Could bilingual census forms anger snubbed Latinos?

The Census Bureau has plans to send out some of its questionnaires in Spanish – making it possible for people living in the United States whose command of the English language is less than perfect to actually understand what it is they are filling out.

It is all part of the bureau’s efforts to try to persuade the nation’s growing Latino population that it is in their best interests to cooperate with the Census.

IN FACT, THE efforts being taken in recent months to convince Latinos that the census isn’t just some scam by Immigration and Customs Enforcement to get personal information about them are taking some extreme levels.

We literally have a Spanish-language telenovela where a character is trying to become a census worker. There have been countless community forums held across the nation.

I literally have on my desktop a coffee mug bearing the Census Bureau’s 2010 motto, “Está en nuestras manos” (“It’s in our hands,” en Inglés). In short, getting as accurate a population count of Latinos come the Census next year is something that ought to be a priority.

There’s just one problem when it comes to those Spanish-language forms, which on the surface sound like a noble effort to ensure that everybody can understand what is happening. After all, the Census Bureau provides varying levels of assistance in up to 70 languages.

WHY SHOULD SPANISH be exempted?

The problem is that officials are planning to send out about 14 million of the Spanish-language forms. But the current estimates are that there are about 50 million Latinos in this country (we’ll know for sure next year).

Now even though various surveys show more than half of Latinos are fluent in English (and some are only fluent in English, Spanish is the foreign language to some of us), the fact is that some people who probably could use a Spanish-language census form are not going to get one.

While Census Bureau officials are quick to say they’ll send a form to anyone who requests one, that takes a certain level of initiative on the part of the person to be counted.

IF WE’RE TALKING about someone who already is wary of the whole process, the idea that the form they are sent is not easily comprehendible becomes the excuse to ignore it.

In short, it could become the reason that the Census Bureau does not get the most accurate count of the Latino population come April 1, 2010 (the actual date that is supposed to be reflected upon in the population count).

I know for a fact (because I do some writing for other sources) that officials in Indiana are upset that no community in their state qualifies for local residents to automatically get the Spanish-language form – even though there are communities that have sizable numbers of Latinos.

It turns out that the communities are too assimilated, which means the few people who could use the form will get overlooked because of their neighbors.

IT MAY VERY well be that only South Texas (the Rio Grande Valley, to be exact) and parts of Southern California will have the percentages of predominantly Spanish-speaking Latinos needed for forms to be sent out automatically.

Although I was intrigued to learn there are portions of communities in Utah where the percentage may be high enough for some of those greatly desired Spanish-language census forms to be sent out automatically.

I’d hate to think that resentment could start to build up between Latinos who got a chance to respond to the Census en Español and those who did not.

I’d really hate to think that someone didn’t get counted because of this issue.

FOR I STAND by my previously-stated basic belief that this Census Bureau count is significant just to show people that the talk of a rapidly-growing Latino population in the United States is not mere hyperbole. There are those people with political influence who now use it against the interests of Latinos because they think “the numbers” show that the other side is more significant.

These people will listen to numbers, and if they start showing that the Latino side is the significant one, you will see how quickly some of the hostile political activity dissipates and how friendly political people will become to our causes if they perceive that we have the potential to start dumping many of them from elective office.

While there will always be some people who will be hostile, the day will come when it will be the mere crackpots of our society – and that is the day we will be able to write them off as irrelevant.

But all of this effort starts with the Census count. The one in 2000 showed that growth was taking place, and the ones next year and in 2020 will be important to show that it continues toward that “goal” of 2050 – which is when the Census Bureau has previously predicted that the Latino population will top off at roughly one-third of the total nation.

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EDITOR’S NOTES: Some of us will get the chance to respond to the Census in Spanish (http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_13439637), while others of us (http://nwitimes.com/news/local/article_0673d780-b317-5e6f-ae73-9a8e0a78293c.html) will not.

Soccer factions have more in common than they realize

It is the reality of professional soccer in the United States that some of the sport’s most diehard fans who live in this country don’t pay much attention to its professional league.

Then, there are those fans of Major League Soccer who go out of their way to snub the levels of international soccer where the game is played at its best, out of a belief that they are somehow showing a loyalty to soccer and to country (although there are also those people who think soccer itself is too foreign to ever fit in here).

SO I COULDN’T help but notice a tinge of irony when I stumbled across a statement announcing a new endorsement deal.

Specifically, DegreeMen is now the official antiperspirant of both Major League Soccer and the Mexican National soccer team.

All those people who like to root for Team U.S.A. and have a favorite MLS team who will talk trash about Equipo Mexico, and all those Mexican futbol fans who will talk trash about Major League Soccer being somewhere around Little League ought to take into account that their favorite soccer entity is taking corporate money from the same source.

Actually, DegreeMen reached its advertising deal with Soccer United Marketing, which works on behalf of many leagues, including both Major League Soccer and the Mexican national team.

SO WHILE THE idea that U.S./Mexico is an intense rivalry on the playing field is a noble one, those of us who want to get into too nationalistic a mental mode ought to keep in mind that when it comes to business, there is little difference.

Soccer is soccer.

The simple reality is that it is an intriguing game, regardless of what level it is played at, and the United States just by merits of being such a wealthy nation that excels at so many other sports, has the potential someday to have a professional league worthy of being the elite in the world – unlike its current status where aging stars like David Beckham of England came so he could claim to have had a stint living in the United States at some point in his career.

Perhaps the next time that the United States and Mexico take the field against each other, they ought to be reminded they’re both using the same deodorant (or at the very least, taking money to pretend that they use the same deodorant).

“WE WOULD LIKE to welcome DegreeMen as sponsors of M.L.S. and the Mexican National Team,” Soccer United Marketing Vice President Kathy Carter said, in a prepared statement. “DegreeMen’s commitment and support of the sport of soccer gives our fans the opportunity to always take on the challenge and the experience of ‘the beautiful game’ in the United States.”

If anything, this coming together of the factions of fans that support soccer in this country is what is needed if the sport is ever to have the same level of attraction in this country as it does in other parts of the world.

Because all too often, soccer matches in this country can feel like cultural clashes. I have been to Major League Soccer matches where the ethnic crowd and the Anglo crowd eyeball each other uneasily – wondering what the other side is thinking about.

And we all have seen those matches held in big cities with strong ethnic populations where the fans turn out in force to root for “the visitors.”

WHICH IS WHY Team U.S.A. prefers to play its matches in places like Columbus, Ohio, while the only way the Mexican National Team gets to play in a Spanish-tinged place like Texas is under conditions such as what will occur later this week.

The Texas State Fair on Wednesday will include as an attraction a soccer match – Mexico versus Colombia, where in theory neither side has an attraction.

Although I can’t help but wonder if that crowd at the Cotton Bowl will consist of Mexico partisans, with a few Team U.S.A. fans rooting for Columbia just so they can be difficult.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: If they share a deodorant sponsor, how long until soccer fans in this country (http://www.hispanicprwire.com/news.php?l=in&id=15596&cha=14) can share an overall love of the sport whose main detractors are the NASCAR crowd.

The sooner we realize we’re all people, the better off we are

I stumbled across the editorial stance taken by the Tri-City Herald, a newspaper covering a portion of small-town Washington state, and couldn’t get over how trite and trivial some of its comments were about the concept of immigration.

Yet the sad thing isn’t that the newspaper’s editorial stance was such a no-brainer that it bordered on the obvious. The sad part is that such a stance probably was a revelation to a segment of our society.

SO THIS BASIC editorial that almost reads like a parody is, in reality, something that needs to be said yet again.

This particular editorial was structured as a list of 10 things that people ought to do in order to improve the status in our society for the newcomers, so many of whom the newspaper believes are from Latin American nations.

This was a list for people already here and how they ought to react to the “newcomers.”

When I say it almost reads like a parody, how else could one describe an item on the list that suggests people take a plate of cookies to their new immigrant neighbors to try to make them feel welcome?

I COULD ALMOST envision a family being wary of these Anglo types next door trying to push off their cookies, almost as though it was unwanted food fit only for the new Latinos.

Seriously though, looking at the list of 10 items (http://www.tri-cityherald.com/opinions/story/732542.html) made me think there was truly only one item. Because all of the items seemed to me to be the same thing.

Inclusion.

These new people settled in your community because they see something about the lifestyle there that is appealing – probably the same things that you find appealing about it.

SO THERE’S A very good chance that these are people who will want to “fit in” with the mainstream, if only given a chance.

So items such as “mentor a Hispanic youth,” “coach a youth soccer or baseball team” and “invite a Hispanic friend to go with you to a voters’ forum, city council workshop or school board meeting” really are all the same.

The sooner that the mass of our society realizes that this growing Latino population is the latest continuation of trends that have been ongoing in our society for decades, rather than some new problem brought upon us by the 21st Century, the better off we all shall be.

The one part of this newspaper’s list that caught my attention were their items referring to English, the language.

FOR THE NATIVIST element of our society that is most likely to see a problem often claims that the potential barrier of a foreign language is enough reason to keep these people out.

The newspaper seems to think that those people who are most adamant about “English-only” ought to be willing to donate their time to help these people learn to speak better English.

It’s almost like, “Put your money where your mouth is.”

So on the whole, I’d have to say the Tri-City Herald (which likely isn’t used to getting much in the way of national attention) did a competent job of stating the obvious in saying that Latinos moving into the neighborhood are not the reason to flee to another community, but are just the newest group of people who ought to be welcomed.

