“We’re just getting too many Hispanic people in town”

“We’re just getting too many Hispanic people in town.” That's why Gerry Boller, 78, who works at the counter at New Beginnings Thrift Store in Crete, Nebraska (population 6000) feels his state needs an immigration law like Arizona's. “It seems like they come in and take over,” Boller told the New York Times. 


Forget that Nebraska's unemployment rate is 4.6% or that the state has long sought to grow its population. To Mr. Boller and many others like him, Hispanics are not welcome. 


Does everyone who supports Arizona's SB 1070 feel the same? I doubt it. All the same, it's difficult to believe that illegal immigration is the sole reason for the law's support among many -- especially when polls show most who support the law admit it will make racial profiling likely. 


And that should shame every American.


Raul Ramos y Sanchez

Coming Soon: The Latino Book and Family Festival in Los Angeles

This year's Latino Book and Family Festival in Los Angeles will be held on the weekend of October 9 and 10, 2010 at the Cal State University-Los Angeles campus.

The festival will feature:

• Over 100 Latino authors!
• 36 Panels/sessions on poetry, fiction, journalism, publishing, art, music, and dance!
• Book signings!
• A main stage with singers, folklorico dances, music, and more!
• A children’s area & stage with arts & crafts, story-telling and more!
• Over 100 exhibits!
• A Food Court!
• A dinner/reception “Evening with the Authors”!

I plan to be there and hope you can join in celebrating the cultural and linguistic treasures of our Latino communities!  

You'll find more information here.

Raul Ramos y Sanchez

Stephen Colbert testifies before Congress on AgJobs Bill

"Even the invisible hand doesn't want to pick beans."

Shame on you, John McCain

Shame on you, John McCain. You once supported the DREAM Act but now cower in fear of the nativist fringe. The young people demonstrating in front of your office want to serve the U.S. through military service.

All you want to serve is another term.

Read the full article.

Hispanic Heritage Month - A Time to Question Labels

In an ideal world, human classifications would not exist. Unfortunately, we do not live in that world. In the minds of most Americans, the population of the United States is divided into four major categories: White, Black, Asian and Hispanic. This view is continually reinforced by news reports, the entertainment media, academic and medical studies, and many government documents. But when we examine the basis for these classifications, they quickly become very dubious.

Take the term “White” for example. This group includes people with common phenotypes originating from a large number of nations, most of which speak different languages. What’s more, the classification has changed over time. In the past, Italians, Jews and Irish were excluded from the group in the United States.

The same paradigm is applied to those labeled Black and Asian. We group these people hailing from a variety of nations speaking different languages into a single group based on their physical characteristics.

And then we have Hispanics. In this instance, people from over 20 nations speaking a single language are lumped into one group, regardless of their physical appearance.

How did we arrive at such confusing classifications?

Little known to most Americans, the term “Hispanic” (or Latino, for that matter) did not exist until the last thirty-odd years. Although its origins remain unclear, it’s widely believed the term first came into official use during the 1970s by the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare in an effort to aid a collection of disadvantaged Spanish-speaking communities across Texas and California along with pockets of urban poverty in New York City and Chicago. The communities in Texas and California were primarily of Mexican origin while those in New York and Chicago were predominantly Puerto Rican. This well-meaning attempt to aid a group of disadvantaged “Hispanic communities” has morphed into a de facto racial label that has come to encompass all Spanish-surnamed people in the United States.

Despite being riddled with inconsistencies, why do these U.S. ethnic/racial classifications persist?

“Time makes more converts than reason,” explained provocateur for American independence Thomas Paine. Fact is, through constant use over the last four decades we’ve come to accept the current U.S. ethnic/racial classifications as universal and timeless. They are neither. Moreover, some demographers predict labels like White, Black, Asian and Hispanic will one day appear as dated as the now-discredited racial classifications of other times, such as Mulatto, Quadroon, Teutonic, Alpine, and Brunet.

Personally, I feel a bond with other Latinos and take great pride in my heritage. At the same time, shoehorning everyone with a Spanish surname into a single group with the assumption that we think, vote, eat, dress and look alike demeans all of us. The same can be said about those labeled White, Black and Asian as well.

Hispanic Heritage Month is a good time to remind ourselves that the assumptions we make about other people – and sometimes even ourselves – are often influenced more by preconceptions than by facts.

Raul Ramos y Sanchez

Author to speak at Northeastern University

I'm happy to announce the Latin American Student Organization at Boston's Northeastern University has invited me to speak during Hispanic Heritage Month. My presentation is titled "How the Immigration Controversy is Shaping the Hispanic Identity." The 30-minute live/AV presentation explores how politicians, extremist groups and the media are influencing how others see us -- and how we see ourselves. A question and answer session will follow.  

