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I’ve written a number of posts on immigration during the twenty years of this humble blog’s existence. All four of my grandparents are immigrants. Several of my aunts, uncles, and cousins are naturalized American citizens. Both my first (ex-) and present wife are immigrants and naturalized American citizens. Most of our family friends are immigrants that I’ve met through my wife.
I happen to believe the best thing about America is how, throughout our history, we have been able to accept and assimilate people from many different cultures and make them “Americans.” My beliefs appear to now put me into complete opposition to the current monstrosity of our federal government.
I’m good with being on the side of people coming to America.
Not a Perfect World
I’m not claiming that our American system of accepting and assimilating immigrants is perfect. It never has been. The real history of our nation is that each wave of immigrants has been met with hostility and discrimination. Those groups of new residents have had to fight to establish their place in our society and gain political power before they were “accepted.” Only to become part of the resistance against the next wave of immigrants. Meanwhile, the culture these new immigrants brought with them were absorbed into our body politic and became “Mainstream Americana.”
I mean, can anyone imagine life without pizza or tacos?
Some Harder Than Others
Some groups seem to have had a harder time that others into being accepted and assimilated. Discrimination by established Americans seems to cut deeper against these groups, no matter how much political power they amass. Chief among these are the people collectively referred to as “Hispanics;” Spanish-speaking people from Mexico, Central and South America. Who are currently prime targets of opportunity for America’s burgeoning secret police force also known as .
I don’t have the words to fully describe my feelings of anger, horror, disgust, revulsion, and helplessness all rolled into one big ball of fury; over the way ICE is going after Hispanics in selected locations across America. It’s also not the first time in our history we’ve gone after these people in a big way. We previously attacked immigrant “Mexicans” in 1954 under Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower, in a mass roundup called “Operation Wetback.”
Then, “Hispanics” were rounded up, herded onto busses, trains, planes, and ships, and forcibly relocated to Mexico. Some of those people were actual American citizens who were unfortunate in having brown skin and the ability to speak fluent Mexican-flavored Spanish.
Moving Borders
I find it especially ironic that “Mexicans” seem to be targeted for such extreme discrimination. Considering that roughly one-quarter of what is now the United States was once part of the nation of Mexico.
It’s a cliché that Mexicans didn’t cross our border, our border crossed them.
Admiration for Hispanic People
Over the past years I’ve had the opportunity to know many Hispanic people as immigrants who chose to live in America. I have also known Hispanic people through my visits to other countries, most recently Peru. These people were my neighbors, students, colleagues, contractors, and tour guides. Their native countries include Mexico, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Columbia, Peru, Argentina, Chile, and Bolivia.
People are people, and I work hard to not generalize from my limited personal experiences. But I can honestly say that the Hispanic people I have known were honest, hardworking, kind and generous, and carried themselves with pride regardless of how poor they might be.
No Answers
I don’t have any answers or ideas for how our present American abuse of brown-skinned Spanish-speaking people will end. My heart goes out to the people tormented by our present government. They way they are being hunted down, kidnapped, herded into American concentration camps, and shipped like so much cargo to other countries, for the “crime” of coming to America looking for a better life, is unconscionable.
We Americans are forever shamed by our horrendous treatment of these immigrant people. We can never undo the harm caused to the thousands of people already herded up by ICE. All we can do is try to stop the harm to others and bring back sanity in how we deal with the current wave of Hispanic immigrants. To treat with dignity people who only want to become part of the newest chapter of our American experiment.
To Honor Our Immigrants
This isn’t much, but it is all I can do right now. So, with the perspective that anything is better than nothing, I dedicate this powerful bit of music to all our immigrant friends, family, and neighbors. Because, the people who left another country to come here for a better life represent the true beating heart of America.
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Edited July 19, 2025
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