English 102
NB: Based on the responses (and a couple of personal e-mail messages), perhaps less cleverness and more directness was warranted in my previous post. Please allow me to elaborate.
I think making English the "national language" is ridiculous, serving no purpose other than to disenfranchise people who do not speak it. Imagine if you could not legally get a driver's license without speaking English, because federal law prohibits the publication of documents in anything other than the "national language." In Miami-Dade County official signage and publications — such as ballots — must be provided in English, Spanish, and Haitian Creole. Federal-level legislation would override state- and county-level statutes, potentially prohibiting the Department of Elections from encouraging voting by our significant non-English-speaking population. This certainly sounds to me like a good way to ensure the primacy of white, Anglo votes, but perhaps that's only a coincidence. I mean, literacy tests were just to encourage black education, right?
But let's be clear: America is now, and will remain for the foreseeable future, an English-speaking nation. It simply makes sense for people who venture outside of their ethnic enclaves to learn the basics of the lingua franca of the neighborhood, even if the neighborhood extends from one ocean to another. This means that sensible people who venture from Weston to Hialeah on a regular basis should learn a little Spanish, and the reverse, obviously, is also true.
An old friend of mine is a first-generation Cuban-American. He spoke English fluently, but when he spoke Spanish like an American, and his Cuban friends (and family) made fun of him for it. His father was an international courier, so he spoke English passably well, but his mother never bothered to learn a word of it. When I asked him why, he told me she didn't need to, because she never left Cuban neighborhoods. She was willing to limit her own experience to avoid having to learn anything new.
Another friend of mine is from Peru. Her mother is from Hong Kong, though, and in spite of spending most of her life in South America, she has only learned a very small handful of Spanish words, preferring to speak only Cantonese. This became a problem when she moved in with my friend and her husband, since her husband doesn't speak any Cantonese. When Edgar is home alone with his mother-in-law, the communicate via a dozen Spanish words and hand gestures; she never leaves the house. When she became ill, it took them forever to find a local doctor who spoke Cantonese. Her quality of life would be improved if she would learn some English, but she doesn't feel like she should.
I think that at the core of the debate is a fear among certain members of the Anglo community that places like Miami aren't really part of the US any more, and that their inability to speak the common language of certain neighborhoods takes them down a peg, renders unstable their perch at the top of the socio-economic heap. I mean, who knows what kind of disrespectful things those people might be saying in that gobbledygook language of theirs? Well, guess what, Mr. Tenth-Generation White American Senator? The way you act, pulling this kind of "national language" crap, you are probably right. And you deserve it. Pendejo.
19 Comments:
While I believe that an immigrant's failure to learn English is nothing but laziness, it really doesn't bother me personally unless that person is working in a service job dealing with customers and I'm his customer.
The move to create an official language is just another example of bigotry cloaked under the guise of nationalism by the same stooges who brought us freedom fries and torture.
I agree 100% on your second point; on your first point that drops to about 75%. "Laziness" seems a bit extreme, unless you concede that someone working in Hialeah who doesn't bother to learn Spanish is also "lazy." But yes, I agree that it is in their best interests to learn English, and that employers in the service industry have a certain obligation to have all major local languages represented on a given shift.
Oy vay! You know having been out of the country for a while, I didn't realize that this "official" business was actually, well, official. And so I have to agree, it's not only official, but a crock of chorizo.
Countries have to adapt, just like people. If the reality is that Miami is being inhabited by non-English speaking people, then you can't turn a blind eye. For pete's sake, that would be like denying that Florida was more Spanish than American in the old days. So people living in a situation like this also have to be reasonable. Kudos to any gringo who tries to learn a word of Spanish just to get by everyday situations. And people who don't speak English should also
However, I have to agree up to a point with Rick: some Spanish-speaking hermanos and hermanas of mine are worse than lazy; they're defiant against learning English. And this is what pisses me off. I mean, I've actually had conversations with people who have said things (in Spanish, of course) like "Why should I learn English? This country sucks ... bla bla bla ... I'm proud to be where I'm from ... etc; " To me, this speaks volumes about said person's level of intellect and culture. You've decided to leave your country and you want to poo-poo all over the place you live? Since when do you have to give up your ethnic pride just because you learn the lingua franca? Since when did you equate some ridiculous sense of entitlement with not learning the language? You know, all I can say to people with this attitude is that I'm sorry your situation in your country sucked so much that you had to come here, but now that you're here, you can't really go on pretending like you live in a vacuum and holding some kind of resentment against this country. And this attitude is just the other extreme of the ones advocating to turn us into one boring homogenous country (which we are, btw, according to Europeans. And we all eat hamburgers all day long. Yeah, right.)
