For Hispanics, it has been a lonely struggle to have a "voice" in America

What’s in the news in the past few days? The NRA’s Wayne LaPierre is going off his rocker again, with Donald Trump securely in tow. What exactly does that confusingly-worded Second Amendment say anyways? That the people have the right to bear arms—but in a “well regulated militia”? Trump is also pushing “mini-medical” plans; don’t be a fool and get one, because you’ll end up paying more in premiums that you will ever receive in benefits. Locally, a white man was arrested after making a brazen attempt to sexually assault a “bikini barista” in Kent, climbing through the checkout window of her coffee stand and dragging her out into an alley, before he was “distracted” by the arrival of another “customer.” Trump followed-up by “threatening” to remove ICE and border patrol personnel from California as “punishment” for the state’s lack of cooperation with his deportation efforts, predicting that the state would soon be flooded with violence and crime, in keeping with his racist notion that Hispanic immigrants are all murderers and rapists. 

But not all, it seems. An Albuquerque, New Mexico television news station is reporting that there are hundreds of  children locally, who are U.S. citizens but were forced to leave the contrary after one or more of their parents were deported, are crossing over the border to attend public schools in the U.S., which is their right; some are as young as Kindergarten age. One of them, Porter Howard, whose father is a U.S. citizen, is set to graduate high school with honors despite the difficulties in getting to and from school; he notes that he encounters some white students at the school who mime the resentment of their parents toward U.S. citizens like him even being allowed to attend public school in the country of their birth.

CNBC is pointing out the hypocrisy of the Trump administration’s immigration policy, noting that more—not less—immigrant workers of all types and “merits” are needed to keep the economy growing. It observes that Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers chair Kevin Hassett is now trumpeting Trump’s fascist “America First” vision, yet when Barack Obama was president, Hassett wrote "With lackluster GDP growth threatening to become our new normal, allowing more immigrants to enter for the sake of employment is one of the few policies that might restore our old normal," That 2013 article carried the headline ‘America Needs Workers.’ It concluded with Hassett's assessment of how to increase U.S. economic growth by a half-percentage point per year: giving more priority to new workers while admitting twice as many immigrants.”

A story from Reuters tells us that a lawsuit filed in federal court in Boston is charging the Trump administration and the DHS with acting with blatant racial animus in regard to its recent rulings in regard to certain groups living in the country under the Temporary Protective Status law.  “The lawsuit cited statements it said showed the Republican president’s ‘dislike and disregard for Latino and Black immigrants,’ most recently in reported remarks in January by Trump saying immigrants from Africa and Haiti come from ‘shithole countries.’ The animus directed towards Latino and Black immigrants is a clear and unfortunate thread running throughout President Trump’s statements - and is actualized by his Administration’s policies, such as the ones challenged by this lawsuit, the complaint said.” 

Last year in The Guardian, the cynicism and hypocrisy of the American mainstream media in refusing to confront the racist roots of white “populist movements,” rather attempting to “understand” white racists as just “ordinary people” with “ordinary” problems: 

This Thanksgiving, as one half of the US was rummaging through Black Friday sale bins and the other was ringing them up at registers, the New York Times ran a story titled “A Voice of Hate in America’s Heartland.” The voice in question was Tony Hovater, a young welder from Huber Heights, Ohio – who also happened to be a member of the neo-Nazi Traditionalist Worker Party. But the Times story focused instead on how normal and ordinary Hovater was, what he puts in his pasta and what he and his fiancee have put on their wedding registry. Nowhere did it mention that Hovater and his party describe their mission as “fighting for the rights of white Americans”, tell followers to “hate migrant communities” and believe that “mass purging” of non-white citizens is a tenable idea.

The article produced a decent bit of outcry, prompting responses by the national editor and a reflection of sorts by the author, who had presented a neo-Nazi as just another member of America’s beleaguered and victimised white working class. But the American left should not have been so surprised at the Times’s decision to run the piece, for 2017 has been the year of complicity, with all aspects of the white working class – no matter how unforgivable – being treated with fascinated sympathy in the wake of Donald Trump’s election win. 

The Guardian noted that before and after the election, “folksy” books were written to “explain” why white people supported Trump, which tended to ignore the fact that although not all whites were living the life of “privilege” and “entitlement” they expected for being white, for nonwhites (blacks and Hispanics in particular) that was their “expected” lot in life. In a book called Nomadland, about aging white Americans who travel about the country in RVs looking for work, author Jessica Bruder chose to profile “a scrappy woman named Linda, whose unerring positivity is truly endearing.” But Bruder seems to have a blind spot for nearby Hispanic agricultural workers, because “the white seniors are of particular note because they, unlike brown or black workers, have lost the good life instead of never having been able to get to it.” 

