We're constantly informed in the MainStream Media (MSM) that the continued growth and organized power of the U.S. Hispanic community is inevitable and a great thing anyway. If you even question it, be prepared to be called "racist" or other ugly names. Curiously though, Hispanic activists can gloat over their growing power without being called "racists".
A recent CNN column by Ruben Navarrette, Jr., is a case in point – he says the Hispanicization of the U.S. is inevitable and should not be resisted. [Is America Becoming a Hispanic Country?, March 18, 2011. The question is rhetorical.]
Here at VDARE.COM we've dealt with Ruben Navarrette's work before. (See my May 2008 article Ruben Navarrette—Where's He At?)
It's important to point out that Navarrette [Email him]is by no means the most radical Hispanic activist out there. He's actually considered to be a conservative.
But then so were George W. Bush and John McCain—the word apparently doesn't always mean much these days.
At heart, Navarrette is a Mexican-American chauvinist who wants more power for his group and less power for the historical American majority. Navarrette fights for his tribe—but if we fight for ours, he wants us to know that's evil and foolish.
Let's check out his latest commentary. Before you read what Navarrette has to say, consider this portrait which accompanies it:
From this photograph, we see that (1) Navarrette has a very smug and arrogant expression on his face; and (2) he looks like a white Hispanic, which is certainly not uncommon among Hispanic activists and leaders. In fact, if you put a conquistador helmet (maybe like this one) on him, he would sure fit the part. (See my column Spanish and the New Conquistadors).
Navarrette cuts right to the chase:
"The United States is becoming an Hispanic country. And it's happening much faster than anyone expected."
Then he launches into a four-paragraph summation of recently-released census data, which we are likely to be hearing a lot about this year and next. It's unabashed Hispanic Demographic Triumphalism: "The Hispanic population in the United States is growing more quickly and more dramatically than demographers had estimated."
Navarrette rejoices in announcing the likelihood "that the final figure could surpass 55 million, or 17% of the U.S. population."
It's not only the numbers, but also the fact that La Raza is growing in states "where Hispanics are a relatively new commodity—and the accommodations that have to be made between new arrivals and longtime residents."
The old-fashioned idea that immigrants have to conform to the society of those "longtime residents" is out of date. Now the immigrants must be accommodated. Navarrette boasts that this unstoppable Hispanic tidal wave is going to change our country:
"One day soon, Hispanics will help define the worlds of media, politics, commerce, fashion, music, entertainment, sports and science [AW:!!]. There will be no turning back..."
Navarrette lectures his readers on the inevitability of this process—and he objects to non-Hispanics trying to stop it:
"Or maybe you figured out that the Hispanic population in the United States was exploding when you saw the quixotic efforts of some to stop the trend by cracking down on illegal immigration and—for an encore—trying to limit legal immigration as well."
What nerve! How dare Americans try to enforce the law and determine their own immigration policies!
Then Navarrette trots out the They've Been Here A Long Time argument:
"Most immigrants to the United States, legal and illegal, come from Mexico and the rest of Latin America. But in states such as Arizona, Texas, Colorado and New Mexico, you also have Hispanic families that can trace their American roots back hundreds of years."
Yes, yes, but not very many. The vast territory which is now the U.S. Southwest was sparsely inhabited before and during the period 1836-1853, when it passed from Mexican to American jurisdiction. (See my On Guadalupe Hidalgo Day, Here's Why the U.S. Has Title to the Southwest).
The vast majority of Hispanics, even in Border States, are not descended from the inhabitants of the region when it belonged to Mexico, but from recent immigrants (legal and illegal) in the past few decades. (In fact, an amazing 38% of the current U.S. Hispanic population is foreign-born).
Does Navarrette understand what the Hispanic invasion is doing to the dwindling white English-speaking majority of the U.S.? Of course he does!
"Still, for many Americans, changing demographics isn't cause for celebration. Rather, it's cause for alarm. It brings a sense of fear, anxiety and desperation. They know enough to know that the country in which they grew up is changing, and they'll do whatever they can to reverse those changes and return the cultural landscape to what it used to be."
Yes, Navarrette does understand what's going on! That's why he doesn't want us to do anything about it!
Here's his explanation of Arizona's SB 1070 law:
"…a surging Hispanic population so panicked the state's residents that they began pushing lawmakers to pass immigration-related bills aimed at making the state less hospitable to illegal immigrants. This wasn't about reaffirming the rule of law. It was about returning Arizona to what it looked like 50 or 60 years ago, when the number of Hispanics in the state was much smaller than it is now."