Anyway, I feel pretty passionate about this issue because I've seen how much this city has changed wave over wave of immigration from the Southern hemisphere. And God forbid I should ever have to move to a foreign country. I would NEVER just sit around feeling like I was some princess entitled to speaking her own language for the rest of her life. That's just stupid and short-sighted.
I speak both languages without a trace of one accent over another because my parents wouldn't let me speak English at home. It was smart -- prevented me from becoming Spanglish speaking at the time (early 70s) when Spanglish wasn't even yet heard on the streets. On the other hand, it also prevented my mom, who was a homemaker, from practicing her English.
Yet, I can't help thinking that unless we continue to be the destination point of so many Spanish-speaking immigrants forever, eventually, English might take over again. I don't know what language teens speak these days (English or Spanish) and to be honest their children and their grandchildren and so on will probably not carry the torch of Spanish.
Anyway, enough of this. I should writing about sex! LOL!!!
oh by the way, you do know what Pendejo means in Cuban Spanish, right?? :-)
Does it mean something different than it does in other Spanish-speaking countries? When I was taught the word it was said to be an approximation for "asshole," although that isn't the literal translation. Wikipedia says this.
I think you're both off here but you know, I really respect you guys for your desire to be liberal, open minded and opposed to discrimination.
I'm Hispanic so I don't have to be so nimble here. First, anyone who lives in Miami (note I didn't say South Florida)isn't living in a place where neighborhoods are Spanish domninant/exclusive. That would be every other major city in America. (In LA it seems that after La Cienega the East Side and even the Valley is just a Spanish speaking country. The same for life in most of Queens, the Bronx and the upper half of Manhattan.)
In Miami I worked at upper level managerial jobs or as a consultant at seven of the largest employers in Miami and at each job many people at the professional/managerial level spoke English very poorly. The vast majority of the jobs required Spanish fluency (though English fluency seemed to be taken for granted.) I recall several non-Spanish speakers from the computer support center offices at a college next to me calling me over to translate. I guess even in Miami you have to hire "foreigners" because technical jobs are hard to fill.
Of course this holds more true of the service and blue collar work. If I want to get my car worked on, take my stuff to a cleaners, etc. I better be ready to dust off the Spanish. The cable man, the guys that put up the shutters and the roof tarps, Hell, virtually everyone, no spiki ingli. That meant that when my no Spanish speaking buddies who shared a spot me and even freinds in the area would call me up asking me to translate or to help make a call or be there when someone came. (I should probably point out that my Spanish is not so hot, so I HATED that.)
I think Kevin, it is naive to assume that this will not become the situation in many other parts of the United States. There is a huge difference in the nature of immigration, the creation of communities and the history of the US and its Spanish speaking neighbors. I suspect that in another half century Spanish will stand as the an official or unofficial second language in the US. From there on its a lock.
I definitely don't make a moral argument for learning English. What is English but a historical manifestation of the fact the US is the only nation (along with Australia) where the vast crimes of genocide, ethnocide and colonialism have never been halted or reversed. My argument for learning English is that, hell we need a lingua franca or the nation will undergo deeper divisions and exacerbate all the evils that already exist.
The positive part of this equation is that the vast majority of these immigrants are Native Americans. I am always reminded that Geronimo and Cochise were both born on now what is the Mexican side of the border and both were primarily Spanish speakers (obviously with Spanish names.) Today old Geronimo and Cochise would have been Spanish speaking, Mexican illegal aliens.
Point taken, John. I know from my own limited travels that Miami is much less segregated than the ethnic enclaves in other metropolitan areas. But do you think that making English mandatory is the proper solution? Some wingnuts are openly discussing the criminalization of the Spanish language, and saying that immigrants need to cut off all ties to their heritage if they want to live here. Do we want to even give the perception that we're aquiescing to their racist demands?
