Orange County's mix of cultures yields cooperation, tensions

Los Angeles Times ^

[hotdog777]

Growing Vietnamese and Latino communities increasingly share churches and schools. Some foresee conflict, some peaceful coexistence.

Parishioners quietly stream into Our Lady of La Vang in Santa Ana, smile politely and head their separate ways.

Latinos take the chairs on the right, Vietnamese go left.

Father Joseph Nguyen quietly watches from the altar before moving to the pulpit, where he preaches five minutes in Spanish, then Vietnamese, then Spanish, alternating until the service ends. Prayers, songs and responses are done in both languages.

The scene at the Roman Catholic church is repeated each morning, five days a week.

[mewzilla]

Bal·kan·ize or bal·kan·ize (bôl'kə-nīz') tr.v., -ized or -ized, -iz·ing or -iz·ing, -iz·es or -iz·es. To divide (a region or territory) into small, often hostile units. [From the political division of the Balkans in the early 20th century.]

[starbase]

...where he preaches five minutes in Spanish, then Vietnamese, then Spanish, alternating until the service ends.

Good thing none of it is in English! Gee, we need more of this! //sarc

[AzaleaCity5691]

Yeah, except the thing is, the Balkans actually had an ethnically and religiously diverse population that led it to be “Balkanized”. All groups involved had a long standing hostility towards each other that was only kept in check by royalist rule, and after WWII, by the policies of Tito, who forcibly moved people from their ethnic heritage areas to other parts of the country, as to mix up the population.

It worked for him, but in the absence of someone like him, it broke down, and all the people who had been moved started carrying out their old greviances. Yugoslavia is actually a good metaphor for the United States, because of what our history is, and how our system is set up. In most countries, the state-level entity is just a subdepartment of the national government, in this country we actually have seperate state and local governments. There is no chain of command. A President cannot issue an order to say, a Mayor under threat of removal of office, as they can in most countries.

This is why this insane desire I have seen from people both on the left and right to impose national policies without a regard for what a local opinion is on it is dangerous. Our state boundaries were arbitrarily drawn without concern for culture, and our national border doesn’t exactly fit a culturally defined region either. If the federal government continues it’s policies towards expansion and increased national authority, at some point, there will be a backlash, case in point, just look at state legislatures. In most states in this country, there is some geographic split that defines politics, and this carries out on a national level. It’s been this way since we were a country, because by it’s definition, freedom doesn’t encourage homogenity.

This is why it is critical that state’s rights be defended at all costs, because increasing national authority will only serve to divide the country even more.

[I see my hands]

Birds of a feather flock together. Same with humans. The end.

[starbase]

Birds of a feather flock together. Same with humans. The end.

And what languages do they flock in? And what countries do they flock to?

[Czar]

The LA Times knows nothing--nothing--about Orange County. After trying for years to establish a firm base in Orange County, this liberal rag finally gave it up completely. They no longer have much of a presence here. Real shame...

[vicosal]

The movie FREEDOM WRITERS,touches on the subject of racial conflict between asians-blacks and latinos:It was pretty bad in Long Beach were a gang war between south-east asians and latinos left about 40 people dead in a few yrs with most of the victims being innocent bystanders targeted because of their race.The gangsters were going back and forth and targeting anything asian or mexican.Now the tension between asians and blacks is pretty bad.