Opinions. Printed Occasionally.
My observations regarding immigration got printed today in the editorial section of The Tampa Tribune along with my picture where I appear way too happy.
I will link to it later when the editorial becomes available. If you're local - look for it!
UPDATE: Here is the link to my op-ed piece. Mr. C found it because he l-l-l-loves me.
posted by kate @ 10:03 AM
9 comments
9 Comments:
too bad they can't print Mr. H's comments
Kindly tune your Tampa radio to 1550 on your AM dial; you'll find a Mexican interest station that calls itself LA INVASORA!!!!
Can you tell me which Eastern European or Jewish media ever declared themselves such? Or, as I see that your ancestry is actually Irish, which Irish-interest papers or media declared themselves THE INVADERS!! ?
They understood about gratitude and respect for your new nation.
If you can't understand the tonal difference, then I suppose you just don't get it.
Moreover, as a visitor to Latin America, you'll most likely be called an extranjera, a foerigner. Not an immigrant, not an alien, an extranjera. You'll also find the immigration laws enforced.
Therefore, you'll see why the notion of seeking that the laws of the country be respected is not "spitting" on "Latino pride".
Ask any of the immigrants of Hispanic origin who have gone through the ardous, legal immigration process where they stand on the matter.
As for cultural politics, if you don't understand why it's offensive that a Mexican national convicted accomplice to child sexual abuse like Gloria Trevi would "recontextualize" the national anthem, then you might want to think harder.
FYI, "Fenian: is not interchangable with Irish. But, if you feel the need to disavow yourself of "Furey" for "Durkin", I suppose there's no use if continuing down that lane.
Good enough for Joyce, not for you, I suppose. Do you pencil in
"Michael Durkin: for "Michale Furey" in copies of "Dubliners" you have around, then?
What are we - related? Dude needs to RELAX.
Fringe elements don't concern me here - the discussion is about hypocrites who speak out against flag waving and then practice it themselves.
And I changed my last name because I was closer to the Durkins in my family. Never knew many of the Fureys. Not personal, bro, and nothing against Jame Joyce. One of my favorite people in the world is a Michael Furey and he wasn't even offended when I changed my name. Loves his sister I suppose. :-)
So get off me.
"Can you tell me which Eastern European or Jewish media ever declared themselves such?"
Though mild sounding to our ears the Lithuanian newspaper Unija (Union) was just as inflammatory in its short life (1884-1885). Brooklyn NY based publishers Tvarauskas and Slupas set out to be political, and boy were they in their support of Nationalism (Lithuanian vs. Russian Tsar) and Socialism (here in the US and back home). When Lithuanians and Poles were not busy fighting each other they were taking on the larger agenda of the the radical union movement.
Newspapers came and went, in Lithuanian, Polish, Russian etc. most with what was considered a dangerous, and radical Socialist agenda. In 1902 things came to a violent head in the anthracite coal mines of eastern Pennsylvania, land of my Lithuanian forebears. (Thus I have Tsarist Russian draft dodging great grandfathers on both sides of my family tree, but I digress.) Because exclusionary immigration practices were pretty much aimed at Asians until after WWI, most of the still non-English speaking Lithuanian miners who rioted in Shenandoah PA in 1902 were actually citizens. The MSM of the day still referred to them as "foreigners." Five were killed in the rioting, including a Lithuanian police officer as assimilation had begun. However, no one got a lengthy sentence from the overwhelmingly Eastern European juries who refused to equate those seeking better work conditions through union organization with everyday murderers. I'm not saying that violent riots are the way to go, just that our current wave of foreigners making demands is not something new in our country. Lest we labor too long on the illegal vs. legal arguement it would be a good idea to remember that the first countries to actually enforce immigration laws were slave holding colonies (who treated people as imports),the despotic regimes of the Russian Tsars, followed by the xenophobic Japanese and Chinese whom we ultimately forced to open their borders.
To make a long story even longer- Ultimately the Lithuanians assimilated more and more with each passing generation. Just as Latinos will. For good or ill, the United States of America is a great homogenizing force.
Thank you for trying to set the ignorants straight.
I've had a hell of a day.
People come up to me and say the dumbest sh*t. Things like "I hate that they send all their money home!" No one seems to realize that ALL IMMIGRANTS do that - Ireland alone would never have survived otherwise.
One person actually said: "Apparently you've never been jerked around by Mexican men." I heart how people try to justify bigotry. I said to the idiot: "I've been given more grief from white men my whole life than anyone else and I don't hate them. Married one and gave birth to two more. So there ya have it."
My own fault reaaly. Get published and people feel the need to opine. I'm up fer it, I suppose.
Chin up Kate. It was a good piece and worthy of publication. BTW, I like the picture you have on Sticks of Fire best, they sure did a poor job of cropping the one in the paper today.
I know! They got that from their files - not from me.
Yucky.
Any time you raise a good debate education is served
As far as I can tell from Port Tampa's stroll down memory lane, you didn't find many of the media catering to recent immigrants naming themselves as LA INVASORA
does, then.
People can cross borders legally, or they can break the law. They can seek to emigrate for asylum,or for better opportunities.
People can emigrate because they seek to become part of the new nation.
Having millions of citizens displacing themselves to a neighboring country without permission or oversight, with the tacit -and more- consent of that nation's government, is a major issue.
When we had this discussion in 1986, people of like minds to yourself were falling over themselves ridiculing the supposed Tortilla Curtain, as per Linda Ellerbee. That pardon affected 2 million. Now the number is 12M or 15M.
Many of these them are people who have no desire to be gringos or Americans: the agricultural jobs in Mexico are fading, and there are better paying jobs here.
You can call it benign opportunism -no responsible nation
can turn a blind eye to this phenomenon indefinitely. You have millons of oportunistic citizens of another nation overlapping into this one - that isn't immigration.
I'm sure you saw the Tribune piece on 21 Clubs, brothels in which illegal Dominican women service illegal Mexican wokers, to the benefit of the illegal Mexican owners. That is no immigrant's American dream.
Understand, I speak as a legal immigrant-turned-citizen. It was no picnic undergoing the process or dealing with the old INS, trust me. I know scores of people who's like to live here,from Colombia to Bangalore. Why should they go through the legal process when they could stroll over from Tijuana? You're either a nation of laws, or your not.
As a native Spanish speaker, I know what I was hearing on LA INVASORA, and it wasn't a "great homogenizing force". For good or
"ill". The Ellis Island era forces for assimilation, coming from American society and internally from immigrant peers, are gone, so some nostlagic reminiscing about the era of Tin Pan Alley is irrelevant to the era of LA INVASORA. Have you followed the Spanish-language media on this, at all?
If the consensus in your political circles is that those with different opinions on this are "ignorants" who need to be "set straight", you're in for a wake-up call.
We'll be fine - we speak Spanish, and Latin culture is warmer and friendlier than middle-America. On the macro level, however, the political anc cultural forces have made most Spanish nations Third world economies festering with corruption, cronyism, inefficiency, and crime.
That's what we left behind - why else would we leave our homelands?
And starting out by breaking laws and trying to game the system is the canary in the coalmine singing.
As Marge said to illegal alien Apu "What you're saying is so understandable. And really, your only crime was violating U.S. law"
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