Hispanic Invasion

Hispanic Invasion

          Let me start with a disclaimer; I am Hispanic. Whenever I am asked to declare my ethnicity, I always say I am Caucasian.  That is not about denying my heritage or ethnicity, but rather to avoid being considered a minority for whatever fact-gathering the form is involved in.  With a Hispanic surname, it would be very easy for me to declare myself as a minority, which I do not consider myself to be.  I was raised by a first generation American of Eastern European heritage (my grandfather immigrated through Ellis Island at the turn of the Twentieth Century), who married a man of Italian origin who had immigrated with his family to Venezuela.  His birth name is decidedly not Hispanic-sounding (strangely enough, it was more Eastern European since his family came from the far northeastern parts of Italy), so he changed his name to his mother’s maiden name, which is a common name in Spain and Puerto Rico among other Hispanic areas.  As a second generation American, I did live in Latin America for a total of six years in my youth (Venezuela and Costa Rica).  My mother specifically returned to the United States rather than give birth to me in Venezuela, as she had with my sister. I am told I spoke Spanish before I spoke English.  But all my schooling was in English.  All my homelife was in English.  I look more like my mother than my father, so I doubt anyone would mistake me as Hispanic on the street.

          What you now know about me is that while I am not really Hispanic, I have about as much Hispanic heritage as anyone can without declaring themselves as Hispanic.  I enjoy saying that, mostly to be controversial, but also to make the ultimate point that like most Americans, I am the result of the melting-pot cultural norm of America.  President John F. Kennedy said during the Berlin Wall crisis, “Ich bin ein Berliner”, meaning he was one with the suffering of the people of Berlin. So, in far less dramatic and far more appropriate form, I will now declare for all the blogging world to know that, “Yo soy un Hispano.”

          This weekend we had two horrendous mass shootings, the worse of the two being in El Paso, Texas at a Walmart shopping mall and specifically aimed at killing Mexicans and Mexican-Americans, who the shooter deemed were part of the Hispanic Invasion of America.  The news media (that would be the responsible news media as opposed to the “Fake News”) is reminding us that there is a direct linkage within the last few months between these incidents of mass violence towards non-white Americans and the rhetoric of Donald Trump, the unimaginable President of the United States.  The speeches where he specifically refers to Hispanics seeking asylum in the land of the free and home of the brave as an “invasion” are the issue.  His laughter at redneck rally crowd chants that we should shoot the invaders is being properly excoriated.  His prior rhetoric which identifies immigrants at the southern border as rapists, murderers and drug traffickers tries to add the justification of fear to the bigoted comments.

          The saddest part of the hateful Presidential comments is that it seems doubtful to me that Donald Trump, the man raised in Queens and very used to the urban diversity of today’s America, is as racist as he appears.  I know that my fellow anti-Trumpists will feel betrayed by that characterization, but here is what I mean.  I suspect that these statements come less from his true inner fears and more from his deep-seeded need to win at all costs and be adored by the crowd.  It seems clear to me that Trump has seized on the anti-Hispanic issue as a palliative to his base.  That is hardly a new observation, but it particularly stands out to me this weekend.  After all, he is the self-declared “Least racist person in the world”, so there must be a reason for his obvious and shocking efforts towards asylum-seekers, immigrants (at least those not from Norway), the Squad (note that AOC is the Hispanic Squad-leader) and various African-American leaders, most recently Elijah Cummings.  The reason is clearly that his nonsense is harder and harder to sell to thinking people and he has become more and more dependent on the base of people who will allow him any and all transgressions from acceptable and legal behavior.

          I think in Dante’s rings of Hell, those who enflame racism for whatever reason are in the penultimate lowest level of Hell, but the very lowest would be the province for those who do so for such a self-serving purpose as to feed one’s ego or political existence.  So, I will accept Trump’s plea that he is not a racist, since I cannot see into any man’s soul.  But what I can see of his actions and hear of his words make him worse than a racist.  It is simply incontrovertible that he has and is doing things that make this country a lesser place and a more dangerous place for us all, but especially our minority communities.  It is a toss-up now between Muslims, African-Americans and Hispanics as to which of these minorities that are quickly becoming less minor, as to which ones are more at risk thanks to Trump’s hatred-laced acts and speech.

          I see Trump’s recent speeches have him deciding that being a Nationalist is something he is prepared to be despite the political incorrectness of the term. He has pondered the political risk/reward of identifying himself as a Nationalist and decided it serves his interest to be one.  Nationalism may be about patriotism and loyalty to one’s own, but it is also about segregation, sectarianism, xenophobia, chauvinism, jingoism, and ethnocentrism.  If that isn’t racism, nothing is.  If this doesn’t lead to war and/or revolution, nothing does.  Trump may finally avenge his avoidance of the draft by recreating a global draft for a war of unimaginable devastation brought about by Trump and all the Trump-look-alikes springing up around the world.

          This weekend, twenty people of all ages died in El Paso at the hands of a young disciple of Trump’s empowerment.  Twenty-six more innocent people, at least, are healing from wounds inflicted on them by the same young man.  They were all victims of what Frank Figliuzzi’s editorial called “Race-based Terrorism”. It is time to do something about all the causes of this.  Time to stop Trump and his vile rhetoric.  Time to get the guns off the street.  Time to put an end to the hatred of Trump and the NRA.  Time to turn the tide of teaching and encouraging young people to move towards fear, hate and ethnic Jihad.  Time to risk everything for the soul of America, which, by the way, has been beneficially invaded by Hispanics over the years.