There are so few in the US whose ancestors weren't immigrants! That's just insane.

Here in Europe such policies are quite the norm. Popular anti-immigrant sentiment has given many supposedly democratic, progressive governments incredible leeway in denying many immigrants equal benefits from social services in spite of the fact that they are also still expected to contribute equally to the tax coffers. The immigrants are expected to subsidize American children's health care and pay for their own children's also. Essentially extra taxes.

From the politician's view the decision is quite simple. Why give equal treatment to a particular group if they cannot vote for you? Seeing it this way really makes it obvious that the struggle of immigrants is different from the struggle of the Founding Fathers, "No taxation without representation"...

Esa tonteria nueva no me sorprende en absoluto. Ha sido la misma cosa desde 1846, cuando los Anglos decidieron al principio invadirnos e humillarnos.

So after humiliating us in the Mexican War and declaring ourselves to be criminals in our own lands, in the eyes of the Anglos and their empire, our children are "illegal" too.

The fine distinctions under the US laws don't mean squat in practice-- to the Anglos in power, Latinos are illegals period, simply by virtue of already being here, flourishing and founding cities in the Southwest, thereby standing in the way of the Anglos' imperialistic plans for Manifest Destiny since even before the Mexican War invasions.

Los niños de La Raza get no respect or breaks whatsoever, since to the Anglos, they're just further obstacles to their imperialism. As it was in 1846, so is it now in 2007.

My old friend in Pennsylvania had a horrible experience recently. El tiene dos hijos alli, and he works in construction-- though as a highly-paid, qualified mechanical engineer. He's a fourth-generation Latino (and obviously much further back when we consider his family's roots in the California region since before the Mexican War).

On his way home from work to pick up his sons, three Anglo jerks across the street started taunting him with shouts of "INS! INS! INS! Be afraid greaser, be very afraid!" He's a thick-skinned guy and shouted back, "Hay, pendejos, el hedor de su ánimo está estropeando el aire aquí alrededor!" He knew the morons on the other side of the street wouldn't understand anyway, but his amigos did and it put a little smile on their faces.

This wasn't the first time such crap had taken place, and on other occasions it's occurred con sus hijos o/y su mujer a su lado! That's what really pisses him off, that his wife and sons have to deal with this crap too. One of his sons-- who is regrettably enrolled in one of those useless, pathetic English-only public schools that they have in Pennsylvania (rather than the dual English/español medium system common in California and Arizona)-- deals with those taunts all the time, even as he receives little to no worthwhile education in the rotten schools.

It wasn't the first time, and if anything it's becoming even more frequent for him and his family.

He's finally gotten fed up and is moving con su mujer y los niños to California where he has some family (y también escuelas de alta calidad enseñando parcialmente en español), and where we as Latinos have sufficient political strength that Anglo jerks like the ones there in Pennsylvania keep their mouths shut. Another old friend did the same thing-- he'd been working in tailoring in Cleveland, but just got too fed up with the racism and provinciality there, moved to Arizona-- where Latino businesses are strong, and our businesses and la gente in general look after each other-- and is now thriving. A cousin of mine currently floundering in Delaware, also dealing with the same crap with his 3 kids, is also moving with them to Arizona next month, with all 3 to be enrolled in the español medium dual-teaching schools there.

We can stand up for each other around here, in our home here in the SW, support each other's enterprises, education, stand up for our culture and La Raza, provide a place for our brethren elsewhere being persecuted. And we simply will not back down.

Y si eso decepciona a los Anglos-- mientras más mejor. Porque va a significar que tenemos impacto luchar contra los idiotos que tratan aun oprimirnos, sino ahorita sin éxito!

gracias barracuda para tu mensaje. the aggression rises in many places contra la gente, pero at the same time, many of us draw tighter together. be safe, be strong. good to see you.

Hace tiempo que no leo tantos articulos y comentarios inteligentes que traten con la situacion de los mexicanxs en los EEUU. Muchas gracias a todxs!

Barracuda, me dio pena leer la historia de tu compa en Pennsylania. Has the situation gotten worse in the States over the past decade? I grew up in the deep South, and I never had any such issues. Pero tambien era el unico mexicano en el barrio en esos tiempos, sin duda ha cambiado la situacion...

I still find the Latin/Anglo dichotomy to be too superficial and unsatisfying. La bronca es y sera siendo el conflicto indigena. La cultura popular latina sigue imponiendose sobre la indigena, tanto o mas que la anglosajona. Usar español, ingles, spanglish o los tres no hace diferencia (pero entre mas, mejor). It's what you're saying that matters.

el ahuitzotl: "I still find the Latin/Anglo dichotomy to be too superficial and unsatisfying."

I completely agree.

El Ahuitzotl, hola hermano, yo tambien estoy de acuerdo. Uso esta dicotomía "Latino/Anglo" en parte porque se significa en parte y en resumen, los lados del conflicto y la lucha para nuestra gente. También y de gran importancia, se nos ayuda unirnos para ganar nuestra batalla primaria y mas importante contra el "Manifest Destiny" que los Anglos desde los años 1820 (en Florida por Andrew Jackson, un racista especialmente terrible), 1830 (Tejas), y especialmente 1846 (la guerra estadounidense) y incluso hoy tratan de imponer a costa de nosotros y nuestros derechos básicos.

Yo adivino, que as a practical matter, you know, I'm taking it one step at a time. The first battle we have to win is against the Anglos and their Manifest Destiny, which continues to be a particularly oppressive kind of imperialism as much in 2008 as it was in 1846 on the ugly eve of the Mexican War. Las actitudes de los Anglos que nos declaran que estamos "ilegales," en las tierras where we were before them, you know, and the viciousness of it, that's a direct transplant from the Polk Administration to modern times. And what really me enoja particularmente, is that so few Anglos actually know about the Mexican War, they still believe they just inherited the region from the sky while the Latino people are intruders, when it's the other way around.

