Five Morgan Hill students sent home for wearing American flag T-shirts

Five male students were asked to leave Live Oak High School this morning because they were wearing American flag T-shirts on Cinco de Mayo. Officials at the school could not be reached for comment, but one student said administrators called the T-shirts "incendiary."

"They said we were starting a fight, we were fuel to the fire," said Matt Dariano, a sophomore.

The five teens were sitting at a table outside during their brunch break around 10:10 a.m. when Assistant Principal Miguel Rodriguez asked two boys to take off their American flag bandannas that they were wearing on their heads. In the same conversation, student Dominic Maciel said, Rodriguez told the group to "walk with him to the office."

Dariano called his mother Diana, who spread the word to the other parents and all arrived soon after to have a conference with Rodriguez and Principal Nick Boden.

Maciel said they were told they must turn their T-shirts inside-out or be sent home. Maciel said they were told it wouldn't be considered a suspension but Rodriguez did not want any fights to break out among Mexican students and the group showing their American pride.

The boys said they thought turning the American flag inside-out was disrespectful, so all went home.

Dariano said Rodriguez indicated to him that while other students were wearing American flags, the group of five was "the easiest target to cause trouble."

"We were not going to start a fight. We wanted to show our pride," Dariano said. "In light of all of this, there are people with painted flags in red, green and white and yet the boys can't wear the American flag," Diana said.

St. Patrtick’s Day was an important religious holiday in Ireland for a few centuries, which meant that it was a day for going to church, as St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland. But there were no parades or celebrations.

When the Irish came to America in huge numbers after the Famine, they were discriminated against and had to stick together. They formed Irish social organizations and develped customs through which to declare their Irishness. Among these was wearing green on St. Patrick’s Day — a practice forbidden by the English in Ireland — and staging parades in honor of their saint’s feast day.

Meanwhile, in Ireland, no such parades or celebrations existed until recent times, when more and more Americans of Irish descent began visiting the old country and wanting to have what they perceived as an authentic Irish experience.

Now, how did non-Irish people get caught up in the celebration of this day? My guess is that, as the Irish began to develop political clout in big population centers like NYC, Boston, and Chicago, even non-Irish politicians saw the value of pandering to them by marching in their parades. And I suppose that involvement caught on eventually among others who saw the big parties and pub crawls as a good excuse to party on.

BTW, St. Patrick would not have approved of the way his feast day is observed here.

The supervisor of our forklift motor pool was a proud to be naturalized American citizen from Mexico. He told me that he had NEVER heard of Cinco de Mayo until he came to America.

It really began as a promotional event for Corona and Cuervo catereing to tourists along the border and was coopted by La Raza and unions to rally the gullible masses. Now it has become an annual anti American event.

In many California towns you can see streams of cars adorned with Mexican flags and other red/white/green embellishments. But, ask someone what the holiday commemorates and you will not get an answer.

Interesting post, FRiend. LOL, all these people celebrating a "holiday" yet no one knows what it commemorates. Can you say Kwanzaa??

I remember back in my younger, single days (20+ years ago) I remember "Cinco de Mayo" suddenly coming on the scene in bars in Connecticut (and the northeast), and it was definitely associated with Corona and Cuervo, as you said above.

Fortunately here in CT, Cinco de Mayo doesn't seem to be a big deal... I've never seen the Mexican flags and decorations as the norm here, except for an excuse to have a party with Corona/Cuervo and tasty Mexican food.

“The True History of the Southwest, 101” by Travis McGee

The fallacies surrounding the history of the Southwest are staggering, chief among them the “Aztlan” fairy tales. What’s the truth? How did the Spanish Europeans conquer the Southwest? The “conquistadores” (that means “conquerors”) did it with the lance, and the lash.