THE BIG OBJECTION I would have is the fact that this newspaper, like many others, wants to think of modern-day immigration as a Latin American thing.

While I’m not saying there aren’t people coming from the nations that comprise central and South America (along with Mexico in North America), the fact is that the Latino population is increasingly becoming less and less an immigration issue.

Large and growing percentages of us are being born here in the United States, which makes the “immigration” issue a non-issue (except for those nativists who come up with ridiculous proposals to try to somehow repeal citizenship from people they wish had never been able to obtain it).

My point?

THE NEXT TIME you see someone of certain features or complexions that make you think they’re Latino (although just this weekend I had someone tell me he couldn’t figure out whether I was Latino or Arab), this newspaper’s advice is sort of correct.

Be friendly. Be welcoming. But assuming that they just arrived in the United States could be a gaffe that will come back to bite you in the behind.

Keep in mind that some of us have been in this country for awhile now. In some cases, it has been longer than some of you (my family’s roots in this country date back nearly a century). It might just turn out that we think of you as the newcomer to this country and to this continent.

So in that, context, “¡Bienvenidos a America!” And maybe if you’re nice to us, we’ll bring you over a plate of Mexican breads (more like sweet rolls than anything else) to be enjoyed with coffee.

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It's all a matter of perception

Perhaps it's fatigue hitting me, but I'm giving myself a bit of a break this weekend. So no fresh commentary about the situation of the various ethnicities in this country that comprise Latinos.

For those of you who need to read something, I suggest checking out this weblog's sister site, the Chicago Argus, where I can't help but wonder if we someday will turn the routes used by people coming to this country from Latin America without proper papers similar to how we now make a big deal out of the "Underground Railroad" of old.

WILL THOSE ROADSIGNS depicting the silhouette of a family running across the interstate highway while trying to dodge speeding cars become a historic relic?

Check out http://www.chicagoargus.blogspot.com/ for thoughts on that issue.

And check this weblog out again Monday for new commentary and analysis. Have a good weekend.

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Sotomayor to give political “analysts” fodder for months

Every person who envisions themselves a political pundit at heart is going to feel the need to throw in their “two cents” with regard to an event of deep, significant meaning that will take place this weekend in the Bronx.

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor is going to get to do the “first pitch” honors at Yankee Stadium prior to the Yankees’ game against the Boston Red Sox.

ALREADY, THE INTERNET is filling up with people on various sites trying to see who can win the half-wit humor of the year honors for the lame comments they can come up with to try to make some political point.

Will Sotomayor throw a pitch that curves to the left? Will she throw something that requires several bounces to make it from the pitcher’s mound to home plate?

Or will she show herself to have a “more manly” arm than that of the president who nominated her? Some people with too much free time on their hands just can’t seem to forget that ridiculous bowling score he posted during the presidential campaign – although personally I always wonder about people whose love of bowling causes them to devote that much time to rolling a ball down the lane.

People, it’s just a pitch. It has no deep, significant point, other than being part of the New York Yankees’ attempt to have a Hispanic Heritage Month celebration at their stadium.

IN CONNECTION WITH that event, the president of Panama will do the “first pitch” honors on Friday, with Sotomayor whose life story provides the dictionary definition of the phrase “Nuyorican,” getting to follow up on Saturday.

Sotomayor grew up in the Bronx, has always had an interest in the ball club, and as a judge has had the connections to get decent seats in the stadium that at times resembles an Anglo island in the middle of a black-turned-Dominican borough of the Bronx.

So she’ll get her few seconds of glory, which I suspect will mean more to her than it will to many of the Yankees ballplayers themselves. I can’t see Derek Jeter (the man who some would say did something really significant – topping Lou Gehrig’s total of base hits as a Yankee) getting too excited about having another political person hanging around the stadium for the day.

If anything, there will be some people to whom the only intriguing thing about Sotomayor was the fact that she was the judge who, back in 1995, issued the court ruling that forced Major League Baseball to end its lockout of the ballplayers that was meant to be their best shot at breaking the control that the Major League Baseball Players Association had over the game.

OF COURSE, TO those people who want to think that “greedy ballplayers” are the cause of all evil on Planet Earth, that ruling was what gave the players the moral high ground in the “work” stoppage that ended the 1994 season prematurely, eliminated the World Series that year, and is blamed in retrospect for many of the problems that ultimately led to the demise of the Montreal Expos as a viable franchise.

So it’s not like every baseball fan is going to be enthused about Sotomayor being in the ballpark. When combined with all the Obama bashers who will use any occasion they can find to take a few pot shots, this weekend is going to provide fodder for months to come for stale, tacky jokes.

In fact, I’m wondering if there will be people who will wonder why political people had to be sought out for the Yankees to do a Hispanic Heritage Month celebration at the ballpark.

Could it be that some of the boos that will cascade down upon the field on Saturday will be from people who would rather have seen another Bronx native-made-good get the honors?

THEY COULD HAVE have always dredged up Jennifer Lopez? I doubt she’d toss a ball any differently than will Sonia. Of course, she would have had husband (and singer) Marc Anthony tagging along.

So if Sotomayor spared us that sight, perhaps that is reason enough for us all to cheer her presence on Saturday.

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EDITOR’S NOTES: Sonia Sotomayor’s presence on the playing field Saturday is just (http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090922&content_id=7093504&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb) one gesture by the Yankees to show solidarity with the growing Latino population of New York.

For the record, Sotomayor is the third Supreme Court justice to do “first pitch” honors (http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/2009-09-22-sotomayor-first-pitch_N.htm) at a major league-level baseball game. Unless one doesn’t count the Chicago Cubs (John Paul Stevens in 2005) as “major league.” Then she is the second.

Coca-Cola bottom line financial, so they reach to Latinos

It shouldn’t be a shock that Coca-Cola has a sense of the Latino market in this country.

Their iconic soft drink is a big seller in many Latin American countries, and it would only be natural that those who emigrate from there would keep their taste preference intact.

I KNOW SOME people who insist the only way to truly enjoy a Coca-Cola these days is to go to a ethnic grocery store and buy the bottles imported from Mexico – on the grounds that the formula changes made throughout the years in the United States were never made elsewhere and one can still get long-necked bottles of the carbonated drink.

In short, Mexicans do Coke the old-fashioned, all-American, way. Of course, at something close to $2 per bottle, it can get pricey. So drinking Mexican Coca-Cola is one of those occasional treats, rather than a regular habit.

The point of this is to show that Latinos can appreciate a Coke (no self-respecting Mexican is going to be seen drinking a Pepsi). We’re willing to spend our money on such soft drinks.

So why wouldn’t Coca-Cola officials keep that fact in mind when they’re trying to do business. They have the sensible approach to the fast growing population – we’re green, as in the color of our money.

SO WHEN THEY advertise, they keep us in mind.

That is what has inspired a new advertising campaign that is appearing in Los Angeles, Phoenix and Chicago – all cities with substantial Latino populations that more specifically trend heavily Mexican-American.

The billboards feature Powerade – one of those fruit juice-type drinks that supposedly has substances added to make them more acceptable to quench the thirst of an athlete in mid-game. It is a Coca-Cola product.

Powerade ads look a lot like U.S. advertising – billboards featuring an athlete, as though by drinking a lot of Coke one can become a star ballplayer.

BUT THE ATHLETE they chose to highlight was Guillermo Ochoa, a star of the Mexican national soccer team – which happens to be the arch-rival of the U.S. national team.

I’m sure some people think it appalling that a Mexican star athlete is getting big advertising play in this country. What next? Billboards featuring New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter erected right outside Boston’s Fenway Park?

But once again, it’s the green.

I’m sure Coca-Cola wouldn’t set up such billboards in Columbus, Ohio.

BUT IN CITIES of the southwest or in Chicago (which historically has attracted just about every ethnic group and currently has a Mexican ethnic population that accounts for about one of every six city residents), the connotations are going to be much more positive.

Almost as though somebody recognizes the legitimacy of this particular market when it comes to selling a product.

This kind of change is going to become more and more prevalent, and there are going to be people in this country who are going to have a hard time with it.

But it almost strikes me that these people are the ones who’d rather put some ideological hang-ups they have about ethnicity ahead of business. If it were any other issue, they’d probably be the first ones to claim that the “American Way” of life includes promotion of capitalism – which would include reaching out to all interested markets when trying to sell a product.

SO COULD IT be that these people who will get hung up over the idea of Mexican athletes being used to promote the concept of selling goods to Latinos are somehow “un-American?”

That might be a little strong.

But I am pleased to see one other aspect be respected by Coca-Cola.

The soft drink maker isn’t automatically rushing these billboards and similar ads into all Spanish-speaking markets.

I’D LIKE TO think it is because they realize that promoting a Mexican athlete isn’t going to sell goods to everybody whose ethnic roots trace back to a Latin American nation. We don’t all think alike.

Heck, featuring a soccer player could turn off people with backgrounds in the Dominican Republic or Puerto Rico (which would make such a billboard a non-starter in New York, where those ethnicities are dominant among the local Latino population).

And try setting them up in Miami, where the Cuban exile population would likely respond by denouncing the spots as “Communist, just like Castro.”

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Will the Census make good television?

Excuse me for being honest, but I just can’t envision the Census making for good television – particularly not in the medium of telenovelas, where some of the viewers view those shows because they want to see scantily clad women.

