List reproduces quotes from various Hispanic leaders and newspaper articles regarding U.S. immigrants.
With immigration reform being one of the hot-button political issues in the U.S. in early 2006, the above-quoted collection of quotes from various Hispanic leaders and newspaper articles regarding U.S. immigrants started circulating widely on the Internet. Even though the issue was timely, this collection was actually compiled several years earlier and references statements made by Californians during 1990 (when immigration reform was also a hot-button political issue in California due to the controversial Proposition 187 ballot measure). Audio clips of many of the quotes reproduced above were collected on a CD offered by for sale by the California Coalition for Immigration Reform (CCIR), and we include a link to the relevant clip after the discussion of each item below:'Go back to Boston! Go back to Plymouth Rock, Pilgrims! Get out! We are the future. You are old and tired. Go on. We have beaten you. Leave like beaten rats. You old white people. It is your duty to die ... Through love of having children, we are going to take over.'This an excerpt from a statement by Augustin Cebada of the Brown Berets de Aztlán, a paramilitary offshoot of the Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán (MEChA), delivered during a Fourth of July rally held outside the Federal Building in Westwood, California, in 1996:We're here today to show L.A., show the minority people here, the Anglo-Saxons, that we are here, the majority, we're here to stay. We do the work in this city, we take care of the spoiled brat children, we clean their offices, we pick the food, we do the manufacturing in the factories of L.A., we are the majority here, and we are not going to be pushed around. We're here in Westwood, this is the fourth time we've been here in the last two months, to show white Anglo-Saxon Protestant L.A., the few of you who remain, that we are the majority, and we claim this land as ours, it's always been ours, and we're still here, and uh, none of this talk about deporting. If anybody's going to be deported it's going to be you. [SHOUTING] Go back to Simi Valley, you skunks! Go back to Woodland Hills! Go back to Boston! Go back to the Plymouth Rock, Pilgrims! Get out! We are the future. You're old and tired. Go on. We have beaten you; leave like beaten rats. You old white people, it is your duty to die. Even their own ethicists say that they should die; that they have a duty to die. They're taking up too much space, too much air. We are the majority in L.A. There's over seven million Mexicans in L.A. County alone. We are the majority. And you're going to see every day more and more of it, as we ... we manifest as our young people grow up, graduate from high school, go on to college and start taking over this society. Our people ... are ... the vast majority of our people are under the age of 15 years old. Right now we're already controlling those elections, whether it's through violence or nonviolence. Through love of having children we are gonna take over.[Audio link]'They're afraid we're going to take over the governmental institutions and other institutions. They're right. We will take them over ... We are here to stay.'This is an excerpt from a statement made by Richard Alatorre (then a member of the Los Angeles City Council) at a Latino summit conference in Los Angeles in September 1996, about the upcoming Proposition 209 ballot measure, which sought to prohibit governmental agencies in California from 'discriminating against or giving preferential treatment to any individual or group in public employment ... on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin' (also known as the 'end of affirmative action' proposition):Because our numbers are growing, they're afraid about this great mass of minorities that now live in our community. They're afraid that we're going to take over the governmental institutions and other institutions. They are right, we will take them over, and we are not going to go away - we are here to stay, and we are saying 'ya basta' (enough!) and we are going to turn ... and uh, de ... not elect or re-elect people that believe that they are going to advance their political careers on the backs of immigrants and the backs of minorities.[Audio link](NOTES: Richard Alatorre served in the California State Assembly from 1973 to 1985 and was a member of the Los Angeles City Council from 1985 to 1999. He was twice fined for violating conflict of interest provisions while a council member, and in 2001 he agreed to plead guilty to a federal criminal charge of felony tax evasion, admitting that 'he failed to report to the Internal Revenue Service nearly $42,000 in cash he received from individuals attempting to influence [him] in his official duties.' Proposition 209 was passed by 54% of California voters in November 1996.)'The American southwest seems to be slowly returning to the jurisdiction of Mexico without firing a single shot.'We haven't been able to verify this quote (or find the context) for this statement purportedly taken from Excélsior, a Mexico City newspaper.'We have an aging white America. They are not making babies. They are dying. The explosion is in our population ... I love it. They are shitting in their pants with fear. I love it.'This is an excerpt from a statement by José Angel Gutiérrez, then an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Texas at Arlington (and a former leader of the La Raza Unida political party) at a Latino conference held at the University of California, Riverside on 14 January 1995, regarding the effects of California's recently-passed Proposition 187 ballot measure (which sought to bar illegal immigrants from public education and other social services provided by the state):The border remains a military zone. We remain a hunted people. Now you think you have a destiny to fulfill in this land that historically has been ours for forty thousand years, and we're a new Mestizo nation. And they want us to discuss civil rights. Civil rights! What law made by white men to oppress all of us of color, female and male! This is our homeland. We cannot, we will not, and we must not be made illegal in our own homeland. We are not im-mi-grants that came from another country to another country; we are migrants, free to travel the length and breadth of the Americas because we belong here. We are millions. We just have to survive. We have an aging white America. They are not making babies. They are dying. It's a matter of time. [laughter] The explosion is in our population.