PrintMay 9, 2010
Is America Conquered When the American Flag Is 'Offensive'?
Californians were recently confronted with a sobering reality. Students at a large high school in the Morgan Hill district were told by school administrators that American flag tee shirts and other patriotic paraphernalia were not allowed, citing Cinco de Mayo as justification.
Few students at the school probably realize that America provided help to Mexico in expelling the French, whose defeat at the Battle of Puebla is commemorated on May 5. How can American flags be "offensive" on a day that is almost as much American as it is Mexican? Cinco de Mayo is not even celebrated as a national holiday in Mexico. This incident follows Columbus Day's downgrade to "Indigenous People's Day" in some cities in the dying state. While certainly no one is against the idea of cultural celebrations, guests do not get to tell the host to sit down and shut up. This is merely the tip of a very large iceberg stretching deep into the heart of the American Southwest.
Due to immigration policies that cater to U.S. corporations and politicians -- witness the furor over Arizona's new law -- a substantial fifth column has been admitted into the halls of freedom, and they are starting to demand changes. Following the "reconquista" approach favored by many activists, Mexican immigrants have sought to return the American Southwest to Mexico through means of slow and patient occupation.
While not every Mexican immigrant desires the overthrow of the United States government, seventy percent of them say that Mexico comes first in questions of loyalty. Is this the kind of immigration America wants or needs? How can America be a nation if its inhabitants pledge allegiance to another flag? What about when those of Latino birth occupy a majority share of the U.S. population, as is predicted to occur by 2050? This is a problem that needs to be addressed now.
How did America get here?
The Mexico-first attitude dominating political discourse has taken years to cultivate, aided primarily by the deliberate misinformation of groups like Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan, or the Chicano Student Movement of Aztlan (MEChA). MEChA has three hundred chapters on college campuses all over the country and demands "restitution for past economic slavery, political exploitation, ethnic and cultural psychological destruction[.]" Here is the short version of the MEChA screed:
Chicano is our identity; it defines who we are as people. It rejects the notion that we ... should assimilate into the Anglo-American melting pot ... Aztlan was the legendary homeland of the Aztecas ... brutally stolen from a Mexican people marginalized and betrayed by the hostile custodians of the Manifest Destiny.
This is pure, fabricated nonsense. There is not now, nor has there ever been, any such land called "Aztlan." The American Southwest was never ruled by the Aztecs. And Mexico's jurisdiction over these territories lasted a mere ten years, owing in part to the historic Spanish presence.
But MEChA doesn't stop at propaganda.
Miguel Perez, President of Cal-State Northridge's MEChA chapter, said, "The ultimate ideology is the liberation of Aztlan. Communism would be closest. Once Aztlan is established, ethnic cleansing would commence: Non-Chicanos would have to be expelled -- opposition groups would be quashed because you have to keep power."
Compounding this problem is the fact that Mexican schoolchildren are taught from birth that the gringo stole Mexican land. Mexico has even secured the right to propagate these racial myths in American classrooms. The Mexican Consulate in Los Angeles sent nearly 100,000 textbooks to 1,500 schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District in 2006[1].
Far from stealing Mexican land, the United States paid handsomely for the land it acquired, and Mexican President Santa Anna was only too happy to oblige [2]. The consequences of this historical revisionism are alarming: In a June 2002 Zogby International Poll, 58 percent of Mexicans polled agreed that the "territory of the United States Southwest belongs to Mexico."
An invasion is underway, aided by opportunists on both sides of America's political spectrum. In the nineties, President Clinton used immigration as a voter-recruitment tool, naturalizing large numbers of Latinos in order to secure his hold on the White House. The project was spearheaded by now-chief Obama advisor Rahm Emmanuel. Judging from President Obama's response to Arizona's action, we shouldn't expect a change of strategy any time soon.
Both California and Texas hold decisive electoral votes, so now many political leaders must ritualistically seek the blessing of groups like the National Council de La Raza to obtain the Mexican-American vote. When Mexican President Ernst Zedillo spoke to La Raza in 1997 and uttered the words, "I have proudly proclaimed that the Mexican nation extends beyond the territory enclosed by its borders," members of La Raza jumped to their feet in thunderous applause.
No longer a fringe concept, there is now substantial political leverage behind those demanding that the American Southwest become Mexican. Not too long ago, politicians in New Mexico debated changing the state's name to "Nuevo Mexico." California Prop 187, a measure denying further state benefits to illegal immigrants, was struck down after a lawsuit initiated by the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) challenged the constitutionality of the proposition.
Constitutionality? For illegal immigrants?
California legislator Art Torres called Prop 187 "the last gasp of white America." The President of LULAC was very direct, saying, "California is going to be a Mexican state. We are going to control all of the institutions. If people don't like it, they should leave." The Mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa, who once chaired the UCLA chapter of MEChA, ran on a slogan of "Los Angeles Today, Alta California Tomorrow."
The Mexican government is encouraging this process of conquest, with former Mexican Consul General José Pescador Osuna remarking, "Even though I am saying this part serious, part joking, I think we are practicing La Reconquista in California." Some U.S. towns have already partially seceded to Mexico. El Cenizo, Texas has declared the town language Spanish, ordered that all business be conducted in Spanish, and has made talking with immigration authorities a firing offense. Mexico's outright invasion of America has taken on some not-so-subtle tones. Mexican military incursions into the U.S. to protect Mexico's drug trade are now frequent. The Department of Homeland Security records 231 since 1996.
Jorge Castaneda, when he was still Mexico's Foreign Minister, remarked before Mexican reporters, "I like very much the metaphor of Gulliver, of ensnarling the giant ... Tying it down with nails, with thread, with 20,000 nets that bog it down: these nets being norms, principles, resolutions, agreements and bilateral, regional, and international covenants." This is official Mexican policy, yet we respond with Free Trade Agreements and open arms of friendship.
In order to demonstrate our lack of prejudice, we have welcomed enemies into our midst.
America is a generous nation. We're a society of many cultures. We embrace all people, of all races, and offer freedom to all who come with honest intentions. But Americans cannot continue to turn a blind eye to the intentions of our "peaceful" invaders.
Today, there are large numbers of individuals residing in the U.S. who neither consider themselves Americans nor want to become Americans. Some have organized into militant groups whose stated purpose is to overpopulate the southwestern United States and reclaim it for Mexico without firing a shot.
Will we continue to let Mexico dictate to the U.S.? Enough is enough. The time has come to defend ourselves.