The Guardian also noted that although most in the U.S. media and elsewhere are still under the illusion that fascism is a purely “European” phenomenon,

However, for years surveys have shown that strong authoritarian, nativist and populist positions command pluralities, if not majorities, among Republican supporters. Positions on crime, immigration and Islam have hardened rather than weakened, while conspiracy theories that were at the fringes of the militia movement in the 1990s are now widespread. What the increasingly forgotten rise of the Tea Party indicated several years before was simply confirmed by the rise of Trump: the Republican establishment had radicalised its base to such an extent that it was no longer representative of its views. Trump didn’t hijack the Republican party, he provided the base with a real representative again. But just as the Koch brothers didn’t control the Tea Party, Trump doesn’t control “Trumpism”. He is merely the current voice of the radicalised base.

Since at least 2004, Hispanics regardless of their legal status have been the national “whipping boy.” The term’s origination is when a royal prince needed to be punished, a “stand-in” was selected who received the punishment instead; it isn’t difficult to see how the analogy applies in this country. Take for instance who is taking the “punishment” for the U.S.’ lust for illegal drugs. There was a National Geographic special report on the horrible massacre in the small town of Allende, Mexico in 2011, not far from the Texas border. What is striking about this is not just  the savagery of the massacre, but just how much the incompetence of the American side of the “drug war” led to the deaths of hundreds of innocent people, with the “aid” of the U.S.’ virtually unregulated gun trade that allows an endless flow of weaponry into Mexico. Indifferent Americans might be “surprised” to learn that

Entire blocks of some of the town’s busiest streets lie in ruins. Once garish mansions are now crumbling shells, with gaping holes in the walls, charred ceilings, cracked marble countertops and toppled columns. Strewn among the rubble are tattered, mud-covered remnants of lives torn apart: shoes, wedding invitations, medications, television sets, toys. In March 2011 gunmen from the Zetas cartel, one of the most violent drug trafficking organizations in the world, swept through Allende and nearby towns like a flash flood, demolishing homes and businesses and kidnapping and killing dozens, possibly hundreds, of men, women and children. 

The destruction and disappearances went on in fits and starts for weeks. Only a few of the victims’ relatives — mostly those who didn’t live in Allende or had fled — dared to seek help. “I would like to make clear that Allende looks like a war zone,” reads one missing person report. “Most people who I questioned about my relatives responded that I shouldn’t go on looking for them because outsiders were not wanted, and were disappeared.”

But unlike most places in Mexico that have been ravaged by the drug war, what happened in Allende didn’t have its origins in Mexico. It began in the United States, when the Drug Enforcement Administration scored an unexpected coup. An agent persuaded a high-level Zetas operative to hand over the trackable cellphone identification numbers for two of the cartel’s most wanted kingpins, Miguel Ángel Treviño and his ​brother Omar. 

Then the DEA took a gamble. It shared the intelligence with a Mexican federal police unit that has long had problems with leaks — even though its members had been trained and vetted by the DEA. Almost immediately, the Treviños learned they’d been betrayed. The brothers set out to exact vengeance against the presumed snitches, their families and anyone remotely connected to them. Their savagery in Allende was particularly surprising because the Treviños not only did business there — moving tens of millions of dollars in drugs and guns through the area each month — they’d also made it their home. 

The U.S. is neck-deep in this violence, not just because of the gun trafficking, but because the U.S. is the largest consumer market for illegal drugs in the world. This may surprise some people, but it is technically a violation of the Fourth Amendment to ban people from consuming anything they wish, but this little problem was skirted around by making the availability of “recreational” drugs subject to the requirement of obtaining licenses by government, which it does not do. States that currently have legalized marijuana require growers and sellers to obtain licenses to do so, otherwise it is still illegal. Prohibition saw the kind of violence we see in Mexico occurring in the U.S. during the early 1930s, so we shouldn’t pretend to be “shocked” by what our drug prohibition policy has visited upon much of Mexico.

For a group that finds itself under constant assault from so many angles, there are next to no Hispanics in the American mainstream media who are allowed to provide an alternative narrative to the one provided for them by people who have a surprising level of ignorance about Hispanic’s “alien” culture, allowing them at best only the vaguest connection with this country even if they are native-born citizens, and all despite the fact the first permanent settlement in the U.S. was Spanish, and that most people in Mexico have something that the vast majority of this “nation of immigrants” do not have—the “blood” of the original inhabitants of this land. It is you who is the stranger, the interloper. I currently work in a downtown Seattle office building—you know, “progressive” Seattle? Well, not a day goes by when I am made to feel that I am the one who doesn’t “belong.” 

