Mexicans Fear Schwarzenegger to Make Life Tough

wireservice.wired.com ^ | October 08, 2003 | Adriana Barrera

[Kenny Bunk]

Mexico has a nasty little secret. It is actually the first communist country. It operates under its very Marxist constitution of 1910, the rules of which are very hazy on private property.

Not only are gringos not allowed to actually own property (99-year lease with a Mexican managing partner is the best you can do), but in cruel reality, a Mexican land title is nigh on worthless even to a Mexican. When you get right down to it, no one south of the border actually knows who owns what. There is no clear title to anything. It is mired in a quasi-feudal arrangement, where crooked judges delight in awarding, un-awarding, and re-awarding property to a succession of litigants who maintain rights by force and bribery. Probably sounds stupid to Americans, but where the rubber meets the road, that's the deal. The system is: ain't no system. Fee Simple? Too simple for Mexico, apparently.

Maybe when the Iraqi Constitutional Convention is done, they can fax a copy of their work to Vicente Fox and the Oligarchs. Just having a clear legal code would open up the economic potential of our neighbour to the south in a big way.

[Tempest]

How do you feel about automation of the farming industry and the breaking of the farm unions?

[cwb]

"For discussion's sake, who picks your vegetables?"

Legal immigrants?

[cwb]

That explains why Trotsky found it so appealing...but not for too long:)

[Lizavetta]

Who will pick the vegetables?

The same people who picked the cotton after slavery was abolished.

Please don't tell me you're NOT one of those people who go to the market and see 'cheap vegetables', and conveniently DON'T SEE the billions you and I spend on taxes to support education, medication, and incarceration for Illegals. Tell me that you actually understand that when all the costs of illegals are added up, that our 'cheap lettuce' is actually costing us a fortune.

[VOA]

What they ought to do is realize prosperity doesn't HAVE to end at the California - Baja border.
Go home and fix up home. That coastline could just keep going on southward if Mexico
would just adapt and allow it's citizens to be middle class.

I think that is what is slowly happening.
I remember hearing an NPR segment (I listen for opposition research) about 10 years
ago about how some Mexicans were returning home and fixing up Momma's house and
building the own new place.

The return of these Mexicans is not without some social upheaval...the segment had
a village priest complaining that the returnees "work too hard and they are
abandoning the church" (translation=they've got a work ethic and are becoming Protestant
or some other denomination).

It may not happen in our lifetime...but just like the seven decades it too to expose
and crack the "workers paradise" of the USSR, the oppression south of the border will
eventually crumble.

At least that's my prayer.

[itsahoot]

the oppression south of the border will eventually crumble.

It surely will, the trouble is they are doing it by just moving the border North.

[Map Kernow]

Although Latinos in the United States prize conservative social values often espoused by Republicans, as an ethnic minority they are wary of the political right wing.

I am tired of reading this little chestnut. What are the so-called "conservative social values" that "Latinos prize" that "Republicans espouse"? "Machismo"? Right to Life? Stay at home moms? No special rights for homosexuals?

I live in Southern California, and I'd like to meet up with all these "Latinos" clutching "conservative social values" to their breasts. The ones here in Southern California are no more "socially conservative" than your typical Californian--i.e., not very---not unless you consider having lots of kids as per se a "conservative social value."

But all those "Latino" kids don't mean anything unless they grow up to vote Republican, or induce their parents to vote Republican. And they certainly don't vote on the basis of "social conservative" issues, whether they're voting legitimately or not. They vote for the guy promising budget-busting bennies like education and drivers licenses for illegals, not guys like McClintock.

[tom paine 2]

I pick my own. What's your point?

[ridesthemiles]

JOHN DEERE

[ridesthemiles]

As of 2 years ago, 92% of all the broccoli consumed EACH DAY in USA was grown in Mexico.
That is just one product I have info on. Look carefully at the produce in your store. It will shock you.
(That is so lame. We have millions more illegals in the USA than are needed to pick vegetables.) .

[ableChair]

...but many in Mexico fear he will now make life tough for Hispanic illegal immigrants.

Wahhhhh!!! They're presence is illegal and thus they have no right to be here. LEAVE.

[Tax Government]

Have to disagree with your assessment of typical Mexican immigrants. Overall, they are more Republican than most Republicans.

[Tax Government]

Have to disagree with your assessment of typical Mexican immigrants. Overall, they are more Republican than most Republicans.

[OldSmaj]

We tried to grow produce, but most got eaten by deer or rabbits.

Then you eat the deer and rabbits!

[ATCNavyRetiree]

Hmmmm...they could probably use the state's burgeoning prison population to pick vegetables!

[speekinout]

Schwarzenegger said he plans to help undocumented immigrants, and he pointed to several proposals, specifically one introduced by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) that gives temporary work permits to immigrants.

I think that's a good idea. We used to have sensible guest worker programs, that were good for all countries (not all guest workers were Mexican). We don't anymore, but re-instating these programs would go a long way toward solving the illegal immigrant problem.
And notice that the work permits are TEMPORARY.

[heleny]

Then you eat the deer and rabbits!

I don't know how.... Won't you get fleas/ticks if you get near them?

[WilliamofCarmichael]

I have not attempted to find out what Sen. McCain's ideas do for ILLEGAL immigrants who have permanent jobs. So I do not know how a temporary permit helps them.

I suspect that bill is just one of several that range from outright amnesty (as in the 1986 bill that finally "ended" the ILLEGAL alien problem) to visas -- or maybe just plain old open borders.

[teeples]

Makes me wanna get my "violin" out and play a sad song for them! lol