Soy Puro Mexicano – the sequel

For all the times I have ranted and raged on this weblog about the idiocy of those who argue against desperately-needed reform of U.S. immigration policy, I must admit to the fact that I find much of the opposition comical.

Nothing has really changed

The rhetoric and symbolism that gets dragged into this debate is often so over-the-top that I find it hard to believe that any rational human being can buy into it. That, along with the fact that the Latino population has already grown to the point of being one of this nation’s staples, means sense will someday prevail.

I COULDN’T HELP but be reminded of this during the weekend when, sometime Saturday while I was inside a Walgreen’s pharmacy to purchase a weekend newspaper and a couple of other items, someone slipped a little message under the windshield wiper of my automobile.

“Deport illegals now,” is what the little one-inch by three-inch scrap said. And no, I don’t believe anyone was targeting me specifically. I noticed every car parked near me had a similar scrap.

But what made this particular scrap of nonsense notable was the image that existed to the right of the hateful slogan – it was a swastika. In fact, it was the white circle on red background with a black swastika symbol that was the government symbol of Germany during its Nazi era.

This scrap even contained a website address for the American Nazi Party, just in case I want more information about what is meant by “Deport illegals now.”

CONSIDERING THAT THE Walgreen story I was at was in a neighborhood that has virtually no Latino population (it was lily-white a couple of decades ago, but now has a solid mixture of white and black people), I somehow suspect that the bulk of the people who came out of the store to find these scraps on their cars would be offended by the image – if not the message itself.

"I hate Illinois Nazis"

Nazis, in this day and age. It makes me think of John Belushi’s “Jake Blues” character saying, “I hate Illinois Nazis,” just before his brother, Elwood, drove their car through a Nazi rally – driving the would-be fascists into the nearby river soaking wet.

If anybody seriously thinks that sticking a swastika onto an immigration message is a way of appealing to the masses, they are seriously delusional.

As for those people who would be willing to take it seriously, I’d argue that the swastika indicates how far out of the norm of our society they truly are. If anything this scrap – which actually peels off its backing to become a sticker – shows how the people who truly are pushing this issue have their own ethnic hang-ups.

THE IDEA THAT government should be doing anything to reinforce those ideas is downright absurd.

Although, if the person who placed that scrap on my windshield had truly wanted to hurt me, he would have peeled the sticker off and put it on my car – thereby requiring me to spend time and energy trying to scrape it off.

Of course, then he would have been guilty of defacing my personal property – instead of using his right to expression to spread his nonsense thoughts to others.

Thinking about all this reminds me of an old film (by old, I mean 1942 – my apologies to anyone who thinks of that as being just yesterday) called “Soy Puro Mexicano.”

IT WAS MADE during World War II at a time when that Nazi regime still had chances of prevailing. Which is why it is nice to see someone clearly taking sides – it is the story of a Mexican (portrayed by famed actor Pedro Armendariz) in his local cantina who learns that Axis agents are conspiring to use the country as part of a plot to invade the United States.



This Mexican then single-handedly takes it upon himself to undermine this effort, because his duty as “pure Mexican” requires him to oppose these foreigners in their effort to take over the world.

I’ll be the first that Mexico wasn’t among the most significant players among the Allies during that war. But it’s not as if the sight of a swastika made Mexicans quiver back in the days when it was a symbol of a legitimate government.

What makes anyone think that Latinos now will get scared of a swastika, now that it represents nothing more than the malcontents of our society.

  -30-

¡Relaja! And no, I don’t mean the moldy, old 'Frankie Goes to Hollywood' song

Of course, we’re assimilating into this country – no matter what the nativist-inspired ideologues want to believe about the growing Latino population.

Will this become a common sight?



I couldn’t help but notice a story published in the Michigan-based Jackson Citizen Patriot newspaper. A local resident did such an elaborate job of decorating his front lawn for Halloween that he got written up by the local paper.

BECAUSE HE IS a Mexican-American, he included Day of the Dead imagery in with the more traditional Halloween stuff. Although it really is a mixture of the two. One can’t really tell where one culture ends and the other begins.

Day of the Dead skeletons dressed up like Elvis or Michael Jackson? That’s a cross-cultural mix, if ever I have saw or heard of one. And probably one that everybody can see the humor in – regardless of one’s ethnic origins.

