality of the United States, and that this is precisely what Hispanics are doing.
“The reality is that the country is becoming more Mexican, and that everything is changing, our food, customs, music and religion,” Rodríguez said. “As Latinos continue incorporating themselves into society, Americans feel they have to learn fragments of Spanish. And there will be weddings, hatred, friendship, solidarity, curiosity and competition.”
What’s certain is that many Latinos live with one foot in each culture, and that they flow like water from one side to the other, something you can see each time the Mexican national soccer team faces the United States in the fiercest sporting rivalry in North America.
Ricardo Castro, brother of Cristóbal and also a naturalized U.S. citizen, said he considers himself 100 percent Mexican. But he could sit and watch the soccer game calmly, he said, because he had no fear of losing.
“I knew that my country was going to win,” he said. “And effectively it won, because for me it was either of the two.”
Assimulate = assimilate. My bad!
“La Raza” = “The Race”
“Do you have to like hamburgers more than grilled steak tacos?” Another stupid example.
Simple answer: Love America, and everything about America, more than Mehico.
It isn't a mental hangup. They deliberately misuse the language for propaganda purposes. Remember Orwell: War is Peace; Hate is Love.
The Guatemalan border is only 1/4 the size and ten times easier to defend topographically.
Yeah, I keep forgetting that.
This article is pure propaganda to make Americans more comfortable with a fifth column that seeks to overthrow the Anglo culture and impose their own.
New immigrants just need to assimilate. Period. None of this on their own terms stuff.
- Dr Agapito Lopez, Hazelton, PA. 7/14/2006
They don't learn the language , they don't follow our laws and like Lopez warned or threatened they will NEVER assimilate.
Maybe the illegals should just go home and they won’t have to assimilate at all. As for the rest, if they truly aren’t interested in becoming Americans, we can learn to get along without them as well — most of the world would give an arm for the chance to become Americans.
That's not assimilating.
Until they quit using this cheap-shot diversion, with its red-herring of cultural bigotry, there will be no resolution to the problems of security and sovereignty in America.
“The massive, unprecedented telephone campaign was sparked by a range of complex motives based on social and economic issues. Among them was a theme that promises to reappear if the issue is revisited: the perception that Latinos are too different to assimilate, do not learn English, and are unraveling the fabric of the identity of a nation that was, ironically, created by immigrants.
“It is one of the ideas that anti-immigrant forces take advantage of: the notion that immigrants today do not assimilate and that other generations did. But it is not true,” says Cecilia Muñoz of the National Council of La Raza.”
What a bunch of BS!!!
PC is killing our nation. I don’t give a rats ass for anyone who says they are Mexican American, Irish American.
That’s a big steaming load. If you were born here (illegal Alien anchor babies don’t count.) you are AN AMERICAN.
All of us have roots in some other country. Now that that’s out in the open let’s remember. We’re Americans. Why would anyone want to claim to be anything less.
As long as any product we can purchase in American stores continue to have bilingual labels... well, theres no reason for them to assimilate.
My father was Irish, my Mother is Mexican... both of them threatened me with a severe beating around the face and neck if they ever heard me refer to myself as anything other than American.
My mother never became naturalized but she understands the importance of the phrase: “When in Rome..”.
In other words the statement from the article:
“...Latinos are too different to assimilate, do not learn English, and are unraveling the fabric of the identity of a nation that was, ironically, created by immigrants.”
should read like this:
“...Illegal Aliens do not want to assimilate, do not want to learn English, and are unraveling the fabric of the identity of a nation that was, ironically, created by Legal immigrants.”
Funny how they are referred to as Latinos in the first part but immigrants at the end.
To all the MSM editors that continue to write drivel like this, please put the crack pipe down and admit yourself to rehab.
I’m pretty pissed and not thinking clearly, so I apologize if this doesn’t make sense or is poorly written.
Sorta says it all, doesn't it?
Does anyone want to live in Mexico? Do you know anyone who does?
Even the Mexicans don't want to live in Mexico. Better to come here and hand us the bill for their upgrade in lifestyle.
Now that is the definition of insanity.
You would instantly give Mexico electoral control over the United States and the American people as they would become the single largest voting block, and you would hand over the control of the military and nuclear arsenal of the United States to a group of people who are nothing but the most murderous thugs to ever inhabit the Western Hemisphere.
That is a pretty broad statement considering what passes for "American" culture in many areas of the U.S. nowadays
Your kids have much more in common with some first generation immigrant children:
Than they do with some third, fourth or fifth generation so-called "Anglos":
Ask the women in the hispanic family if the father has a few putas on the side. Ask them how he regards them as women - are they people or property? The news is full of hispanic males blowing away women who had the Anglo temerity to tell them to eff off.
How many Mexican guys bragged to me about the Blondina Gringa that they had on the side? (it always turned out to be some peroxide proxy, but it didn't matter to them....just the image did).
In Mexico, for instance, a woman who is not a virgin at marriage....well, she isn't going to be married. She's instantly just another puta. A lot of those women are the ones who come to the U.S., because they have no future in the ruthlessly hypocritical machismo "society" where the strutting male needs at least 3 or 4 putas to hang out with while the wifey stays at home and raises Los Ninos. And the more the better, once again to prove El Conquistador's marvelous manhood, even though he has no skills other than extortion and violence with which to feed his bambinos.
So save the silly photos. They don't show the regressive reality of that sick society.
Hispanic "family values" are a myth.
I'm no sociology expert, but it seems to me that the most innovative societies are ones where the children set out to build something for themselves and reduce their dependency on family. This is not to say that they don't love their family, but there is an expectation to put their God given talents to work to better themselves and build something lasting, even start a new family.
I have relatives who live in the southern part of Texas, Hildago county, just north of the border. Most of them have lived there their entire lives, and do not have a spirit of adventure to seek out the world. Close knit families are great, but they do increase the risk that your environment remains insulated.
The wonderful American tendency to pick up and move, in search of wealth, fame, or adventure is one of the things that makes this country great. Without Lewis and Clark, the homesteaders, the '49ers, those who sought to build the trans-continental railroad, and those who suffered hardship to even land on our shores by boat (legally), this country would look much different.
There was a thread recently that made an important observation. As I don't remember it verbatim, I'll paraphrase: A country's greatness is defined by it's people, not its resources, or borders. America is a great country because of great people.
This is NOT negotiable!
Well, you have a Mexican culture that has drug dealers taking over entire cities and cutting off heads. You have a Chinese culture that where manufacturers have no issues inserting known poisons into the food supply. Would we be better off if we had their youth culture, along with everything else that makes them the countries they are today? I don’t think so.
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