Posted on 04/06/2006 6:55:56 AM PDT by Unam Sanctam
PHOENIX - Hundreds of protesters gripped Mexican flags as they marched for immigration reform in the past few weeks, but they say a display of cultural unity is being mistaken as a lack of loyalty to the United States.
The displays turned off many Americans. Conservative talk show hosts admonished the protesters, while everyday people wrote angry letters to the editors of their local newspapers.
Some called for those carrying the Mexican flag to return to Mexico. Others questioned why immigrants demanding rights in the United States would wave symbols of Mexico.
But those who carried them, and scholars of the immigrant community, say that pride in their culture should not be misconstrued as a lack of patriotism in their adopted nation.
"Nobody gets upset with the Irish on St. Patrick's Day," said Gabriela Lemus, director of policy and legislation at the Washington, D.C.-based League of United Latin American Citizens, the group that organized most of the recent protests and is heading the dozens of marches and rallies scheduled across the nation Monday.
Critics of waving the red, white and green have questioned marchers' loyalty to the United States, but Latino activists deny the implications.
"The Mexican flag is like a symbol of dignity and identity and pride for the people who carry it," said Dolores Huerta, who co-founded the United Farm Workers of America with Cesar Chavez. "If people try to read more into that flag than what it is, they're wrong."
Huerta, who spoke from her home in Bakersfield, Calif., carried the Mexican flag during the farm workers' movement in the 1960s, and she carried it more recently during rallies in Los Angeles and Tucson.
"Pride and roots is what it is," she said. "It definitely does not mean separation or nationalism in the sense that we want to go back to Mexico."
Isidro D. Ortiz, a political scientist and professor of Chicano and Chicana studies at San Diego State University, said the flag is primarily a symbol of Mexican pride. But, in the current climate of the United States, Latinos also wave it to express dissatisfaction with how they are treated, Ortiz said.
"(Immigrants) have been trying for some time to imagine themselves as a part of the United States," he added. "What they've experienced is refusal."
Intentional or not, protest organizers acknowledge that the controversy over the Mexican flag is detracting from the message demonstrators want to send.
"(The flag) is a distraction," said Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano. "What the marchers were marching for was to say, 'Hey, we are here, we work, we're tired of being made to blame for every ill that people experience.'"
Lemus said her organization is encouraging protesters to carry both the U.S. and Mexican flags to show their pride in both countries.
"The American flag is a symbol of what they are trying to become — a U.S. citizen," she said.
Jennifer Allen, executive director of the immigrant rights group Border Action Network, said she is not discouraging anyone from bringing the Mexican flag to Monday's march in Tucson. Rather, the protesters themselves are spreading the word.
"A lot of immigrant families in southern Arizona are telling one another to carry the American flag in their hands, but hold the Mexican flag in their hearts," she said.
When was the last time you saw a "white power" parade. Can't you find an honest point to debate?
RE Mexican flag,"Latinos wave it to express dissatisfaction with how they are treated."What arrogance.If they don't like the treatment here they can simply leave.I suspect the treatment they receive here in the US is infinitely better than the third world hellhole they came from.
And also no mention of anyone being a migrant, an undocumented worker, or being here illegally -- they were only referred to as immigrants who were fighting for their rights.
"The American flag is a symbol of what they are trying to become — a U.S. citizen," she [Gabriela Lemus of LULAC] said.
Try coming here legally.
Yep great country, so go the hell home.
Let me see, I'm sure there's something....um...Poverty? No, wait, how about drug trade? Or, let's see, corruption from top to bottom? Maybe not, but how about filth, disease, and child prostitutes?
Ok, I give up. I can't think of a thing.
_______________________________________________________
Excellent try.
About the same way someone can mistake a knife in the back as a hostile action.
"We're proud of the shithole culture we're desperate to escape."
"The men who do not become Americans and nothing else are hyphenated Americans; and there ought to be no room for them in this country. The man who calls himself an American citizen and who yet shows by his actions that he is primarily the citizen of a foreign land, plays a thoroughly mischievous part in the life of our body politic. He has no place here; and the sooner he returns to the land to which he feels his real heart-allegiance, the better it will be for every good American. There is no such thing as a hyphenated American who is a good American. The only man who is a good American is the man who is an American and nothing else...." - Theodore Roosevelt
You are SO right about this! Their government is SO corrupt and that is there intent here. They have been the poor in Mexico and cannot gain anything there. They come here, disobey our laws and culture in hopes of gaining control to corrupt our country. They have succeeded to the point that it has taken a very negative position on our economy, our way life used to be before the invasion. Just over a decade ago, English was the language for everything. Now, Americans have to know Spanish for government jobs that are taxpayer funded!!! Absurd!
Today I saw a raid in Arizona- 300 sq. ft. home with 100 illegals!!!!!!
Pride of the country that doesn't want them? Make sense.
"Nobody gets upset with the Irish on St. Patrick's Day," said Gabriela Lemus,...
That dog won't hunt Gabriela.
And missy there's no comparison between, "Kiss Me I'm Irish" and "Gringos Get Out."
An aside, "Kiss Me I'm Mexican" just doesn't fly. Or should I say, "Béseme Que Soy Mexicano".
But, then, no Irish immigrant, as far as I know, has ever suggested that an entire region of the United States of America should be "reconquered" by Ireland.
this article is simply a sympathy ploy.
Yep, their so full of dignity and pride of Mexico that they broke our laws to get the hell out of there.. why don't they take that pride and dignity and go back to Mexico and fix it!
And they have no respect for our Country since the very first thing they did when they set foot inside America is commit a crime, so why should I think they respect ANY of our laws.
Hmmmm ... so what does it symbolize when they're waving a Mexico flag while standing on an American one?
Instead, these illegal aliens ought to be on their knees in humble gratitude for the tolerance and goodness of the American people, and for the land of optimistic opportunity that America is for them to be prancing in our streets with their Mexican flags hoisted in our faces like flipping Americans the royal bird.
They are so lucky that the Mexico borders a free republic! They ought to respect the laws, language and traditions of America and stop trying to make Americans kowtow to their outrageous and sniveling demands.
Illegals take your bloomin' demands to Vicente Fox and get out of our faces with your desperado attitude.
Simply put, if their identity is that of another nation, they don't belong here.
Mexico is one of the most racist countries on the planet towards their indigenous population.
A non-European Mexico proudly waving a Mexican flag, makes about as much sense, as a refugee from Soweto in 1976 proudly carrying the South African flag.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.