Gregory Rodriguez, author of a recently published book on Mexican immigration, said today at the New America Foundation institute that Mexican-Americans have been "racially categorized" for centuries and that integration is a must for American society.
"Mexican-Americans have never fit in with the American racial system and will erode it and undermine it," said Mr. Rodriguez, director of the California Fellows Program at the New America Foundation.
Mr. Rodriguez is an op-ed columnist for the Los Angeles Times and has written for such publications as the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal on issues ranging from national identity and ethnicity to social and political trends.
His book, "Mongrels, Bastards, Orphans, and Vagabonds: Mexican Immigration and the Future of Race in America," looks in-depth at the history of Mexican-Americans, or mestizos, and examines how integration is just as important as immigration.
"I wrote a book and essentially it's history hidden in argument," he said. "Integration matters. We can't just talk about immigration all the time. Now might be a good time to share, to circle around with your ethnicities and be American."
— Andrew Richards, intern, The Washington Times
Comments (3)
As long as the hyphen is part of any name, regardless of who puts it there, it will not lead toward any path to integration, just as multilateralism cannot have a global consensus with regional compliance paradigm. Sectarian interests will always prevail.
Posted by Larry Stone | November 13, 2007 12:29 AM
As long as these people come into the country illegally and we keep seeing the pictures of them in the water, and over the fence, and in the desert, we will never welcome these people. As long as they think it's alright to come here illegally and as long as we have greedy employers who are willing to aid them in breaking the law, we will never accept them . As long as their president urges them to come here to work , because he does not clean up his own country, we will never accept him or his practices. Bush and the rest of the politicians are afraid to face a voting bloc who may vote against them if they stand up for what is right. The 10 to 20 million illegals here already can be deported despite the propaganda that is put forth every day to the contrary. We are overrun now, and have too many people here as it is. Close the borders alltogether for 10 years, 'till we can sort this whole mess out. You'll never do it as long as politicians are willing to trade what is right for what is wrong in order to get a voting block...The Dems did this for the Black vote, and now the Gop are trying to set it up with the Hispanics by turning their backs on the border issue. America for Americans now.
Posted by T C Swan | November 14, 2007 6:06 PM
Why do we refer to illegal, lawbreaking aliens, as needed immigrants, or just undocumented workers.
Why don't we keep the born in America citizen and deport the alien mother.
Why not put illegal aliens on chain gangs and rent them to farmers and others.
Why is it wrong to expect any legal !!! voter in an American election to read and write American English.
Why don't we copy Mexico's immigration laws as our own.
Why Don't we print ballots in Farsi, since we have a lot of non English speaking Arabs.
Posted by Jerry T | November 16, 2007 8:30 PM