"Illegals" in America

In New Mexico, many Hispanics like to think that they are different from the undocumented Latin American immigrants being flogged in the national media as “illegals”. After all, many New Mexico Hispanos have family that has been on this very soil since the 15th century, and they like to brag about it, as though inbreeding equated the right to be New Mexican. (Disclaimer: I myself am one of those with ancestors who came from Spain to New Mexico, with a land grant from El Rey, so don't bitch at me.)

How, then, they ask, can Native Hispanos possibly have anything to do with the “illegals” from Mexico who Lou Slobbs daily and incorrectly blames for all our woes? More than one local Hispano has told me they support the call to protect our country from “illegals”; sadly, more than one have told me they support a border wall, deportation of parents, and all the rest of it.

Last night, I watched (in high definition, God help me) the Republican presidential candidates flog immigrants some more, with smug little Mitt Romney (best hair of the bunch, worst soul) stating that undocumented children should have no rights to an American education. He was cheered. WTF? He neglected to mention that the parents of those children pay property taxes in their rent money each and every month, and that those property taxes pay for schools. He forgot to mention that those parents, like everyone else, also pay income tax.

It's all fine and good to be a New Mexican Hispano (or Texican, or whatever) opposed to "illegal" immigrants, but there’s just one little problem. Listen carefully to what I’m about to tell you: Hate crimes against ALL Hispanics are on the rise as a result of the media’s irresponsible assault on (primarily) Mexican immigrants. According to the Anti-Defamation League, hate crimes against Hispanics rose by a stunning 10 percent from 2005 to 2006. Experts attribute this steep climb primarily to right-wing talk radio and cable news shows that blame “illegals” for the economic woes in America.

To the skinhead or white supremacist, there is no difference between a Hispano New Mexican whose family came with a land grant from the King of Spain and a farmer newly arrived to Santa Ana, Calif. from Puebla, Mexico. To them, a Rodriguez is a Rodriguez, and all of us are to blame for the astronomical rise in poverty, loss of health care, failing education and crashing economy in America, under George W. Bush.

Of course, it simply is not true that immigrants are to blame for these complex social and economic ills. Bush’s illegal war in Iraq, funded not through tax increases like every other war in our nation’s history, but rather through loans into the trillions from China, is largely to blame. But in the war of words, the right-wing is winning, thanks in large part to corporate media ownership.

When you drive from Albuquerque to Phoenix, and listen to the radio, all you get are right-wing shows, all of them constantly beating the drums of hatred against “illegals,” using a term that is invented for the purpose of marginalization and dehumanization and is intentionally misleading. (The “crime” of being in the United States without proper paperwork is a misdemeanor less severe than the “crime” of an old person in Detroit buying prescription medications from Canada, but nowhere do we hear of such people being called “illegal” seniors.) Words are powerful, and whenever the media use the right-wing invention "illegals" to discuss the "issue," the right-wingers have already won because the very terminology sways public opinion. It is the danger and beauty of propaganda done well.

Much of my fence-sitting in the process of deciding whether or not to run for congress has to do with the similarities between this calculated propaganda aimed at inciting hatred against “illegals” (which is translated in the minds of the ignorant public into All Things Hispanic, including yours truly and her beloved family) and what was happening in Germany in the 1930s in the runup to the Holocaust. The parallels are terrifying. I’m sure many people reading this will say “How can you compare the two?” To them, I say: Easily.

We have killed more than 600,000 CIVILIANS in Iraq. Countless babies and children. What if China came here and killed that many Americans? Why do Americans stand for it? It is so nauseating. We torture people, disappear people. We have secret prisons all over the world. We like to think of ourselves as a free and just nation, and that is the lie the media tells us. It simply isn't true anymore.

Hitler ran on a platform very similar to the one being espoused by most Republican candidates at the moment, particularly Tom Tancredo. Though we like to think of history as being linear, and time denoting progress in the human condition, neither is true. Germany before Hitler faced economic ruin, as we do now. The public was uneducated, as ours is now. It was easy to aim their discomfort and unhappiness at Jews as a target. The same thing is happening here, now, with regards to Hispanics.

"Deportation" was a key action of Hitler's government. In the past couple of years, in the United States, more than 13,000 American children have been left orphaned because the public happily accepts the government deporting their parents. Countless idiots post comments like "Oh, well, come here legally and we won't separate you from your baby," not understanding that there is not a just immigration policy in place to allow them to come "legally".