More importantly, even if Spanish does become an unofficial second language, so what? Europeans seem to manage to handle multiple languages without too much trouble. Sure, there are inevitably some associated problems, but in Miami we're already used to them. Do we really need to keep asserting our alleged Anglo superiority? Is change always bad?
In polite Cuban society we were never able to use the word pendejo because it always meant those things that people are desperately trying to get rid of at the wax salon, and not the 'wus' or 'idiot,' as it refers to other countries.
Which makes me think ... opening another can o' worms ... not only speki spani, but then what spanish? If I speak to a Mexican, for example, it'll take me a while before I start to 'get' the usage of certain terms.
Life is rich, to be sure.
John and MKH, your way of thinking must fuel the nightmares (and booksales) of Samuel P. Huntington, Mr. Clash o' Civilizations himself. He wrote this silly book a couple of years ago about the immigrant threat to "Anglo-Protestant" values. Where MKH accepts the possibility of cultural change in America, and John seems to egg it on as retribution for a genocidal past, Huntington makes this strange rallying cry for "Anglo-Protestant" values (don't ask me, as the son of two immigrants, neither of them anglo or protestant, I don't know what those are).
It seems to me folks can adapt to and even co-opt cultural changes to their own advantage, or they can make some desperate bid to preserve, in their perception, their "original" culture according to "how things used to be." Those who make the latter decision even have a frickin' Harvard professor to help them spin the rhetoric.
Oh Nic Fit! I can't believe that my main man has so vilely besmirched my name and mischaracterized my sentiments.
Let us start with an area we can agree partially. I do "egg on cultural change in America" but not for something as small as "retribution for the past" as if the notion could exist devoid of PEOPLE. I think you are assuming a dangerous post-historical perspective. It is the perspective of criminals that hide messy, unresolved realities. What you deem as a poke in the eye of fait accompli, I believe is a history insisting upon reconciling itself. America is a nation built on a great, great crime. (Along with a litany of other crimes not the least of which is slavery.) The multi generational act of genocide defines America. This is not a crime of long ago history. In the U.S. forty million people live on their own land as dispossessed, third and fourth class citizens and non citizens. This was a crime of unparalleled evil, brutality and societal-wide bloody thirstiness. It continued as a hemisphere has been raped. But people often overestimate the finality of history. And I believe that there are many Americans, living off the carcasses of others who are disturbed to a rustle of life. I will leave off here before I sound like a presenter in a MeCha convention.
And you say in English “I don’t know what Anglo Saxon values are”. Well one is the imposition of their language and culture upon other people. You have also suggested, if I recall, that this idea of White=Anglo maybe an inaccurate characterization. Moreover, you brought up the spector of the evil Samuel Huntington (no link necessary trust me) and had the audacity to link me to him. Let me show you why Anglo values and the term Anglo Saxon in the US are important. It will start with a short run through history that may be unecessary but bear w me for arguments sake (and b/c this whole thing is cut and pasted from something else I'm writing for publication.)
The Germanic tribes of the coasts of Scandinavian, Holland and Germany- Normans, Anglos, Saxons, Jutes, Danes are called Anglo Saxons for brevity's sake. They assimilated ideas and technology from others while reinventing it as thoroughly theirs, (a manifestation of their particularly virulent chauvinism.) After spreading Anglo Saxon culture throughout Britain, the British spread it out through the world. As another curious manifestation of Anglo Saxon peculiarities, is the obsession with race and ethnic purity, wherein people of Germanic descent have been easily assimilated but non Anglo Saxons have been either wiped off or enslaved, even after having Anglo Saxon culture imposed upon them.
In the U.S. Anglo American culture has been the national paradigm. Language, religion, morality (based upon the particular Anglo American manifestation of Enlightenment philosophy and pharasaical Anglo-Protestantism) are Anglo American. Our schools, universities, military, imperialistic/neocolonial policies, governmental structure, economy (including our particular take on corporate, financial and capitalist structures), industrialism, legal system, holidays, sports, literature, art and architecture, views of nature; hell, even our clothes, furniture, and other minor cultural details are Anglo American. I am not praising this at all. In fact it's disturbing that a people so displaced others so that their culture might flourish.
As unfortunate as it has been, our U.S. political landscape has been dominated by Anglo Saxons, often to the exclusion of other groups. Our class system was borrowed from England albeit tweaked to fit America. The US has institutions to train and validate our future leaders of politics business and academia which have historically been dominated by Anglo Saxons, though that appears to be changing.