For example, in 1541 Coronado entered present-day New Mexico (which included present-day Arizona during the Spanish era) searching for the “lost cities of gold.” One of his first actions upon meeting the natives was to burn 100s of them alive in their dwellings, for not handing over suspected horse thieves. That is how Spain conquered the natives of the present US Southwest—not with hugs and kisses. It was certainly no love-fest between long-lost brown-skinned soul-mates, as it is often portrayed today by the delusional Aztlaners, who spin the “new bronze race of Mestizos” toro-mierda.

By 1821, Mexico City was strong enough to overthrow the even more decrepit and ineffectual Spanish rule. However, the distant provinces of the current U.S. Southwest were far beyond the reach of the authority of the independent but strife-torn government of Mexico City. These distant northern provinces received neither military protection nor needed levels of trade from the south. Under Spanish rule, trade with the USA was forbidden, but at least Spain provided trade and Army protection from hostile Indians. Under Mexican abandonment and neglect, the Southwest received neither trade nor protection from Mexico City.

For example, Comanches and Apaches ran rampant in the 1830s in this power vacuum created by Mexican neglect, burning scores of major ranches that had been active for hundreds of years and massacring their inhabitants. Mexico City could neither defend nor keep the allegiance of its nominal subjects in these regions. Nor did it provide needed levels of trade to sustain the prior Spanish-era standard of living. Mexican governmental influence atrophied, withered and died at the same time that American pathfinders were opening up new routes into the region.

Increasingly, a growing United States of America was making inroads into the Southwest, via ships into California, and via gigantic wagon trains of trade goods over the Santa Fe Trail from St. Louis. The standard of living of the SPANISH in these provinces subsequently increased enormously, which is why they did not support Mexico City in the 1846-48 war. In fact, the Spanish-speaking inhabitants of the Southwest NEVER considered themselves “Mexicans” at all, ever. They went, in their own eyes, from SPANISH directly to AMERICAN. To this very day, if you want a punch in the nose, just call an Hispanic native of New Mexico a “Mexican!”

So how long did Mexico City have even nominal jurisdiction (in their eyes) over the American Southwest? For only 25 years, during which they had no effective control, and the area slipped backwards by every measure until the arrival of the Americans. The SPANISH inhabitants of the Southwest NEVER transferred their loyalty to Mexico City, because all they received from the chaotic Mexican government was misrule, neglect, and unchecked Indian raids.

Since then, how long has the area been under firm American control? For 150 continuous years, during which time the former Spanish inhabitants of the region, now American citizens, have prospered beyond the wildest dreams of the Mexicans still stuck in Mexico. To compare the infrastructure, roads, schools, hospitals etc of the two regions is to understand the truth. The Mexican government has been mired in graft, corruption, nepotism and chaos from the very start until today. The ordinary Mexican peons have been trampled and abused, while only the super-rich elites have thrived. This is why millions of Mexicans want to escape from Mexico today, to enjoy the benefits of living in America that they can never hope to obtain in Mexico.

And because today Mexico is a corrupt third-world pest-hole, (despite having more millionaires and billionaires than Great Britain), we are now supposed to let any Mexican from Chiapas, Michoacan or Yucatan march into the American Southwest, and make some “historical claim” of a right to live there?

From where does this absurd idea spring?

At what point in history did Indians and Mestizos from Zacatecas or Durango stake a claim on the American Southwest? Neither they nor their ancestors ever lived for one single day in the American Southwest. The Spanish living in the Southwest in 1846 stayed there, and became Americans by the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. There were no Spanish inhabitants of the Southwest who were marched to the border and driven into Mexico. It didn’t happen. The SPANISH in the Southwest welcomed American citizenship, which brought stability, protection from Indian raids, and a vast increase in their standard of living with the increase in trade.

In summary, NO current inhabitants of Mexico have ANY claim on even one single inch of the Southwest!

NOT ONE citizen of Mexico is sneaking into the USA to reclaim property their ancestors were deprived of, NOT ONE.

They are criminal invaders and colonizers, pure and simple.

It’s time Americans learned the true history, as a counter to the prevalent Aztlaner fairy tales.

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