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E-mail Digest: Subscribe/Unsubscribe Home / Letters to Editor / Announcements / Columnists / Past Issues / About Us /Links The Connection Column Archives, October 25, 2010
Reaching a new low HVC Editorial	Reading the Dictionary
	By Richard N. Baldwin T. /HispanicVista.com October 25, 2010 Let’s start out by reviewing one word that is almost lost its true meaning by agenda driven Republican politicians and commentators: Webster defines amnesty as an act of an authority (as a government) by which pardon is granted to a large group of individuals. Lets look a bit further: Pardon. 1. The excusing of an offence without a penalty. 2. To remit the penalty or (forgive). Get that? Forgiveness without penalty. In other words, no crime has occurred. Let’s look at some examples.
The Good Old Days Were Not Good	The Tea “Party” America’s Al-Qaeda
By Raoul Lowery Contreras October 25, 2010 Famous Black Sociologist Thomas Sowell wrote (in Ethnic America): “In 1950, Mexican Americans in the Southwest completed only 5-years of school, compared with eleven for the non-Hispanic white population (and eight for blacks) in the same region. By 1960, this had risen to seven years (a 40 percent increase) for Mexican Americans compared to twelve e for non-Hispanic whites and nine for blacks.” Wow, there I was on October 4^th, 1957, looking forward to being one of the very few Mexican Americans preparing to graduate from high school in June 1958.	By Steven J. Ybarra, JD/HispanicVista.com October 25, 2010 *Notas por La Casa Politica* It came to me in an epiphany that the Tea “Party” is just simply America’s Al-Qaeda I mean let us look at this movement. It, like Al-Qaeda, has no head but rather is run by many small groups (cells). It, like Al-Qaeda, is ultra-conservative with each group deciding what essential documents (like the Qur'an) mean. For example, the Tea “Party” picks which parts of the Constitution are really “American”. The Tea “Party”, like Al-Qaeda, advocates killing leaders with whom they disagree (see Nevada). The Tea “Party”, like Al-Qaeda, hates homosexuals and women who think outside of their “family values”.
Arizona officials: Travel Alert	GUEST COLUMNS
By Patrick Osio, Jr. Editor/HispanicVista.com October 25, 2010 Have we become so cynical as to believe that Arizona elected officials make claims solely for political gain? Are we to believe that politicians promote fear in order to advance their own agenda? Selling down your state by discouraging tourists and visitors is unthinkable, unconscionable and a reckless disregard for the welfare of the state already reeling in economic red ink	Mexican politics and ‘La Barbie’s’ extradition By George W. Grayson, GOP's Hispanic hopefuls swim with a nativist tide By Edward Schumacher-Matos Immigration and Mexico: A Time to Tell the Truth By Ben Daniel The debate: Is it Latino or Hispanic? By Marlene Peralta
Border Security	GREAT READING COMMENTARIES
By Sal Osio, JD *Mi Punto de Vista* From the Publisher’s Corner September 10, 2010 Every nation has the sovereign right and obligation to secure its borders - to prevent any unauthorized entry by any person or any property. The United States has that fundamental right and obligation. And so does Mexico. This has never been the issue.	Coming Out Illegal By Maggie Jones The Debt, the Deficit, and America’s Role in the World An Address by David M. Walker Which Way Forward on Immigration Reform? America's Voice Improving the Economic Well-Being of Latino Kids Center for American Progress
GUEST COLUMNS	GUEST COLUMNS
Black-on-Mexican Violence in Staten Island, NY: The Untold Tale of Turf Defense By Tanya Katerí Hernández Immigration and Drugs Along the Mexico/Guatemala Frontier By Andrew Eller New Attacks on Birthright Citizenship: “Anchor Babies” and the 14th Amendment By Julia Nissenm	The Truth Held Hostage Disecting the lies about the Arizona kidnappings By Walter A Ewing, PhD The Lowest Form Of Military Aggression By Luis Roberto Zamora Bolaños Warning to Both Parties: Misread the Public on Immigration, Continue to Face Backlash America’s Voice
The Non-Profit Industrial Complex Eats Reform and Spits Out DREAMs	Mexican Migration and World Trends
By Maegan la Mamita Mala VivirLatino The Non-Profit Industrial Complex is like the Prison Industrial Complex in that despite the name, it is a capitalist model based in struggling for money. While private prisons fight amongst themselves for contracts with the Federal government and cut corners that usually equal abuses against those housed behind concrete and barbed wire, non-profits fight amongst themselves for money given out by corporate tax shelters and cut corners by watering down what should be revolution for reform and the end result is abuse ...	Immigration News Frontera NorteSur Studies by Mexico’s BBVA Bancomer Foundation lay out the general trends of Mexican migration in an international context. A periodic, bilingual publication sponsored by the Foundation’s economic services unit, Migration Watch Mexico, details demographic, geographic, economic, environmental and even technological characteristics of contemporary migration in Mexico and other countries.