[Audio link](NOTE: We haven't been able to verify the last portion of Professor Gutiérrez's statement, about white America 'shitting in their pants with fear,' as it does not appear in the audio clip provided. The constitutionality of Proposition 187 was challenged within days of its passage, and most of its provisions were eventually voided.)'Remember 187 (proposition to deny taxpayer funds for services to non-citizens) was the last gasp of white America in California.'This is a sentence taken from a statement given by Art Torres, a former California State Assembly member and State Senator, at the UC Riverside conference referenced above:It is an honor to be with the new leadership of the Americas, here meeting at UC Riverside. So with 187 on the ballot, what is it going to take for our people to vote, to see us walking into the gas ovens? It is electoral power that is going to make the determination of where we go as a community. And power is not given to you; you have to take it. Remember: 187 is the last gasp of white America in California. Understand that. And people say to me on the Senate floor when I was in the Senate, 'Why do you fight so hard for affirmative action programs?' And I tell my white colleagues, 'because you're going to need them' [laughter].[Audio link](NOTE: A month after making this statement, Art Torres was appointed Chairman of the California Democratic Party, a position he held until 2009.)'We are politicizing every single one of these new citizens that are becoming citizens of this country ... I gotta tell you that a lot of people are saying, 'I'm going to go out there and vote because I want to pay them back.''This is an excerpt from a statement made by Gloria Molina, a Los Angeles County Supervisor, at a Southwest Voter Registration Project (SVREP) rally in June 1996:Tonight Latinos across this country are coming together and they are shouting one thing: we are united. And we are united because we want to demand the kind of political respect that we should have. We demand to be counted. And what we know as well is that the big giant that they keep talking about is awakening. And he's pretty angry about what's going on. Ya basta! (enough). This community is no longer going to stand for it. Because tonight we are organizing across this country in a single mission, in a plan. We are going to organize like we've never organized before. We are going to go into our neighborhoods. We are going to register voters. We are going to talk to all of those young people that need to become registered voters and go out to vote, and we are politicizing every single one of those new citizens that are becoming citizens of this country. And, what we are saying is by November we will have one million additional Latino voters in this country, and we're gonna march ... and our vote is going to be important. But I gotta tell you, there's a lot of people that are saying, 'I'm gonna go out there and vote because I want to pay them back!' And this November, we are going to remember those that stood with us and we are also going to remember those that have stood against us on the issues of immigration, on the issues of education, on the issues of health care, on the issues of the minimum wage.[Audio link]'California is going to be a Hispanic state. Anyone who doesn't like it should leave.'Mario Obledo was a co-founder of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF) and the La Raza Lawyers of California bar association, and he formerly served as California's Secretary of Health and Welfare. We don't know exactly when and where he first made his controversial statement about California's becoming a 'Hispanic state,' but he has confirmed he said it at least twice: during an appearance on Ray Briem's talk radio show in May or June of 1998, and again on Tom Leykis' talk radio show:Obledo: 'We're going to take over all the political institutions of California. In five years the Hispanics are going to be the majority population of this state.' Caller: 'You also made the statement that California is going to become a Hispanic state, and if anyone doesn't like it, they should leave. Did you say that?' Obledo: 'I did. They ought to go back to Europe.''We are practicing 'La Reconquista' in California.''La Reconquista' (Spanish for 'the reconquest') is a term that has historically been applied to the process whereby Christians recaptured rule over the Iberian Peninsula from Muslims between 718 and 1492. The term's appearance in the quote above reflects a modern political usage that refers to the retaking of portions of the U.S. Southwest that were once part of Mexico.The above-quoted sentence is attributed to José Pescador Osuna, the Mexican consul general in Los Angeles. We haven't been able to verify when and in what context he supposedly said it, but it is widely cited as the end portion of a statement he made in 1998: 'Even though I'm saying this part serious and part joking, I believe we are practicing 'La Reconquista' in California.''We need to avoid a white backlash by using codes understood by Latinos.'This sentence is attributed to Fernando J. Guerra, Ph.D, an Associate Professor in the Department of Chicano Studies and Political Science