They've already jumped the shark.
You can't come back from that.
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.
Is that a recent photo? Or, can't you come up with a good argument either?
They've already jumped the shark.
You can't come back from that.
Southerners who display the Confederate flag say the same thing, yet they are lambasted for their display.
Teddy Roosevelt said it best "THERE IS ONLY ROOM FOR THE AMERICAN FLAG" if you want to pledge allegiance to any other you are not welcome.
"The American flag is a symbol of what they are trying to become — a U.S. citizen," she said.
Well then you should be waving the Stars and Stripes.
LOL. Thanks for the bumper sticker....first time I've seen it.
sounds like a lot of contradiction. ok, i can see a mexican wanting to be american, and i can see them waving a mexican flag for cultural pride- altho i don't see anything to be proud of. but when you add the signs that call for reclaimation of azatlan.. the message changes to one of foreign invasion. with signs that say "we want this land" and waving the flag of another country, i see that as an act of war.
I suspect we'll see a "sea of red." For my part, I'm going on a spending spree and smoking big cigars all day.
If they're so "proud", why did they leave?
The MEXICAN FLAG IS A SIGN OF CONTEMPT FOR THE USA!
Boy, nothing reinforces the myth of the "dumb Mexican" more than having an ignorant posterior rambling on without any knowledge of the Irish Diaspora.
"It was American demand that brought about the creation of Free Ireland ~ the Brits agreed as part of the price paid for our aid in WWI."
I have to say you have the *most* bizarro concept of history of anyone I have ever come across.
Irish War of Independence - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Irish_War
So, the burning of the Stars and Stripes without condemnation of the perps was a sign of loyalty to the US? The US flag being hoisted upside down below Mexico's without condemnation of those perps was a sign of loyalty to this nation?
Yeah. Right.
Now, now. Don't you know you can't be both brown-skinned and a "racist bigot"?
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.