Arizona's next illegal immigration target: Babies	Ending Birthright Citizenship Would Not Stop Illegal Immigration
By Lindsay Goldwert The New York Daily News They might not be old enough to walk or talk but newborns are the next likely center of the Arizona immigration firestorm. State Sen. Russell Pearce says that he is intent on introducing legislation that would deny birth certificates to "anchor babies," the children of illegal immigrants born in the U.S.	From Immigration Policy Institute Anti-immigrant groups and legislators have persisted in their attempts to restrict or repeal birthright citizenship in State Houses and the U.S. Congress. Several bills have been introduced that would deny U.S. citizenship to children whose parents are in the U.S. illegally or on temporary visas.
Mexico’s “Permanent” Crises	Do Republican Hardliners on Immigration Have a Shoe Fetish?
Special Report Frontera NorteSur Although the Arizona immigration law and two recent US Border Patrol detentions that resulted in the deaths of two Mexican nationals have upset US-Mexico relations, close economic and political ties between Washington and Mexico City are unlikely to change in the near future. Under the policies of the Obama and Calderon administrations, the strategic thrusts of the bilateral partnership- the North American Free Trade Agreement and anti-drug Merida Initiative-are likely to deepen.	Steve King and Brian Bilbray Offer Guidance to Arizona Law Enforcement: Check their Shoes Washington, DC – Evidently, House hardliners have compared notes when it comes to backing the “papers please” Arizona anti-immigrant law. Representatives Steve King (R-IA) and Brian Bilbray (R-CA) are defending the Arizona anti-immigrant law against charges of racial profiling by arguing that footwear is the key to identifying who is in the country illegally. Really? Yeah, really.
The U.S. Hispanic Community – what binds what separate.	Hispanic – Latino issues of importance to the community.
Some topics HispanicVista offers a platform for dialogue Hispanic Americans have become the largest ethnic majority in the United States. But such distinction ignores that Hispanics are made up of a diverse people encompassing all races and many mixtures between races. The dot connecting US Hispanics is their traceability or link to Spain, in most cases because of their paternal last name originating from Spain. But in most Hispanic Americans have little in common with Spain or the Spanish culture itself though they are bound by language in those cases where Hispanic Americans speak the language, but even in language, the Spanish they speak is derived from the ancestral home in Latin America wherefrom they or ancestors immigrated to the U.S. And sadly by third generation the ‘mother’ tongue is either very limited or non existent, all that is left is the Spanish last name. This in turn leads many to reject the term Hispanic as applied to them and choose to be known or referred to as Americans without other identity tag names. The breakdown of country of origin of Hispanic Americans in the U.S. is by far made up of those whose ancestral roots are from Mexico, followed by Cuban, then Central Americans (Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica and Panama), trailing are others from the various South American countries. The America’s immigration to their American sister country makes up modern day immigration to the U.S. These are issues that connect all or most of the Hispanic community – such as U.S. immigration issues, which includes illegal immigration, and immigration reform. These issues are of more importance to Mexican-Americans and Central Americans as it is from those countries that most immigrants – legal and illegal – originate. But it is of importance to the other sectors of the American Hispanic community as it has become a Hispanic or Latino issue that affects all of them, if in no other way, through the negative perception of U.S. non-Hispanics due to the illegal immigration issue. A majority of second or more generation American Hispanics oppose illegal immigration be it from their own family ancestral country or others, but they are not in agreement with many of the “remedies” to illegal immigration proposed by political far right Republican Party memebers, nativists or organizations classified as Hate Groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). The fear that racial profiling and racial hatred along with hate crimes that are rising will at some point affect all American Hispanics is a uniting point of concern for the entire Hispanic community as well as it should be for the entire US population.. As can be understood there is great interest in U.S-Mexico immigration policy, since the majority of Hispanic illegal immigrants are from Mexico the interest is more referred to as U.S.-Mexico illegal immigration policy, should there or should there not be an amnesty program. U.S. Mexico border issues and border security come into play – should there or not be a fence covering the entire 2000 miles of border; how many more Border Patrol officers should be placed at the border; are terrorists crossing the Mexican border into the U.S. All the above issues make immigration a Hispanic issue but more specific a Latino issue, as a majority of Hispanics in the west (but not New Mexico) prefer Latino over Hispanic (in California there are several thousand who prefer Chicano over the other indentifiers). So an important issue is immigration reform, not just secure the border, but real reform. In the agricultural industry the enforcement of the H-2A temporary agricultural worker visa, how can this visa that was the replacement to the 1943 through 1963 Bracero program be tighten and enforced, as an example. As can be seen, the US Mexico immigration policy to resolve the illegal immigration phenomenon is in need of much dialogue and discussion. Every election year since the early 1990s, immigration from Mexico, both legal and illegal, have become