So unless we get the sight of a census taker in a see-through nightgown, I just don’t get how it will work.

YET THAT IS what is going to be tried on Spanish-language television in this country.

Specifically, officials with the Telemundo network announced Tuesday that they are altering one of their daytime shows, “Mas Sabe El Diablo” to include a storyline in which the characters take an interest in the U.S. government’s upcoming attempt next year to do as accurate a count of the national population as is humanly possible.

It could wind up being incredibly awkward television. It may even lose some viewers, if not put them to sleep.

But it is evidence of the extremes to which some people are determined to go to in order to persuade Latinos to ignore the partisan dimwits who are interested in using the Census to stage a protest by having us NOT be counted.

IT ALSO IS evidence of the degree to which some people will take this issue very seriously.

And I suppose if there’s at least one person who receives their Census Bureau form in the mail next spring and actually decides to fill it out just because they saw fictional characters on a television show do so, then perhaps the idea will be branded a success.

But for now, the “Census” storyline is something that will get Telemundo mocked in some quarters. Of course, some of those quarters were the same ones that initially thought the “Ugly Betty” show on ABC was a horrid idea that would never translate to U.S. television – until it actually became a hit for a couple of seasons.

Will a Census storyline wind up making some television executive look like a genius come next summer?

I DON’T KNOW if we ought to go that far. But it is a serious issue.

For the Census count to be done next spring (which is meant to reflect the official population of the United States on April 1, 2010) is going to be our once-in-a-decade chance to show just how strong our numbers are.

I am of the belief that Latinos will gain respect in political quarters when our numbers can no longer be denied. For as long as Anglo types think that Latinos are somehow just immigrants or just people too lazy to turn out to vote in significant numbers, political people will push Latino concerns aside.

The Census will offer a chance to show that the growth that has been estimated by the Census Bureau in recent years was not just a quirky guess. It is real, as in live human bodies occupying space within this nation.

IT WILL BE a matter of coming up with a statistic to back up that oft-repeated claim in this weblog and in other places that are not eager to ignore the truth – the fastest-growing segment of the population.

I can remember the 2000 census – the one that showed us comprising about 12 percent of the population. In just nine years, it is believed that we’re up to about 15 or 16 percent. Personally, I wonder if we’re really closer to 20 percent – what with all the problems involving trust that come into giving information about oneself to the federal government.

But if we get that 18 percent total come next year (which would make us nearly one of every five people in this country), that also would be intriguing.

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New website will offer evidence as to whether the GOP “gets it” with regard to Latinos

It appears I have a new website to include among those I try to regularly check out.

It’s called “The Americano,” and it bills itself as a bilingual site (http://theamericano.com/) covering news of interest to the fast-growing part of the population – us.

BUT IT ALSO has another purpose – trying to get Latinos to take seriously the idea that the Republican Party has something to offer to them.

For this particular site is put together by a company controlled by one-time House Speaker Newt Gingrich. The Georgia Republican continues to be a talking head willing to spew the GOP rhetoric, and now he seems to want to use the Internet to get through.

Just on the surface, I have to admit this is a remarkable step. Because usually whenever Republican officials talk about anything concerning the Latino population, it comes out either as outright demonization or some sort of rhetoric that implies Latinos and our growth is a “problem” that this nation needs to confront.

It is because of that attitude that so many polls show a huge majority of Latinos who pay attention to politics think of the Democratic Party as their ally – not because of anything the Democrats actually do.

COULD IT BE that at least one Republican officials “gets it” with regard to the growing Latino population – that the Census Bureau predicts will account for about 30 percent of all U.S. residents by 2050.

We’re here. We’re not going anywhere (no matter how much some people want to fantasize about erecting walls in the middle of the desert). And reaching out to us as though we are human beings who are just as interested in advancing ourselves in this society as anyone else is an effective way to ensure you might actually get some of our votes in future elections.

A part of me has always thought that some of the more devout Catholics among Latinos are even willing to buy into the social conservative agenda pushed by the modern-day Republican Party.

Getting a piece of the Latino vote (rather than surrendering it to Democrats) strikes me as only being common sense.

YET IT IS a concept that appalls some people in our society who turn to the Republican Party because they prefer its hostile approach toward Latinos, and toward the issue of immigration in general.

I still remember the way George W. Bush’s popularity among the GOP base declined when he tried to push for an immigration reform measure that (while considered hostile by many Latinos) wasn’t hostile enough for the hard-cores.

So when I say The Americano is a site I will be checking in future weeks and months, I’m going to be looking for signs that this is a sincere, respectful effort to gain the support and interest of Latinos.

Because if Gingrich thinks that slapping a few bromides our way without offering any substantive action is going to get our support, then he’s ridiculous.

OFFERING UP CHEAP rhetoric translated into Spanish on a website would be little better than those politicos on the campaign trail who venture into Spanish-speaking neighborhoods and expect people to swarm to them just because they let themselves be photographed wearing a sombrero.

So what should we think?

I gave the site a first look on Monday, and noticed that some of the content is party-line politics (an essay entitled “Why the United States matters”).

The content that caught my attention were the cheap tricks meant to create the impression that the Democrats and their allies don’t have the best interests of Latinos in their hearts.

NOT THAT THE GOP is saying they’d do better, but I guess they want people to have a few hostile thoughts toward the party of FDR, JFK and BHO.

How else to explain a prominently played story under the headline, “ACORN helping to bring 14 underage girls from El Salvador to the U.S. as prostitutes.” Or another commentary headed, “Why are we sending mixed messages to Honduras?”

Because we all know how the Republicans have gone out of their way to link the activist group ACORN to the Democratic Party for its excesses in terms of turning out the vote.

So now, not only are Democrats supporting ballot-box stuffers, they’re also backing would-be pimps – with our Latina sisters from El Salvador being the victims. And in the case of Honduras, we’re told that federal support for that central American nation does not match the lofty rhetoric espoused by the now-Democrat-controlled federal government.

SO THERE’S JUST as much political spin being offered here as at any other site. Not that this concept bothers me, in and of itself. I have always thought that people putting their spin on the “news” wasn’t out of line, so long as the would-be publishers are honest enough to admit what they are doing.

If Gingrich and his crew want to turn their web site into a place that offers up cheap pandering to Latinos, that is their right (as in the First Amendment, freedom of expression).

I have enough confidence that my Latino brethren will see through such cheap rhetoric, if that’s all this GOP outreach effort becomes.

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What is Chavez’ place in history?

It appears he is spared for now, but some people were worked up recently that officials in Texas would start reconfiguring the social studies curriculum taught in the Lone Star State’s schools so as to exclude mentions of Cesar Chavez.

The State Board of Education took a pass on a measure that was put forth by some ideologically-driven officials who would rather see people like Chavez, founder of the United Farm Workers of America, and former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall (also a prominent attorney during the civil rights era) downplayed in history courses – if not ignored altogether.

THE THEORY (ONE which has some merit) is that there is only so much that can be crammed into the course of one year in teaching U.S. history, so some things have to be excluded.

Of course, when officials start making ridiculous remarks such as Chavez’ name not belonging in the same sentence as Benjamin Franklin (there’s a Texas minister who really said that), it becomes obvious that this is an attempt to inject partisan politics into the educational curriculum.

I suspect that what most bugs some people about having to acknowledge Chavez as a person of significance is that he ultimately is an organized labor official. There are people who want to believe that the labor unions (by standing up for worker rights) are causing the problems that confront this nation.

Their idea of acknowledging a labor official is to bring up the name “Jimmy Hoffa,” say that he was criminally corrupt, then make a stupid joke about his remains rotting under the concrete under the playing field of Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.

THE LAST THING they want to have to admit is that a labor leader helped improve the quality of life for a class of workers that had long been dumped on by our society, and in the process also improved the quality of conditions under which the food we eat is grown.

They’d rather think that organized labor is some sort of “communist” movement, rather than have to face the fact that some of their totalitarian-minded behavior is more in line with the communists than anything ever done by a union official.

I wonder at times how many people today remember the name “Cesar Chavez.” It has been a few decades since his work to make people aware of the dreadful conditions that migrant farm workers endured. He’s been deceased for a long-enough time period that he even has his own U.S. postage stamp – a fact that I’m sure bugs some people in and of itself.

If anything, I would think the Postal Service’s action in granting Chavez a stamp ought to be some sort of evidence that he deserves mention in a U.S. history course taught to people prior to the university level.

IT WOULD BE rather pathetic if people were plopping those stamps (along with a few $0.01-ers) onto their occasional bill payments and letters without any idea of who Chavez was.

Now I realize this effort by conservative ideologues to tamper with the history curriculum taught in Texas did not single out Chavez. They had their problems with Marshall as well, claiming he hadn’t done enough in his life (as though arguing for Brown vs. Board of Education to desegregate schools, then becoming the first non-white Supreme Court justice wasn’t enough) to warrant mention.

Is this going to be the same argument used someday by ideologues to try to exclude Sonia Sotomayor from getting a mention, as though the process that the Senate went through this summer to confirm her was uneventful?

If anything, this is going to be an issue where passage of time will help benefit. I wonder if Chavez is going to be the same in terms of perception as Martin Luther King Jr.?

THERE WAS THE time when people openly labeled King as a communist and a subversive and tried to act as though J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI wasn’t engaged in venal behavior with the way it engaged in wiretapping and surveillance to try to dig up dirt.