In that time Latin Americans have been trying to form their identity. Latin America has its own legacies that are carried in the minds and souls of its people. Injustice, self hate, ignorance, and history of civic exclusion are burdens that Latin American immigrants carry with them. This is not the fault of the immigrants. Ironically, the US played the largest role in the maintenance sort of oppressive, stifling social conditions for the majority of Latin Americans. The U.S. has also actively deadened the intellectual conversation in Latin America on identity.
I suspect that America cannot continue in the identity of borrowed Anglo Saxon paradigm. Up until the last 40 years of immigration to the U.S., the largest European nation of origin was Germany, followed by the nations in Britain, France, Central Europe, and then smaller groups of Scandanavians, Eastern and Southern Europeans. Many of these immigrants jettisoned virtually their entire culture that did not fit to fit into America. Even then the U.S. went through a century of ugly “Nativism” that was only halted by discontinued immigration, some horrible state funded assimilation programs (see the disturbing origins of the Children’s Aid Society for an example) and finally two world wars.
Latino “immigrants” have been resistant to full assimilation. They are not people far from their mother countries. Their mother countries are simply other parts of the land mass that we call the Americas. They have been in this land before the U.S. existed. Acknowledging this, the U.S. will have to find a way to be more inclusive than it has ever been in its perspectives, institutions, and identity. I doubt this will happen. Look at this nation’s history with the descendants of the other dispossessed minority immigrant group, African Americans. Despite assimilation under threat of death this Anglicized group’s acceptance into society is mixed at best.
Miami is a triumph of he unresolved. Third World realities instituted by a the ultimate Anglo cabal (the Bush family, the Republican part, et al) and the most static, anti-intellectual and inflexible representation Latin Americans, (many of whom not surprisingly lack the will to learn English or much of anything else.)
The thing is that in America we are a group of many nationalities and we are also a civilized society. Thus we have created a system, a language...so that we can all work together, communicate effectively and make our country day by day a better place to be...for everyone. Although I know, understand and comprehend the fact that the Hispanic immigrants are making huge contributions to our society...I do see and feel a little resistance to assimilation.
I am not suggesting to assimilate to rid one of their past or to wipe out traces of their culture...I am only suggesting that to be able to work, live and thrive in the US...at some point you have to accept that you are in a new country and you need to learn the language.
Take for instance my husband. He came to the states when he was nineteen and started college. He is from Croatia and lived in VA with his aunt, uncle and their two kids. His english was limited. Although comforting to have his relatives stateside, he realized that in order to thrive he would need to get out, meet new people and learn the language. And so he did.
Imagine if we all just stayed in our own little communities of cultural comforts. The English speaking community, the Croatian speaking community, the Asian speaking community, the Haitian speaking community and every single other culture, each with its own language, own newspapers, own TV stations and more. I mean hell...How would we vote? How would we ever come together to agree on anything?
I mean I realize that that is a little exaggerated but I don't think that any American who thinks that in order to work here and thrive here...thinks, "let's just keep it the way it used to be", rather America is about assimilation. You can't just sit in your own little group, cross your arms and say, "I am not budging", without pissing off someone who budged before you. They had to work to make it here...if you want to make it work...you have to do the same.
If you don't want to assimilate, don't. But at the same time you also run the risk of depending on other people to make things happen for you and also the risk of someone taking advantage of you. I am not suggesting that this is the penalty for not assimilating but it is a fact.
What's more this sort of mentality really irritates me because my family has been in America for many generations and we have worked our butts off here for years. We are happy to share but you have to earn it. At some point don't we deserve the respect for all that we have worked for or is everything just in vain? Why should we have to give away everything that we have worked so hard for?
Futhermore I find this sort of "I am not assimilating" attitude very disrespectful to every other nationality that has had to come and make some adjustments in their culture to make it in America. Very disrespectful.
Whew...I didn't know I was so fired up about this?
