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Some Latino Protesters Support 'Reconquista' Of The Southwest
BY BRIAN MITCHELL

INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY

Posted 4/10/2006

The true colors of many Latinos have been on display in the past week of protests, and they weren't just red, white and blue.

They were also red, white and green (Mexico), yellow, blue and red (Ecuador), red, yellow and green (Bolivia), blue and white (El Salvador, Guatemala) and red, white, blue and black (Anahuac).

Ana who?

Anahuac is the name for North America preferred by the Mexica Movement, one of several Hispanic separatist groups that loudly proclaim their hatred of "white" America.

The groups are small, but their younger members often go on to become mainstream Hispanic activists, never laying aside their allegiance to "La Raza."

"There is a racial aspect to this," said Glynn Custred, professor of anthropology at California State University, East Bay.

"They have no intention of assimilating," he said. "There's no secret about it. They tell you what they want to do. It's just amazing to me that the rest of the country hasn't caught on to it."

The major players in the Hispanic lobby deny any racist motives.

"The word 'La Raza,' as it's used in our name, is more about — you know — the human race," said Flavia Jimenez, immigration policy analyst with the National Council of La Raza.

Whether someone identifies with La Raza is "more an issue of language, and cultural and ethnic background," she said.

But where race leaves off and ethnicity begins is not always clear. What is clear is that some Hispanics see themselves as part of a separate nation with a better claim on U.S. territory than whites.

The Mexica movement claims Olmec ancestry and aims to take back the continent from "racist thieving" Europeans on behalf of the "Nican Tlaca," or indigenous people.

Mexicas resist all European labels such as Latino, Chicano, Hispanic, Mestizo and American. At the March 25 rally in Los Angeles, they carried banners declaring, "All Europeans are illegal aliens" and "We are Indigenous — the ONLY owners of this continent."

Conservative blogs and talk radio jumped on those marchers' anti-American sentiments.

Hard To Assimilate Separatists

Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies says such rhetoric makes it harder for Mexican-Americans to assimilate.

"That radical rhetoric is mainstreamed," he said. "It doesn't mean that everybody shares it. It means that it's a legitimate part of the debate."

Closer to the mainstream is the Aztlan movement, which claims Aztec and Spanish ancestry and wants only the western half of the U.S. for "La Raza de Bronze."

A leading Aztlan group is the Chicano Student Movement of Aztlan, known by its Spanish acronym MEChA.

Like many other Hispanic groups, MEChA came out of the "Brown Power" movement of the late '60s. Its founding motto was, "For those in the race, everything. For those outside the race, nothing."

Many of California's leading Hispanic politicians were "Mechistas" in college, including Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and former Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante.

Bustamante's refusal to condemn MEChA contributed to his defeat by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 2003 gubernatorial race.

As a student group, MEChA tends to be dominated by immigrants' children and descendants, not immigrants themselves.

But the views of most Mexicans aren't far away from MEChA's.

A 2002 Zogby poll of Mexicans in Mexico found that 58% believe the U.S. Southwest rightfully belongs to Mexico, having been stolen from Mexico in the 1800s.

Not surprisingly, 57% believe Mexicans have the right to enter the U.S. whenever they please.

"There's sort of an irredentist sentiment," said George Grayson, professor of government and Mexico specialist at the College of William and Mary.

"One seldom hears even educated Mexicans saying the laws on border crossing should be followed," he said. "It's almost as if the U.S. has an obligation to redress its sins of the nineteenth century."