The United States of Latin America?

About once or twice a month I take BART from my job in San Francisco to visit my parents in the Fruitvale District of East Oakland, in the house where I grew up, and where my father grew up before me.  In the 30 or so years that I have been making this trek, I've noticed a lot of changes along East 14th Street, or International Blvd. as it's now called.  The storefronts that were empty a few years ago are now filled with joyerias, mueblerias, carnicerias, (jewelry shops, furniture stores and meat markets). and stores that sell ropas para damas y ninos (clothes for ladies and children).  The sidewalks and streets are filled with families doing their shopping, where once there were just drug dealers selling nickel bags, alkies buying Night Train at the corner liquor store and ho's in fishnets and glitter miniskirts plying their trade on the street corner. 

The Fruitvale isn't without its problems, but on the whole it seems decidedly better than it was a few years ago. My suspicions were confirmed when I read in the Chronicle that:

The number of Latino-owned businesses in the United States grew by 31 percent between 1997 and 2002, more than three times the rate for all businesses. In California, Latino businesses grew 27 percent, more than twice as much as businesses overall, according to a report released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau.

I can see it now: On the right, Patrick Buchanan will issue another screed about the impending takeover of the United States.  On the left, this will be seen by Mechistas as a sign of the coming of Aztlan, the supposed Chicano polity located somewhere in the American West. The far left and right agree that immigration from Latin America must inevitably lead to the reconquista of the United States by a Spanish-speaking majority, but is it so?

On balance, I think the answer is no.  Immigrants come to the United States for the opportunities this country offers. We are not like Europe, where Muslim immigrants want to supplant their adopted country's values with the values of their homeland.  Though Americans and immigrants are separated by language, traditional values like family and religion are important to both groups.  When I think of the immigration issue in this country, I think of an embroidered decal on the back of a denim jacket I once saw being worn by an immigrant--crossed American and Mexican flags, surmounted by an image of the Virgin of Guadalupe. 

Illegal immigration is worrisome.  No one except criminals are benefitted by having a lawless zone on the southern border, but legitimate concerns for security should not be used to fuel nativist fear.  The President seemed to recognize this as he reaffirmed his position on visas for temporary guest workers in his weekly radio address.  I hope that a sound, reasoned approach to immigration reform will emerge from the debate as Congress takes up the issue next week.

UPDATE:  Marc Cooper has an interesting perspective of the massive immigration reform rally in Los Angeles and what it means.

Comments

[Joe B (Túrin)]

Bravo, Patrick! I concur 100% with this post. You've never been to NYC, but it has been my impression that so much about this city that has improved in the last decade and a half is due to immigration (legal or not). Whether it's the revitalization of the Bronx, the precipitously falling crime rate, immigration has played a role.