The Divided Americas: Fear of Freedom
Published in El País
(Spain) on 31 August 2014
by Antonio Navalón (link to original)
The Americas comprise many American countries, but there is a common bond between them all: their relationship with the United States. The upcoming midterm election in November will either make or break new bonds between Spanish-speaking U.S. citizens. In the U.S. — the world’s largest military power and still the world’s largest economy — people of Hispanic origin make up 17 percent of the population. In fact, Barack Obama has twice reached the Oval Office thanks to the Latino vote.
As the first African-American president, Obama could have healed the wounds of segregation. He was not able to do so. He is not entirely to blame, but neither can his merit be praised. Through his failures and failed policies, the Democratic president is bringing Republicans to power—with no need of the tea party—by losing the support of the Latino population.
Within the U.S., dividing lines are tacitly forming, marked by the use of Spanish and the feigned attempt to resolve the problem of the 11 million undocumented workers doing the jobs that Americans do not want. The midterm election in November will redefine Obama’s historic legacy, burdened by the failure of his health care reform and his logic-defying inability to pass immigration reform — something that will worsen his disconnection with minorities and lose voters.
This year, in the 113th Congress, the Hispanic caucus was the largest in its history. There are 31 representatives, and their number will increase at the next election. The tragedy is that, for the most part, the Latinos who will serve in Congress have nothing to do with those who supported Obama or the immigration reform.
From the election onward, the Americas, so closely interrelated, run the risk of suffering a serious breakdown in their immediate future. The Republican Party is winning more and more Latino votes, and the Democratic Party is losing its ability to relate to the Hispanic community — just when senators and members of Congress are no longer those led by solidarity and their minority, but those who follow a exclusionist policy similar to the one defended by Republicans. All of this is taking place when tens of thousands of children are coming to the U.S. to try to reunite with their parents.
I do not know who invented the business of drug trafficking, but I do know what maintains it — the gigantic U.S. market — and I know who invented immigration policy: the U.S., after losing its wars and receiving soldiers and guerrilla fighters who had lost their country into its territory.
As such, the streets of New York and West Coast cities filled with Vietnamese fleeing Saigon, together with American ex-marines. The suburbs of Los Angeles house the old freedom fighters from Central American armies, where the East and the West fought in the middle of Nicaraguan poverty, Honduran need and Dominican brutality.
Mexico is an exceptional case. Mexico is part of the heart and lungs of the U.S., with more than 30 million people, between legal and illegal immigrants, who left their mothers’ wombs and arrived on the back of La Bestia. The connection is so strong that no president from the northern giant of the Americas can remain neutral. For this reason, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, during his journey to California, the first U.S. state he visited officially, spoke about only one really important bilateral matter: Affirming that not passing immigration reform is a total injustice.
The day will come when, if there is no process of reintegration and rediscovery of the Americas, the Seventh Fleet will not have to go to the Near East, but to Los Angeles to maintain order.
There has been a breakdown, the political and social consequences of which are yet to be seen. In the November election, Latino candidates entering Congress will not be as representative of their race — in the sense of defending its cause — but will have been chosen to defend closing the border and rejecting integration.
Undoubtedly, relations between the Americas will be very different. Not only because the second world power, China, is lying in wait, taking advantage of every opportunity to expand its network, but because something very important has been broken: the very meaning of Pan-American identity in the 21st century.
As the first African-American president, Obama could have healed the wounds of segregation. He was not able to do so. He is not entirely to blame, but neither can his merit be praised. Through his failures and failed policies, the Democratic president is bringing Republicans to power—with no need of the tea party—by losing the support of the Latino population.
Within the U.S., dividing lines are tacitly forming, marked by the use of Spanish and the feigned attempt to resolve the problem of the 11 million undocumented workers doing the jobs that Americans do not want. The midterm election in November will redefine Obama’s historic legacy, burdened by the failure of his health care reform and his logic-defying inability to pass immigration reform — something that will worsen his disconnection with minorities and lose voters.
This year, in the 113th Congress, the Hispanic caucus was the largest in its history. There are 31 representatives, and their number will increase at the next election. The tragedy is that, for the most part, the Latinos who will serve in Congress have nothing to do with those who supported Obama or the immigration reform.
From the election onward, the Americas, so closely interrelated, run the risk of suffering a serious breakdown in their immediate future. The Republican Party is winning more and more Latino votes, and the Democratic Party is losing its ability to relate to the Hispanic community — just when senators and members of Congress are no longer those led by solidarity and their minority, but those who follow a exclusionist policy similar to the one defended by Republicans. All of this is taking place when tens of thousands of children are coming to the U.S. to try to reunite with their parents.
I do not know who invented the business of drug trafficking, but I do know what maintains it — the gigantic U.S. market — and I know who invented immigration policy: the U.S., after losing its wars and receiving soldiers and guerrilla fighters who had lost their country into its territory.
As such, the streets of New York and West Coast cities filled with Vietnamese fleeing Saigon, together with American ex-marines. The suburbs of Los Angeles house the old freedom fighters from Central American armies, where the East and the West fought in the middle of Nicaraguan poverty, Honduran need and Dominican brutality.
Mexico is an exceptional case. Mexico is part of the heart and lungs of the U.S., with more than 30 million people, between legal and illegal immigrants, who left their mothers’ wombs and arrived on the back of La Bestia. The connection is so strong that no president from the northern giant of the Americas can remain neutral. For this reason, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, during his journey to California, the first U.S. state he visited officially, spoke about only one really important bilateral matter: Affirming that not passing immigration reform is a total injustice.
The day will come when, if there is no process of reintegration and rediscovery of the Americas, the Seventh Fleet will not have to go to the Near East, but to Los Angeles to maintain order.
There has been a breakdown, the political and social consequences of which are yet to be seen. In the November election, Latino candidates entering Congress will not be as representative of their race — in the sense of defending its cause — but will have been chosen to defend closing the border and rejecting integration.
Undoubtedly, relations between the Americas will be very different. Not only because the second world power, China, is lying in wait, taking advantage of every opportunity to expand its network, but because something very important has been broken: the very meaning of Pan-American identity in the 21st century.