So check out the story for yourself. It is worth a read. And my thanks to “G Thompson,” the reader who originally saw this and thought I might be interested. I was.

Now, I’m going to give myself the day off from publishing here to relax. Fresh commentary will return Monday.

BY THEN, I hope to have recovered from the end of the World Series and the realization that professional baseball for the year is over.

Unless I want to scour around for the next couple of months for box scores of Liga del Pacifico ballgames out of Mexico, or action from any of the other professional leagues in Latin American places that play ball during the winter months.

Maybe, just maybe, the Hermosillo Naranjeros (one of Fernando Valenzuela’s former ballclubs) will have snapped out of their early-season funk that has left then as of Friday with a record of 5-9 and tied for last place in the Mexican Pacific League.

  -30-

Even Fox News (sort of) gets it!

It was a year ago that, in my paying duties for a daily newspaper in the Chicago suburbs, I trekked out to an elementary school where the kids were having a parade outside the building on Halloween.

It was a chance for the kids to be seen publicly in their costumes, and the one boy that sticks in my mind is the one who chose to come as a professional wrestler.

BUT NOT JUST any wrestler. He was Rey Mysterio, of the Lucha Libre school of wrestling, who is the son of a Mexican wrestler of the same stage name.

The kid wore a body suit that gave him the appearance of muscular arms, then had his mother use a marker to duplicate the professional wrestler’s tattoos.

An all-American Halloween party, and one of the kids came as a Mexican wrestler. Cute.

With that in mind, I can’t say I was shocked by a new report that Fox News put on their website (albeit only the website that is meant to appeal to Latino interests) about how Latino images are working their way into our society’s Halloween lore.

UNIVERSAL STUDIOS HOLLYWOOD added to their theme park’s Halloween display a La Llorona, making sure that the weeping woman and her story of how she tossed her children into the river to drown is included amidst images of Frankenstein and Freddy Krueger.

Would you spend just over $100 (including tax) to be La Llorona for Halloween?

 It amuses me to see such Latin American horror stories being included in the Halloween mix, even though some people insist that this is somehow disrespectful to the cultures of Latin American nations.

To equate a long-standing story of La Llorona (which has so many different versions that each have their own moral to the story) with a commercial flick like Nightmare on Elm Street? For shame!

Except that I can’t really get too worked up over that angle. I find acknowledging the weeping woman (who is supposedly the source of those wailing winds you hear, because she’s crying over the loss of her children) to be more respectful than, say, the nitwits of a few years ago who marketed a Halloween “costume” of a mask that made one look like a reject from “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” an orange jumpsuit and an ID card proclaiming one to be a Mexican citizen.

AN ILLEGAL “ALIEN.” Get it?

I still groan in dismay at the thought. I find the thought of little Rey Mysterios running around the neighborhood trying to mooch candy off of us to be much more encouraging than that thought.

And as for anyone who seriously bought that “alien” costume when it came out, the next time you want to throw your money away, just send it to me.

Although, to tell you the truth, I’m not sure what to say of someone who would spend $99.99 on a La Llorona costume. Or even just $41.95 for the mask.

THAT ALSO IS someone who seems determined to blow away perfectly good money on something trite.

Perhaps it is because I have never gotten into the whole concept of anyone over the age of seven celebrating Halloween that I find this whole situation amusing.

It is nice to see some sense of inclusion, although I wonder how many people are going to think something along the lines of, “We gave them (meaning Latinos) Halloween characters. What more do they want?”

It’s going to take a lot more than that. For we won’t really be “there” as a society until the day comes when a kid can be Rey Mysterio, or someone can wear a mask making them the blood-sucking “el Chupacabra” and there won’t be anyone who will have to ask, “What the …. is that?”

  -30-

Do the Brits get a more honest look at Latinos?

The “foreign” press can be so much more intriguing at times mainly because way too many U.S. domestic news-types have had the mantra of “local, local, local” banged into their brains so hard that they’re incapable of seeing the big picture on any story.

Which is why I couldn’t help but notice that two of the most interesting pieces of copy I read on Wednesday came from the journalism emanating from Great Britain.

ONE WAS ON an angle that I honestly hadn’t contemplated much these days – even though it was one that should have come to mind.

