Raul Ramos y Sanchez's Blog, page 19

Alabama is once again the site of "outside agitators"

Photo - Dave Martin AP"Outside agitators." That's what the KKK and their ilk called those who came from other states to  protest legalized racial segregation in Alabama during the early 1960s. The protesters, who were mostly young and educated, arrived determined to overturn the Jim Crow laws that institutionalized second class status for their fellow African Americans.

Fast forward 50 years and history is in re-runs.

Yesterday over 100 demonstrators, many of them Latino college students from outside Alabama, staged a protest at the state capitol. The group came to protest HB-56, a recently-enacted Alabama anti-illegal immigration law which is now considered the nation's harshest.

"We had to come here," said Sonia Guinansaca, a Hunter College student from Harlem who is also an undocumented immigrant from Ecuador. "As the saying goes, injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere,"  Guinansaca told the New York Daily News.

The rising tide of protest has done little to deter lawmakers in other states from proposing similar legislation. Indeed, it seems many politicos see fear and loathing of the undocumented as a rich vein for votes.

Will these punitive laws provoke more protests by young, educated Latinos? That seems very likely. And when one in four children under ten in the U.S. today is a Latino, we may be seeing the tip of a generational iceberg of discontent.

Raul Ramos y Sanchez







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In Alabama, "Jim Crow is dead. But his cousins are still alive."

From yesterday's New York Times...


November 13, 2011On the Rise in Alabama

Alabama's ruling class has dug in against the storm it caused with the nation's most oppressive immigration law. Some of the law's provisions have been blocked in federal court; others won't take effect until next year. But many Alabamans aren't waiting for things to get worse or for the uncertain possibility of judicial relief or legislative retreat. They are moving to protect themselves, and summoning the tactics of a civil rights struggle now half a century old.The law was written to deny immigrants without papers the ability to work or travel, to own or rent a home, to enter contracts of any kind. Fear is causing an exodus as Latinos abandon homes and jobs and crops in the fields. Utilities are preparing to shut off water, power and heat to customers who cannot show the right papers.Alabama is far from alone in passing a law whose express aim is misery and panic. States are expanding their power to hasten racial exclusion and family disintegration, to make a particular ethnic group of poor people disappear. The new laws come cloaked in talk of law and order; the bigotry beneath them is never acknowledged.But if there is any place where bigotry does not go unrecognized, it is Alabama."It is a fear of folks who are not like us," said Judge U. W. Clemon, a former state senator and Alabama's first black federal judge, now retired. "Although the Hispanic population of the state is less than 5 percent, the leaders of the state were hell-bent on removing as much of that 4 percent as possible. And I think they've been fairly successful in scaring them out of the state of Alabama."There are, of course, significant distinctions between the civil rights movement and the fight for immigrant rights. African-Americans have endured 400 years of oppression, and toppled laws created to deny their equality and to brutalize them. Unauthorized immigrants are a group who arrived by choice, mostly. They are living outside the law, and want in.Yet to those, like Judge Clemon, a civil rights foot soldier who fought Bull Connor and George Wallace, the common thread between then and now — the threat of racial profiling and the abuse of a cheap, exploited work force — is obvious, as is the racism driving the law.A sponsor of the legislation, State Senator Scott Beason, chairman of the Rules Committee, was secretly taped by the F.B.I. talking about black residents of Greene County. "They're aborigines," he said. He is the lawmaker who urged fellow Republicans to "empty the clip" to stop illegal immigrants.And, just as in the early days of the civil rights struggle, the oppressed and their advocates are scrambling to respond. Early this month, organizers from Alabama and around the country convened a training session for immigrant leaders in rural Albertville, where chicken plants rely heavily on Latino labor. They went from trailer home to trailer home, signing up volunteers to build immigrant networks that will help people protect one another while fighting for repeal of the law and integrating themselves into the life of their state.This fledgling movement has been embraced by the N.A.A.C.P., whose leaders in Birmingham met recently with immigrant advocates to stress the need for blacks and Latinos to unite against the law. "Jim Crow is dead," the Rev. Anthony Alann Johnson told the group, "but his cousins are still alive."


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A Hopeful Counter-current

The ousting of Arizona's self-appointed Demagogue-in-Chief, Russell Pearce, is a hopeful counter-current to the nativist backlash of punitive laws like those enacted in Arizona, Alabama, Georgia and underway in other states.

