Thread: Kansans shudder, scoff at 'reconquista'

http://www.hutchnews.com/news/regional/ ... 1306.shtml

Kansans shudder, scoff at 'reconquista'


Whispers of effort by Hispanics to take over parts of U.S. has some worried, others chuckling


By Tim Vandenack

The Hutchinson News


tvandenack@hutchnews.com

The influx of Hispanic newcomers to southwest Kansas, most of them Mexicans and Mexican-Americans, frequently makes Evelyn Fulton wonder, somewhat darkly, what the future holds.


"I truly believe if we aren't careful, they're going to take us all over and we're just going to be standing there (thinking), 'What happened?' " the longtime Dodge City resident said.

Ninety miles away in Liberal, similar thoughts sometimes cross Candy Brock's mind. She's a stay-at-home mom now, but the former Liberal High School history teacher recalls talk among the heavily Hispanic student body of a "quiet revolution," a supposed effort by undocumented Latinos to somehow wrest control of swaths of the United States.

"I just did kind of blow it off," she said, recalling her attitude at the time. "(Now) I just wonder if they weren't letting me in on something that was true."

As the Hispanic population in southwest Kansas and the rest of the country surges - some legal, others undocumented - some Anglos here wonder what is becoming of their communities. This rural corner, once overwhelmingly Anglo, has seen a tremendous increase in its Hispanic population since the 1980s, largely through the growth of the meatpacking industry.

In fact, peek below the surface, and some speak of a "reconquista," that is, some sort of reconquest of parts of the United States - vast stretches of which once were in Mexican hands - by illegal immigrants from south of the border.

Immigrants here and many others scoff at such talk.

"Those who come, come to work. They aren't coming to conquer," said Rene Orpinel, a meatpacker who came to Dodge City 10 years ago from the Mexican state of Chihuahua searching for a better life. "That's out of question, that's preposterous."

Says Don Stull, a University of Kansas anthropologist who has studied southwest Kansas' changing demographics, says the reconquest idea is "worth a chuckle, maybe a raised eyebrow. But I don't put a lot of stock in it."

Still, with the number of illegal immigrants on U.S. soil estimated at 11 million to 12 million, whispering persists.

Fulton and Brock speak of a new political and social order here in years to come, still within the existing U.S. framework, in which Latinos hold sway. Despite the large numbers of Hispanics in southwest Kansas, Anglos still hold the vast majority of elective posts in the zone.

"They're going to take us over so slowly we may not even hear the gun go off," said Fulton, a human resources officer at a Dodge City manufacturer.

Minuteman Project founder Jim Gilchrist - in the book "Minuteman: The Battle to Secure America's Borders," co-written with Jerome Corsi and released last month - goes further. The Minuteman Project seeks stricter controls on the U.S.-Mexico border and posts members there to deter illegal crossings.

"The goal is for illegal aliens to get citizenship for themselves and their children so that they can eventually vote to return to Mexico large sections of the American southwest," Gilchrist and Corsi write.

The two point to activities of the "radical left," particularly two U.S. groups that hearken back to the indigenous population that roamed what is now northern Mexico and the U.S. Southwest.

SW Kansas in Mexico

Almost 200 years ago, from 1821 to 1836, what now is southwest Kansas belonged to Mexico, specifically the portion south of the Arkansas River and west of the 100th meridian, which runs north and south through eastern Ford County.

"If you were at (what is now) Garden City, as soon as you crossed the river south, you were in New Spain," Kansas State University historian Jim Sherow said.

Spain controlled the Kansas swath until recognizing Mexico's independence in 1821, when the territory fell to the new nation.

Now, of course, that piece of real estate flies under the U.S. flag, along with California, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas and parts of other states that belonged to Mexico before Texas' independence and the Mexican-American War.

Nonetheless, Sherow notes that for some, the current U.S.-Mexico border can be somewhat artificial.

"In terms of economics and family structure, that border may as well not be there," he said, alluding to border residents with ties on both sides.

Charles Truxillo, a University of New Mexico Chicano studies faculty member, takes that notion a step further and theorizes about the emergence of a brand new nation in decades to come that is made of the United States, Southwest and northern Mexico. He calls it "La Republica a del Norte," or the Republic of the North, and cites the distinctive traits of the Mexicans and Mexican-Americans on the two sides as a spur to its birth.

Still, historical ties notwithstanding, others remain skeptical that revolution is on the way.

Stull said research still maintains that the children and grandchildren of immigrants typically speak unaccented English and feel more of a connection with the United States than their ancestral nation. He suggests concerns among natives "that their world is being transformed in ways they can't control" might be at play in the debate.

Jose Sanchez, meanwhile, a naturalized U.S. citizen from the Mexican state of Michoacan, attributes talk of a reconquest to fear-mongering, ignorance even. Sanchez, who notes that his Anglo friends visit Mexico more than he does, works as an accountant at a Dodge City meatpacker.

"You become Americanized," he said, referring to the typical transition for many immigrants here. "You see all the benefits of living in this country and understand all the negatives of the country and government you came from."


08/13/2006; 02:34:26 AM

"They're going to take us over so slowly we may not even hear the gun go off," said Fulton, a human resources officer at a Dodge City manufacturer.

That's why we need to shine the light of truth on their plans. I don't think there's a grand plot to conquer our country, but I do think that the illegal aliens are trying to reshape our country, in their image. If we allow the influx of illegals to continue, that's exactly what will happen. That's why it's important that we continue our fight to secure our borders and enforce our laws.