It came from the British Broadcasting Corp. and was an account of how the number of Latinos who have become Mormons has risen significantly in recent years. Would that fact mean that presidential hopeful Mitt Romney (himself a Mormon) would gain a significant number of those Latino votes?

Could it even result in my ethnic brethren who have found comfort and support in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints having an effect on the rest of us?

Could Mitt Romney be the one GOP presidential hopeful who could seriously take advantage of the Latino apathy toward President Barack Obama?

THE OTHER REPORT came from The Guardian, and it was a commentary about how the Obama apathy offers Republican Party officials a serious opportunity to gain a decent share of the Latino electorate (which is going to grow and grow in coming decades).

Of course, the partisan bickering and ideological nonsense that gets spewed these days whenever U.S. immigration policy is discussed is the “ugly truth” that will come up and prevent either of these scenarios from occurring.

The BBC found a Brigham Young University profession who said the fact that Romney feels the need to out-demagogue his primary opponents on the immigration issue is strong enough to overcome any religious bond that might have otherwise developed.

“Romney is not very popular within the Hispanic Mormon community due to his position on immigration,” professor Ignacio Garcia told the BBC, adding that he fully expects Mormon Latinos to wind up siding with the Democratic Party,  just like the bulk of Latinos elsewhere.

WHICH OUGHT TO be such an incredibly obvious statement, except that I have heard countless ideologues who spew so much trash talk to try to avoid facing that fact.

There also was the commentary in The Guardian, which was written by Dee Dee Garcia Blasé – an activist who heads a group that tries to urge more Latinos to take seriously the Republican Party.

Only her efforts get thwarted by all the hostile rhetoric that GOP politicos persist in spewing to try to appeal to the ideologue vote.

She writes that Republican officials from states where the GOP dominated the reapportionment process ought to use the fact that their district boundaries were drawn in ways to protect them to do the right thing and create a federal immigration policy that eliminates the bureaucratic mess that complicates too many situations.

“REASONABLE PROPOSALS” FROM Republican officials could be what gets them that “40 percent” share of the Latino vote that they think would doom any Democratic chances of electoral success.

Which may also sound incredibly reasonable. Except for the fact that many of those officials from “safe districts” are determined to use them to push for immigration policy changes whose purpose is more vindictive – harassment over reform.

I think both of these pieces of reporting and commentary are worth reading in full, particularly since they wind up stating facts that ought to be so blatantly obvious – except that they get drowned out by all the partisan ranting and raging that dominates the debate these days.

  -30-

How would we react to reverse situation?

Let’s suppose for a second that los federales, those federal law enforcement types in Mexico, were anxious to try to stop the flow of automatic weapons into their country, and believed that the supply was coming from the United States.

So as one of their tactic, they’d have undercover agents enter the United States, infiltrate the operations whose business is to sell those firearms, and gather information that eventually resulted in arrests.

OF COURSE, THEY wouldn’t be sharing such information with U.S. officials until the absolute last minute – perhaps after arrests were made. The very presence of Mexican officials in this country is one that creates so many images that ought to be taken very seriously.

In my mind, I can already hear the rants and rages of the conservative ideologues who would contend that this is a virtual act of war. Foreign officials entering our country and doing their business without U.S. oversight?

How dare they!

Aside from the rhetoric about sovereignty, we’d probably also hear rants about how this constitutes a foreign invasion that we ought to rebuke before it goes any further.

NOW AS FAR as I know, nothing like this has happened. At least not as I have stated it. But the New York Times reported Tuesday how in the name of trying to cut off the flow of drugs north into the United States, federal law enforcement types have infiltrated the drug cartels who use the flow of weapons to reinforce their own strength and do their business – which is to sell drugs.

Mexican officials are deliberately kept in the dark, although it might not make a difference because there are some parts along the border where the cartels are strong enough to be able to resist any attempt by Mexican law enforcement to stop them.

It is that flow of weapons that gives them such strength.

Yet I don’t hear any rants or rages on the parts of Mexican officials against U.S. conduct. In fact, about the only reaction I detect is from some of those ideologues who will make stupid jokes about how U.S. officials ought to infiltrate the country even deeper and take it over.

EVEN THOUGH OUR own federal laws specifically prohibit U.S. security forces from doing anything in other countries. Because technically, it can be construed as an invasion – an act of war, so to speak.