Pearce was the architect of Arizona's SB1070, a bill which has become a model for regressive forces across the nation. Despite widespread protests that the law condoned racial profiling, polls showed a slight majority of Americans favored the measure. Now, the very constituents who elected Pearce have voted him out. Is this a sign of a change in attitude?

More likely, the voters in Pearce's district have grown weary of a heavy-handed politician whose methods alienated many and whose policies brought an economic backlash as many groups boycotted Arizona over Pearce's nativist legislative agenda. And perhaps that is the object lesson in this development.

Economic pressure may be a more powerful force for change than moral suasion.

Raul Ramos y Sanchez


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Florida policy subverts the 14th Amendment and adds to troubled future

The 14thAmendment to the U.S. constitution states that anyone born on U.S. soil is acitizen, a right which many nativists have sought to overturn for the childrenof undocumented immigrants. While most of these challenges have come throughcongress, the state of Florida enacted a policy in 2009 that subverts a law thathas stood for over 140 years. Put most simply, Florida denies U.S. citizens bornto undocumented parents their legal right to pay in-state tuition rates -- evenwhen these young people have met residency requirements including graduatingfrom state high schools.

Now, fivestudents born in the U.S. to undocumented parents are suing the state. In a USAToday article Michael Hethmon, director of the ImmigrationReform Law Institute states: "As thequestion of illegal immigration remains unresolved, it becomes an obviousflashpoint and you'll see issues like this coming up repeatedly in the comingyears."
Those "comingyears" will forge a generation of young Latinos for whom prejudice will seem ascommonplace as smart phones. In less than 15 years, one in four young peopleentering their volatile late teens will be Latinos. If we see a continuation ofthe implicit discrimination of nativist excesses like this Florida policy andthe harsh laws already in place in Arizona, Alabama, Georgia and other states,we can expect a troubled future.
As my previousessay makes clear, history shows we are approaching the conditions to createa generation of political activists – or even cadres of revolutionaries.
Raul Ramos ySanchez


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Occupy movement could be a glimpse into future Latino turmoil

As I watchthe Occupy movement make national headlines, I see the foreshadowing of another potential political upheaval on the horizon – one that will put Latinos at the center of the turmoil. Let me explain why.  The Occupy phenomenonspreading across the U.S. underscores an often-ignored fact about political movements:Revolutions are rarely instigated by the downtrodden. They are usually createdby affluent, educated young people.
Examine politicalupheavals present and past and the trend is inescapable. This year's ArabSpring… China's democracy movement culminating in Tiananmen Square… theoverthrow of the Shah of Iran… Castro's revolution in Cuba… In all of thesediverse societies, and many others, the rebellions were led by disaffected youngpeople motivated more by ideology more than personal need. Fact is, the poorare usually too concerned with survival to worry about abstract notions like justiceand equality. My personal history bears testament to this insight. 
My father was a young man with rootsin Cuba's working class, the first of his family to attend college. The educationhis parents worked so hard to provide for him opened my father's eyes to theinequity and corruption of Cuban society during the reign of strongmanFulgencio Batista. Ironically, my father's role in Castro's revolution led tohis divorce from my mother and brought me to the United States.
How does allthis connect with Latinos? I think by now you may be getting the picture.
One of everyfour children under age five in the U.S. today is Hispanic according to the Census Bureau. By the time this cohort reaches their late teens, most will be fluent inEnglish and well steeped in U.S. ideals. Many will have grown up seeing theirparents struggle to make a living in a nation that tells them anything ispossible. If present trends continue, these young people will also reach their teensin a political climate that puts all Latinos in the crosshairs thanks to abacklash against illegal immigration – and the thinly veiled racism thatmovement has engendered.
Will theseyoung Latinos reach their volatile late teens meekly accepting their fate? Orwill they follow a pattern seen in scores of other cultures and lead arebellion? One thing is certain. We will not prevent this turmoil withrepressive laws that alienate Latinos like those adopted by Arizona, Alabama and other states.
Illegalimmigration is an issue that conservative politicians are using to pander votesfrom the ignorant, the fearful and the bigoted. But this short term political gain may have longrange consequences. The Occupy movement may one day be seen as the harbinger of amuch more turbulent future.
Raul Ramos y Sanchez




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Teaching and learning at the Wisconsin Book Festival

Two back-to-back workshops I co-hosted at the Wisconsin Book Festival on Saturday, October 22 were opportunities for me to share the knowledge I gathered while researching my novels -- and to learn from those attending the sessions and sharing the podium with me.