Now, about the only people who bother to try to label King a communist literally are the members of the Ku Klux Klan, who will claim that the day is forthcoming when we will realize our mistaken perception about King.

Seriously, that line is a staple of just about any Klan rally taking place anywhere in this country. That and the lit cross.

Could it be that the day also will come sometime in our near future when we will realize that trying to downplay Chavez is equally as ignorant?

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Cesar Chavez continues to get his mention in the history curriculum used (http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_13362953) by the public schools in Texas.

Perhaps there’s no compromise on immigration

I still remember the time an abortion rights activist tried explaining to me how there are certain issues where “right” and “wrong” are absolute and how trying to reach a mid-ground is pointless.

It would seem that immigration reform is becoming one of those issues. There just isn’t any serious way to mollify the opposition (the ones whose idea of “reform” constitutes an increase in the number of deportations), so perhaps it is pointless to try.

THERE ARE THOSE who believe that the reason President Barack Obama has failed to get anything approved yet by Congress with regards to health care reform is that he spent so much time and effort trying to find a middle ground – not realizing that his opposition sees “victory” in doing nothing.

Just so long as they’re able to prevent him from passing anything, they will claim they win.

There’s also the fact that health care reform is becoming intertwined with immigration reform (the issue that Obama advisers say will have to wait for a future year because the health care issue is a bigger priority).

It may well turn out that health care reform will be a much easier political fight than the eventual battle over how to reform the nation’s immigration laws.

ALREADY WE’RE GETTING those people (the nativist element of our society) who claim health care is a scam to legitimize people whom they think do not belong.

And there were Latino activists who took some offense to the latest rhetoric from Obama, the talk that said a health care reform proposal would take extra steps to ensure that people without a valid visa would be unable to purchase health insurance through the mechanisms Obama wants to set up to make insurance available to all.

There are those political observers who will try to condescend to Latinos by telling us that we need to accept such rhetoric as part of the give and take of U.S.-style politics, and the art of compromise.

Except that the rhetoric is not being seen by the nativists as any concession toward them.

IF ANYTHING, THEY want to view it as yet another “lie” by the president.

What bugs them was the address Obama gave earlier this week to help kick off Hispanic Heritage Month, where he reiterated his talk about restricting health care access to non-citizens – as though they would never become ill in this country.

But when Obama added the line, “I also don’t simply believe we can simply ignore the fact that our immigration system is broken,” he ticked them off.

Because to them, that means the people they desperately want removed from the country would be the beneficiaries of laws that would give them “legal” status in the United States.

IN ALL HONESTY, all such a change would do is accept the reality that the bulk of these people without papers are here, some have been for quite a while, and the majority of them are making a worthwhile contribution to our society with their labor – often in jobs and tasks that don’t exactly have a lot of people lining up for them, regardless of how hard up the job market is.

Obama got applause from the Latino crowd at the White House on Wednesday when he said, “this debate underscores the necessity of passing comprehensive immigration reform and resolving the issue of 12 million undocumented people living and working in this country once and for all.”

The president may have thrown out his bit of compromise, but to the nativist element they were prepared to merely spit it back in his face.

One website that typically likes to express great shame that Obama comes from Illinois referred to health care reform as the “backdoor to amnesty.”

“AMNESTY,” OF COURSE, having become the Scarlet “A” of the 21st Century – the word meant to imply that certain people need to get it through their heads that they don’t belong in this country.

It ignores the immigrant tradition that is what allowed this nation to advance to the ranks of the preeminent countries on Planet Earth, and whose continuance will be what prevents us from becoming a third world nation – albeit one of Anglo complexion.

The more I think about it, the more I’m thinking that the immigration reform battle of the early 2010s is going to be this century’s equivalent of the fight for a Civil Rights bill through Congress in the 1960s.

There are those who will argue seriously that then-President Lyndon B. Johnson made a serious mistake when he used his political experience and influence to pressure Congress into giving him the measure that finally did away with much of the segregated legal traditions that had become too commonplace in this country.

I SUPPOSE THEIR grandchildren will someday argue that Obama would be better off not pushing for immigration at all, unless he’s prepared to side with those who want fewer people here – which he’s not.

I’d like to think the outcome of all this recent rhetoric is that Obama is learning he’s going to have to show some backbone on the immigration issue – whenever it does finally come up.

Because attempts at compromise are only going to be thrown back in his face by people who don’t want to listen. And they will also be remembered by those of us Latinos who get skeptical about Obama – even if he did crack a few jokes with singer Marc Anthony.

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EDITOR’S NOTES: Barack Obama appeared to enjoy his evening where the White House took on (http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-the-President-at-the-CHCIs-32nd-Annual-Award-Gala-9/16/09/) a Latino complexion.

Compromise will never be accepted (http://illinoisreview.typepad.com/illinoisreview/2009/09/obamas-backdoor-to-amnesty.html) by either side.

Latinos not as “alien” as nativists want to believe

I can already hear the chants of “you lie” from the people who gave Rep. Addison G. “Joe” Wilson, R-S.C., that $1 million in donations in the days after he behaved like a boor.

But the Washington-based Pew Hispanic Center came out this week with new profiles that attempt to give us a look at what the Latino population is all about. Specifically, they looked at the five ethnic groups that most commonly crop up in the United States.

THERE ARE JUST too many similarities to the population as a whole for the idea that this is somehow a “foreign” and “subversive” element to add to our society to be given any credibility.

Now not to knock Salvadorans, but I paid most of my attention to the profile done of the Mexican-American population.

In part because it matches up with my own ethnicity, but also because it is the ethnicity that comprises nearly two-thirds of all Latinos in the United States. Which shouldn’t be a shock.

A large part of the southwestern portion of this country was once a part of Mexico, and Mexico has that direct border. It should not be surprising, nor upsetting, that Mexican culture is going to have an influence on the U.S. to the same degree that our culture oftentimes seems to overtake the pop influences of Mexico.

PERSONALLY, I COULDN’T help but notice the issue of language, which is one the nativists often bring up as a reason why people from Latin American nations are just too different to fit in.

No matter how much they want to claim we’re not learning the English language, it would appear to be more truthful that we are.

Among people of Mexican ethnic backgrounds, some 5.5 million speak only English in their homes. Another 9.7 million speak English “very well,” along with Spanish. That is about 60 percent of all Mexican-Americans.

Latinos as a whole do better – 8.9 million speak only English while 15.8 million speak both English and Spanish “very well.”

THERE’S ALSO THE fact that I take into account as being crucial – many of us already are on the citizenship path, even though the nativists would have you think immigration reform is solely a Latino issue.

For some Latino ethnicities, such as people from Puerto Rico, the whole concept of immigration is irrelevant because they are natural-born U.S. citizens. Some people would have you think it is merely “those Mexicans” who cause a problem with this issue.

Yet of the roughly 29.2 million people in the United States of Mexican ethnicity, some 20.1 million are already U.S. citizens. That’s two-thirds.

For Latinos as a whole, it is 32.4 million of the 45.4 million who already have citizenship.

PEOPLE ARE GOING to have to stop thinking of anyone with a light brown complexion as being a candidate for “illegal” immigration status, since the bulk have made it through the naturalization process – assuming they didn’t just gain U.S. citizenship by the accident of birth (the way all those so-called “real Americans” gained it).

For the record, 17.6 million Mexican-Americans were born en Los Estados Unidos, as were 27.3 million of all Latinos.

Then, there’s the other factor. Work. Even those of us here who are newcomers – 7.2 million Mexican-Americans who are Mexico-born came to the United States after 1990, compared to 4.3 million who came before that date – have jobs.

Less than 1 million (955,000, to be more specific) are people of Mexican-American background who do not have jobs. That compares to 12.4 million who are old enough to work who do work.

THE STEREOTYPE OF the “lazy Mexican” is one that ought to be put to sleep, even though I’m sure that Joe Wilson’s contributors will cling to their images as they try desperately to ignore the reality of the 21st Century – preferring the first third of the 20th instead.

Because why should they trust those “lying” facts such as these about the contributions Latinos can make to our nation and the ways in which we are assimilating to the societal norms.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: The Pew Hispanic Center did similar studies of people of Puerto Rican, Cuban (http://pewhispanic.org/files/factsheets/49.pdf), Dominican and Salvadoran ethnic backgrounds. How long until Hugo Chavez complains that Venezuelans were snubbed?

Direct mail to Havana, but what about cell phones?

Perhaps I’m just too sarcastic for my own good, but am I the only one who wonders about the timing of resuming direct mail between the United States and Cuba?

We’re talking about a time in our society when fewer and fewer people in the United States use the U.S. Postal Service. Is this all just a plot to try to drum up some new business for the postal service?

ON A SERIOUS note, I realize this is a legitimate issue.

There hasn’t been direct mail permitted between the two countries in 46 years, and I’m sure that Cuban-Americans with relatives remaining on the Caribbean island nation would enjoy being able to just drop a letter into the mailbox for pickup in order to keep in contact.

Currently, those people who are determined to send mail to Havana have to figure out how to get it to a third country that has no qualms about dealing with the Communist government that runs Cuba. Then, it gets passed along to Havana, and eventually sent to wherever on the island it is intended.

People who endure the hassles of the process say it can take a couple of months for letters or packages to get where they are intended to go. The end result is that it often is not worth the hassle to try to mail something to a Cubano relative.