John, I had no intention of besmirching anyone, it was only my (half-hearted and semi-humorous) attempt ot get at the crux of the immigration argument, which is often danced around in terms of law-and-order or learn-the-language issues, versus we-are-an immigrant-nation and let's-be-tolerant. I think we can both agree that it runs a hell of a lot deeper than that, and that there are some otherwise quite tolerant folks out there who get a little squeamish at the thought of immigration changing the culture of America, and, to put it bluntly, radically browning the racial make-up of America. MKH's nonchalant attitude towards the possibility of Spanish becoming a second official language of the U.S., a la Quebec, and your own paen to the second coming of Geronimo, gave me the idea of introducing what the other side of this argument thinks, namely Huntington and his ilk. Because, frankly, you do sound very MeCha sometimes and it's those folks that add fuel to the nativist fire of Minutemen and others who eagerly wish to paint Latin* American immigrants as the vanguard of a reconquista.
First of all, I think MKH's cultural pluralism is great, but hardly commonplace. I think a lot of native born American whites, deep down inside, fear the idea of a Latinized U.S., no matter how tolerant they profess to be. Hence, they comfort themselves with models of past assimilation to encourage the idea that today's Latin immigrant will be tommorow's 4th-generation Italian, Irish, Pole, or any other non-Anglo European subgroup reviled in the past. Those that fail to draw comfort from this model swing towards Huntington if they want to maintain a veneeer of sophistication, and towards Minutemen-type groups if they're of a more blue-collar bent.
Why do I bring all this up? Well, John, I guess its because the tone you took with MKH and Rick, namely:
"I think you're both off here but you know, I really respect you guys for your desire to be liberal, open minded and opposed to discrimination.
I'm Hispanic so I don't have to be so nimble here."
In other words, a pat on the head for the naive white liberals, and then Miamista proceeds to tell everyone how it really is. Except you didn't, you just went off on some entertaining stuff about cultural change through immigration as the consequence of a genocidal past. That's why I brought Huntington into it, not as a supporter, but simply as a jibe to remind everyone that hey, the anti-immigrant side is concerned with race and culture, and that's what this all really boils down to. My concern is that unless we have an honest national conversation about what's going on, the fear mongers will frighten the new assimilationists enough to get them to cross over, and then this country will plunge into all kinds of crazy "immigration" laws that are really about maintaining America's racial status quo. A month ago, I would have thought militarization of the border was a Tancredo fantasy. Now, with Bush drifting in that direction with the National Guard border call-up, I worry that the nation may end up fooling itself into thinking it can halt economic-demographic forces through a miltary-technological solution without incurring great costs to its own economic and social well being.
The more you rely on the anti-colonialist/genocide/cultural imperialism line, John, the more you encourage exactly that reaction in the American people. They're not all Anglo-Saxon cheerleaders, and they're
not all chauvinists, but if you MeCha-nize all your arguments, you're sure to turn them into just that. And what's all this nonsense about Anglo-Saxon domination as some kind of unique evil, as if all other peoples and cultures in the world were happy little unsuspecting egalitarian victims shocked by the brutality of their oppressors? The only thing different about the Beowulf set is their recent arrival in history, not their "virulent chauvinism." The expansion of the Bantu language group across sub-Saharan Africa indicates a more ancient, but probably just as brutal and domineering expansion of one group over many. The Caribs were in the middle of their own expansion when the arrival of Columbus and the Spanish halted the process.
The sad truth is we are all trapped by history; humanity's reliance on primate dominance mechanics is hardly the purview of one specific tribe. Do you really think a world dominated by Mayans, Magyars, or Minoans would operate much differently from what we have today? I'd rather focus on our common humanity (and in many cases inhumanity) and try to build a society focused on bringing the greatest benefit to the the greatest number of people.
Just one post-historical, deracinated, Miami-born half-Ecuadorian's opinion. And that description should explain why when I talk social-historical-political, I tend to piss of everyone in the room. ;)
*just as with the shorthand description Anglo, I have issues with the shorthand description Latin. What the hell is it supposed to indicate, the fact that they share a latin-root language? Well so do the French, Italians, Portugese, and Romanians, but I doubt that's what people think about when they talk about Latin peoples or Latin culture. And I'm sure Quechua speakers want no part of an association with Latin anything. The use of Latin implies a unity of culture and thought that simply do not exist, despite the best best efforts of idealists like Bolivar and Che.
For those still following this fascinating discussion, particularly among my more isolated readers, this Wikipedia story on MEChA may help.
