We used to be friends.

I can't sleep (not a shock) so I'm watching c-span (big shocker). At first I was just surprised by how calmly and reasonably the senate debate was going. But then Sen. Edward Kennedy came on and the entire thing became easily the best thing on tv, because a) I think he's sauced (he's all red and slurring) and b) he totally owned another Senator yelling at him which pretty much scared everyone in the room but gave me a giant boner. It was awesome. You can watch it here (its Senate Judiciary Full Committee Markup - Afternoon Session and the part I'm referring to starts at 1:59:17ish). Even if you don't watch it, just know that it was awesome.

This whole H.R.4437 immigration debate thing caught me off guard, until the protest in LA woke me up to it (you can read a great first person account here or msn's account here). As someone who's an immigrant I of course have a ton to say on it (plus its my blog and I rant about dumber things than this all the time), but I'd like to read the damn thing before ripping it apart (although lets be honest I'll probably just rip it apart either way).

To get my head around it though I've been glancing at various stuff on the blogs about it and this particular post caught my eye. This is the first time I've come across this particular blog, but his comments on "la reconquista" made me so irrationally angry in the way few things do that I knew I had to comment on it. Ok, first "reconquista" refers to this idea that is floated around (typically after heavy drinking) that Mexico/Mexicans needs to reconquer parts of the US that were once Mexico. This guy is making the argument that this is a real threat that no one is talking about and that's why "we" need to do something (he doesn't specify what) about immigrants who have no interest in assimilating. Yea. I have a huge list of problems with his logic, but for now I'm just going to focus on this little jewel:

That "demographic transformation" is almost here and it is unstoppable. Much higher birthrates among Mexican immigrant women means that by 2050, there will be more than 100 million Hispanics in the US comprising more than a quarter of our population. The current trend has more than 40% of Hispanics in the US living in California alone. That would mean more than 40 million Hispanics in California, the overwhelming number of them from Mexico, who would be a formidable bloc if Mexican irredentism becomes a truly mainstream goal.- Rick Moran

Oh how do I put this? Ok first Hispanic does not equal Mexican. Not by any stretch of the imagination. That's part number one. The second part may come to a shock to those who are not Hispanic/Latino/Chicano/whatever, so I'll do my best to break this down. This conveniently labeled clump of "Hispanics" don't self-identify as Hispanic. If you ask they'll say they're Puerto Rican/Mexican/Latin American/Salvadorian etc. Beyond that though (and this is the shocker) we don't all get along. At all. In the slightest. Each country has its own set of irrational (and rational) reasons for bias (and sometimes hatred) towards on another.

To get your head around this time just try to think of the nasty stereotypes you have about the South or the North or the Amish (ok thats just me), and then just apply that to an entire continent of people. Mostly because whenever you're trying to talk about Hispanics you're talking about a hugely diverse group that runs from white and red headed to black to every permutation in between, rich to poor, catholic to atheists, educated to non-educated. We don't all even speak the same language (yes, most speak Spanish but there are tons of indigenous populations that don't), and even those of us who do speak Spanish have completly different dialects and vocabularies to the point where even those of us that are fluent can have a hell of time trying to understand someone from another country. Blah. My point is that "we" can all barely agree on the correct way to speak Spanish (although clearly the Spaniards are doing it completly wrong) so I can assure you that there are no super secret meetings on reconquering Texas and California. Although if there are can someone foward me the memo? Thanks.

And thats that. I'll finish tackling this thing later.