BUT I WOULD think that if the U.S. government were seriously interested in trying to make communication easier between the exile community here and the relatives back on the homeland, they would not want to even think of the Postal Service.

It just sounds so 20th Century.

If they really wanted to do something, they’d probably try to make it easier for Cubans on the island to get cellular telephones or to have Internet access.

In the latter, the government controls who can have access to computers. So unless one is a Communist party official of sorts who can be trusted not to fall sway to all the stupid videos on YouTube or those virus-laced pictures of Erin Andrews or Jessica Biel, the Internet is not an option.

SO MUCH FOR the idea of just sending an e-mail to your Cuban relatives, the way many families in this country keep in touch with their relatives serving in military combat zones in the Middle East.

And as far as cellphones are concerned, the Cuban government made changes in its policy that theoretically allow everyday people to buy a portable phone.

But they remain expensive, and the plans to make the phones more than just hunks of plastic and metal are rationed out to only certain people.

But these are the ways that people communicate in this century. Saying that we’re going to let Cubans send letters directly to each other just sounds like way too little to be effective.

YET THERE IS one way to look at this issue in a positive manner.

Reports indicate that talks will begin Thursday on this issue, and it is being seen as a way of allowing the United States to test Cuba to see how willing they are to compromise on issues.

In short, a Cuba that is willing to discuss fine points of this issue and negotiate could be one that is willing to talk about bigger issues – ones that could someday result in that decades-old trade embargo tumbling down like the Berlin Wall of ’89.

But if Cuba continues to take a hard-line on something as antiquated as mail service, then it could be used as a way of letting President Barack Obama walk away from his campaign rhetoric of ’08 saying that he’d like to have normal relations between the U.S. and Cuba.

IT WAS THE United States that cut off the mail service back in the days of John F. Kennedy, but it is modern-day Cuba that expresses concerns that all those “gusanos” will use the mail to send worm-like, subversive materials (and possibly weapons) back to their relatives.

And it was just this week that Cuba’s foreign minister, Bruno Rodriguez, made public pronouncements criticizing Obama for not doing more to try to restore relations between the two countries.

As though easing the travel restrictions to allow Cuban exiles with relatives on the island to visit more freely wasn’t a starting point.

Rodriguez claims Cuba should not have to make concessions of any type or any size, as though the past five decades have been purely a U.S. hangup.

BUT THE KEY will be how different the tone is between Rodriguez’ public rhetoric on Wednesday, and the talks that take place on Thursday in Havana between postal officials of the two countries.

Who knows? If something gives on the mail, perhaps soon we’ll be talking about ways for U.S. companies to provide more cell phones in Cuba so that people in the Miami exile community (who have spread throughout the United States) can just dial their relatives in Camaguey, without having to worry about the FBI listening in on their call.

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They’re so sorry. It’s too bad we’ve heard it before

The U.S. Forest Service says it didn’t mean to offend Latinos when it issued its recent advisory telling its rangers what to look out for when it comes to finding people who might be growing marijuana on federal land.

That is a problem out in Colorado these days, where some growers apparently think the wide expanse of national forests means they can use patches of it here and there and go undetected.

APPARENTLY, SOMEBODY THINKS that Cheech Marin and his ethnic brethren is the prototype for marijuana growers, as their advisory told rangers that signs of “campers” who are really people performing illicit activity could include Spanish-language music on the radio, Tecate brand beer and tortillas.

That same advisory warned rangers that such people could be armed and dangerous.

Whodathunk that the sight of a tortilla could be interpreted as evidence of a dangerous hombre? Unless it was an Azteca brand tortilla, in which case the person is not dangerous so much as ridiculous for eating those overly processed cardboard-like inedible objects.

To their benefit, the Forest Service now says that it is sorry for laying on so much Mexican imagery when it comes to describing people who may try to earn a living from the growing of marijuana.

THEY ALSO ADMIT, following their meetings in recent weeks with Latino activists out in Colorado, that they probably have some things to learn about the portion of the U.S. population that is the fastest growing in the nation.

But what catches my attention about this latest incident is that it is so predictable. There are so many instances where someone assumes that elements of Spanish-speaking cultures are somehow dangerous to the U.S. way of life – if not downright subversive.

These images may not even be the most ridiculous I have ever heard.

That “honor” could go to the town of Lake Forest, Ill., a high-priced suburb of Chicago which once issued a directive to its police department informing them of things to look for to detect people who don’t belong in the town.

ONE OF THOSE things was “big hats,” since everybody knows all Latinos wear something approximating a sombrero. Personally, my only “Mexican” hat is a ball cap I own of the Mexican national baseball team. Although I do enjoy drinking a cerveza Tecate every now and then.

It was good for a laugh among my Latino brethren back then, and most of us are going to get our chuckle from the Forest Service directive.

At least they didn’t assume that us Latinos all drink Corona beer (actually, the only people I have ever seen who drink that particular brand of swill are Anglos. Latinos know better).

But the sad thing is that some people are still dealing in absurdities when it comes to trying to dredge up facts on serious issues.

I WILL BE the first to concede that a serious problem exists when federal officials can find 14,000 pot plants growing in Pike National Forest.

Not just because of the amount or potential street value of the drug itself. But the idea that some people are willing to risk doing such activity out in the open means that the current deterrents are such an obviously failed policy.

Federal officials say they do believe that people coming from Latin American countries are the ones behind this particular use of the outdoors to try to grow a sizable marijuana crop.

Yet we shouldn’t think that it is Latinos who have a corner on this particular market.

THERE IS A documentary that airs occasionally on the History Channel about the rural culture of the Appalachian Mountains (a.k.a., hillbillies) that goes so far as to say that many of the “moonshiners” of old have turned to growing marijuana because the money is that much better than manufacturing fresh (rather than aged) whiskey – which is only illegal because they refuse to pay federal taxes on it.

Perhaps the Forest Service should also have advised people to look out for campers smoking corncob pipes or wearing Confederate battle flag motifs on their clothes.

Or perhaps what they should really do is try to comprehend what they’re talking or writing about before they go shooting off their mini-minds.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Does anyone seriously believe that our nation has a solid policy in place (http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/20923352/detail.html) for dealing with the spread of illicit drugs?

It’s ¡El Noche del Grito! Not that I’ll be out there doing it

I will admit that today and Wednesday will have a little more significance to me than other ethnic-inspired holidays in this country.

After all, I am descended from three grandparents who were born in Mexico. In the case of my maternal grandmother, it was her parents who came to this country at the turn of the century (19th to 20th).

SO THE “NOCHE del Grito,” followed up by the “Dia de Independencia,” are more important to my life story than St. Patrick’s Day or the holidays honoring personas such as Casimir Pulaski and Christopher Columbus that have become informal excuses for ethnic pride among Poles and Italians respectively.

But that doesn’t mean that I’m going to be out there at midnight doing “el Grito,” that Mexican cry of Independence that some might compare culturally to the Rebel Yell, except not quite as trashy.

Nor do I expect many of my ethnic brethren in this country to do the same.

If anything, Mexican Independence Day (which formally is Wednesday) is the day upon which we reflect upon our lives in a dignified manner – trying to figure out what it means to be of Mexican-American background.

FOR THOSE WHO think that is a tiny minority, keep in mind that about 64 percent of all Latinos (that fast-growing group in this country) have ethnic origins that come from Mexico, rather than some other Latin American nation or Spain.

The Mexican version of Independence Day is actually what I wish the U.S. Independence Day could be – a chance to reflect upon what it means to be an American, rather than an excuse to dig out the barbecue grill and blow off a mess of fireworks after dark.

So what is being celebrated?

It was 199 years ago on this date that the colonists of New Spain became fed up with their European “masters” that they declared themselves to be a new nation – one whose name was derived from the Aztec name for their place.

WHICH IS PROBABLY the biggest difference between being a “Mexican” and being an “American.”

Mexicans fully acknowledge that we are a combination of European and native Indian tribes. Those of us who are fully honest also admit there are African elements that worked their way into the bloodlines of many Latin Americans.

That same mixture has occurred in instances in the United States, despite the best efforts of “Americans” to keep things separate and downplay the fact that the land now occupied by the mainland U.S.A. was once the territory of dozens of Indian tribes.

Even the names say it all. The Spanish colonies took their name from Aztec culture. Could anyone seriously envision English colonists taking on an Indian name for their nation?

DESPITE SOME PLACES carrying Indian-inspired names, the overall nation was ripped off from the name of an Italian mapmaker who was dead for more than 200 years before the United States was created.

What I wonder is how much this date has potential to become a holiday of note in this country. With the significant growth of the Latino population (we’re expected to be about 30 percent of the overall population by 2050), there will be more and more people with an awareness of Mexico who will not automatically try to create some negative impression in their minds.

Or will the Cinco de Mayo holiday prevail?

It’s not nearly as significant to the nation, but it does have an easy-to-remember date, compared to having to remember Sept. 16 (although I recently spoke to someone of Arab descent who says he now remembers Mexico Independence because it came just after Sept. 11, 2001, and he recalls the number of Arabs who bought Mexican flags and put them on their cars out of a hope that people might not harass them because of their true ethnic heritage).

I’M ALSO CURIOUS to see what happens with regard to Mexico Independence Day in 2010.

For that will be the Bicentennial for Mexico, and I still recall how big a deal that moment in U.S. history was made out to be.