at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. We haven't been able to verify when and in what context he supposedly said it, other than to note that the words are part of a longer statement also widely attributed to him: 'We need to avoid a white backlash by using codes understood by Latinos ... non-Latinos aren't watching; they aren't raising questions.'On February 15, 1998, the U.S. and Mexican soccer teams met at the Los Angeles Coliseum. The crowd was overwhelmingly pro-Mexican even though most lived in this country. They booed during the National Anthem and U.S. flags were held upside down. As the match progressed, supporters of the U.S. team were insulted, pelted with projectiles, punched and spat upon. Beer and trash were thrown at the U.S. players before and after the match. The coach of the U.S. team, Steve Sampson said, 'This was the most painful experience I have ever had in this profession.'On 15 February 1998, Mexico's national soccer team scored a 1-0 victory over the United States team in the CONCACAF Gold Cup championship game before a crowd of 91,255 at the Los Angeles Coliseum. News accounts of the match noted that some of the large number of fans who turned out to root for the Mexican team whistled during the playing of the U.S. national anthem, booed the U.S. team, and threw debris at U.S. players:The pro-Mexican throng that filled the entire Coliseum - including areas without seats because of construction - booed the Americans and showered them with debris on several occasions. 'It seemed like we were playing in Mexico City,' said U.S. forward Preki, a native of Yugoslavia who gained his U.S. citizenship Oct. 25, 1996. 'When we played down there in Mexico City, the crowd wasn't as bad as it was here. I think that was a shame. 'When they were playing the United States (national) anthem, all these people were whistling (the international version of booing). I assume all these people are living in the states. I think they should respect the national anthem. 'Did you know that Mexico has NEVER extradited a Mexican national accused of murder in the U.S. in spite of agreements to do so?This absolute is not true. In December 2005, the Mexican government extradited Raul Gomez García to the U.S. to stand trial in Colorado for the murder of Denver Police Officer Donald Young and the attempted murder of Officer John Bishop.According to a New York Times article dated May 19, 1994, 20 years after the great influx of legal immigrants from Southeast Asia, 30% are still on welfare compared to 8% of households nationwide.The original piece skips a gear here, as the preceding statement refers to immigration from Southeast Asia, not Mexico: This information was indeed taken from the beginning of a front-page 19 May 1994 New York Times article about the welfare dependency of immigrants to the U.S. from Southeast Asia:Nearly 20 years after the end of the war in Southeast Asia brought thousands of Cambodians, Laotians and Vietnamese refugees to this country, many still languish in poverty, giving Southeast Asians the highest rate of welfare dependency of any racial or ethnic group. More than 30 percent of all Southeast Asian households in the nation now depend on welfare for survival, according to a report on the economic diversity of Asian-Americans released Wednesday in Washington. Among some groups, like Cambodians and Laotians in California, the percentage of those on welfare reaches 77 percent. Nationwide, only 8 percent of households received public assistance in 1991. Still, Southeast Asians account for a small fraction of the welfare budget. Of the one million here, about 300,000 receive public aid, making up about 2 percent of the total welfare population. In addition to highlighting the poverty of Southeast Asians here, the report seeks to add depth to the nation's often two-dimensional picture of Asian-Americans, who are the fastest-growing segment of the population. Their numbers have risen from 1.4 million in 1960 to more than 7 million in 1990, or 3 percent of nation's total.A Wall Street Journal editorial dated December 5, 1994 quotes law enforcement officials as stating that Asian mobsters are the 'greatest criminal challenge the country faces.' Not bad for a group that is still under 5% of the population.The previous statement also references Asian immigrants and appeared in a 5 December 1994 Wall Street Journal editorial about the growth of Asian criminal gangs:Triads, Asia's famous criminal gangs, may always be with us, but right now they seem to be posing special worries for the world's crime busters. With China opening up, gangs from Hong Kong and Taiwan are re-establishing themselves on the mainland. In turn, these gangs are largely responsible for directing a massive illegal emigration of Chinese citizens to every corner of the globe. Technology and the seamlessness of the global economy seem to give these crime groups a power and impunity that they never had before. The potential is alarming, as was made clear by speakers at the recent meeting of top law officers from around the world in Naples. Now even Beijing's Justice Minister Xiao Yang is decrying the triads as a threat to the mainland's 'social stability.' In the U.S., law enforcement officials have started calling Asian mobsters the greatest criminal challenge the country faces. Taiwanese gangs, such as United Bamboo and the Four Seas Gang, are believed to mastermind the flow of refined heroin into America and other Western countries. 'Operation Dry Dock,' a U.S.-mounted sting, revealed that Taiwanese crooks were also behind the world-wide, $3.5 billion-a-year business of smuggling people out of the mainland. Even Moscow now has an estimated 50,000 illegal Chinese residents.(As noted in the New York Times piece cited above, in 1990 Asian-Americans comprised about 3% of the total U.S. population.)
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