Indians of the Americas (Barf)

It is tempting to use this pulpit to go after U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo for his mean-spirited meddling in the life of Aurora honor student Jesus Apodaca. Jesus had the nerve to stray from his safe confinement in the margins of society to pursue his dream of a college education. But my representative is already ankle-deep in alligators, and adding my jaws to an already crowded field wouldn't yield any meaningful results. Besides, Tancredo is so in love with the spotlight that he wiggles in any direction in order to attract its beams - including, as aviation lore tells us, flying through a thunderstorm.

I remain hopeful, though, that INS won't roadblock Jesus' education, and instead will remain hot on the trail of bigger fish it needs to fry. But as an immigrant, and a human being, I am saddened by the rancor coloring the ongoing immigration debate. Especially painful are the venom-laced darts pointed at the weakest of the weak - the poor and undocumented immigrants from Mexico and other countries.

My hope was that the sense of humanity rekindled after 9/11, revisited a couple weeks ago, would also extend to our invisible neighbors. It is obvious by now that historian Arthur Schlesinger's prediction in The Post's Perspective pages - that 9/11 would be no more than an insignificant footnote in history rather than the watershed that changed the world - is already a living reality.

But on Oct. 12, a new commemorative page of a true watershed in the history of humanity will unfold. It is the undeniable reminder that most of us dwelling in this hemisphere are immigrants of some sort. In Latin America it is called El Da de la Raza (Day of the People); in this country, it has been named Columbus Day in honor of the Genoan-born explorer, Spain's adopted son, who got lost in the Caribbean.

For Latin Americans, such a milestone is a day of celebration, reflection and remembrance of how a new people (the Mestizos) rose from the ashes and blood left by the clash of two distinct civilizations. In many places a new tree is planted on this day every year as a symbol of new life and hope for the future.

In this country, Columbus Day has been paraded erroneously as a paradigm of Italian-American legacy, and in recent years it has sadly turned into a date of discord.

Lost in the shouting is the true and unnamed meaning, which is: Yes, Oct. 12 is about Italian-Americans, Spanish-Americans. It is about all of us in the Americas. It is also about Europe, Africa, Asia and the rest of the world, for we are all a living consequence of the encounters and human exchanges between the old and the new that began more than 500 years ago - and that forever changed the face of history.

But above all, Oct. 12 is about indigenous America - the peoples who, following their conquest, were exiled to the marshes of irrelevance. As scholar D.C. Iglesias wrote, "They became a buried footnote, the flotsam and jetsam left in the wake of the triumphant battleships."

But a new dawn is breaking on Amerindia's horizon. As a new anniversary of her conquest approaches, indigenous America is found regaining in part her deserved place at the table of affairs of the Western Hemisphere.

In Mexico, Indians recently blocked attempts to build a massive new airport on what they consider hallowed ground, forcing the Mexican government to engage in serious negotiations. In Peru, a Quechua Indian, Alejandro Toledo, is that nation's elected president. In Bolivia, Indian leader Evo Morales recently obtained 25 percent of the popular vote in that country's presidential elections, turning him and his Indian followers into Bolivia's main opposition group. And in Ecuador, another Quechua, Antonio Vargas, is a serious contender to become Ecuador's first Indian president. And it needs no mention that in this country Indian leaders are no longer ignored.

With our brother and sister Indians at our table, let's avail ourselves of the opportunity Oct. 12 presents us: to reflect on and heal the past, understand and celebrate our present, and work together to build a better tomorrow.

Dr. Delio Tamayo-Gomez is a veterinarian in Aurora. He is an immigrant from Colombia and a U.S. citizen by choice.

I got this far:

"Jesus had the nerve to stray from his safe confinement in the margins of society to pursue his dream of a college education"

Wow, what a courageous young man. Not content with staying under the radar after the state has paid for his entire high-school education, he decides to demand that the state pay for college as well. This is setting a horrible precedent if the government allows him and his family to stay here. I always hear that "Oh, they're such a nice family" and other attempts to mitigate the illegality of his family's presence in our country, but we cannot allow our tax dollars to pay for these illegals at the expense of our own law-abiding citizens and other legal immigrants.

I also find it humorous that the Denver Post is clinging to straws with their attempt to paint Tancredo as a hypocrite based on the whole 'illegal worker' issue involving some home repairs he had done.

I'm a true Native American (born in the USA). My country is awash in a flood of illegal immigrants; it's really an invasion, re-conquest by subversion. Their anchor baby leaders speak at conferences of Aztlan leaders and say things like "We shall overwhelm"; and if you really took a good look at the Rodney King rioters and looters, you would have realized there were few black Americans, they were mostly Mexicans and Central Americans. Most of these illegal invaders are these Indians of the Americas - for whom I should feel pity?

How you going to catch them Bikers4Bush? They've already corrupted the political system and rendered the Border Patrol impotent.

Here is a little more on Delio "Dr. Delio D. Tamayo-Gomez is a veterinarian in Aurora. An immigrant from Colombia, he is a naturalized U.S. citizen and registered for the draft during the Vietnam War. Contact him by e-mail at deliotamayo@msn.com." Perhaps some may wish to e-mail him their views on illegal immigration. It is heartening to note he did register for the draft during the VN unpleasantness. A great American for sure.

For starters you put the military on the border. Then you start in the schools to identify those children that are illegal and round up their families.

Then it's just a matter of making it so financially painfull for companies and individuals to hire them that nobody does and they walk back from whence they came.

It may not be perfect but it's certainly better than what we're doing now.

"Especially painful are the venom-laced darts pointed at the weakest of the weak - the poor and undocumented immigrants from Mexico and other countries."

Why isn't someone pointing the "vermon-Laced darts" right back at Mexico? It's their fault that their people are leaving in droves. Why doesn't La Raza pin Foxes a** to the wall to work out their people's problems? I think Tancredo also needs to address this problem.

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