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Ramón Del Castillo
I was reminded of the Guthrie brothers, Joan Baez and La Raza’s own Dr. Jesus “Chuy” Negrete, those musicians and singers who wrote the social ballads of the 1960’s as I wrote this column. We are in trying times as the question of what to do at the borders is causing mucho anxiety.
It’s time for the songwriters and composers to pull out the pens and the musicians to start strumming las guitarras to create un corrido. The Immigration Blues might be the name of an appropriate ballad for the ongoing onda at the Mexican border. Perhaps, it would say:
the borders are being sealed
immigration laws being repealed
while fences are being built
guarded communities
with guns at the gate
men full of hate
waving goodbye
for immigrants ready to die
While American troops continue to fight an unjust war in Iraq, American wannabe mercenaries are preparing for a domestic war on one of the borders between Mexico and the United States. The tension is festering in the new reclaiming of the American Southwest by a ragtag band of border patrol agents without badges. They are working with la migra in what appears to be ethnic cleansing of the Southwest.
They come with the paranoid ideation that brown people are encroaching upon American lands, stealing jobs, robbing the coffers and promoting terrorism. They vow to protect the borders from this invasion. The facsimile army’s destination is Tombstone, Arizona where the brown multitude has multiplied exponentially.
Timothy J. Dunn in “The Militarization of the U.S.-Mexico Border 1978-1992: Low Intensity Conflict Doctrine Comes Home,” argues that in the last quarter of a century this government has spent billions of dollars purchasing infra-red cameras, dogs, and helicopters to curb the flow of the undocumented worker into American society. He further argues that Border Patrol and INS agents were also committing human rights abuses against undocumented workers for years.
It appears that the government is in cahoots with the new citizenry to build that iron wall as it sits idly by as a group of misfits have organized into a militia. The problem is that the worst of Americans are gravitating towards this fictitious army. The provocateurs, the scum of the earth, racists, Birchers and Klansmen have found an avenue to vent their hatred.
New American prototype heroes of the Southwest are being fashioned. Two new Wild West heroes who have entered the fray are Tom Tancredo and Richard Lamm. They are perpetuating gross fear into the minds and hearts of Americans concerning Mexican workers. While Tom is in Arizona playing Wyatt Earp, Richard continues to practice yellow journalism in the Rocky Mountain News.
Tancredo is one of the leaders of this Border Movement. He is a politician whose yearning is to become the top Boy Scout of the Wild West. He has transformed from a lawmaker into a lawbreaker. The group sees themselves as the descendants of the Boston Tea Party. You remember that historical event? The heroes of that fandango dressed in Indian attire and threw tea into the sea, protesting, “No Taxation without Representation.” The new placa has become, “Placing Limitations on Immigration.”
They are dead serious regarding their mission. They aren’t carrying cans of raid. Many are sporting guns.
History is on the brink of repeating itself as policies such as Operation Wetback and a New Bracero Program are being discussed in the backrooms of the White House.
Perhaps, decision makers on both sides of the border ought to build fences to stop the flow of traffic. Mexicans should put up a border patrol at las fronteras between Mexico and the United States. This citizen border patrol should stop all foreigners from entering the country. Mexicanos might want to think about creating an air patrol to prevent foreign aircraft from entering into their flying zone. This could be supported by a sea patrol to thwart any travel over the thousands of seas that surrounds their country. President Bush and President Fox should stop all trade and commerce with México.
My grandfather Rosalio López Del Castillo was one of the immigrants who came into American society following the 1910 Mexican Revolution, “buscando la vida buena”. He immigrated from La Cuidad de Mexico and worked the Santa Fe Railroad for 55 years of his life before he died. He is one of millions of immigrants who helped build “América.”
Somebody needs to put the brakes on this one before the car falls off the track.
Ramón Del Castillo, Ph.D. is an Independent Journalist.
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