It’s Not About Race…
Looks like
the Hispanic Chamber went there! The 800 pound Jalapeno in the room: Since the Feds provided for the creation of an Hispanic-opportunity district, does it have to be represented by an Hispanic?
I’ll be the first one to say it. No! It doesn’t have to be represented by an Hispanic. But when you have a highly qualified, progressive-minded product of the district, why not?
As a highly-educated Chicano myself, I’ve been proud to click on a Anglo candidate running against a brown person, especially when the brown person is not a progressive (cough-cough, Roy and/or Danny More-or-Less Mexicano). So, no, it’s not about race, or in this case, ethnicity. As a voter, I’m interested in having a highly qualified candidate with whom I can identify, whether it by that candidate’s story, or something else.
And as someone who has worked in higher education, I am in agreement with great minds that strongly believe that diversity in the faculty and administrative ranks provides for a positive image to the burgeoning Latino college student community. In other words, when first-time-in-college Latino students see someone that looks like them in positions of power, they have a role-model. Perhaps more Latinos would vote with more people that look like us in positions of importance. So, why in the world would someone want to block that from happening?
Frankly, I don’t expect Welsh to answer that as much as I expect his recent endorser who is supposed to support the ideal I just described as a member of the HCC board.
“The Race”
Well there they go again. Direct translation can be a terrible thing. Mizanur Rahman at the Chron’s immigration blog goes through what I’ve had to do many times–
defend the use of “raza”. The bigots on the far-right (and even clueless lib-labs who don’t like race issues) always attempt to attack Chicanos and other Latinos who use that word. There’s a national organization called the National Council of La Raza. And in the 70s, Texas had a pretty successful political third party that I still say changed the face of the Democratic Party, La Raza Unida. Hell, there’s even a radio station that calls itself La Raza. “Raza” is directly translated as “race.” In Chicano-speak, it simply means
people. Or if we are trying to get a crowd excited, we might say, “Orale Raza…” which loosely means, “C’mon, people…”
Have you (my Anglo readers), ever been pissed off at drivers who hold up traffice and say, “oh these people!” Well, when some of us get annoyed, we sometimes blurt out, “ay esta raza”. We’re not saying, “oh, this race.” We’re not saying, “C’mon, race…” It doesn’t even make sense, unless you’re some right-wing racist nut.
So, once and for all, right-wing: Cut the crap! Chicanos and other Latinos could never out-racist you. We simply don’t have the power to be racist. But something tells me, that’s what those nuts fear the most.
GOP: Latinos Are Watching
Victor Landa at the Express-News has a
pretty good piece GOP reaction to Justice Sotomayor.
The real fight in the coming weeks will not be the obvious one, the one featured in news and commentary about the nominee and her qualifications and ideology. The real fight is going to be a side brawl where Republicans and conservatives will fight each other for dominance of the right-of-center political space. The blows will be aimed at Sotomayor, but they’ll be intended to land on inner-party rivals.
Watch for the definitions, watch for the assumptions, and pay attention to what will be said and meant in light of the Republican struggle for identity. It’s going to be a tough fight. Sotomayor will eventually be the next Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, but take note because much more will be going on than a debate over a Supreme Court nominee.
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Thank you Carlos.
I remember when I first saw “People Together” in some of the archives featuring RUP candidate for Governor, Ramsey Muniz, and I wondered, why isn’t it the “United People’s Party?”
I guess that’s just the commie in me. People Together worked just fine!
As a founder and strategist of Raza Unida Party in the late 1960s through the mid-1970s, we dealt with this issue in extended detail. Since we saw the elimination of racism as a prime objective, we knew we could never succeed by perpetuating it. We finally concluded that “race” and “raza,” while cognates, had totally different meanings, like “embarrassed” and “embarazada.” Our official translation of “Raza Unida?” “People Together,” of course. — Carlos Guerra, now metro columnist for the San Antonio Express-News
re: “The Race”
I wouldn’t even call it a direct translation, Stace; to me, it’s a Google translation – it captures the Latin root while avoiding any of the contemporary nuance (much less the historical nuance).
It’s facile rather than honest.