News and views from the award-winning author of the novels The Skinny Years, America Libre, House Divided and Pancho Land

Wednesday, June 6, 2007

More distortions from the hate brigade

The radical-right blog V-DARE finally responded to my attempts at clarifying their smears and misrepresentation of my novel, America Libre. Not surprisingly, it was with a fresh set of fabrications. Responding for the blog was James Fulford. (The author of the original article distorting my book, Brenda Walker, is inexplicably silent on the matter.)

Here is Mr. Fulford’s justification for characterizing America Libre as a “Marxican Insurgency Imagined":

“Actually most of the revolutionaries in the book are Mexican, and Mexican political culture still contains a large dose of Marxism. (They celebrates [sic] the Anniversary Of The Nationalization of The Petroleum Industry as a public holiday.) He actually includes a blonde Guatemalan girl as [sic] leading revolutionary, but all that means is you get a bankable actress to play her in the movie.”

Now get this logic: Mexico celebrates the nationalization of the petroleum industry, ergo, Mexico has a Marxist political culture. Wow. I bet that comes as news to Mexico’s new president Felipe Calderon, a member of the right-of-center PAN party whose conservative ideals were praised by none other than George W. Bush after Calderon’s election last December.

But the fabrications don’t stop there. Mr. Fulford, says the book includes “a blonde Guatemalan girl.” Insults to women aside, (the “girl” is in her thirties), the character is actually from Uruguay. I realize that in Mr. Fulford’s world view, all Latin American countries are pretty much the same. But just for the record, Mr. Fulford, Guatemala and Uruguay are 3,800 miles apart and on two different continents.

Oh, yes, and Mr. Fulford gloatingly points out that I misspelled “nativist” in my article. Well, maybe Mr. Fulford should step out of that particular glass house. V-DARE is replete with grammatical errors—including two in the quote above alone. A spelling error is easy enough to change. But you cannot as easily change the truth, Mr. Fulford—although V-DARE seems to make a habit out of trying.

I must concede this, however: V-DARE did spell my name right this time.

Raul Ramos y Sanchez

"Time to lock and load"

Anyone who doubts that the immigration issue has dredged up the festering muck of U.S. extremism need only read the hate being spewed by nativist these days. A prime example is the June 2nd column by radical-right hobgoblin Pat Buchanan titled “Time to lock and load.”

In this nasty missive, Buchanan threatens George W. Bush that the radical right will withdraw its support of the president on the war in Iraq if he doesn’t come around to the nativist side of the immigration debate, namely: send all the filthy cucarachas back where they came from. Not to be outdone, Buchanan’s inflammatory title has spawned an even more chilling response from one the minions of the hate brigade.

In response to Buchanan’s “Time to lock and load” article, one nativist blogger wrote:

“We here at the PC Apostate encourage our readers to always have a weapon closely at hand and make sure its [sic] loaded. One never knows when the time will come to use it.”

I’m certain this guy means it. And that’s the grim part of the immigration controversy. It has unearthed a vein of hatred and bigotry that threatens to pollute the nation.

Raul Ramos y Sanchez