I don’t buy the ‘Mexicans were here first’ argument.

Many will say we stole the land from Mexico (we wrenched it from Mexico, after suppressing their resistence to our taking it), but in fact Mexico was losing control of much of it more than it ever could have been said to have been losing control of Texas (in eastern Texas, it was more a demographic wave of US citizens that was changing things there eventually to lead to annexation by the USA). There were independence movements in California, for example. There was no certainty Mexico would have retained all its lands if the USA hadn’t taken them.

Note that we didn’t take all that expansionists sought.

Some will say that the current demographic wave (of immigration and immigrant natality) is a non-violent form of reconquest, and yes, it is seen that way by many in Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America (I can no longer find the link to the Venezuelan story about this, that discusses how Mexicans are “recovering their lands” through immigration), but the picture is actually more complicated because California, for example, also is home to Asian immigrants, not to mention people from India and elsewhere (even western Europe!).

I do agree, however, with the idea that we can’t stop the clock. Change will come, whether we like it or not. If everyone would just calm down, that change could come peacefully and porductively, and we could all be enriched by it.

Unfortuanttely, this wave of immigration debates comes in the middle of national turbulence on a host of other fronts: the Iraq war, terrorism, changing economy, class and political warfare. Emotions run so high, and rational thinking is trampled.

If we could just calm down……

If

That includes my cute, sweet pal from my years in Phoenix, who is Tex-Mex, and whom I’ll surprise again with a dozen yellow roses someday soon.

In the meantime I speak a few kind words in Spanish to Hispanics I encounter who are trying to learn English acknowledging that it is difficult to learn and wishing them continued good luck. The words are appreciated — I got hugs from a couple of folks when I made a visit to the East Coast recently, including where I lived in upstate NY.

Somehow I doubt I’ll encounter anywhere in the Southwest or the rest of the USA what I’ve seen in the Eastern Townships (Cantons-de-l’Est), where couples would converse with each other not blending, but switching and selecting, English and French at will depending on what they were seeking to express at any instant.

Most Hispanics are trying to learn English. The activists and anti-assimilationists are no more true representatives than Reconquista activism like this, which few respect.

Most Hispancis are not bilingural. There Spanish speaking ability is extremely limited and very few Hipsanics are capable of reading or writing in Spanish. What most Hispanics speak is “spanglish” or “tex-mex”

Spanglish is a tool of rudeness. Every ango living in places like Texas has multiple stories of the Hispanics speaking spanish in front of them as a method of excluding the white from the conversation and of talking about people behind their back. The quickest method of ensuring Spanish in not spoken around you is to let Hispanic know that you understand what they are saying.