In a rare case of the Main Stream Media reporting on what is happening Daily in Occupied America, Glenn Beck’s “The Blaze” website recently publicized the case of a high school Spanish-language teacher, Mexican-raised Reyna Santos, in McAllen, Texas (right near the border),who required her students to recite the Mexican national anthem and Pledge of Allegiance from memory.
It would have passed unnoticed except that student Brenda Brinsdon refused to do it, asserting that “reciting pledges to Mexico and being loyal to it has nothing to do with learning Spanish.” Miss Brinsdon also questioned the timing of the exercise:
“Why are we doing their [Mexican] independence when it‘s Freedom Week [celebrating the American Declaration of Independence] and it’s also [U.S.] Constitution Day [September 17]?”
You can read the article from “The Blaze” here: Blaze Exclusive: TX High School Students Made to Recite Mexican National Anthem, Pledge of Allegiance (by Madeleine Morgenstern, The Blaze, Oct. 17th, 2011). Also courtesy of The Blaze, you can see a live video of the class activity surreptitiously filmed by Miss Brinsdon.
If you view the video, notice that the arm position used in the Mexican flag salute is practically identical with that of a Nazi salute. From 1892 to 1942, the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance was performed in a similar manner, but it was changed so as not to look like a Nazi salute. In fact, the Bellamy salute, the so-called Roman salute and the Nazi salute all look about the same. As James Fulford has pointed out here and here, any public figure who raises his arm above the shoulder can be photographed to look like he’s giving a Nazi salute. However, the MSM only plays it up if Republicans appear to be doing it. So I guess it’s a non-issue here.
But it’s interesting that Jose Vasconcelos, the Mexican intellectual who developed the “La Raza” ideology, was a Nazi sympathizer during World War II. See my previous article Yes, La Raza Really Does Mean “The Race”—And the Idea was Invented by a Nazi Sympathizer.
I taught English for 15 years in Mexico, and I never forced my students to sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” or recite the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance. After all, my students were Mexicans living in Mexico.
Of course, I do believe that the study of patriotic symbols such as flags, national anthems and holidays are legitimate objects of study in a foreign language class. The key though is how you deal with them.
Now that I’m a Spanish-language teacher in the U.S. myself I believe that it’s entirely possible to be a patriotic American and teach Spanish in an American school as a foreign language. However, one must pay attention to detail. As I learned in my first year teaching here,Spanish-language textbooks are promoting an agenda. Read about it in my article Hispanic Triumphalism, Globalism in School Spanish Textbooks – Courtesy of U.S. Taxpayer.
In my Spanish classes here in the United States I have never had a class recite the Mexican Pledge of Allegiance. After all, my students have their own Pledge of Allegiance to the U.S. flag, which they recite daily.
The Mexican flag salute, by the way, is technically known in Spanish as the Juramento a la Bandera (The Oath to the Flag), and it goes like this:
"¡Bandera de México!
Legado de nuestros héroes,
símbolo de la unidad
de nuestros padres y nuestros hermanos.
Te prometemos ser siempre fieles
a los principios de libertad y de justicia
que hacen de nuestra patria la nación independiente, humana y generosa
a la que entregamos nuestra existencia."
Here’s the English translation :
"Flag of Mexico!
Legacy of our heroes,
symbol of the unity
of our parents and our brothers.
We promise to always be loyal
to the principles of liberty and justice
that make our fatherland
the independent nation, humane and generous
to which one we give our existence."
So yes, the person taking this oath is, if sincere, pledging allegiance to Mexico.
As for national anthems, they are worthy objects of study in a foreign language class.
I have played a recording of the Mexican national anthem for classes, though I didn’t have students recite or sing it.
But Mexico is not the only Spanish-speaking country. Certainly, Spanish-language teachers who play national anthems in class shouldn’t neglect La Marcha Real, of the Reino de España (the Kingdom of Spain), said to be one of the world’s oldest national anthems.
And hey, there are 18 Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America! So if a Spanish-language teacher’s goal is cultural exposure and not Mexican political indoctrination, how about reserving a Friday Spanish class for a national anthem listening day? I mean, if you’re going to listen to national anthems, do it up right!
Students could listen to the national anthems of various Spanish-speaking countries: Spain, Mexico, Colombia, Honduras, Argentina, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Peru, etc., as many as time permits.
There’s even a Spanish-speaking African country – Equatorial Guinea. How about its national anthem? It’s entitled Caminemos Pisando Las Sendas de Nuestra Inmensa Felicidad, which translates to “Let us walk, Treading the Paths of our Inmeasurable Happiness”. Don’t tell me students couldn’t learn something from that national anthem!
Generally speaking, I think the actual singing of a nation’s national anthem should be left to the citizens of that country. After all, they ought to be the ones who can sing it with the most fervor and sincerity.
As for the Mexican national anthem, Mexicanos, al Grito de Guerra, it is beloved in Mexico and taken very seriously. Unlike in the U.S., where pop stars are allowed to sing our national anthem in any manner they like, in Mexico it’s actually possible to be fined for publicly butchering their national anthem.
Vicente Fernandez, one of the biggest singing stars in Mexico, recently had to apologize for making a few minor errors in the anthem while singing it at the opening of the Pan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Really, is making American students sing the Mexican national anthem respectful to either U.S. or Mexican patriotism?
Besides, this is not an isolated incident. It’s part of a much larger picture. Texas has been overwhelmed by Mexicans, many of whom are no longer assimilating as they once did. McAllen, Texas, where this incident took place, is now 77.28% Hispanic. Judging from the photographs of the McAllen School District and the Achieve Early College High School, many if not most of the students are of Mexican descent, probably of fairly recently-arriving families.
Our current political climate encourages Mexicans NOT to assimilate, and indeed, to think of themselves as a people apart, with separate interests from those of mainstream America. And, as I’ve pointed out in a previous article, all babies born to Mexicans in the United States are potentially Mexican citizens and are considered as such by the Mexican government and society.
Don’t forget too, that Mexico is the only country in the world with a territorial claim against the United States, which gives rise to various forms of the reconquista movements.
(See You Say You Want a Reconquista?). In Glenn Beck’s interview with Brenda Brinsdon’s dad, William Brinsdon, he spoke of other reconquista-type activity in the school system and the area.
“The indoctrination of this stuff is going on all the time down here,” he said. “And also last year she was told in her Spanish class that this land was stolen from Mexico, yada, yada, was told to be quiet through the class.”
Listen here .
Add to that the constant meddling of Mexican officials and even the use of Mexican textbooks in some American schools, and we have a major problem on our hands. It is in this disturbing context that we must view the recent incident in McAllen. It’s a harbinger of more on the way—unless we turn things around.
American citizen Allan Wall (email him) recently moved back to the U.S.A. after many years residing in Mexico. In 2005, Allan served a tour of duty in Iraq with the Texas Army National Guard. His VDARE.COM articles are archived here; his Mexidata.info articles are archived here; his News With Views columns are archived here; and his website is here.