US immigration political issues that in turn become Latino political issues and in extension Hispanic political issues. The anti immigration groups tend to blame Mexican illegal immigrants for most of the ills in the U.S. This is particularly true during periods of economic problems in the U.S. In the HispanicVista search engine box found on the Index page masthead use key words immigration or illegal immigration in the search box and you will have access to dozens of articles written on the subject many by U.S. Mexico immigration experts and columnists with a wide array on immigration opinion. Hispanic and Latino business From the U.S. Census bureau: Survey of Business Owners - Hispanic-Owned Firms: 2007 SUMMARY OF FINDINGS Hispanics owned 2.3 million nonfarm U.S. businesses operating in the fifty states and the District of Columbia in 2007, an increase of 43.7 percent from 2002. These Hispanic-owned firms accounted for 8.3 percent of all nonfarm businesses in the United States, 1.6 percent of total employment and 1.1 percent of total receipts. In addition, 242,766 nonfarm U.S. businesses were equally (50-percent/50-percent) owned by both Hispanics and non-Hispanics. (This group was counted as "Non-Hispanic" in 2002.). As noted these figures are as of 2007, possibly because of the Great Recession the numbers may have decreased or at best remained the same. The new census will provide that information over 2011. Suffice it to say that up to 2007, Latino and Hispanic businesses were growing at an accelerated pace and the need for writing on the topic of Latino and Latina business as well as Hispanic business.	Latino and Hispanic Politics Hispanics have come a long way in the world of U.S. politics at all levels. According to NALEO (National Association of Elected and Appointed Officials) there has been a 37% increase in the total number of Latinos serving in elected office. The increase percentage is greater of Latinos in federal and state legislatures, which has grown by over 50%. The percentage of Latina women elected to office grew faster than those for males as from 1996 through 2007 the increase was 74% versus 25%. In 1996 Latinos/Hispanics served in 34 states, now it’s up to 43 states were Latinos and Latinas have been elected or appointed to high office. And the numbers are going to continue to increase dramatically over the next 20 years as the Latino/Hispanic population has the most young people of any ethnic group in the U.S. These young today voting age tomorrow will change the political face of the United States within the next 50 years. Latino political issues. Latinos and Hispanics have the same political issues as all other Americans, economy, employment, education, taxes, immigration, illegal immigration, war, etc. However, specific to Latinos is the issue of civil rights, racial profiling, discrimination, racism and bigotry. The issue of illegal immigration causes stress to a large portion of the Hispanic community particularly among Latinos (Mexican-American) who are deemed because of their skin color to be illegally in the country. The open animosity in discussions on this issue by politicians wanting to win favor with voters who preach a gospel of hostility towards illegal immigrants that carries over to Mexican-Americans. Issues like wanting to deny children of illegal immigrants and education, or worse deny children of illegal immigrant mothers their birthright citizenship. Organizations such as LULAC that watches over the civil rights of all the Hispanic community have been very busy. Latinos and Hispanics health issues and services. A high percentage of Latinos who are manual laborers work for companies that do not provide health insurance benefits for their employees or the cost of obtaining is higher than small businesses and their employees can afford to pay. The result is that there is a problem with Latino health and medical services available as Hispanics are susceptible to Diabetes in far greater numbers than other ethnic or racial groups. This issue also needs discussion. The U.S. -Mexico Economic Integration Much is said and written about illegal immigration, border security, drug smuggling from Mexico, arm smuggling to Mexico, but little is written about the great economic integration that has been taking place for over 30 years and picking up pace. In California most of the 24 million people living within 120 miles of the U.S. Mexico border have at some time visited Baja California home to Tijuana, Mexico’s fourth most populated city, Rosarito Beach where there lives over 14,000 American retirees mostly Baby Boomers or American second home owners; the port city of Ensenada is another popular visitor destination. Within the vast municipality (county) of Ensenada there is Valle de Guadalupe where Baja California wines are produced and grown from the numerous varieties of grapes that cover thousands of acres. Baja California real estate, particularly the Pacific Coast corridor between Tijuana and south of Rosarito Beach were very hot items during the short real estate boom of 2004, 2005 and first half of 2006. Mexican real estate developers joined by a number of American real estate developers began a flurry of single family home and condominium building that attracted much international attention. Of importance to Americans living in Baja California is their personal security which most say they don’t feel to be in danger as reported in much of the U.S. press. The topic of Baja California health services is also of importance, not only to local Ameri can expatriates, but also to Southern Californians who seek medical services in Baja. The most sought after Medical service is the purchase of medicines and other pharmaceutical products at Mexican pharmacies, such as Roma that has a chain of Mexican drug stores in Tijuana, Playas de Tijuana, and Rosarito. Baja California mostly in Tijuana large numbers of visitors or medical tourist flock for dental work, eye care and many other services.