Which is something we most definitely do not want to commit. We have enough headaches trying to extricate our military presence from Iraq. Who needs the hassle of a Latin American conflict?

Besides, if there is a truth to this particular issue, it is one that both nations are going to have to cooperate with in order to try to resolve. Anyone who believes that one nation can fix the situation all by itself is being absurd.

The ideologues don’t like to hear such rhetoric, and will probably respond negatively to this commentary as well. After all, their simplistic view of the world is that everybody else is picking on them, and everybody else causes the world’s problems.

THAT IS WHY I have always thought our society makes its mistakes when it gives too much credence to the segment that can’t seem to accept the reality that isolationism should have died off, once and for all, with the beginning of World War II.

We work together because we have to live together on this Planet Earth.

Anybody who can’t accept that as fact truly is living in their own little world that exists only in their mini-minds.

  -30-

Seeking Latino money to bolster Obama fund

There’s really nothing out-of-the ordinary about the Monday night political fundraiser held in the greater Los Angeles area on behalf of President Barack Obama.

Will Eva upstage Melanie ...



People with ties to the entertainment industry, or those in other professions who want to be able to say they checked out some Hollywood glamour, will show up for a party at the home of actors Melanie Griffith and Antonio Banderas.

AMONG THOSE WHO were supposed to show up was actor Eva Longoria and television hostess Giselle Fernandez, along with Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and various attorneys from around the country who head powerful law firms.

Including one attorney from Obama’s adopted hometown of Chicago – Manny Sanchez, who founded the law firm of Sanchez, Daniels & Hoffman, LLP.

They’re all adding their heft to a party that will cost you at least $5,000 per person if you want to get in – if you have enough glamour that they would even take your money.

In case you haven’t figured it out by now, Griffith is the only non-Latino I have named. This fundraiser is a chance for Latinos to express some political significance by showing we can raise money for a campaign in significant amounts – which usually is the fact that most attracts a candidate.

AND BEFORE YOU ideologues start ranting about this money tainting Obama because money taints all candidates, keep in mind that if any of your preferred long-shot hopefuls were to be given the chance to take this campaign cash, they would eagerly do it.

... in her own home?



In short, the idea of a big-money Latino fundraiser amuses me – and not only because it has the potential to create a catfight (¿una guerra del gato?)  between Longoria and Griffith as to who was the most glamorous chica of the party.

It is nice to see Latinos trying to assert some influence in the political process, which ultimately is the way we’re going to advance our interests. People who talk about boycotting elections and not bothering to vote are missing the point. They want us to silence ourselves at a time when our numbers should be shouting for action!

It’s nice to see that some of our ethnic brethren who have done a little better for themselves in life haven’t completely forgotten from where they (or their families) came. It’s certainly better than those who take the Charles Barkley approach to life (the old story is how his mother chastised him for voting Republican because they were the political party of rich people, only to have the former professional basketball star respond by saying, “Mama, I am rich”).

ALTHOUGH I DON’T doubt that there are some Latinos who are so eager for acceptance in the social ranks that comprise the GOP these days that they are willing to say about anything to apologize for that political party’s willingness to place so much faith in that segment of society with ideological ethnic hang-ups.

This kind of activity makes me think there is some hope for Obama managing to get back a significant share of the Latino vote that is appalled at his apathy on our concerns and may wind up voting for nobody because the GOP presidential opposition these days seems so determined to treat the growing Latino population like a piñata.

Besides, if we can claim it is in part our money that is going toward that huge campaign fund Obama is building up (he’s probably going to outspend whichever GOPer manages to win that party’s presidential nomination), then that is all the more reason he must listen to us – and likely will listen to us.

Money talks, and you know how the rest of that old saying goes.

  -30-

EXTRA: English only? Please!

Just a little note for those individuals who want to believe that the whole world revolves around the English language.

And for the sensible majority rest-of-us, a little bit of entertainment and relief, particularly for those of you who are having a stressful day.

ENJOY. THIS FLAMENCO-STYLE "classic" has to brighten up your day, even if you can't read the Korean sub-titles.

If it doesn't cheer you up, then you're probably deceased. In which case, your special day is coming up next week on Tuesday.

  -30-

A new World Series “hero?” Of course, he’s a Latino

I’ve gotten a bit of a kick out of the coverage of the World Series this past weekend – what with it being acknowledged there’s now a new name of a baseball immortal to go along with those of Babe Ruth and Reggie Jackson.

