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Posted on 03/29/2008 7:01:32 PM PDT by BGHater
SAN BERNARDINO - Like the woman herself, Dolores Huerta's position on illegal immigration from Mexico into the United States is blunt and direct.
Huerta, the 77-year-old who in 1962 joined Cesar Chavez in co-founding the United Farm Workers of America, delivered an impassioned and populist message to a crowd of about 500 people on Thursday night in the San Bernardino Valley College auditorium.
"We didn't cross the border," the revered immigrant and farm worker advocate told an enthusiastic crowd of mostly college students. "The border crossed us."
Her visit came amidst an era of renewed debate over anti-immigration policies and the fate of more than 10 million illegal immigrants living in the nation's shadows.
A fence across the U.S. Mexico border is being constructed, and Congress last year deadlocked on new immigration legislation.
In her wide-ranging speech, which was sponsored by Arts and Lecture Series Committee and MECHA Latino faculty and staff, Huerta railed against anti-immigrant groups, the North American Free Trade Agreement, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed state budget cuts to education, and U.S. government inaction on immigration reform.
Huerta also praised young people and minorities in America for renewed vitality in political movements and urged listeners to vault a Democrat into the White House.
Huerta has publicly endorsed Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., for president.
"In a democracy, the only thing poor people and working people have going for them is their vote," Huerta said.
Huerta, her small frame behind a podium in the high-ceiling auditorium, hammered away with her well-trod anti-elite rhetoric.
She criticized NAFTA for paving the way for U.S. corporate exploitation of Latin American economies, and said efforts similar to those that rebuilt Germany and Japan after World War II were necessary to ease the flight north.
A possible 10 percent cut statewide to public education would disproportionately impact poor and minority students, she said.
But Huerta's strongest words were directed toward the issue of immigration.
She said illegal workers were a critical bulwark of the national economy, yet were faced with virulent anti-illegal-immigrant groups such as the Minuteman Project that she said were "linked" to the United States government.
She said Immigration and Customs Enforcement crackdowns had deported 290,000 people to Latin American countries in what she characterized as an "ethnic cleansing."
But anti-illegal-immigration efforts were doomed to failure, Huerta said, as illegal immigrants and naturalized Latinos had gained a foothold in the country.
"It's really too late," Huerta said of anti-illegal-immigration movements. "If 47 million (Latinos) have one baby each ... it's already won."
A Mexican-American labor organizer who bore 11 children, Huerta gained fame in the 1960s with her work to secure better working conditions for agricultural laborers.
In her negotiations, Huerta's reputation was a blend of fiery advocacy for Latinos and an emphasis grooming young girls and women for lives of independence and action.
Huerta's reception at the community college was overwhelmingly positive.
Many in the audience rejoiced in the theme of empowerment that drove Huerta's speech, which ended with a chant of "Si se puede," which is Spanish for "Yes we can."
"I liked how she said 75 percent of the world was people of color," said SBVC student Randy Dale, 23. "We are the majority, and we should be in charge more, especially in the U.S."
“If that post confused you, then you are far from the fount of knowledge on this subject you represented yourself to be.”
I never did that, I have been taking a personal stand on this issue for just over 40 years, when at age 17 I took my first aggressive action to get rid of some illegals on a job that someone wanted me to take over, I made it a condition because I was already aware of the problem and I was already angry about it and it’s future results.
“Once the anchor babies vote themselves the ruling class over the European-ancestry minority, there’ll be civil war.
Count on it.”
When I was a young man I believed such things, but by age 21 I had already learned that it was not to be.
I disagree with you strongly, and my evidence is, how do you think that we got here?
I get the impression that you may think that we are just one strong leader away from fixing our problems, but just look back on the last 110 years of American history and it’s political direction.
I agree, but I don’t see it happening.
I wrote it a while ago, and saved it for “the border crossed us” threads. None of the illegal invaders had any ancestors who were run off of the American SW. Nobody is coming back to reclaim ancestral lands. The Spanish who lived in the SW became Americans....and were damn glad for it.
I don’t see it happening, either.
So, if the invaders had their druthers, we’d end up with two dungheap countries, rather than two decent countries.
It’ll be two classes: inside of the gated community with private security, and outside in Madmaxland, Mexizimbabstan.
It would be amusing to get comments on this “reconquista/ancestral Aztlan” crap from the Navajos, Apaches, Pimas, Hopis, Utes and Comanches.
Yeah. And don’t discount the white Texican tribe. They can get pretty wild at times.
“It would make far more sense for the peons in Mexico to revolt and run off their ruling class, rather than trying to turn this country into the third-world dungheap they came from.”
This is as silly as that Jorge thing that annoys me, but if I could, I would capture every illegal that we could of course, but I would also give him one of our many guns that the police confiscate and 50 bullets or so before I sent him back into Mexico.
I like to think that it would change Mexico with revolution, or at least get the existing government to seal our border.
Wouldn’t do to cross a fellow who claims that a guy with a Barrett .50 lives in “Swishy Rump”.