So, if the media isn’t going to allow Hispanics, still technically the largest “minority” group in the country, to speak for themselves, then one has to look for “heroes” elsewhere—even “fake” ones. They are, of course, few and far between. Danny Trejo in the Machete films provided some kickass against the usual Hollywood stereotypes of maids, thugs and Latina characters who genuflect before white social domination. Of course, these films were not widely distributed, and consequently had little impact in changing the perception that Hispanics have no wherewithal to fight back against the constant barrage of attacks from all sides. While Robert Rodriguez has made some B-grade films that cater to a Hispanic political sensibility, Mexican-born director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu has not used his mainstream success in the U.S. to even bother casting Hispanic actors in his own films. It has been a long time since a film like El Norte has appeared to force Americans to confront their own ignorance and bigotry.


With the release of Marvel’s Black Panther film which showcases a mostly all-black cast, we are once more confronted with the reality that the Hollywood and the media are quite eager to pander to the black audience, and its sense of victimhood, and attempts to “remedy” it; it shouldn’t be seen as a coincidence that the film was released during Black History Month, which doesn’t have a Hispanic equivalent. The film’s success is not necessarily because it is “good,” even within a genre that is currently all the rage, but because Hollywood has for the past thirty-five years worked to establish black stars in mainstream films (Eddie Murphy represented the beginning of that effort).

On the other hand, Hollywood has done virtually nothing in promoting Hispanic actors, especially male actors. Yes, there are some female actors, but they are generally typecast as love interests of Anglo whites, or helping to “confirm” racial stereotypes. One of the more successful “Hispanic” actors of late is Zoe Saldana, who has appeared in a number of high profile “fantasy” films, but this leads me to another “beef” with Hollywood, the fact that Saldana is not being cast because she is “Hispanic,” but because she is “Afro” and Hollywood expects her to appeal more to a black audience than a Hispanic audience it doesn’t understand.

This is no small matter. Marvel has no Hispanics in its movie universe, except one or two it killed off (one, Stilwell, didn’t even have a Spanish name). What is it doing to lend some “diversity” to this universe? “Miles Morales” is replacing the deceased Peter Parker as Spider Man in the comic books and in an animated film. He was “designed” by a Latina. But is he really “Hispanic”? I think the Hispanic community should be greatly insulted by the fact that “Morales” is “Afro-Latino.” Yeah, he looks more “black” than he does “Latino.” The vast majority of Hispanics are not black, so why make him black? How can the vast majority of Hispanics identify with him as “one of them”? 

Why not have just ditched the “Morales” character and just made him plain black? Some observers in the Marvel world are wondering if it is possible to select the “right” actor to play  a “live action” version of this character. I have a theory about this. I think that Marvel knows that at present time Hollywood has not cultivated a credible Hispanic actor to play a “major” standalone role like this, so it is hedging its bets. Is it more “politically incorrect” to cast a white actor in what is supposed to be a “Hispanic” role, or a black actor? Doubtless Marvel believes that it is less so to cast a black actor as “Miles Morales” and pretend he is “Hispanic.” One must remember that this isn’t just a matter of “ethnic” diversity, but of sensibility; a Hispanic super hero must be mindful that his (or her) “friends” and enemies both belong to a universe that has been largely hostile to them.

All of this points to the fact that in this country the Hispanic community has been fighting its own lonely and largely ignored civil rights struggle. In the book Testimonio: A Documentary History of the Mexican-American Struggle for Civil Rights, a little acknowledged or discussed sordid chapter in American history is told. While white and black viewpoints dominate the political and social discussion in this country, the Hispanic battles for respect has been either treated with indifference or ignored altogether. As a result of this, the worst and most contemptible paranoid fears and stereotypes have been allowed to circulate with little or no “allowed” pushback from those who are the victims of it. Latin America, which has been abused by U.S. policies in the past (particularly Central America), is little more than an afterthought in the discussion of U.S. foreign policy, only “acknowledged” today as the point of origin for “illegal aliens,” murderers and rapists.

