Mexicans, Chicanos and the Labyrinth of L.A.
Why do people pretend that there is something exotic about Chicanos? The Mexican peasant from Zacatecas who brought his family over here and is now working in a factory, his kids in school, has not turned into something weird.
There is no difference between any of us--our ancestors are Marti, Bolivar and Hidalgo. Sorry, but just because Ronnie Garcia speaks little Spanish does not make his ancestor George Washington.
The reason it is all so very confusing, of course, is that some of these Mexico City high-lifers have come to have a good time and make money and relate only to that part of the powers that be that will pay attention to them. That does not include Chicanos.
Just as they would not know a Mexican worker if he came and bit them on the behind, their ignorance of the 3 million Chicanos, working-class Mexicans and Central Americans in L.A. is abysmal.
By rejecting what they derisively call “folklore,” and aligning themselves with un internacionalismo apatrida --an internationalism without a country--they ignore, to their detriment, the variety and richness of working-class culture, which is identically rich on both sides of the border.
ANTONIO BERNAL
Montebello
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