I’ve followed the issue since the ‘70s, closely since Simpson-Mazzoli, and was a member of FAIR for three years in the early ‘90s. But it was discouraging because the issue never gained any traction, and politicians ignored with impunity all the polls which showed high voter support for strict enforcement of the law.
Jorge is the most at fault because when the public finally got behind the issue, and made their voices heard, he “reached across the aisle” and tried to pass amnesty with the Democrats and a few RINOs. He caused the biggest rift in the party that I can recall, and is still obstinate and self-righteous about the issue and cares not how much he damaged the party, or what illegal immigration has done to many communities around the US.
“I wrote it a while ago, and saved it for “the border crossed us” threads. None of the illegal invaders had any ancestors who were run off of the American SW. Nobody is coming back to reclaim ancestral lands. The Spanish who lived in the SW became Americans....and were damn glad for it.”
I don’t have first hand knowledge, but have heard and read that the Apaches, Comanches, Utes, Navajoes, etc. and all the other tribes that actually did occupy that territory, are not at all amused by the Mexicans’ ancestral homeland claims to the US Southwest.
Also read that, when the Mexican War started, the population of Texas was made up of about 35,000 Anglos, 4,000 Mexicans, and several thousand Apaches and Comanches. And, as you said, those 4,000 or so Mexicans didn’t pack up and head across the Rio Grande to become full fledged Mexicans.
Their claims are so bogus, we should have a President and other politicians telling them how bogus they are, but...
You ever seen this site:
http://www.mexica-movement.org/granmarcha.htm
from the marches two years ago?
“It would make far more sense for the peons in Mexico to revolt and run off their ruling class, rather than trying to turn this country into the third-world dungheap they came from.”
That would probably happen if we ever shut off their “safety valve”. But until that ever happens, it’s far easier and more profitable for millions to just cross into the US illegally. And that’s just how their ‘ruling class’ wants it to remain on and on. And we have plenty in the US accommodating them, including in the WH and all around DC.
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You’re right.
Unfortunately.
Cut the water off to LA it goes away.
Here’s some information on a bit of developing history that those marchers and claimants to all of North America DO NOT want to hear about:
“This theory is mainly supported by a number of archaeological finds, the dates and anatomical features of which do not fit into the more established Siberian migration or “Clovis First” theories. On the basis of that evidence, it has been speculated that those hypothetical American Aborigines could have come from other points of origin, including Oceania or southeast Asia, and spread through much of South America before being nearly exterminated or assimilated by the ancestors of today’s Amerindians. However, this theory is still somewhat controversial, and the evidence is still being analyzed and published.”
You can bet the theory is controversial. It would take away most of the basis for all ridiculous claims being made by our neighbors south of the border and on the the tip of South America.
“I’ve followed the issue since the ‘70s, closely since Simpson-Mazzoli, and was a member of FAIR for three years in the early ‘90s. But it was discouraging because the issue never gained any traction, and politicians ignored with impunity all the polls which showed high voter support for strict enforcement of the law.
Jorge is the most at fault because when the public finally got behind the issue, and made their voices heard, he “reached across the aisle” and tried to pass amnesty with the Democrats and a few RINOs.”
I got ya, and it seems that many of us have been suffering this issue for years.
I watched California go down, and our politicians get knocked off with no national support that I was aware of, that is why I am not too excited about labeling this current batch of republicans as the worst on the issue.
During prop 187 for example that current crop of George’s of the time all trekked here and condemned us.
I am wary of putting a George Bush’s name on this issue, especially a current republican president, I would prefer that this be brought back to the democrat party, as it should be.
If democrats change our laws to replace us with foreign voters, and then all of the blame gets transferred to a sitting republican president, then it doesn’t bode well for fighting the issue.
I do not want this to become a judo like anti republican issue, fought solely within our own ranks.
“If democrats change our laws to replace us with foreign voters, and then all of the blame gets transferred to a sitting republican president, then it doesn’t bode well for fighting the issue.”
I agree on all counts, but we can’t escape the fact that it is the current Republican president who’s pushed amnesty harder than anyone currently. He’s doing the Dems. bidding under, I believe, some twisted, Tex-Mex notion he and Rove concocted and concluded that granting amnesty to millions and cozying up more to Mexico would assure Republican majorities for years to come. They believed that!
He’s worked like crazy, offended half the party or more, trying to accomplish precisely what the Dems. want. The Dems. think/know it will help them achieve future majorities. Bush thinks it will do the same for Republicans. I think he’s deluded, and richly deserves the Spanish version of his name.
Don’t want to get into any analysis of past Hispanic voting trends tonight except to say: Reagan got 41% of their vote, Bush claimed 43% in 2004, but most say around 38%.
Where’s the big gains by Bush? I think the real answer is: run a popular Republican governor from California or Texas, and he’ll receive a healthy - favorite son - Hispanic vote.
If the Republican candidate is from elsewhere, probably around 30% with no strong third party candidate.
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