[image error] My co-host Mario Garcia-Sierra (last row, right) brought a group of Latino teens for a spirited session that covered history, current events and their personal dreams for the future.The first workshop, Voices of Immigration, was co-hosted by community activist Mario Garcia-Sierra. The session encouraged Latino teens in the Madison area to nurture their dreams while coping with the challenges they will encounter in a society that often marginalizes them.

During the second workshop, I shared the podium with Professor Ruben Medina from the University of Wisconsin. The second workshop, Voices from the Border, gave a primarily mainstream audience two diverse perspective of the Latino experience. Professor Ruben Medina, chair of the Spanish and Portuguese department at the University of Wisconsin, read from his evocative and often sardonic poems. In contrast was the social commentary presented by my novels set in the thriller genre.

The Wisconsin Book Festival took place at numerous venues for over 200 authors in Madison.  
I want to thank the Wisconsin Book Festival for inviting me -- and the opportunity to teach and learn. The Festival team has done a marvelous job with the project, now in its tenth year. The carefully orchestrated event reflected the many, many hours spent in organizing dozens of venues for over 200 authors. I hope the Festival planners are proud of their work. I am certainly proud to be have taken part.
Raul Ramos y Sanchez


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Political Theater At Its Worst

In 1963, before the cameras of the national media, Governor George Wallace struck a belligerent pose at the entrance to the University of Alabama to block the admittance of two African-American students. The governor's high-profile political theater came to a dramatic final act as President John F. Kennedy federalized the Alabama National Guard who escorted students Vivian Malone and James Hood into the school. His role in the kabuki drama complete, Governor Wallace stepped aside, having fulfilled his campaign promise: "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever."

Shortly after the announced release of Alabama's punitive new law targeting unauthorized immigrants, a federal judge in Birmingham has temporarily halted the ordinance. The authors of this law knew full well their legislation would be challenged in federal court. Sadly for the residents of an ailing Alabama, they will bear the brunt of legal costs for a law that will do little to improve their lot in life even if it were approved intact by the federal courts.

The paucity of need for this draconian law only proves its real intent: to scapegoat a minority as a distraction to real problems. Alabama ranks 31st among states in estimated number of undocumented immigrants. The total number of undocumented workers in Alabama is 120,000 or approximately 5% of the state's labor force according to the Pew Hispanic Center. At the same time, Alabama is a perennial cellar dweller in most social indices measuring health, education and poverty. The state is hardly a magnet for migration of any kind.

Like Governor Wallace's political posturing in 1963, this new law is another grandstand play pandering for the votes of the fearful, ignorant and insecure. The many fine people of conscience in Alabama will have to live down another act of political theater that will one day be as reviled as Governor Wallace's shameful 1963 performance.

Raul Ramos y Sanchez


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Alabama joins the Hall of Shame -- again

The state of Alabama where Governor George Wallace once proudly claimed "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever," has enacted the nation's harshest anti-immigrant law, keeping alive a shameful tradition of unvarnished prejudice.
Anyone who doubts this law is little more than legislated prejudice should consider this: The total number of undocumented workers in Alabama is 120,000 or approximately 5% of the state's labor force according to the Pew Hispanic Center. Alabama ranks 31st among states in estimated number of undocumented immigrants. Moreover, unauthorized immigration has declined sharply across the U.S. since the mid-decade. So this is hardly a pressing economic or social issue in Alabama. This is about stoking xenophobia for political gain. 
The new Alabama law gives legal precendence to a widely spread nativist myth: It makes working without a visa a crime. In truth, working without "papers" is not a felony or even a misdemeanor. It is a civil violation, like jaywalking or simple speeding. 
But that inconvenient truth has not stopped Alabama's legislators from wading into the filthy pit of bigotry in hopes of pandering votes from the ignorant and hateful. 
According to the New York Times, the law "effectively makes it a crime to be an undocumented immigrant in Alabama, by criminalizing working, renting a home and failing to comply with federal registration laws that are largely obsolete. It nullifies any contracts when one party is an undocumented immigrant. It requires the police to check the papers of people they suspect to be here illegally.
The new regime does not spare American citizens. Businesses that knowingly employ illegal immigrants will lose their licenses. Public school officials will be required to determine students' immigration status and report back to the state. Anyone knowingly "concealing, harboring or shielding" an illegal immigrant could be charged with a crime, say for renting someone an apartment or driving her to church or the doctor."
Unfortunately, it's likely we will see more of these laws. Arizona, Utah, Indiana and Georgia have already joined the Hall of Shame and passed similar hate-mongering legislation. At a time when we should be recognizing and embracing our diversity, many mainstream Americans are building barricades to protect what they mistakenly perceive as a threat to their primacy. 
This knee-jerk reaction has been repeated numerous times throughout U.S. history. Beginning with Benjamin Franklin's tirades against the newly-arriving Germans in Pennsylvannia, through the hatred and violence heaped on subsequent immigrant groups from Ireland, Italy and Eastern Europe, everytime the U.S. foreign born population tops ten percent, it spawns a round of nativist backlash. 
Perhaps most astonishing is the consistency of the nativist laments. Without fail, each newly-arriving group is accused of being unwilling to assimilate, of breeding faster than the native born, and of bringing disease, crime and corruption. 
Sadly, it seems we will suffer through another shameful spasm of fear and hatred once again.  
Raul Ramos y Sanchez