And considering how heavily loaded Major League Baseball is these days with ballplayers of Latin American ethnic origins, it only seems natural that it will be a Spanish name up there with the two.

I’M WRITING, OF course, about Albert Pujols, the long-time slugger for the St. Louis Cardinals who Saturday night managed to match an accomplishment that previously had been done only by the two pinstriped peloteros during the century-plus of World Series play.

Three home runs in a single game. Ruth did it twice, back in 1926 and 1928 (against the St. Louis Cardinals), while Jackson did his trick in 1977 against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Now, we have Prince Albert (Please, no jokes about being trapped in a can), who on Saturday got five hits in six at-bats, driving in six runs. All of those manage to tie World Series records.

Now the trick is to see if, during the remaining games of the World Series (it could be up to seven, or it might be fewer), Pujols can manage to hit three more home runs. If he does, that would be a new record set outright. Jackson managed five home runs overall in that ’77 World Series.

WILL THE DOMINICANO erase Ruth and Jackson from the record books? It would particularly hurt in the case of Jackson, since so much of his reputation as a big-game ballplayer who always came through in the clutch is based on that ’77 series – particularly the sixth and final game.

Yet it also would give a serious plug to the idea that Latino ballplayers are the ones who are keeping the U.S. major leagues at their current level as the best professional baseball in the world – and prevent the idea of the U.S. baseball championship being called the “World” series from devolving into a completely pathetic joke.

I write that because it seems at times that certain elements of baseball fandom are eager for reasons to diminish the accomplishments of Latino ballplayers. This will be one that will stick, regardless of what some fans with ethnic hang-ups will want to think.

It also reinforces the idea that what ultimately matters is what happens on the playing field. For until Saturday, this particular World Series was threatening to devolve into the series where ego-bloated ballplayers (including Pujols) prevailed.

AFTER ALL, THE Cardinals following a previous game were the ballclub that had its top players skip out on post-game interviews. They might be trite and trivial, but they do show a certain amount of respect for the fans who actually take the time out of their lives to follow the athletic activity.

With three swings of the bat, Pujols (the Dominican whose family emigrated to New York, and later settled in rural Missouri after deciding they didn’t like U.S. big city life) managed to erase that perception, and put it back on the ball field.

So now we can resume watching the World Series games that had managed to be overshadowed by the Boston Red Sox’ snot-nosed desire to embarrass their now-former general manager – who wanted to leave the team to go work for the Chicago Cubs.

We have someone we can root for in terms of Pujols putting himself permanently in the World Series record-books.

ALTHOUGH IN LISTENING to Pujols talk to ESPN following his “big game” on Saturday, it was nice to hear his focus on trying to bring a championship for the Cardinals and the St. Louis baseball fans.

“I just stay focused,” he said. “This is the World Series.”

  -30-

Ripping into Rubio fair game?

I almost feel sorry these days for Marco Rubio. Almost, but not quite.

RUBIO: Child of immigrants, not exiles?



Rubio, the freshman U.S. Senate member from Florida, is the guy that the conservative ideologues like to point to as evidence that their ways aren’t totally alien to the growing Latino population.

BECAUSE HE’S A young guy (40) with a potential for a lengthy stint in electoral politics (meaning he could become someone significant someday), he’s going to get the occasional probes into his background.

After all, it would be nice to know exactly who he is – if he’s going to be someone who influences our society.

That is what motivated the Washington Post’s latest report; one that points out the fact that Rubio’s official biography isn’t correct.

The newspaper used its website to point out that Rubio’s family left Cuba to settle in the United States in 1956, not in 1960 or 1961 as the candidate had always claimed. Why is that significant? Because as anyone who has ever seen “The Godfather, Part II” or “Havana” (which is probably the extent to which most people in this country know Cuban history) can attest to, it was on Jan. 1, 1959 that the Castro  revolution succeeded in driving Fulgencio Batista into exile (he ultimately died in 1973 in Spain).

IT WAS ON that date that the world of all those Cubans collapsed. From their view, their country was lost to them, and their fleeing to the United States was a move of desperation rather than self-improvement.

The Cuban exile community that centered around Miami (and still strongly influences it despite its age) is something that Rubio has always claimed his family to be in essence.

