Andres Soto and Pat Buchannan myths about Hispanics

Commentary

Fighting the lies concerning Hispanics

By Jaime Cader

In this write-up there will be a critique of some of the ideas presented in the book "State of Emergency -The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America" by Patrick J. Buchanan. This will be done by presenting the counter arguments of Richmond, California, Chicano-Latino community advocate, Andres Soto, by presenting my own comments and by quoting from a newspaper article.

First some words about Soto. In his own words he is a community advocate for improving the lives of everyday people. Soto and his two sons were involved in a legal fight against ithe Richmond Police Department that began on Cinco de Mayo 2002 -after they were attacked, pepper-sprayed, and put in jail after the police closed down 23rd Street, heart of Richmond's Latino community, during a spontaneous Cinco de Mayo celebration. Soto filed a federal lawsuit with twelve plaintiffs, filed a complaint with the Richmond Police Commission, initiated a county Grand Jury investigation, filed a complaint with the FBI -which eventually got the FBI to investigate the RPD, and initiated several political actions, including running for Richmond City Council in 2004, to correct the wrongs of the RPD.

An article published in the Contra Costa Times on September 15, 2003 titled "Activist's watchdog campaign heralds change in Richmond" states "That day, following an arrest for which he would later sue, one of the state's top gun-control advocates [Soto] says he was "just another Mexican" to police... Seventeen months later, few Richmond police mistake Soto for just another Mexican."

After reading various comments and suggestions made by Buchanan in his book, Soto said the following: "He [Buchanan] is promoting an ideology - the superiority of Western civilization. It's the same argument that Israelis use for having a separtate Jewish state, -[for being] separate and apart, -segregated to preserve the position of the elites."

Soto commented that it is interesting that Buchanan uses Leftist terminology (ie. Third World) to make a case for his ideology of preserving the Eurocentric elites in the United States. "Buchanan presents an inflamed picture. However the real crisis for the United States is its internal and external contradictions in its society, -for example the expanding racism -because it is no longer just Black and White." An external contradiction according to Soto, is the U.S. presenting itself as a crusader for democracy, when in reality its imperialistic ambitions are the same as all empires... Soto believes that Buchanan's failure to recognize this is disengenuous, that he knows exactly what he is saying... that his whole tome is a cover story to hide the truth behind a rhetoric of ethnic and racial hate. "All of this is just a smoke screen that blames the immigrant as being a threat. He doesn't speak about the role of the elites in determining the current state of affairs," Soto added.

On page 266 Buchanan continues to make suggestions to solve what he considers to be the problem. Soto said that some of these measures are already being put into place. One recommendation that Buchanan lists is that "All U.S. businesses should be required to match the Social Security numbers and names of all prospective employees by making a toll-free call to the Soccial Security Administration, just as retail clerks routinely call to check the credit cards of customers making expensive purchases." "This creates class division and class oppression," says Soto and adds "He blatently suggests that the Supreme Court precedent -about people born in the the U.S. automatically being U.S. citizens -be done away with. So blame the children!"

On page 270 Buchanan states "What is required of us is the confidence and courage of our forefathers, who made no apologies for who and what they were as they believed -and rightly so -that theirs was the greatest civilization and culture the world had ever produced, and they meant to preserve and protect it." Soto commented that the word forefathers is sexist language and that this way of thinking, ie. "We are better than them" can ultimately lead to genocide, as for example the Indian Wars or the war in Iraq, etc.

Soto also informed this author about the film "White Man's Burden" starring John Travolta and Harry Belafonte. "This film shows a role reversal, African Americans in charge and Euro-Americans as a subclass. This is the Euro-American fear and is a motivation to keep their position and privilege," said Soto.

My own opinion about Buchanan's book is that I found it to present the author's ideas in what seems to be a more professional manner than the book "Mexifornia -A State of Becoming" by Victor Davis Hanson. However, one can still detect the flaws in "State of Emergency," for example the notion that Hispanics must assimilate, although this idea is not as presented to the extent that it is in the book "Mexifornia..."

One concern that Buchanan presents is the problem/danger of Salvadoran gang members, -the members of the "Mara Salvatrucha," which this writer also feels society needs to put efforts into solving, as my uncle was killed by gang members in El Salvador. But Buchanan mentions them only as another negative thing brought to the U.S. by Hispanic immigrants. On page 44 Buchanan lists Salvadoran immigrants as among those who have a low incidence of completing a high school education. Personally I have not researched this phenomenon, but I know that many Salvadoran immigrants do have at least a high school education and many also have higher degrees of education. When my parents immigrated to the U.S. from El Salvador, many Anglo-Americans often asked them where El Salvador was, -so what does this say about the educational system in the U.S.? In any case, although I am a strong supporter of education, one must be aware that there are also "educated" fools with no common sense.

Buchanan again mentions violence coming from Hispanics on page 70, but he never mentions any violence directed at Hispanics, for example the murder of a girl by the name of Brisenia Flores by Minutemen in Arizona. On page 204 Buchanan relates the incident of Dutch gay politician Pim Fortuyn, who Buchanan implies was assasinated by a Muslim or by Muslims, when in fact he was killied by an animal rights activist.

Like Davis Hanson he uses the words of a few extremist Hispanics to generalize about the national desires of all Hispanics. An article published in the Contra Costa Times on September 9, 2007 titled "Southwest 'reconquista' rhetoric raises anti-immigrant hackles" states "Mainstream immigration advocacy groups -as well as academic and experts on nearly all sides of the immigration issue -dismiss these "reconquista" notions as rhetorical, not to be taken seriously... But such talk appears to galvanize foes of immigration. Anti-immigrant activists and some conservatives have seized on such rhetoric to claim a conspiracy afoot among illegal immigrants to reconquer the Southwest."

Surely Buchanan needs to be viewed just as he was described on a radio program (on KPFA, Pacifica Radio) about a month ago. There he was likened to Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who presents himself as a radical/revolutionary, but is actually just a populist who on occasion highlights concerns of certain downtrodden members of society. In any case his views need to be exposed for what they are, and these rebuttals made public to the general population.

Besides these defensive actions, we need to also be on the offensive. It is amazing that at least four books are out on the market that attack Hispanic immigrants. This is why new Hispanic groups are organizing, -in part to be prepared for when even worse things come.

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Jaime Cader is from San Francisco, California and has travelled throughout the United States, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East . He has contributed to the making of a documentary that was completed (titled "Weaving with Spanish Threads") and is presently writing a book about his relatives and ancestors. Contact at: jmcader@yahoo.com