I mean, obviously este no aplica a todos los personal blancos en EEUU. I have white friends with whom I'm cool, but la llave esta el respecto, sobre todo, que tenemos el uno al otro. In fact there are three guys I know-- I hesitate to term them "Anglos" cuz they abhor the arrogant, lazy, self-absorbed, self-centered Anglospheric attitude themselves. One is originally a Swede, another German ethnic and the other French/Irish, but they're cool, they speak 3-4 languages naturalmente incluyendo el español, historian-type guys who know more about the Manifest Destiny lies than even I did at first, taught me some things, about my own lost heritage here, sobre la guerra estadounidense si mismo, about the real reasons for the Mexican War (aka the US slavery that Mexico outlawed), can't stand the Minutemen themselves *and* they're computer geeks too who a veces nos ayudan publicar y imprimir los folletos y posters for our meetings. IOW, I guess the people I call the "Anglos" are the subset of American Whites-- probablemente la mayoria hoy día, regrettably enough, who still try to act like la tierra en el Suroeste is their "Chicano-free" birthright. Not all of them are like this, sadly millions and probably most of them are.

And as for the labels and the divisions, Latinos vs. Anglos, yeah I agree, some arbitrary aspect to it. To me, this is just the practical, paso a paso aspect to our lucha today. Taking it step by step, one battle at a time, we have 2 or maybe 3 crucial battles ahead of us to reclaim our rights. El primero, is we first have to combat the Anglo arrogance of the Manifest Destiny that showed itself in such ugly force back in 1846 during the Polk Administration and before that even in Tejas in the 1830's, and which is rearing its head today in the form of the hatred of the people who were here well before the Anglos had the foggiest idea sobre la tierra que se designa "Aztlan". If only because continued Anglo Manifest Destiny (which we also see in Iraq and 100 other countries where US bases are spread out) is especially oppressive toward us and still with us today, and our most immediate threat.

So while the Latino terminology is far from perfect, it's just that for now, it works pretty well as a unifier for those of us in the USA, especialmente en el suroeste and under the thumb of the hateful Anglos, and helps us to bind together over large distances and among various peoples to gain the kind of unity we need to win the first battles against the Minutemen, the "soft haters" like Ron Unz and his types as well as the hard haters like the vigilantes and the Anglo racists with too much time on their hands in places like Hazleton.

The Anglos after all, wield all their claptrap about "assimilation" (to the "Anglo-Protestant" model of course while downplaying the foundational Latino character of 1/3 of the country), English-only laws, biased and anti-Chicano historical depictions in the schools, and urging disconnecting from our heritage and those things as political weapons to try to weaken our identity, and thereby attenuate our movement and make us founder.

Por eso, la designación "Latino," la cultura que celebramos, los días de fiesta, la idioma español naturalmente, la familia tan fuerte de La Raza, I guess I think of that as part of our shared experience and memory that distinguishes us from the Anglos in the USA while also keeping us together-- not perfect in itself but enough of a shared experience that it gives us a base for our fight.

Thus while "Latino" gives only shades of a sense of our identity, it's at least a good first step and a powerful unifier to keep us socially and politically united while facing the Anglo onslaught, and it helps us to more rapidly accomplish our first and most immediate objective: attaining our self-determination in the Southwest (and in Florida) where historically-speaking and today, we have been most directly attacked by the Anglos under the Manifest Destiny doctrine and suffered the most damage. Once this objective is attained, then clearly nuestro aspecto indigeno will emerge otra vez y florecer, to thrive when we are the majority in our lands and have enough control over our destinies, and self-determination that we don't have to worry about the Anglo imperial types mobilizing themselves against us anymore. Pues la herencia indigena por supuesto constituye el raíz de nuestro carácter y especialmente en Aztlán y en Florida, y mientras más ganamos en el campo de la batalla política, mientras más puede florecer y manifesterse el corazon indigeno en su brillantez.

Te agradezco por tu respuesta Barracuda. Lo que dices es una opinion que escucho seguido de parte de muchos latinxs en los EEUU. In essence, it is the fear of being divided and conquered. And there is a certain validity in it I guess, once you see the context de donde viene. Pero aun asi, creo que es una fallacy. Quizas lo veo asi porque mas que xicano, yo soy mexicano, y un mexicano rural, de un pueblito historicamente indigena. The Latin identity is the most visible enemy for people like me and my family, the hegemonic power que les obligo ha abandonar sus usos y constumbres casi completamente. The assimilationist policies that the Anglos use today in the States were invented and perfected in Mexico, and are still used there today, as well as in Aztlan by the Latin-power brokers, on those that have la buena fortuna de aun mantener sus raices.

Perhaps our difference in opinion stems from the fact that I view the Mesoamerican culture to be under siege, but not dead or even moribunda. When Texas and the rest of Aztlan were annexed and stolen in that most-unfair conflict, the people on both sides of the border did not speak Spanish, and many today still do not. En Mexico, los pueblos indigenas viven bajo la presion constante del gobierno mexicano, and I can't imagine self-determination in Aztlan being any different, specially when a new artificial identity like that of the Spanish-speaking Mexican has been created. That is why I firmly believe that we must not compromise any more and identify as indigenas/Native Americans. This might mean we might no longer be fighting under the same etiqueta con nuestros hermanxs caribeñxs, pero ganamos aliados con los otros indigenas de los EEUU. Ademas, la pobreza y miseria de muchas personas en los EEUU y Mexico, like that of the Black people and other immigrants tienen raices comunes y no se limitan a un idioma o identidad comun, entonces no hay porque separarnos, pero si debemos de ser honestos.