Reading the Spanish Press can really make a guy irritable. After seeing these kinds of articles for at least 25 years, I thought the press in Spain would ease up on trying to show the Yanquis in the worst possible light – at least in areas where Spain is facing exactly the same problems as we are, and when Spain and Europe are acting more harshly than we ever have.
An article in El Mundo with the ominous title of, “From ‘Yes We Can’ To The Fear of The Round-ups” is filled with desprecia for evil racist Americans who hate Hispanics, are hunting them in the streets, building fences, and trying to require employers to actually hire legal workers (shocker!), etc.
Taking a page from the playbook of John at Iberian Notes, here are some maddening quotes from the article - with my witty commentary:
"It was an historic harvest in 2006, millions of Hispanos coming out of the shadows to take Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, etc. to the cry of “Yes we can!” Obama took this slogan as his own two years later….."
Hispanos coming out of the shadows? They own Los Angeles! They came out to demonstrate with absolutely no fear of being “rounded up”. In fact, in Los Angeles there is a specific law that the police cannot even ask if you are legal or not, let alone arrest you for being undocumented. And I thought Obama’s slogan was something about change?
"Hispanos have become the invisible minority. Fear of the roundups and of being deported have created a historic withdrawal .... Latinos have disappeared due to pure fear..."
Give me a freaking break! Has this guy ever even stepped foot in the US? If they dropped you in most parts of LA you would think it was Mexico. Everybody is Latino and everything is in Spanish. I’ll tell you where they better have some fear. In Europe they can now throw you in jail for 18 months if you are undocumented. In Italy it’s going to be a crime to not have papers. In France they are bragging about how many they are tossing out of the country.
"There are more than 12 million illegal aliens in the US. Attempts to regulate the situation or to create a legal way out for at least some of them have been a failure in the midst of a climate of complete Hispanophobia created by politicians like ex Republican presidential candidate Tony Tancredo and the ultra right wing Pat Buchanan..”
What a complete exaggeration – Hispanophobia my ass! What the F? Tony who? I swear I don't even know who this guy is. And who cares what Pat Buchanan says – no one! He doesn't even hold an office now. Does anyone remember that Ronald Reagan (an evil Republican) gave amnesty to hundreds of thousands of undocumented workers – my friend Agapito amongst them – like 25 years ago? Yeah, we hate Mexicans! Here in Spain, they love everyone – except the poor bastards in the cayucos.
"Both Obama and McCain are in favor of construction of a third portion of wall between the US and Mexico … both consider this a priority of “national security."
No kidding! How horrible of them! Of course there are no walls between Spain and North Africa. The fact is this is only a tiny length of fence they are talking about. Do you know how hard it would be to actually build any worthwhile fence between the US and Mexico? There is only a decent fence in the areas where the most people cross over.
"The Department of Domestic Security has launched an offensive that resonates like a military operation, "Operation Streamline", it's mission to detain, imprison, and deport immigrants without papers..."If they really did this on a large scale there would be some major complaining going on.. They did it in one town, at one factory.. And even if there are more of these, what the hell else are we supposed to do?
"In New York, the Jesuit Joel Magallan, working with the “Asociacion Tepeyec”, has decided to act first and start a campaign to educate Hispanic children and adolescents. “2009 is going to be the year of immigration reform and we have to be ready. We have to register all young Hispanics so they can vote and fight for their rights.”
Wait a minute. I thought they were hiding in the shadows? They can vote? Of course El Mundo doesn’t remind their readers that anyone born in the US is automatically a citizen. Is this how it is in Spain? I didn't think so.
10 comments:
Cheap low-blood-pressure medicine:
If you ever get a bit light-headed, log on to elmundo.es
Carl, I strongly recommend you to stop reading El Mundo....es un panfleto (how do you say panfleto in English?)
Spanish born children to foreign parents acquire the Spanish nationality after one year of residency. It's not automatic, but almost. This country is changing a lot and very quickly. In 20 years time it will be a very interesting place.
What a bout the US, Carl, what's happening there? You know here in Europe we only get very biased information. Is immigration such a big problem? Is it becoming a true melting pot or is it more of a "stew"? What about the gas prices, is the "suburbia" way of life about to die? Are people suffering because of the crisis?
I have to go to California some day, it sounds like a very interesting place.
But Roberto, aren't all the newspapers in Spain panfletos of one type or another? Is there one single objective newspaper in the country? Don't they all have political agendas?
@Carl, now you can see, once again, why Spaniards like your buddy the security guard have such distorted views about the U.S. They're fed a steady diet of this kind of (mis)information.
Roberto,
I stand corrected once again about about the residency. Yet another thing we have in common.
About the U.S. and the crisis. I'm afraid I've seen several of these crises (Real estate, etc. and even oil).
Of course immigration is a big problem but in my opinion we get along together pretty damn well. Is it a stew? It's a stew, it's a pot, it's a cocido Americano. There's everything. Neighborhoods with all Korean writing on every sign and no English, and Koreans that can't speak a lick of Korean - to give an example.
Suburbia will survive. People like suburbia - even in Spain. Maybe they'll have to get on a bus to go to work. It won't kill them. But some genius will get make our beloved cars run on something other than oil.
Of course you have to go to California. It is quite a place.
And Bilingual, I know all too well about their information. It still drives me nuts.
Clarification on the “crisis” (Spanish description) and oil prices.
It’s not a great thing of course but this has happened before. People have been stupid before and bought more house than they could afford. They have also used home equity money to buy cars and go on vacations before. What happened? They lost their houses. But then other people were able to buy them, etc. Unemployment is still not too bad so I think this should be just another low point in the economy like many others in the past.
The “new” thing is how screwed up the banking/loan system is or isn’t. I don’t really know. I am in a construction related industry and we are still pretty busy to tell you the truth. But that may be because we are in LA. And oil? We now pay $4.00 to $4.50 per gallon. Europe pays $10.00 a gallon and you guys still survive. Maybe we'll save some gas for once.
Carl, ¿trabajas para la CIA?
Abso-fucking-lutely!
Como sabias?
I'm sure this stupid blog is really advancing our nefarious interests. Maybe I'll get a raise.
Well, bilingual blogger, yes, all newspapers in Spain are very subjective. All of them belong to companies that have a private agenda. But, please, name one single country in the world where media are objective and well informed. The US? Ehem,no comment. The BBC is perhaps the closest thing to objectivity you can get, and still it is far from perfect.
"Cocido americano"-Carl, so there's no crisis in America. That's great to know, I really hope you are right. There's no crisis here neither,or at least that's what our beloved president says. To be honest, I think he's not that wrong. There's a contruction crisis, which is bad, but not the end of the world.
The newspapers everywhere do have their own particular agendas (slanted views) In the US they were not supposed to. Journalists are taught to be objective and fair. They are only supposed to slant in the editorial (opinion pages). Of course this is not the reality. And the BBC objective? Por favor...
I thought the "crisis" of which they speak here is the real estate, construction one, etc. That's what I'm talking about. In the US they do not speak of immigration (and not even the loan debacle) as a "crisis". It seems to be a little more hysterical here. Having said that the loan thing may turn out to be a crisis in the US. It remains to be seen. Just haven't seen the soup lines yet.
I stand corrected about the "crisis" name. They do say "crisis" in the states when talking about the loan / home foreclosure thing. I guess I didn't notice that before.
I still don't think they call immigration problems a crisis though.
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