This conversation seems to have reached an impasse. Hmmm. In for a penny in for a pound… Let me see if I can work this out here. Small item first. Nic Fit, (you know I love you man) but your digression into Latino as a term representing Romance language speaking people is sort of confusing. Latino in the sense that I was speaking, has been used as shorthand for Latin America /American. I’m not sure what else to say about that.
Next, as to the history of Latin America these are nations where the majority of the people are of indigenous descent. It has been pointed out that Latin America is the inverse of the modern U.S. If the U.S. has been a nation where the majority has been empowered even as minorities have found themselves terribly disenfranchised, Latin America is made up of states where a small minority has held power and cultural domination over the many. I could go into the cultural history of Latin America and the ethnocide (as opposed to genocide) that has been the defining factor of Latin American political and social history, (though it is now being eclipsed by neo-colonialism).
I could also go into the history of “Positivism” followed and refuted by Americanismo (given birth in Argentina) and “Indigenismo”. These are not the creations of Che Guevara, Jose Marti, Augusto Sandino, Simon Bolivar, Pancho Villa, etc. This has been the main social impetus of Latin America for almost the past two centuries. The definition of Latin American culture, from Ricardo Legorreta, Vincente Tomayo, Diego Rivera, Ruben Dario, Carlos Guido y Spano, Machado de Assis, Ernesto Cadenal, Pablo Neruda, Jose Clemente Orozco- has been not simply the recognition of Latin America and her profoundly Native roots, but the SELF REALIZATION. It should be pointed out that this realization does not require the negation of other influences. Okay, I will stop here because again, the exercise of sharing the history and discourse of a cultural perspective is much too involving to be offered in a tangent. Before I end this vein I will note that the U.S. government has given tens of millions of dollars to U.S. and Latin American intellectuals (Marc Becker at Berkeley comes to mind as a contemporary scholar) to refute or compete with Indigenismo, Americanismo and related movements in Latin America. I will also say that in this time of the ALBA, Mercosur, and the multiple Bolivarian movements rise in Latin America; your thinking NFK, seems out of touch and unrealistic- and not the ideas of the immensely popular figures and spiritual lights such as Che and Bolivar.
As far as Quechua speakers wanting nothing of the political unity of Latin America, I think that shows an utter lack of knowledge of history and an ugly historical bias that tries to pit the Mestizo and Indian against each other. Evo Morales, Ollanta Humala, Cuahtemoc Cardenas and the Sendero Luminoso, the Tupamaros, the Zapatistas, etc. would all find your characterizations to be utterly objectionable. Moreover, such separation has been and will be rejected by both groups, except the self loathing, self denying people who would try to distance themselves from themselves.
Now let me radically jump to the situation of Latin American immigrants. It is interesting how personal experiences have been shared in this conversation. I have lived a very peripatetic life to this point for good or ill. I‘m sure I also have what might be near schizophrenia in terms of identity. Much of my life has been spent in a world that is about as Anglo American as you can get. I attended a high school for several years that I am proud to say, was the archrival of George Bush’s high school (Phillips Exeter) and the same sort of Anglo-ey (just coined that) universities, etc. I too have some deep reactions to the changing conditions, as they relate to immigration. I DETEST the Hispanic racism, the language chasm and other features of Miami life. I believe that it reflects the same ugliness that White America perpetuated for four centuries. Just when admirable headway is made (by all including White Americans) in changing that, the last thing we need is to start again from scratch. Moreover, I believe that in Miami, Hispanic racism also comes with some of the other dysfunctions that the U.S. has not been as prone to. (That may not be entirely accurate but I’ll leave it others to refute. I’m not feeling cautious.)
Latino communities exist in the U.S. quite successfully without requiring assimilation. Language is the least part of assimilation. It could be said that some of the most successful immigrants in our current time have assimilated very little. Moreover I think that Miami is proof positive that language and cultural assimilation will not be determinants in the future of a community’s success.
The dominant community itself can shift. Miami has shifted. *1Los Angeles is in the process of a shift (something I have been covering quite a bit in another blog). New York is nearing a shift. Even states are shifting in some sort of realization that power may have to be shared, and shared with a group that will not assimilate to Anglo American cultural norms. (By the way Kevin, I don’t think that Miami is less segregated; there are just precious few Anglos.)