Most Americans forget the many other "laws" that people "broke" in the past. It was once illegal for Africans to NOT be slaves. It was once illegal for women to vote or own property. Sometimes, it is the laws that are broken. Americans forget. Americans are punative in the extreme. America is a scary place.

The pundits who blast “illegals” as being expensive to the system (though this, too, is flawed information and completely misleading) seem to have no problem whatsoever with the incredible costs, economic and social, of leaving tens of thousands of American-born children without the care of their families. This tells me that it’s not about money; it’s about hatred of Hispanics, regardless of citizenship. The democrats should be blasting the right-wing hate-mongers for all of this, but for the most part, they, too, are silent. And this, my friends, should be a wake-up call to all of us.

I think of the famous quote by German anti-fascist Martin Niemoller: First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Socialists and the Trade Unionists, but I was neither, so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew so I did not speak out.
And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me.

They are coming for Hispanics. Mark my words. We are all being groomed to accept it.

A friend asked me yesterday how the water felt, referring to me testing the waters for a possible congressional run. I answered truthfully: tepid. I have gotten tremendous support and encouragement, and I think I would have a good shot at winning if I ran. But part of me sees what’s coming down the pike, and as much as I’d like to stick my head in the ground and pretend I don’t see it, I do see it. And what I see isn’t pretty.

Put in plain language: We are entering a recession. The world despises our country, and many nations are switching to the Euro, abandoning the plummeting dollar. As this happens, more people will go hungry. More people will lose their homes in the escalating forclosure crisis. We face all of this in addition to an endless war machine and a trade deficit the likes of which we have never faced before. And still the pundits pass around the memo, saying that all will be okay if they can only deflect the attention from Bush and the neo-cons to “illegals”.

I do not think all will be okay for Hispanics in America. I think we will continue to see escalating violence against all of us. I think the media will continue to brainwash the American public to blame Hispanics for their woes, just as Hitler blamed Jews. The entire system has been carefully set up for this. It is happening now, and it will only get worse.

And when the time comes to round up the “illegals” and put them in camps (already happening now, but will soon happen on a much larger scale) you would be foolish to think the crazed, hungry, desperate white (and black) masses will differentiate between Luis Jimenez, whose family came to Rio Arriba county in 1498, and Luis Jimenez, whose family waits for him in Zacatecas. They won’t make those distinctions. When they come for you, who will be left to speak out?

The humanist in me wants to fight this. But the mother in me wants to protect her six-year-old child from the dangers all Hispanics - including my child - face in America at the moment. The Arizona Republic this week actually had a letter to the editor whose headline said something like “not all Mexicans are criminals.” That this was “news” to someone is truly telling, and truly terrifying. The battle cry against Hispanics issues daily from the mouths of media, and our children will suffer. The question is: Could someone as insignificant as me actually do something about it? Or is it already too late? Would I be able to stop the roaring freight train on the tracks with my bare hands? Or would I be crushed by it, like everyone else? Methinks the latter, because history has always been thus.

So, for me, it really has become a choice: Run for office, or leave the country. Two of my favorite Latino writers in America have already done so. Daniel Hernandez just got his Mexican citizenship; and the brilliant Junot Diaz wrote to me from his new pad in Italy this week.

So, here I sit, on the fence, Canada/England/Australia/Spain on one side, congress on the other, unsure of what to do. I love my country, but I love my child more. My dear, sweet, beautiful boy. I am a Jewish mother in Berlin, in 1930, listening to the propaganda build. What do I do? Stay and fight? Or move to New York? What is the wise choice? I know many of you have said you count on me to fight for all of us. But what if that fight literally ends my life, or that of my child? Is it worth it?

I do know this much. No Hispanic is safe anymore in the United States. And if you think you’re different, just because you were born here and your ancestors multiple generations back were born here, you’re just plain wrong. To those with power, intent upon keeping power, you and I are nothing more than convenient targets, in the endless shell game (Exxon-Mobile game?) perpetrated against the American people. The neo-con fascists have not hesitated to send our young people to die in a war for oil, and they would not hesitate to kill us off for similar greedy purposes.

My ass is getting sore. I’m slipping off the fence. And, I am sorry to say, it’s not in the direction of congress.