[Cacique]

As someone the census bureau would classify as Hispanic. I think that I can speak with confidence that there are those of us who came here to be Americans and adopt American values. We abandoned our former countries because they were failures culturally, economically and politically. Unfortunately there are others who are here not as "immigrants" but as "colonists". They want to bring their failed culture and failed ideas to America and impose them here. Unfortunately there are panderers on both the left and the right that will play into those sentiments and help accelerate the Balkanization of America.

[4U2OUI]

ping

[VOA]

bump

[hershey]

Thanks for posting this. Long sobering read and devastatingly factual. We are at the edge of the abyss.

[Once-Ler]

It's a compelling argument, if this is all the information one has to draw a conclusion. I don't have time to pick it all apart, but his comparison between immigration in the 1960s and today are misleading. In 1960 we didn't abort a million future citizen workers every year. If one compared complaints about immigration (most of it undocumented) in the 1880s from China one would see many parallels to arguments today against Mexicans. The Chinese didn't assimilate to American culture, refused to learn English, committed crimes and stole jobs. If one compared the historical peak of immigration (most of it undocumented or barely so) in the 1910s the numbers dwarf today as a percentage of population.

Huntington's notion that America is an alchemical melting pot which transmogrifies immigrants into white protestants is trailer park sophistry. This country is a hod-podge of little Italys, and China towns along with white suburbs. Immigrants have changed the culture and have been changed by American culture. It has usually not been the immigrants who have acculturated, but their children who merged with American norms. We see this with the children of illegals today.

Illegal immigration has been happening since the founding of America. Mexicans have crossed our southern border without permission since we took CA and TX from them. To read Huntington one would come to the conclusion that there are no positive aspects to the influx of hispanic immigration. How can he offer solutions with out an understanding of the pressures and payoffs that have allowed illegal immigration to become preferable to legal immigration for politicians, government, employers, and voters?...and before you try to contradict that point, see if you can name a popular politician that has won on an anti-immigration platform in the last 50 years. You will be hard pressed to find a leader for your side that has won statewide office much less been considered a national figure.

The difference today is Government now has the ability to monitor all the US workers. Some people think that's a good idea. I don't. What has remained the same is the natural human distrust of people who are different, rather than trust in human culture that all of God's creations share. Love of God, family, and home. Nationalism comes later.

For me Huntington's article was more of what I've previously read and dismissed. His incomplete research is biased, and his conclusions are flawed.

[Coleus]

que

[Cacique]

Resurecting this post again so more people can read it.

[A. Pole]

Contributions from immigrant cultures modified and enriched the Anglo-Protestant culture of the founding settlers. The essentials of that founding culture remained the bedrock of U.S. identity, however, at least until the last decades of the 20th century. Would the United States be the country that it has been and that it largely remains today if it had been settled in the 17th and 18th centuries not by British Protestants but by French, Spanish, or Portuguese Catholics? The answer is clearly no. It would not be the United States; it would be Quebec, Mexico, or Brazil.

Important text!

[johnthebaptistmoore]

I do fear for the future of the U.S. because of the continuing illegal immigration problems and because of the still porous land borders with both Mexico and Canada.

[moehoward]

bttt

[Darnright]

Read later.

[Teófilo]

As someone the census bureau would classify as Hispanic. I think that I can speak with confidence that there are those of us who came here to be Americans and adopt American values. We abandoned our former countries because they were failures culturally, economically and politically. Unfortunately there are others who are here not as "immigrants" but as "colonists". They want to bring their failed culture and failed ideas to America and impose them here. Unfortunately there are panderers on both the left and the right that will play into those sentiments and help accelerate the Balkanization of America.

Really? I don't feel like that at all. As a Puerto Rican, I underwent minimal trouble getting it on here. My kids are fully bilingual, as are my wife and I. We speak Spanish at home all the time. We're employed in work where our bilingual skills come to play. My wife answers the phone for Hispanics, many of whom at least attempt to speak in English to her.

Family, faith, love of land. I got that from Puerto Rico and I will not leave that behind, EVER. This is my contribution to the greater American culture, and it is a VALUABLE and NECESSARY contribution. I pity you for spitting on it.

Those who don't know where they came from will not know where they are going.

You might not regret it, but your kids will.

Oh, and Huntingdon is wrong. WE ARE NOT A THREAT.

-Theo

[adam_smith_76]

My wife is from Panama, so I'm sort of an Hispanic by proxy and have some clout to comment... :)

That said, I've found that the educated Latinos assimilate very quickly because they work around mainstream Americans and they are mostly like us anyway. I've worked with lots of Mexican professionals here, and they fit right in. The poor, uneducated ones don't fit in. For instance: I called the Humane Society to ask a question, and I listened to the message in English, then Spanish. The English message was generic, but the Spanish message immediately told how to report dog fights. I know a vet at the H.S., and I asked her if dog fights were a problem. She said it's huge, and those responsible are almost always from Latin America. They bring a lot of the ugly aspects of Latin America right into the US, and I hate that.

But that is what happens when a Democratic Congress, weasel Republicans, and a willing president allow illegals to flood across the border. We don't get assimilation; we get Balkanizaion.

Oh, well, if we get overrun, I'm ahead of many of you people because I already speak Spanish. ;)

[MeneMeneTekelUpharsin]

Bump for reference again.

[Iwo Jima]

Ping

[Christian4Bush]

bump

[beachn4fun]

My God!

I can’t believe I’m hearing you right.

I agree with what you are saying, but see I’m a racist cause I’m a white American.

[Cacique]

Bump cause it needs to be read.

[WOSG]

“If this trend continues, the cultural division between Hispanics and Anglos could replace the racial division between blacks and whites as the most serious cleavage in U.S. society.”

Thanks for this excellent article.

The fact is that borders, language and culture matter, and that a demographic tidal can and will create cultural shifts. Would it be any different if the 20 million were Indian Sikhs, or Muslims from Egypt, or Chinese? The fact is, the ‘melting pot’ only works in a system of strong assimilation. That simply does not happen when you are continually bringing in millions of people from the same country.

It was the *low* immigration levels of 1920-1960s that ensured there would be a homogenizing effect of American culture. The only way to stop this effect wrt Mexican immigration would be to drastically lower immigration levels from Mexico (it would not be unreasonable to limit immigration from any one country to be 5% of total immigration).

to do otherwise is to invite the Reconquista on most border states.

[Cacique]

bump