Yet it seems they really came like just a batch of other immigrants, by choice. They weren’t catching a PanAm flight out of Havana with nothing but the clothes on their backs (like the early exiles) or floating on a raft across the ocean hoping to land in Key West, Fla. (like later generations).

The conditions under which they came were not at all the ones that Rubio would have you think make him worthy of your sympathy.

NOW I WILL concede that his official response (in an interview with a sympathetic Fox News) to this story is accurate – it really is not the most significant of distinctions because once the Castro government took control, the Rubio family became one that lost their home country. Return was not possible, even if they had decided against wanting to remain in this country.

As Rubio put it, “when I was born in May 1971, I was born to two people who could not return to the nation of their birth because it was under Communist control.”

He is correct in saying that. He’s also not off-base in saying that he shouldn’t be faulted for not carrying his parents’ passports around to fact-check the exact dates they entered the United States.

Yet it also misses the point, and it is the reason why I can’t get too sympathetic about his situation. If he’s going to associate with Republicans and be used by them to try to score points among Latinos in general, he’s going to have to expect to take some hits.

HOW DOES THAT old saying go? Lie down with dogs, and you get fleas!

If anything, Rubio is going to learn that the Cuban experience is unlike anything other people with ethnic origins in Latin American nations experience. He may have to learn the hard way that his background doesn’t necessarily make him representative of all of us.

Then again, no Latino is representative of all of us. Even I wonder at times if I should be attempting (at this weblog) to explain the thoughts of Latinos. Confusion would be the most accurate comment.

Just as it would be for most groups, if you want to be completely honest.

IF ANYTHING, IT is too many of Rubio’s ideologue “allies” who try to lump the Latino into one group – because they don’t want to be bothered to recognize ethnic differences.

It may well turn out that the biggest lesson Rubio learns, along with many other Cubans living in this country, is that the moment Fidel Castro dies and his brother, Raul, loses control, they will go from being some “special” class of people, to being just another group of “Mexicans” whom the ideologues wish would just go home.

  -30-

Primary gives Latinos whole lot of nothing to support

I’ll give Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney one bit of credit – he hasn’t tried to score political points for himself among Latinos by reminding us that his father was born in Mexico.

ROMNEY: Mitt, the Mexicano?!?

George Romney was the child of Mormon missionaries who were trying to spread the word of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints by building a Mormon colony south of the Rio Bravo del Norte/Rio Grande.

ROMNEY, THE SON of a Mexican immigrant. Except that I’m sure even he realizes that no self-respecting Latino is going to take seriously the idea of a Mexicano named Mitt.

But I’m also sure the reason he doesn’t bring it up is that he knows there are the ideologues of his own political party who would demonize him even more than they already are for being a part of what they want to think is a religious cult.

Because this really is a primary that is turning out to be a group seeing who can sink to the lowest level. They want they ideologue vote, and are willing to do it at the expense of the growing Latino population.

Which led to recent reports in the New York Times and Boston Globe, to name a couple, about how the Latino bashing is becoming so intense that whoever does manage to win the GOP nomination will be damaged irreparably amongst Latino voters.

WHAT A SHOCK. It is what I have been writing for months. It’s nice to see someone else is starting to realize this as fact.

Although as a part of the Latino electorate, I have to admit it is sad to realize that Election ’12 is going to be nothing more than an apathetic Barack Obama, or a guy who thinks he can get our votes because we’re displeased with the opposition’s apathy.

Apathetic? Or hostile?

It could be why there are increasing numbers of Latinos taking part in those “Occupy Wall Street” protests cropping up across the nation. That’s a group that seems willing to include Latinos among the 99 percent, while the opposition wants to be the 1 percent that thinks the other 99 percent doesn’t matter.

I COULDN’T HELP but notice the pundit offered up by the New York Times, which reported the fact that a Republican presidential debate earlier this week devolved into a Latino-bashing session.

Which was sad, according to the pundit, because Nevada was the site of the 2010 election defeat of Sharron Angle, who thought she could defeat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., by engaging in intense Latino-bashing.

A Las Vegas debate that turns into a Latino-bashing session shows that the GOP didn’t learn a thing from 2010 – which was that their candidates who went overboard didn’t win even in a year when the ideological trends leaned in their favor.