In fact, I believe that this shift is where many of the most raw and hostile feelings are coming from in the U.S. Having said that I do not believe it is in the interest in the future of America to not have poles, some fixed notions that we can assimilate around. I also think that White Americans (as well as others) are becoming aware that social equations and expectations are all in danger of being violently thrown out of whack. The reaction we are seeing across America, inflamed by pandering or not, is definitely one of insecurity and fear. (Which may be justified.)
The question is what should those notions be and who should get to determine them. In the past, these have been determined by power. I think it should be determined by some sense of historical awareness, sensitivity and justice. Again, I would warn people from presuming that the power structure and the numerical supremacy of one group will remain.
Going back to personal experiences, each day I see Central and South Americans who get up at ungodly hours to feed, clean and construct our world. (This is not to say that all Central and South Americans are limited to this.) When our worlds cross, on the train, on stoops, when getting food; it is not uncommon for me to hear Nahua/Nahuatl, Mayan, Quechua and other Indian languages. I always think to myself of the irony that these folk are illegal immigrants. *2In Miami, where I have often witnessed my fellow Cubans ignorantly call Central and South Americans “Tira Flechas” or “Arrow Chuckers”, I chew my lip in wonder.
I think it is clear that justice will play little part of America’s immigration policy. It never has. This is an issue of power and fear and politicians feed off of power and fear rather than conciliation and concensus building.If I "knows peoples like I knows peoples" it will just be a struggle for power.
Tom Bradley, the long time Black mayor of L.A. received a pledge of support from Hispanic leaders in his final run. That support helped him defeat an Anglo candidate that ran with support of the overwhelmingly White city council. Bradley promised to support a Latino candidate for an open council seat in return. After the election he reneged on his promise and supported a Black political understudy. When confronted he responded that he was sorry but the Hispanic community did not have the force to that it needed to do political bargaining. He also stated that Hispanics should learn a key lesson from this, “Power cedes nothing without the force of demand, never has, never will.” That quote, taken from Fredrick Douglas, was placed prominently at the entrance way of Bradley’s pet patronage project, the quarter billion dollar Central library in downtown Los Angeles. It was put there at his behest, “to instruct future generations”.
Notes:
*1 I brought up the question on Miamista quite a few times asking what people thought about big Miami political players and their strong support for Hispanic politicians who seek to have a Hispanic mayor (done, a Hispanic majority on the city council and to take over the school board. Oddly, I didn’t get any responses. I think the idea of Miami replicating itself is frightening.
*2 (A recent study found that a third of Cubans have Indian mitochondrial DNA as the dominant marker, and 2/3 Puerto Ricans. The marker is only an indication of matrilineal descent. I’m doing a posting soon.)
PS: This Purple Cow entry is dedicated to Kevin who too knows the guvmint pryin' blues.
John, this is off-topic but when you say Indian mitochondrial DNA, do you mean Carib and Taino?
John, I have neither the academic training nor the background to effectively respond to your last post, but I do think we are talking past each other, so let me try to summarize my central points and leave it at that.
The immigration debate in this country often avoids the raw, ugly truth: many Americans fear a change in the racial make-up and culture of their society.
Arguments that paint a picture of a united Latin American movement to remake the U.S., whether socially constructed or more fatefully described as "history insisting upon reconciling itself," can only add fuel to the nativist fire. You characterize the U.S. as "a nation built on a great, great crime," and go further to say it "is a crime of unparalleled evil, brutality and societal-wide bloody thirstiness."
This is nothing remarkable, or even unparalled, but instead a replay of all human history, with one group brutalizing the other until the next power comes along. The U.S. is hardly unique in this aspect, and a close inspection of history will show just how many modern nation-states, tribes, and ethnicities have foundations mortared with blood.
If we do not recognize our common humanity than we are doomed to repeat the cycle, and that's what scares me about some of your rhetoric, which seems to blend some degree of inevitability and historical karma to argue for a radical cultural takedown of the U.S. Are there no institutions worth preserving? Can we build a society that doesn't depend on one group displacing the other? Does every negotiation for a better future have to involve guns under the table?
On some days, I would totally agree with you, and see nothing but power rising and falling as different groups compete. On other days, however, I just feel ill about the whole mess and wish we could all stop falling into history.
On a personal note, John, I reciprocate the love, but let's stop talking about this, it depresses the shit out of me.
