http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/opinion/15479298.htm

Posted on Sun, Sep. 10, 2006

Waving one banner in the nation of another

By David Sedeño
Star-Telegram Staff Writer



During the spring, it evoked outrage among many Americans who felt that its use was a snub to the United States, the land of freedom and opportunity.

It will be waved again and again next weekend and probably many times more in the next month.

Yet in the shadow of the 9-11 commemorations and in the midst of the stalled immigration legislation and the anti-immigrant city ordinance in Farmers Branch, there will be few, if any, protests because of its use.

It is the Mexican flag, and its wide use during the first immigration reform protests in the spring sparked name-calling, letters to the editor and numerous calls to radio talk shows. The question at the time: How could anyone wanting to be a real American wrap themselves in the symbol of another country?

Flags have been important in this country's history.

U.S. flags flying at ground zero brought a country together five years ago this week, as did the raising of Old Glory by battle-weary but determined troops on Iwo Jima's Mount Suribachi during World War II. And it's the image of the tattered Stars & Stripes flying proudly after the Battle of Baltimore in the War of 1812 that unites us every time we sing The Star-Spangled Banner.

On Friday, however, Mexican immigrants and Mexican-Americans nationwide will kick off Mexican Independence Day, waving a Mexican flag. Should Americans be outraged by anyone waving a Mexican flag or that of any Spanish-speaking country during Hispanic Heritage Month? Can they ever be real Americans?

Are they any different from those carrying the Irish flag during St. Patrick's Day parades in New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Dallas or other cities?

It seems that the sentence "we are a nation of immigrants" has become a near-irrelevant cliché during the immigrant reform debate. Yet Mexican immigrants, as we know, are only the latest group to feel a harsh anti-immigrant backlash, despite the rich Mexican culture and history that has permeated the fabric of this country.

For the record: Mexican Independence Day is called Dieciséis de Septiembre, and its celebration in the United States also is known as Las Fiestas Patrias. During the days of blatant discrimination and racism, this festival was one on which Mexican immigrants and Mexican-Americans felt comfortable to celebrate freely their culture and heritage.

The celebrations commemorate the events that began on Sept. 15, 1810, in the town of Dolores, Guanajuato. Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, a radical Mexican priest, rang a bell as a rallying cry for Mexicans to rise up and declare their independence from Spain. The following day -- Sept. 16, or Dieciséis de Septiembre -- was recognized as Independence Day as the movement spread across the countryside. Hidalgo, who was executed a few months later, remains the icon of Mexico's independence.

Events honoring Mexico's independence have been celebrated in Texas for more than 150 years, hardly an oddity, given that this state and others in the Southwest were once Mexican territories.

In modern times, as demographics have shifted nationwide, such events have grown in number -- some as small neighborhood celebrations, with others becoming multiday festivals. Others are entrepreneurial ventures that capture some of that ever-increasing purchasing power.

So as the summer passed and the images of those immigration reform protests faded, I found myself at the home of my deceased parents in San Angelo, going through (as co-executor of their estate) an old suitcase filled with family mementos.

My father fled the Mexican Revolution in 1917 as a teenager. For about 30 years in the middle of the last century, he brought tens of thousands of Mexican immigrants and Mexican-Americans together in San Angelo to celebrate Mexican Independence Day.

In the suitcase, I found letters from college presidents, mayors, state senators, Mexican consuls and one from a sitting Mexican president congratulating my father -- a Mexican citizen and a legal U.S. resident -- for his patriotic efforts. I also found photos of the festivities and related newspaper clippings dating back 40 years.

But what I also discovered was, perhaps, my father's most vivid tribute to patriotism: a tattered but neatly folded Mexican flag, a yellowing U.S. flag folded into a triangle, and Vietnam-era photos of my two older brothers in their U.S. Army uniforms.

And deep within a side pocket, I finally found what I had always considered folklore: my father's very own World War II draft card. He was never called, but he had often said that he was willing to serve.

So, yes, it is possible to respect one flag that honors your family's heritage while pledging allegiance to another for the freedom that it symbolizes.

On Sept. 15, I'll wave both of them.


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David Sedeño is a member of the Star-Telegram's Editorial Board and publisher of Diario La Estrella. 817-390-7322 dsedeno@star-telegram.com