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Is the turmoil in England a glimpse into our own future?

The roots of the turmoil in England are a combination of demographics, an economic downturn and short-sighted government policies. The U.S. is potentially headed for a similar perfect storm and the rapidly growing Latino youth population will likely be at the center of it.

One quarter of the children under 18 in the U.S. today are Latinos. It is not hard to imagine that generation reaching their late teens and early twenties alienated by prejudice directed against the undocumented (which by extension tars all Latinos). Should the economy continue to tank, this growing number of young people will find themselves frustrated and bored, another volatile element. Finally, without humane government policies which seek to nurture our human resources rather than condemn the less fortunate, they will be left will little hope or opportunity.

What we are seeing in England could be a glimpse of our own future -- unless we act sensibly and humanely.

Raul Ramos y Sanchez



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The idea of a National Latino Museum stirs bigotry -- and demonstrates its need

The public comments to a recent New York Times editorial segment debating the need for a National Latino Museum quickly descended into predictable xenophobic diatribes. Here are just a few examples:

"...it's inherently racist in and of itself, towards a mostly white population who rightly regard the immigration epidemic from south of the border as a national crisis. "


"Next someone will propose a museum to illegal immigrants."


"What have latinos done to contribute anything to the US. I'll tell you. Nothing, nada. They pour over our borders, pump their women full of new born babies who instantly become US citizens just because they were born here."


"...while there have been some contributions [by Latinos to U.S. society], they are not substantial enough to warrant any major mention within the whole."


"It is unfortunate that the majority of Hispanic contributions are in the area of pop culture."

Seeing the overt ignorance and bigotry toward Latinos in these comments (and in countless other venues) along with the confusing ideas of what "Hispanic" really means is ample evidence that we need a National Latino museum.

To begin with, Latino or Hispanic is not a race. In fact, it's an identity that exists solely within the borders of the United States. The only "official" definition of Hispanic is that of the U.S. Census Bureau. It clearly states Hispanics may be "persons of any race." Yet, every day the media carries reports that divide the U.S. into four quasi-racial categories: White, Black, Asian and Hispanic. Examining each of these in detail only underscores their absurdity.

White: People with similar phenotypes with origins from a vast number of countries speaking different languages

Hispanic: People with a vast variety of phenotypes with origins from Spanish-speaking countries

Asian: People with similar phenotypes from nations speaking different languages -- except for those from India who have completely different phenotypes but are still included as Asian.

Black: Anyone who has a single ancestor of Sub-Saharan African descent, regardless of any other ancestry -- except when the ancestor is from a Spanish-speaking nation, which then makes them Hispanic.

At one time, Jews, Irish, Italians and even Germans were considered "non-white" in North America. Today, all these groups have lost their outsider status and have been transformed into "whites".

If properly curated, a National Latino Museum would help dispel many of the myths surrounding the Hispanic identity and reduce mainstream fears of becoming a minority. We need to know more about who Hispanics really are -- not less. Because there is one fact we all agree on: The people labeled Latinos will soon be a significant portion of the United States.

Raul Ramos y Sanchez


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