But guess what? Navarrette admits:
"It seems to have worked. The analysis of census data done by the Hispanic Pew Center [sic] shows that in Arizona, the number of Hispanics came in at 1.9 million, or 180,000 fewer than expected."
Wait a second, Ruben! Are you saying Reconquista is not inevitable? That it might depend upon what we Americans do?
Here's how he tries to recover:
"But many of those immigrants had simply moved on to other states. This approach would not be much of a national strategy; besides, who is to say that many of those people won't return to Arizona when the economy improves or some of these excessively punitive laws are dismantled."
Of course this makes no sense—applied nationally, enforcement would make illegals self-deport, as some have already. Nevertheless, Navarrette has conceded that we can make a difference. But he continues to bluster to make us think we can't:
"Ultimately, you can't fight demographics. Hispanics are already here, and most of them aren't going anywhere. Instead of wishing otherwise, Americans would be better off accepting this new reality. While they're at it, they should acknowledge the positive impact to their communities and their country of having a growing population of people who are, by nature, conservative, hardworking, optimistic, patriotic and entrepreneurial. Hispanics aren't a threat to the United States; they're an essential component."
But most Hispanics, especially the new arrivals and their families, are not "conservative" in an American political sense. They do not want limited government—they want to be the recipients of the welfare state. Most of them vote Democratic for good reasons and that's not about to change anytime soon. See here and here .
Navarrette knows that Americans respect our military, so he plays the military card:
"Visit any military cemetery in the United States and count the Spanish surnames. You'll see that Hispanics have already contributed so much to this country. And, in the decades to come, they and their children stand ready to contribute so much more—if we put aside our prejudice and let them. That's the path to a better country."
Those fallen soldiers died fighting for the U.S., as American soldiers, not as Hispanics. Yet their memory is shamelessly utilized to promote an ethnic agenda.
Navarrette boasts about America becoming Hispanic. And if present trends continue, he´s right. By 2100, or maybe before that, the U.S. could be majority Hispanic.
So what are these present trends?
Mass migration, both legal and illegal, of Mexicans and other Latin Americans.
Our insane anchor baby policy which makes the children of illegal aliens citizens.
Government policies that provide Spanish language services, discouraging assimilation.
Social spending which provides more magnets to attract immigrants.
An official system of demographic classification in which the founding white majority population is negatively referred to as "Non-Hispanic White". We are defined, in other words, by not being Hispanics.
A census which is rigged to maximize the number of "Hispanics". If a white American of founding stock ancestry marries a Hispanic immigrant, their children are classified as "Hispanic", as if four hundred years of Anglo-American heritage is null and void.
Affirmative Action which discriminates against "Non-Hispanic Whites" and gives preference to "Hispanics" of any race—even white Hispanics receive Affirmative Action—eliminating yet another incentive to assimilate.
The MSM, educational establishment, both political parties and even the military support the country's Hispanicization uncritically.
Do most Americans want the U.S. to become a Hispanic country? Do most Americans want the U.S. to become a part of Latin America?
I don't think they do. I know I don't.
I speak Spanish. My wife is Mexican. I lived in Mexico for a decade and a half. I love and sympathize with the Hispanic culture.
But it's not the culture of our nation—and it shouldn't be forced on our people.
There's a vast region in which Hispanic culture can and should be celebrated. It's called Latin America.
Is the Hispanicization of the U.S. really "inevitable"?
We are regularly told that various trends are "inevitable"—but few really are. What usually happens is that people who want something to happen start proclaiming that it is "inevitable".
If present trends continue, the U.S. will become an appendage of Latin America. But present trends need not continue—if the historical majority of the U.S. wakes up. We need to pressure our government to:
Detain and deport illegal aliens and don't apologize for it.
End birthright citizenship for children of illegal aliens.
Tighten up voter registration laws and require photo ID.
Eliminate welfare magnets for illegal aliens.
Use only English as the official government language.
Scrap the "Hispanic" census category.
Get rid of Affirmative Action. Allow hiring and university selection to be carried out on the basis of individual merit.
Reduce legal immigration by 90% and be more selective about the immigrants we do allow in. Give preference to those who already speak English.
Some Hispanics would return to Latin America. Others would be motivated to identify as Americans. Even the high U.S. Hispanic birthrate might drop. After all, the birthrate of Mexicans in Mexico has already dropped drastically—it's now below the U.S. Hispanic rate.
Another change is also necessary. American whites need to shake off more than half a century of brainwashing and stop letting the Multicultural Left manipulate treacherous terms like "racism".
And, yes, if other groups are going to defend their interests, why can't the historical white American majority do the same?
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.