In fact, the most notable GOP victories from the ‘10 election cycle were those of Latino candidates in places like New Mexico or Florida. Appeal to Latinos, and you can win. Reject Latinos, and you’d better be in one of the worst economic downturns in U.S. history to even have a chance.

EVEN THEN, YOU probably will lose.

Because talk of double walls or electrified walls or demonizing someone for hiring Latino groundskeepers. It’s all trash talk that reeks of desperation – not of a party with a political destiny for victory.

Then again, the ultimate sign of desperation will probably be if, at some point in the next year, Mitt Romney really does start trying to claim that he, too, is a Latino.

That’s when we’ll know it’s all over, and that Barack Obama can count on facing an attempt by the ideologues to impeach him during his second term as president.

  -30-

Some reading material to pass the time

I can’t get all worked up over the most recent Republican presidential hopeful debate in Las Vegas, since the various candidates did nothing more on Tuesday than live down to their worst instincts. Even Fox News can (sort of) see it.

In short, I’m giving it a rest for the day, while trying to figure out how I can watch the World Series while also working Wednesday night. Fresh commentary will return here on Friday.

BUT FOR THOSE of you who feel compelled to learn something more about the growing Latino population of this nation, I couldn’t help but notice a few stories published elsewhere that are worth reading.

It’s not a new trend that some Latinos are giving up on the Catholic Church and turning to religious faiths, although many whom I have encountered who have done this were people who settled into rural communities who viewed their conversion as part of their assimilation into this country.

Reading of how western states are responding to shortages in the Colorado River by looking into getting water from Mexico makes me wonder how long until someone makes a stupid joke about how you “don’t drink the water” when traveling south of the Rio Bravo del Norte/Rio Grande?

And what of increased drilling for oil off the coast of Cuba? The Miami Herald reports that U.S. officials admit there would be little they could do if a serious oil spill were to occur as a result. Cuba isn’t about to listen to U.S. concerns of the environment. Which means the trade embargo may have the result of forcing us to trust that Cuba knows what it is doing – which in all likelihood, it doesn’t.

  -30-

GOP hopefuls mean nada? Que una sorpresa!

To the degree that the growing Latino population is paying attention to the upcoming election cycle for president, it is to wonder when incumbent Barack Obama is going to get off his nalgas and do something (anything) that doesn’t come across as pandering to the conservative ideologues who want government to be openly hostile toward our existence.

OBAMA: It's really in his hands

That is what led Latinos in 20 cities across the country to hold their own protest marches against the president – who seems to fear the far right to the point where he won’t do anything to back a group that was a significant part of his 2008 election.

AND WILL BE a significant part of his 2012 re-election, unless we come to the conclusion that sitting back and voting for no one for president makes more sense.

Because there certainly isn’t going to be a significant Latino vote for any Republican challenger to Obama – a thought that actually pleases the ideologues.

Because they’d like to think we live in a world where Latinos don’t matter. If we don’t vote, then we don’t.

What caught my eye was a poll released this week by the ImpreMedia/Latino Decisions group that is trying to determine how the Latino segment of the electorate is flowing.

OF THE TWO serious GOP candidates, neither is registering with Latinos (even though one of them likes to think that his being the governor of Texas makes him the natural to gain significant Latino support).

Rick Perry is dreaming for believing that. Then again, Mitt Romney isn’t exactly gaining our support.

The one-time governor of Massachusetts whose Mormon religious faith makes him either a “love him” or “hate him” guy among the GOP backers is a nobody to Latinos – 46 percent have never heard of him.

And while 28 percent of Latinos say they favor him, another 25 percent don’t want him as president.

AS FOR PERRY, 40 percent of Latinos don’t know who he is – and 39 percent know him and don’t like him. When it comes to Latinos specifically from Texas, 49 percent disapprove of him.

If this were to become an Obama/Perry campaign in the general election cycle, you’d definitely have a GOP candidate who would swing support back to Obama because they hate his opposition even more.

Then again, Perry isn’t a shoo-in to win. Who’s to say who will come out of this?

For every person on the Republican side who seems to like Romney, there seems to be a slightly greater number who wants to believe he belongs to a religious cult.

AND AS FAR as the rest of them, it might well be said that of Herman Cain – who seems to be the flavor of the month in the GOP who remains competitive with Romney – when it comes to Latinos, 73 percent have never heard of the guy.