The event is free and open to the public. I hope you can attend.

Northeastern University
Latin American Student Organization
Thursday, October 14th, 2010 - 6:00 PM 104 Forsyth Street
Boston, MA

What if the killers had been Black or Latino?

Another pair of violent criminals connected with the murder of a couple at a New Mexico campground were arrested in Arizona yesterday. The capture of John McCluskey and Casslyn Welch follows the arrest of Stacy Province, who is also believed tied to the campground slayings of Greg and Linda Haas. The burned bodies of the Tecumseh, Oklahoma couple were found in a travel trailer Aug. 4 on a remote ranch near Santa Rosa, N.M. 

Arizona authorities apprehend John McCluskey, suspected of murdering a couple at a NM campground. His Arizona tattoo is an ironic note. 

McCluskey is also a suspect in a series of other violent crimes. This crime spree began when Welch helped McCluskey, Province and a third inmate, Daniel Renwick, escape from a Kingman, Arizona detention facility. 

Up to this point, this seems like a tragic story of violent crime. But stop and ask yourself: What if the people committing these crimes had been Black or Latino? I think we all know the answer to that. Race and ethnicity would be the centerpiece of the story. Call in radio shows and websites would be flooded with hate-filled comments. Politicians and pundits would use the tragedy to further agendas.

This was precisely the case with the death of Arizona rancher Robert Krentz. Last March, Mr. Krentz was found murdered and the footprints of his apparent assailant led south across the Mexican border. On this evidence alone, began the outrage that helped propel Arizona's SB 1070 from the brainchild of nativist crackpots into a law that is dividing the nation along ethnic lines. 

The murders of Greg and Linda Haas are a tragedy, a testament to the depths of callousness human nature can sink. Had they been killed by members of a minority, however, we would have seen another human shortcoming: the depths of our prejudice. 

Raul Ramos y Sanchez

Another Act of Political Theater

Yesterday, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced he would send more than 200 national guard troops to the California-Mexico border.

Even assuming things are as bad as the governor would have us believe (which they are not), are 200 troops going to make a difference? At a time when the border is actually more secure than ever and the number of undocumented immigrants has declined, it's hard not to see this anti-immigrant (and anti-Latino) political theater as anything except pandering to public fears.

Seems the governor, an experienced actor, does not want to be upstaged by other politicians playing to the fast-growing nativist audience.

Raul Ramos y Sanchez

An indictment on the violent nature of white Christians?

Spotted at church and once again behind bars in Arizona, escaped murderer Stacy Province is tied to last week’s slaying of an elderly couple at a campground in Santa Rosa, New Mexico. Were Mr. Province a minority or a Muslim, this story would be about race or religion. But "white" is the default setting for U.S. culture. So we just assume he is simply a dangerous criminal, not an example of the violent nature of white Christians.



Full New York Times story

There is a universal human tendency to generalize about people different from ourselves. We deny the individuality of "others" yet freely acknowledge the variability of character within our own group.

The anti-immigrant ethnic finger-pointing over the tragic deaths of Arizona rancher Robert Krentz and Sister Denise Mosier of Virgina demonstrate how this human frailty is being abused by a growing number of opportunistic politicians and pundits.

Raul Ramos y Sanchez

Exploiting a tragedy

The facts: Sister Denise Mosier was killed in an auto accident involving a man in the country illegally and accused of drunken driving.


The furor: Corey Stewart, chairman of Prince William County's Board of Supervisors, issued a public statement claiming President Obama and Homeland Security Director Janet Nepolitano and members of Congress "all have blood on their hands." This call comes despite the statement from the Benedictine Sisters of Virginia who have tried to discourage Mr. Steward from using the death a "forum of the illegal immigration agenda" and pleaded for a focus on "Christ's command to forgive."


This reaction by Mr. Stewart seems more about political opportunism than concern about a traffic death.Indeed, exploiting traffic deaths is a long-standing nativist practice used to tar all immigrants with the action of one person. Sadly, this tactic originated by wing nut haters is moving mainstream and finding traction. You'll find more about this sordid and grossly distorted smear job here.


For a comparison of how distorted this event has become, let's look at another recent traffic tragedy.


Jimmie Picklesimer was arrested in Dayton, Ohio following the hit and run death of a woman and her dog on August 1st and released. Picklesimer was then arrested again on August 5th on felony drug possession and DWI.


Jimmie is white and therefore the U.S. public assumes he is simply an aberrant individual. Were Jimmie a member of a minority, the xenophobes would conclude he represents an entire people. This is the short definition for prejudice.


When politicians and pundits seize on innocent deaths to further their agenda, what else can you call it except crass exploitation of public prejudices?


Raul Ramos y Sanchez