This, far from being anything “new,” has been the norm from the beginning. Testimonio tells us that despite the rights as U.S. citizens “guaranteed” by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, newly minted citizens of Mexican descent were able to stave off complete disenfranchisement everywhere only in New Mexico, whose application for statehood  was delayed until lawmakers in Washington felt it had a safely “Anglo” majority. Hispanic residents throughout the former Mexican territories were beset by widespread discrimination, discriminatory laws specifically targeting them, voter suppression tactics that included onerous poll taxes and grandfather clauses, and being illegally forced off their land by Anglo “squatters” with the law and the courts usually ignoring their legal right to their own property. 

Worse was the belief by the Anglo community (especially in Texas) that “Mexican” lives were little more elevated than rats (the way Jews were portrayed in the Nazi propaganda film, The Eternal Jew—or as implied by the likes of Pat Buchanan and Ann Coulter). The lynchings and vigilante killings of “Mexicans”—most infamously by the Texas Rangers—numbered in the many thousands. Mass killing of innocent Hispanics (like the Porvenir Massacre) were “uncommon” only because most went unreported. “Ridding the country of Mexicans” was a common refrain all over the country, especially during times of economic difficultly, usually because of the largely exaggerated belief in “cultural” differences that were always negative in nature; while the Japanese internment continues to be seen as a dark patch in American history, the forced expulsion of hundreds of thousands of U.S. citizens for the crime being “Mexican” during the Great Depression is still almost entirely ignored by the history books and the media. 

Despite this insistence by the Anglo world that they were not “one of them” and thus not “real” Americans, many Mexican-Americans persist then and now to hide from the fact that the original European “pure-blood” population is in many places in Latin America is only a small (but powerful) minority, since the original Spanish explorers did not bring their women with them, and unlike the English did not suffer sufficiently from racist notions that prevented them from taking on indigenous women as “consorts.” This means that the vast majority could count at least some indigenous  ancestry; yet despite the fact very few can call themselves “pure Caucasian,” many still persist in identifying themselves as  “white” in the expectation that they would then be treated as “equals,” or at least be treated no more discriminatorily than Italians or Jews. 

Thus in 1940, Mexican-Americans were officially classified as “white” by the federal government after pressure from Mexican-American activists who chaffed at being classified as “colored” in many places. Yet they still served in segregated military units during World War II (there are no accurate numbers of Hispanics who served in the U.S. Army because of this “white” classification). But others did not live in a world of such illusion, and in the 1954  Hernandez vs. Texas decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Mexican-Americans did comprise a discriminated against “class,” suffering the effects  of de facto nonwhite status in this country, and this “difference” was later to be acknowledged in U.S. Census reports. 

Contrary to myths perpetrated by Trump and even progressive populists like Bernie Sanders, Mexican-Americans did fight for better working conditions and equal rights with white workers. This included Cesar Chavez, who I had the privilege of hearing speak in Sacramento a few years before he passed away. Unfortunately, this “story” is “remembered” from films like Salt of the Earth, which was initially blacklisted in the 1950s for unknown reasons. This film allegedly tells in fictionalized form the actual 15-month labor strike against Empire Zinc, mainly by Mexican miners who fought against lower wages, poorer housing conditions, lack of hot running water, and more dangerous working conditions than their white co-workers. They were not only opposed by the company, but by the judicial system, local law enforcement and even other unions. 

When the striking miners were levied heavy fines by a court for continuing the strike, the idea surfaced that since the wives of the miners were not employees of the company, they could not legally be fined for replacing them on the picket line. Not surprisingly, this is what finally gained the strike some national attention, especially after women and children were subsequently being arrested, and after a period of bad publicity Empire Zinc finally accepted most of the strikers’ demands. But Salt of the Earth turns all this into a feminist “statement,” or so it was referred to in later years. A straightforward documentary would have been far more truthful in telling this story rather than what we see in Salt, which I dislike because it trivialized and marginalized the racial discrimination faced by the miners, instead turning the gender political trick of making the male miners somehow “bad guys.” 

Thus is the difficulty of meaningful push-back against discrimination, paranoia and scapegoating from virtually every direction. As a federal judge in Brooklyn, Nicholas Garaufis, stated in an injunction supporting DACA last week, Trump and Jeff Sessions have shown repeated arbitrary and capricious attitudes toward the constitutionality of DACA, and of its recipients. The judge “slammed” Trump for his “recurring redundant drumbeat of anti-Latino commentary. This isn’t ordinary. In this country, in over 250 years, it’s extreme, it’s recurrent and it’s vicious.” Having already called Sessions “heartless,” Garaufis accused him of seeming “to think that courts don’t get to have their own opinions.” For the time being, it seems, Hispanics have to rely on others to speak for them. The only way this will change is if the media decides that most Hispanics in this country are “real” Americans, too.