Only Jon Huntsman (75 percent) is more anonymous among Latinos.

So much for the idea that the party is all that interested in reaching out to the Latino vote. Most of us don’t have a clue who these people are, except that they’re not of our experience.

Then again, when you have candidates who go about pledging to build “double walls” along the U.S./Mexico border, or to put up electric wire to kill people, you’re not looking to appeal to a certain group.

AND HERMAN, THE only “joke” was you when you made that original suggestion.

So it will be intriguing to see how Obama reacts in coming months, what with Latinos taking it upon themselves to have “Days of Action” across the country (in addition to joining in the Occupy Wall Street/Chicago/etc. activist actions) to express our outrage with federal policies that have resulted in increases in deportations.

As though that would appease Obama’s opposition in any way.

He’s going to have to remember who it was who backed him three years ago – and who has spent the past three years working to devise as many tactics as possible to undermine the efforts of his presidency.

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Do they want Obama to win?

I see the tactics being used these days by some of the candidates for the Republican nomination for president, and I can’t help but wonder to myself, “Do they want Barack Obama to get re-elected?”

BACHMANN: Double wall?!?



Despite the talk that comes from GOP leadership about wanting to gain a significant share of the Latino vote (which doesn’t mean winning it), the acts of some of the candidates just seem determined to drive the growing Latino population into the Obama camp – regardless of our grievances with that man.

MICHELE BACHMANN MAY be the most outrageous; although her latest tactic is so over-the-top that it is impossible to take seriously. If anything, she gave us the final piece of evidence that shows she doesn’t have a clue and is unfit to be president.

Bachmann signed a pledge in recent days, committing herself to the notion that not only will she see to it that work is finished on that border “wall” along the entire 1,900-mile stretch of the U.S./Mexico border, she will build a “double” wall.

Two walls that would have to be climbed in order to get from one country to another without enduring the bureaucratic nonsense that often occurs at the official checkpoints..

Now I’m not advocating avoiding the checkpoints. I’m merely acknowledging that more people would be willing to use them if the bureaucratic mess wasn’t so intense and designed to keep them uncross-able.

BUT MICHELE MAKING this pledge is doing nothing more than pandering to those individuals who have intense ethnic hang-ups and expect their public officials to use the government’s power to reinforce them.

PERRY: Too much Generalissimo?



She wants to be the president for those people who want government to harass Latinos into wanting to leave this country – even if they increasingly are born here and are U.S. citizens first and foremost.

One-time Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano is the official who once made the wisecrack about the 50-foot fence requiring a 51-foot ladder to climb; implying that walls along the border with Mexico aren’t going to do a thing to keep people out if they’re determined to come to this country.

Building a second wall is going to be just as pointless – although it will ensure that even more federal dollars are wasted on this project that appeals to only the most narrow-minded of our society.

IF ANYTHING, IT puts her in the same class as Herman Cain, who earlier this year talked of wanting electrified barricades in the southwestern U.S. deserts – creating the image of Latin Americans electrocuted, with corpses rotting in the sand.

Either way, it is a nit-wit image that undermines the Republican Party on so many levels.

Yet the scary thing is that it isn’t just the fringe candidates who are proposing stupid ideas that relate to the Latino population. Even the candidates who would like to think they are legitimate feel the need to pander to this particular sentiment.

The Washington Post on Monday reported how Texas state law enforcement officials recently got into a shooting incident with people trying to get marijuana from Tamaulipas to Texas, and who were trying to flee back across the border to evade arrest.

REGARDLESS OF WHAT one thinks about the use of such drugs, all I know is that if Mexican law enforcement were to engage in gunfire so close to the border (with some bullets making it across the Rio Bravo del Norte/Rio Grande), we’d be hearing the ideologues ranting and raging about the “threat” to U.S. soil.

Should we consider the Texas action (which included the Texas Rangers) some sort of attack on Mexico?

That might be an extreme thought, but it seems we have a would-be president who seems too eager to have armed officials along the border. Definitely something that will backfire against him – except to that portion of the society whom Bachmann is trying to reach with her talk of “double walls” along the border.

They keep up these kinds of acts, and we’re going to see how quickly “Mr. 42 percent” (Obama’sapproval rating as of Monday) looks better and better to the masses.

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