I tire of it also. At the same time I see people everyday who are living their lives in abject fear. I shared the story of several students. I will be seeing one today, here in D.C.
I honestly do believe that by confronting the past to now we have righted a number of injustices. If we leave off confronting them then we have given up hope.
I also believe that the era of colonialism and imperialism is coming to a close. History has a way of righting wrongs. That may be absurdly optimistic.
If in my current relative personal comfort I forget about conditions that are wrong I help perpetuate them.
Finally, I do not believe in comparing misery and injustice as a rule. However, in this time our nation, not Germany 70 years ago or Russia 30 years ago- our nation has committed the only act of genocide. I mean one group coming into another continent and depopulating it. Their are millions of Jews, and the state of Israel. That is the latest attempt that occurs to me. But OUR NATION has wiped off 30-100 million people (we'll never know exactly and most don't care).
I think we should be beside ourselves with joy that some how, some way, history is reversing its course. But instead our nation is acting like the same old hateful, racist savages- determined that they must ship out and lock up people who remind them that English is a European language and those brown people who serve us are Native Americans.
Having said that, I really have appreciated this exchange but I'm here in D.C. in the real world to see what I can do about this so I won't be blogging for a while.
OMG, I just totally missed the important question posed by my home girl, lovely lady the intelligent, elegant Ms. Sex and the Beach (who btw has a new site that is offering more and more cool things to purchase)...
What SOTB was referring to for you non-Cubans are the two groups of Arawak speakers from Colombia and Venezuela (who it turns out where originally from deep in South America but resisted being included in the Inca empire and moved northward.)
I ma going to make the assumption that it was both. I only say that b/c there was a long held bias against Caribe that made some false but lasting characterizations- cannibals, devil worshipers, even magicians who brought down storms and sea monsters (no joke) etc, et. This group tended to violently resist moreso than the Taino and had better weapons so...
What's crazy about the mitochondrial dna thing is that it is maternal. Fernando the Spanish guy comes and has children with Taina and they have children that may intermarry with Jorge... As soon as their are more GIRLS from Europe or Africa the whole dna marker is replaced by a new one (so that more Cubans would theoretically be of partial Native descent but mostly European or African.)
Used to be that claiming Indian descent was a sign of old, uppity families in Cuba but somewhere in our transposition as a culture SOME (not all) Cuban Americans became anti-Indian (PERHAPS for fear of confusion with almost purely poor Indian peoples of Latin America who immigrate here and the US cultural bias against Indians.)
I have always been proud that as a culture Latin America has not had the same history of genocide, even if a sometimes subtle/sometimes not bias exists.
Note to anyone tired of Castro's self righteousness on race, he very deliberately and repeatedly has stood in the way of exploration of Native self identity among Cubans b/c he loves to point out that he was a deliverer of darker skinned Cubans. It's part of that "my mother was an Indian/African and Spanish peasant maid and my dad was a bad Spainard so I know your pain" routine. IMO Cuban Americans have let him dn the Cuban gov't hijack this whole racial thing for propaganda purposes. I find it annoying so I'll leave it at that.
I am glad you brought up the subject. The other day I was looking at a Cuban DNA Project list and was surprised to see that out of 29 Cubans listed, eleven had indigenous mitochondrial genetic markers. That is more than a third, and these are Cuban-Americans! Of the eleven, nine belonged to haplogroup A and the other two were B and C. In addition, I also saw two Y indigenous haplogroups, Q and Q3 which were inherited through the father's line, something really rare in Cuba. The Q haplogroups were in a list of 39 Cubans, so their percentage is much lower than the Mtdna, as expected. Cuban indian groups were the Ciboney and Taino, not the Caribs who never made it to Cuba. I should say that I only saw two L (sub-saharan African haplogroups among the mtdna and none among the Y list}. So it seems that, at least among Cuban Americans, there is more native mitochondrial DNA than African. Of course, in a larger sample I am sure there would be more. However it is surprising how many Cubans think that they have inherited no indian markers! I am sure those tested were shocked, either in a positive or a negative way. You are right that in Cuba some upper class families considered it a badge of honor to have some indian ancestry. But the way Cubans felt about many issues in normal, pre-Castro Cuba, has experimented a big change in the USA. Regrettably in many cases it has been for the worse, in some cases, very few, for the better.
Post a Comment
<< Home