| Written by Maria Elena Salinas |
| Monday, January 21 2002 |
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| I was minding my own business, watching CNN and having my afternoon snack, when I heard Pat Buchanan tell me that I am not a true American. Pat Buchanan is on the road again. Fortunately, he's not running for anything, he's just trying to sell books and spread his venomous rhetoric against just about anyone who does not fall into his definition of a true American. According to Buchanan, American culture is in danger of disappearing.
Every nation in the world wants to protect its national identity and preserve its culture. But Buchanan's message of national unity is jaded by his distorted views of American reality and his divisive attacks. In his new book, "The Death of the West," he blames immigrants for the demise of the American culture, yet he himself is of Irish descent. He says immigrants of the past were different - they came here to work, become Americans and be assimilated. Well, most recent immigrants are also here to work and would like to have the opportunity to become citizens and be assimilated into American society. But assimilation doesn't mean leaving behind your culture, traditions or language while embracing new ones. As President John F. Kennedy said, "This is the secret of America: a nation of people with the fresh memory of old traditions who dare to explore new frontiers."
Buchanan is especially anti-Mexican. He accuses the Mexican government of exporting its poor and unemployed. Well, the Mexican government is not in the business of exporting human cargo. If there are poor and unemployed Mexicans in the United States, as well as immigrants from many other countries around the world, they are not much different from the first European immigrants who came here in search of economic opportunities and political freedom. "They call us racist for wanting to defend our national security," Buchanan said on CNN. The real threats to our national security are terrorists who come to this country legally, and home-grown ogres like Timothy McVeigh, motivated by white-supremacist rhetoric.
Another of Buchanan's complaints is that these immigrants speak Spanish, listen to Spanish radio and watch Spanish television. I happen to be a bilingual, bicultural American, born and raised in California. I work for Spanish-language television and radio, in addition to writing a bilingual column. Just a few days ago, I stood on the podium of the New York Stock Exchange ringing the closing bell as my employer, Univision, launched its second Spanish-language network, Telefutura. It was "Telefutura day" in the state of New York and in several major cities around the country. That is the American experience. It must have been an awful day for Buchanan.
Buchanan describes American culture as having the same heroes, the same traditions, the same history and speaking the same language. I seriously doubt that Buchanan and I can have all the same heroes. He has Spanish dictator Francisco Franco on his list of family heroes. My heroes are my parents, Mexican immigrants who came to this country in the 1940s and worked with dignity all their lives. They are my heroes because they taught me the importance of being loyal, respectful and open-minded. They instilled in me a strong work ethic. I especially appreciate that they taught me not only love for the country in which I was born - the United States - but also for the culture of my ancestors. Buchanan and I do not have the same history, and we definitely don't speak the same language - in this case, I'm not talking about English.
Mr. Buchanan, American culture is in no danger of disappearing, and the West is not dying. On the contrary, the West is growing richer every day, thanks to Americans - and yes, even Irish-Americans. |