Will the greater awareness of Latino culture in this country create the possibility of an encore next year? I have come into contact with a few Mexican ethnic groups in this country who admit they’re toning down their displays this year so that they can spend more money and do it up big-time for the Bicentennial.

But that won’t stop people in Mexico from taking part in the celebrations that begin tonight, and reach a peak at midnight when (all across the country) Mexicans engage in that “Grito” as a moment of ethnic pride before carrying the celebration into the early hours of Wednesday.

FOR THOSE OF us ethnic brethren in this country, we’ll watch them with our own bit of pride – even though for those of us who felt the need to partake in a parade or other celebration, we probably did so this past weekend.

After all, we have to work for a living. And in my case, the reason I won’t be up at midnight is that I have to get up early Wednesday.

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Some people living to bring back the past

In recent months, we have seen an easing in travel restrictions that apply to Cuban exiles with family remaining on the island, and some airlines are trying to ready themselves for the days when they can operate direct flights between major U.S. cities and Havana.

It’s all being done with the notion that there is a significant segment of the U.S. populace that either wants to reconnect with their ethnic ties or is looking for a cheaper vacation spot in the Caribbean.

YET IT WAS in reading a New York Times story published Sunday that I got a true kick – a Cubano businessman who has wound up living the majority of his life in the United States wants to re-establish the ferry that used to transport people back and forth between Havana and Miami.

That ferry ceased to exist in 1962 – a casualty of the embargo that the United States has tried to get the world to impose on Cuba, only to find out that the rest of the world made its peace decades ago with the idea of Fidel Castro as a government leader.

Presidents since John F. Kennedy have held onto the embargo, although Barack Obama seems to be serious about hoping for a chance to actually do something to bring the trade restrictions to an end during his term(s) in office.

Personally, I’m inclined to think that Obama will make some changes that will make it possible for a future president to be the one who actually signs the order that ends the trade embargo.

BUT WHEN THAT day comes, there will be people who will want to have themselves ready to make money off of a newly opened Cuba almost from Day One.

That actually is the reason the U.S. ought to consider ending the embargo – its own business interests, rather than the desire of some aging Miami exiles to actually be buried in Havana or Cienfuegos or maybe even near Guantanamo.

Cuba would be a significant market for U.S. goods (and such a close one), and there have been business interests that have been drooling for decades at the thought of making money (that is the point of capitalism) off the island.

Armando Ruiz told the New York Times that he’d like to operate a ship, and has already started talks with a Lithuanian company to charter a vessel that could make the roughly 120-mile trip from Miami to Havana.

ASIDE FROM GIVING people wishing to visit the island a cheaper alternative to air flights, he talks of the possibility of actually filling the cargo hull of his boat with the goods that a newly opened Cuba would want to have.

After all, it wouldn’t be a sudden “love” of the U.S.A. or “yanqui imperialistas” that would bring about this change – it would be the chance to get some of the goods that have often been in shortage in the Caribbean nation in recent years.

Does anyone think there would be a toilet paper shortage these days in Cuba if it were possible for Cubanos to squeeze the Charmin without putting the toilet paper manufacturer in violation of federal law?

I’m sure Ruiz envisions getting a cut of the proceeds (in one form or another) of selling those goods in Cuba as his reward for shipping them to the island.

BUT IF OPERATING that boat brings back to mind the ferries of old that used to take tourists from Miami to a quick trip to Cuba (back in the early days of the 20th Century when it was Havana, NOT Las Vegas, there things that happened there, stayed there), then it could also make some sentimental cruises for some people.

Charge a few admissions for a couple-hour long boat ride, with more money to be made off the cargo.

The problem, as reported by the New York Times, is that the bureaucratic processes one would have to endure to get U.S. government permission to offer such a boat ride is sure to be a long one.

It is a case of business interests wanting something faster than the U.S. government can offer it. And that’s assuming that whatever form of government in Cuba that replaces Los Hermanos Castro does not wind up trying to “shake down” business interests.

BUT IT COULD be someday that people could once again travel to Miami, and then decide upon a quick day trip to Havana to add a little variety.

However, I must admit I’m looking to the baseball diamond for evidence that U.S./Cuba relations have improved. When we once again start seeing Cubano youth being scouted by U.S. professional teams and playing here without having to endure the screwy processes they followed in recent years to get around the trade embargo, then we will know something has changed.

In short, some people may think the return of the ferry is a big move. For me, it will be the return of Cuba’s professional baseball team – the Havana Sugar Kings.

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EDITOR’S NOTES: Part nostalgia and part business, a retired concert promoter wants to resurrect (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/13/us/13cuba.html) the old Miami-to-Havana ferry.

Is Cuba itself (http://www.miamiherald.com/news/issues_ideas/story/1207388.html) ready for restored business ties with the United States?

How long until we someday get a strong Cuba presence back in U.S. professional (http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Havana_Sugar_Kings) baseball?

New study offers a little understanding, if not comfort

I can’t say that reading of a new medical study about Lupus offers much in the way of comfort.

The journal “Ethnicity & Disease” has published a report finding that Latinas are more likely than others to suffer from the condition – which interferes with the immunities in a person’s body in dealing with disease.

I BRING THIS up because as it turns out, my mother suffers from the condition. I know from watching her that the result of Lupus is that when she becomes ill, she really gets knocked about.

A common cold that will give the rest of us a runny nose and a bit of a headache will leave her incapable of doing much of anything for a few days.

In my mother’s case, this is combined with the fact that she has diabetes (it runs in my family, so for all I know I may have to deal with it someday). Her dialysis treatments leave her weakened enough for a time.

I know that in her case, she tries to do anything she can to avoid any circumstance that might make her sick – because she knows the combination of being weak from dialysis and a cold made worse by Lupus will leave her feeling absolutely miserable.

SOME PEOPLE EVEN might believe this is a bizarre circumstance.

But after reading of the report (which apparently is based off information gathered from patients in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area in Texas), the only conclusion I can come to is that my mother is rather typical.

The study finds that white people are half as likely to contract the condition as those of other racial or ethnic backgrounds, and that Latinas can literally have the most severe cases.

Latinas with Lupus have a 61 percent greater chance of contracting kidney inflammation, while they also have a 55 percent chance of having diabetes.

THE STUDY THINKS that the reason for this higher-than-it-should-be rate among Latinas is because of barriers to adequate health care, along with a possible genetic predisposition.

I know in the case of my mother, her physical well being was not always her biggest priority. Perhaps some things could have been detected at an earlier stage, which might leave her in a little stronger physical state these days.

But then again, if it is becoming that widespread among Latinas, who’s to say what – if anything – could have been done?

In fact, if there is a positive to the idea that my mother goes for regular kidney dialysis treatments is that it also means she is in a regular habit of going to the doctor for checkups.

AFTER ALL, IF she is someday a candidate for a kidney transplant, the medical types who handle such procedures want her in the best physical condition possible so as to increase the chances that a kidney from a cadaver will actually take hold in her body.

So despite the fact that I occasionally see my mother in such a weakened physical state that she can do little more than lie in bed all day (only to get a jolt of energy and use the next day to catch up on all the things she would have done the day before, but was too weak), I can almost see a positive in this new study.

At least my mother isn’t alone. Not that I would wish the pain I occasionally see my mother suffer on anyone – no matter how much I might dislike them.

Now if only people could figure out some way of helping to ease her pain caused by a simple head cold, perhaps my mother and many other Latinas in her situation (actually, a lot of other people in her situation) could wind up feeling that little bit better.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: As if diabetes isn’t enough of a blow to one’s physical state, it can often combine (http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/healthday/2009/09/11/lupus-worse-in-blacks-hispanics-than-in-whites.html) in Latinas with Lupus.

Wilson the example of modern-day immigration crank

I have listened to a day’s worth of indignation and praise (in some quarters) for the boorish behavior of Rep. Addison G. “Joe” Wilson, R-S.C., during President Barack Obama’s attempt to explain to Congress his health care reform measure and how it is ridiculous to think that significant numbers of non-citizens would be able to take advantage of it.

Specifically, Wilson is the crank who persisted in yelling, “You Lie!” to Obama, because Wilson is one of those people who absolutely wants to believe that health care reform is just a scam for “foreigners” to take and take (and take even more) from the U.S. taxpayer.

DEPENDING ON WHICH pundit does the talking, Wilson is either a heroic figure who has the guts to stand up to an abhorrent excuse of a president, or he’s the crackpot who permanently disgraced himself with his behavior, and who ought to be dumped by the voters of his Columbia, S.C.-based congressional district.

Personally, I don’t see Wilson as either.

He certainly isn’t heroic, except to people who are so determined to cut themselves off from the mainstream of our society. Which I wouldn’t mind at all, if not for the fact that they seem to want to live in their own world AND force the rest of us to live in it with them.

But I can’t say I’m the least bit surprised by such behavior, or that anyone could express such an attitude.

ALL IT MEANS is that the nativist element has its people in Congress, as well as all other factions of our society.

Because let’s face it, there are people who are determined to reject health care reform because they see it as a way of dignifying people whom they would prefer to think of as the dregs, of sorts, of our society.

They want to believe that the bulk of the more than 46.3 million uninsured people in this country either don’t have health insurance because they’re too lazy to work at a job, or because they somehow don’t belong in this country to begin with.

It is all absurd.

IN FACT, IT is part of the reason that I think Democrats who are reluctant to take on the issue of reforming the nation’s immigration laws are being a little unrealistic themselves.

