Tampa Tribune

La Reconquista — the politics of ethnic conflict

Many Mexican immigrants, legal or otherwise, see themselves as part of a process of retaking the United States that once was a part of Mexico. Recent Mexican law permits dual citizenship which tacitly supports this notion.

This objective is aptly described by Jose Ramos, anchorman since 1986 on Noticieros, a Miami news program on Univision cable network, also seen in Mexico and 13 other Latin-American countries.

This guy is the real deal, having the stature of Walter Cronkite, although not a U.S. citizen and one of the 10 most admired Latinos in the U.S. — a graduate of the University of Miami — my alma mater. Ramos accurately observes, “Latinos have achieved the feat of integration economically to the U.S. without losing their culture.”

While all other immigrants have assimilated, he says, “The idea of a melting pot is a myth.” He makes no bones about supporting La Reconquista, saying … “the United States is undergoing a true demographic revolution. Some call it La Reconquista. The same territories that Mexico lost to the United States in 1848 — Arizona, Texas, California … others … such as Florida and Illinois — are experiencing a genuine cultural invasion …”

“Reconquista” means the reconquest and refers to the centuries-long struggle by Spaniards to reclaim Spain from Moorish Muslims. But now it refers to the Mexican-American War of 1846-48. The irony is many of today’s overseas Muslims believe that because of their fertility, Europe will also undergo a slow but steady demographic Islamic revolution.

And then there’s “La Raza Unida,” meaning literally, “The United Race,” which, like so many radical movements, started in the ’60s with activist Chicanos who believed they were victimized by a racist power structure that has oppressed Mexican-Americans since the Mexican-American War.

This is now a moribund third-party movement subsumed by the Democrats who tap into ethnic passion with identity politics. Yet it remains a strong social protest movement. Its founder, Jose Angel Gutierrez, University of Texas professor, supports open borders, amnesty; and in the late ’60s said, “We have got to eliminate the gringo … if worst comes to worst, we have got to kill him.” On a lighter note, in 1999, he observed less stridently, “We have the critical mass … We have the means now to take government and to lead.”…

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