They say that health care reform has to come first, and that they’re not about to jeopardize this issue by riling up the social conservatives by trying to do immigration reform simultaneously.

Yet there is a faction of our society that sees the two issues as intertwined. Trying to think they can do health care reform without touching on immigration makes me wonder what world some Democratic political operatives live in if they think they can truly separate the two.

There is a part of me that views health care reform (as significant an issue as it is all by itself) as merely a prelude to the political battle that will occur in 2010, 2011 or whichever year Obama gets off his duff and finally pushes for the serious changes needed in federal immigration law.

THOSE CHANGES ARE the ones that need to recognize that there are millions of people (a large percentage of whom come from Latin American countries) already here who are making a worthwhile contribution to our nation – despite the fact that their visas may not be in order (whether they are expired, or non-existent).

Reform needs to be taking the attitude that these worthwhile people need to find a way to remain in the United States without having to live lives in seclusion.

In fact, that is the part of the whole “illegal immigrants will benefit too much from health care reform” argument that I find the most ridiculous. So many people who are not in this country with proper papers go to such extremes to remain under cover that they often do not get proper/needed medical treatment.

They’re too afraid that the doctor will call Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and that trying to get needed medicine will result in their deportation – a thought that probably pleases the nativists among us, sending sick people back to another country.

SO WHAT HAPPENS next?

I’d like to think that something will happen toward health care reform. The idea of so many people going around uninsured is a threat to our society and its overall public health.

Yet the fact that health care reform was desperately needed didn’t sway people back in 1993 when the Clintons tried to take on the issue.

But I’m thinking more along the lines of immigration reform.

BECAUSE I ALREADY can envision the scene in the chambers of Congress.

Obama will be delivering a speech about the need to have a sensible immigration policy that is relevant to life in the 21st Century, and he will make some comment implying that people are people, and not criminals by their very existence on this part of Planet Earth.

That will be the moment that Wilson, or someone of his ilk, will jump up and screech at the president, “You Lie!”

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EDITOR’S NOTES: There are between 6 and 7 million non-citizens without proper papers (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/10/AR2009091004276.html?hpid=topnews) who do not have health insurance either.

Roughly one in six of every person in this country does not have health insurance to cover (http://www.hispanicprwire.com/news.php?l=in&id=15298&cha=18) the cost of medical treatment in the event they become ill.

Is the Census "boycott" a Conspiracy theory?

I keep reading these news stories about the proposed boycott of the 2010 Census, yet I have to confess that I have never actually met a real person who believes such nonsense would work.

So who is it that seriously thinks the best way for newcomers to this country whose visa status is less than sound to get the attention of the federal government is to go into hiding?

SERIOUSLY. EVERYBODY I have encountered this year thinks it is a stupid idea – as do I. So why do we get these stories continuing to tout this ridiculous idea as though it is a legitimate movement? I don’t think my exposure to the public is that limited!

I know somewhere there has to be a sizable number of people who are misguided enough to believe in this idea, which officially is the brainchild of an organization calling itself the National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders.

Their “logic” is that since the federal government is doing next to nothing to provide for serious reform of the national immigration laws, why should the newcomers to this country do a thing to cooperate with the government’s attempt next year to count the population.

My problem with that logic is that I believe the way to force action is to show the officials of federal government that the Latino population truly is at record-high levels.

THAT MEANS WE need every single person counted. It’s too bad we couldn’t use old-school Chicago-style vote count techniques to elevate the number of Latinos who get counted.

While I’m not advocating illegal activity, it probably would be more accurate than some of the current methods for trying to count people that often make little effort to find individuals who aren’t exactly inclined to want to be seen publicly.

Now for those who wonder why this commentary switched so easily from discussing immigrants to discussing Latinos, it is because I am aware of the fact that a large segment of the overall population of this country is addlebrained enough to think the two are synonymous – even though recent studies show that more and more these days, the Latino population of the United States is a native-born one.

Which makes the whole citizenship question a moot point.

BUT FOR SOME people, they won’t want to accept that concept.

In fact, when I get at my most conspiracy-minded mentality, I wonder if it is these people who are propagating the idea that there is a legitimate movement afloat in this country for immigrants to not want to be counted.

Could it be that those who do not want to have to acknowledge the significant size of the immigrant population or the growing Latino population are privately pushing for people to think it is in their best interest to not be counted?

As though it ever benefits someone to be ignored.

COULD IT BE that we’re being fooled into thinking that this movement somehow comes from within us? (For the record, the coalition claims to represent the interests of some 20,000 churches across the nation). I don’t have any proof that it is. But since I also have yet during the past year to meet anyone who seriously believes in this concept, I have to wonder.

Perhaps this commentary puts me in the same category as those people who think Neil Armstrong is a movie actor rather than a real live astronaut, or those who think one-time Chicago mob boss Sam Giancana was somehow involved in the death of John F. Kennedy.

But until I start meeting these people who seriously think they are better off in our society if they are ignored, I’m going to have to seriously believe that this whole concept of a “Census Bureau boycott” is just some over-hyped rhetoric from people who have their own political agenda with regards to the nation’s population on April 1, 2010.

Either that, or they have just way too much free time on their hands. Seriously people, go back to watching Oliver Stone’s “JFK,” which is a more entertaining story than the tales of this absurd “boycott.”

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Savvy, or pandering?

Are they politically savvy? Or are political people who campaign at Latino-inspired events just pandering?

Illinois' two major Democrats wishing to be governor plan to use next week's Mexico Independence Day celebrations to try to get votes. For those interested in knowing more, check out this site's sister weblog, the Chicago Argus, at http://www.chicagoargus.blogspot.com/.

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Cork's not returning to Latino "wine" bottle

It is a thought I have expressed often in the commentaries published at this site – the nativists of our nation may think of the immigration issue as some sort of war that they have to go all out to fight to keep “those foreigners” out.

Yet such a view is ridiculous because of the numbers, our presence in this nation is not going to wither away. If there really are people who view the growing Latino population as a problem they need to fix, it isn’t going to happen.

WE’RE HERE IN significant numbers and have left our mark.

That fact became evident to me looking at various figures published by the U.S. Census Bureau, which made the information available to help reporter-types who will be writing various feature stories during the next month in conjunction with it being Hispanic Heritage Month.

As of just over one year ago, the Latino population is believed to be about 46.9 million, which is about 15 percent of the nation overall. Could we surpass 50 million people come April 1, 2010 – the date that matters insofar as the 2010 Census is concerned?

If the Latino population doesn’t hit that mark, it’s going to come close, since during the past year it was estimated that 1.5 million Latinos were added to the overall U.S. population, which is more than half of the overall population increase for this country.

THEN, THERE’S THE statistic that makes me chuckle.

If one takes the people of this country who admit to being Latino/Hispanic/Chicano or whatever label they prefer, it appears that the United States is the second-largest Latin American-influenced nation on Planet Earth.

Only Mexico has more Mexicans (total population, 110 million people) than we have Latinos, which means the U.S. has more Latinos than Cuba has Cubans or Venezuela has Venezuelans or what not.

Heck, we have more Latinos than Spain has Spaniards.

THE IDEA THAT any of this could somehow be turned back is absurd. The numbers are just too great. The cork in our cultural wine bottle ain’t goin’ back in.

This growth is going to continue, it is believed, through the first half of the 21st Century (unless you’re one of those people with a profound acceptance of Nostradamus or the X-files, then you believe the world is coming to an end in 2012). The Census Bureau contends we will be about one-third Latino at 132.8 million of us.

A lot of the growth also goes to the youth of the Latino population, where about 25 percent of all kids 5 or under are Latino and the median age of Latinos is 27 (compared to 36 for the nation as a whole).

It means a lot more people for whom the old issues of immigration just don’t apply, because we’re not immigrants any more so much as natural-born citizens trying to cope with sometimes hostile attitudes from mistaken people.

WHEN ONE FIGURES that the place with the fastest growing (in terms of percentage) share of Latinos is the Carolinas (7.7 percent for South, 7.4 percent for North), it means that there really isn’t any place one can go to get away from us.

Seriously, the Census Bureau reports 16 of the 50 states have at least 500,000 Latinos, including North Carolina. And 48 of the 3,142 counties across the nation have majority Latino populations – although most of those exist in South Texas.

But that’s what happens when you take a portion of your nation from that of another – it doesn’t automatically change the complexion of the people who were already there.

I suppose one could choose to live in the northernmost regions of Alaska (I don’t know of any significant Latino population there). But then again, I don’t know of any significant population of any people there.

IT’S ALMOST LIKE to get away from Latinos, one has to go isolate oneself in a cave somewhere.

Wouldn’t it be better off learning to accept society as it is changing, rather than trying to live in some early 20th Century ideal that quite frankly was a little bit twisted?

Then, there’s the other myth, that somehow all these people are going to drastically change the culture of our society to the point where the “old guard” won’t be able to recognize it.

It’s true that certain elements of various Latin American cultures will find their way into the U.S. mainstream, just like every other ethnic group that ever settled here.

BUT IT’S ALSO going to result in a distortion of those elements to the point where eventually some Viejo is going to complain that all these Americans are ruining the Latino way of life.

Take the Spanish language.

The Census Bureau says that about 35 million people age 5 and older speak Spanish. About one of every eight U.S. residents speaks Spanish.

Yet just over half of those people also speak English “very well.”

BRINGING IN TO this country a class of people who truly are bilingual in today’s world where all nations have to be interconnected somehow just doesn’t strike me as a threat to our way of life.

It could very well be the impetus for ensuring that our society continues to flourish.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: 5.6 million Latinos voted in elections in 2006, while 1.1 million Latinos (http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS187573+08-Sep-2009+PRN20090908) are veterans of the U.S. armed forces.

A 1,654-pound taco?

Maybe I’m being a bit lazy, but the presence of Labor Day as a holiday inspired me to cut short my evening writing regimen. Hence, there won’t be anything here in the way of fresh commentary.

But come back on Wednesday for a return to commentary and analysis about the thoughts running through the minds of the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. population. Or check out this site’s sister weblog, the Chicago Argus (http://chicagoargus.blogspot.com/) for a thoughtful piece about the hostility that has arisen over health care reform.

FOR THOSE OF you who feel the need to read something, I found a couple of pieces that are worth noting. It seems that Mexicans trying to set a record for the most people dancing to Michael Jackson (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/08/world/americas/08records.html) music were far from the only ones trying to get into the Guinness Book of World Records.

I’m curious to know how edible that taco really was.

Then, there’s the case of the Latino arrested in Suffolk County, New York, for leaving a harassing note on the door of a Latino-oriented church in that suburban New York area that has been the scene of much anti-Latino violence in recent months.

Christian Mungia Garcia is going to go through the legal system charged with “hate” crimes (http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/09/06/2009-09-06_arrest_in_li_hate_crime.html), which I’m sure makes those people who want to downplay the anti-Latino incidents feel better, even though it ignores the reality that this was an ongoing dispute with the church itself, rather than with the congregants’ ethnicity.

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Immigration issue tries to take on second “holiday”

It has become a ritual in recent years in significant cities – Latinos and other people who have not lost their awareness of their immigrant origins will march on May 1 in protest of reasonable reforms to the nation’s immigration laws.

Now it seems like we’re getting a second date – several cities across the country are going to have marches on Monday (Labor Day) filled with people who are disgusted that President Barack Obama has not made immigration reform a greater priority of his presidency.

SO NOW, IT appears we begin and end the period of nice weather in much of the United States with marches meant to get in the face of people who would prefer to ignore this issue.

Because that’s what truly will be accomplished by Monday’s act of protest.

I doubt anyone will have their point of view changed by the sight of these marchers. In fact, I already can envision some people becoming more ticked off by being forced to have to think about this issue on what they preferred to think of solely as a three-day weekend off from work.

I couldn’t help but notice the Chicago Tribune newspaper publishing a story that promoted the immigration march to take place in Chicago, while emphasizing the fact that it would cause traffic congestion – in part because Her Royal Highness of television, Oprah Winfrey, is having her own holiday-themed event outdoors on Michigan Avenue in the heart of the Magnificent Mile shopping district (the place where all the tourists hang out).

OF COURSE, THE fact that it is a holiday weekend and many of the people who normally would be working in downtown Chicago will not be present means that traffic congestion will actually be less.

In one sense, it will be the presence of some immigration-themed protesters who will prevent downtown Chicago from being a “ghost town” of sorts on Monday. I suspect the same holds true for many other cities across the country where similar marches will take place.

Now I have written before how I think the annual May Day march for immigration reform has lost its point.

It seems to me that the view that a significant number of people care strongly about this issue has been made. To keep bringing it out every year does not strike me as reinforcing the matter.

IN FACT, I can’t help but fear that the fact that the May Day marches do not draw the same tens of thousands of people as they originally did (now only bringing out a few thousand per year) will give some nativist types the false impression that somehow we don’t care about this issue any more.

But I’m not as negative about Monday’s action. I only hope that this becomes a one-time march. Because if it turns out that this becomes an annual Labor Day event for immigration proponents, then we are in sadder shape than I would want to have to admit.

For if anything, Monday’s march is aimed at a different crowd – the ones who theoretically are on the side of the growing Latino population in this country.

Using “May Day” (a holiday whose existence likely gets under the skin of the nativists and other social conservatives who comprise a large segment of the opposition on immigration reform) is to hit the “right.”

A “LABOR DAY” march is all about the so-called “left.”

This is going to be a gathering of people who likely voted for Barack Obama or are related to people who did, because we hoped he would have some compassion on this issue – unlike “the right” which often thinks that immigration “reform” is about erecting those ridiculous walls along the Rio Bravo del Norte/Rio Grande.

If anything, I’m curious to see how the rally in Obama’s adopted hometown of Chicago turns out.

Too many of the people who are advising the president are of the opinion that they don’t want to have to touch “immigration” because they will tick off the sleeping bear that is the “right wing” (although I’d argue that the issue of health care reform has already awoken the bear).

HE’S GOING TO have to learn that doing nothing on this issue will not be perceived by the growing Latino population as somehow protecting us from the hurtful whims of the nativists.

It is the reason why I cannot understand the mentality of those people who seriously want an undercount of the Latino population in this country to screw up next year’s Census Bureau count of the nation’s population.

We need to be doing everything we can to show our potential for muscle in this society – and sitting back to be ignored does the exact opposite.

It will be when politicians see that a lackadaisical attitude toward immigration reform will hurt them more than a hostile one that they will suddenly be convinced to do the right (as in proper, not conservative) thing on this issue.

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Ads against Kirk trivialize his actual offensive act

Rep. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., wants to run for the U.S. Senate, and he’s the guy who a few years ago said that this country should be supportive of family planning programs aimed at other countries as a way of reducing the level of illegal immigration.

He seems to be upset with the fact that activist groups who support the legal rights of those newcomers to our nation are now trying to use his words against him. Admittedly, they are going a bit over the top.

THE NEW CAMPAIGN ads depicting Kirk’s face on a package of condoms, along with rhetoric implying that the programs were geared toward Latin American nations, are being aired these days on Spanish-language radio and television stations in Illinois.

Or maybe not? For it seems that some radio stations are giving in to the threatening legal letters being sent by Kirk’s attorneys, claiming the candidate plans to sue anyone who uses this image – which admittedly is meant to make Kirk look silly.

Of course, one can argue that it is his words and actions that make him look silly, and that he makes himself look like a political crybaby by threatening to sue. For it is doubtful that these “condom” ads are even the most over-the-top ever used in a political campaign.

Those of us in Illinois remember the Congressional candidate who tried to stir up anti-immigration feelings with his ad flying over a professional football stadium and telling us the number of people who snuck into the country every day could fill the stands. That ad makes this one look like an Encyclopaedia Britannica entry by comparison.

ALL CAMPAIGNS FOR election, particularly those run by challengers who have significant funds raised by a campaign committee, are quick to use feisty rhetoric that requires a certain world viewpoint in order to accept it as truth.

The kernel of truth in this particular ad is that Kirk was for supporting efforts that would try to hamper the number of babies being born in Latin American nations. The idea of shipping condoms to Mexico is exaggeration for effect – although its effect is to trivialize the issue.

As though condoms would create fewer people who would someday try to sneak across the U.S./Mexico border into this country.

It’s all absurd!

BUT I’M NOT sure whether Kirk does himself more damage by complaining about the ads, or by trying to refute it.

In fact, I could almost see one way in which Kirk would benefit from having the image of himself as an anti-immigration type spread across the state.

For the fact of Kirk’s political background during his time in the House of Representatives is that he is, by Republican standards, a moderate – in a state whose Republican establishment has become ever more conservative.

He has been known to be supportive of a woman’s right to choose abortion. That alone kills him in the minds of many Illinois Republicans.

IT IS THE reason why some political pundits in Illinois wonder if Kirk will lose to one of the five challengers, all of whom are far more ideologically conservative on those hot-button issues than he is.

So could it be that Kirk would benefit among the GOP faithful in Illinois by pushing an image that is hostile toward more newcomers to this country from Latin America?

As ridiculous and offensive as the image is that somehow controlling the birthrate would lessen the U.S. population a few years from now, there are those in the nativist community who are more than willing to believe such crackpot rhetoric.

Letting this image get out could be what persuades some of those social conservatives to give him a chance come the primary election day in Illinois on Feb. 2.

THOSE PEOPLE, COMBINED with the more moderate GOP types who will not want to vote for a blatant ideologue, could come up with enough votes for Kirk to win in a six-candidate primary field.

Of course, it would give him a nasty image that likely would harm him in the general election.

If the choice for U.S. senator from Illinois in the November 2010 general election comes down to a choice of the “Party of Rod” (as in Blagojevich) or a nativist wannabe, it could be a difficult choice for people of common sense to make.

So is Kirk doing the smart thing by trying to squash this latest campaign attack, which the activists who paid for it say is meant to give Kirk a taste of the kind of nasty campaigning he can encounter during next year’s election cycle.

IF HE DOES nothing and lets the ads run, he becomes the candidate whose face appears in the ring of the condom wrapper.

If he goes on the attack, he comes off as a whiner and also makes those conservatives who are wary of him all the more skeptical of having him as the Republican nominee for the Senate seat once held by Barack Obama.

Either way, the people of Illinois (and political observers across the nation) will be in need of extra-strength Tylenol to cope with all the headaches we’re going to encounter in coming months.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: The people (http://icirr.org/) who gave us this campaign season’s over-the-top campaign ad, although I expect it will be surpassed many times in the months ahead.