This Mexican-American Won’t Defer to Liberalism’s Demands of Humility : Education: Silent and grateful are attributes many universities expect of their affirmative-action charges. Rebellion invites punishment.

The most popular Mexican-American in this century was a farm-labor leader. The public persona of United Farm Workers’ President Cesar Chavez was, like the people he claimed to represent, steeped in humility. His image was one of a powerful and nationally recognized political figure who could meet the Pope one day and farm workers the next. Many white liberals fell in love with that image. They wrote generous checks and refused to buy grapes. Chavez reciprocated by shunning the trappings of elitism and remaining close to the ground. Liberals smiled and wrote more checks.

The next generation of Mexican-American superstars was more than willing to emulate Chavez and accommodate liberal demands of humility. Seeking to “atone” for their successes, the Ivy League’s first batch of affirmative-action babies flocked to the public sector. To help their gente , they traded caps and gowns for denim overalls and bandannas. Yale graduates taught math to children of farm workers in the Coachella Valley. Princeton graduates worked as Great Society social workers in Los Angeles. And Harvard lawyers signed on with an organizationcreated by the Ford Foundation, the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund.

Now my generation is expected to continue in the same tradition. Our benefactors are sure to be disappointed.

A few weeks ago, my publisher was told that my scheduled book signing at the UCLA bookstore was being canceled. To his surprise, he was told that store policy required an advance copy of my book be sent to various Chicano professors. At least one of them was not pleased with the book’s contents. Maybe those passages critical of Chavez were considered ethnically incorrect. In any case, my publisher could recall no similar cancellation at such short notice--one day.

In small towns in the San Joaquin Valley, decades of limited opportunity have left behind a limited opinion of human potential. To many people in Fresno, Mexicans are farm workers, gang members and welfare mothers; they are not Harvard graduates and authors. Never in their brightest dreams or darkest nightmares did these Valley natives expect to wake up one day and see a 26-year-old Mexican-American sitting in a local bookstore, signing copies of his book. And so, as with all things new and different, there is confusion.

After reading some of my work, an elderly white male phoned to offer advice. “For the experience, you know what you need to do?” he asked. I imagined the creative benefits of a trip to Europe. “You should go out and pick grapes.”

In a speech delivered to a group of professionals, I said that young Mexican-American graduates of elite schools, like Harvard and Yale, should stop trying to atone for their success by working for politically correct groups like the United Farm Workers. Instead, they should feel comfortable enough to flood Wall Street firms. During the Q&A; session, a middle-age white attorney scolded me. “You should appreciate what you’ve been given and give some back,” she said.

What I have been “given”--given by whom? What did the Harvard bureaucrat who admitted me “give” me?

Now, it seems that my bastion of liberalism has saved the best for last. Apparently, some members of the staff of the Harvard Crimson, the campus newspaper, are unhappy with those parts of my book critical of dear ol’ Harvard--including its admit ‘em and forget ‘em treatment of minority students and its half-hearted commitment to affirmative action. But rather than criticize my approach to these issues, the Crimson, by its handling of my book, implies that I am being opportunistic, using the Harvard name to make a name for myself. There was even a rumor that the Crimson was mulling the idea of obtaining my undergraduate transcripts to prove that, although I was a Harvard student, I was not a very good one. Imagine the publicity surrounding my “D” in biology.

It seems that by challenging my alma mater to be better in its treatment of minority students, I am challenging the limits of liberalism. I apparently missed the fine print on the Harvard application warning that affirmative-action babies are expected not to cry out loud. Apparently, the handful of Mexican-Americans on campus serve at the pleasure of the liberal Establishment. Even after graduation, we are never supposed to forget that it was Harvard liberals who were gracious enough to bring us into their secret clubhouse, asking only that we not share those secrets with outsiders. We are supposed to be well-behaved and humble and, above all, grateful.

The truth is cold and unkind: Harvard was loaned to us, but never given. The sprinkling of Mexican-Americans at Harvard is forever what former Harvard President Derek Bok called “alien guests in a strange house.” And, if we forget any of this or become too big for our britches, we risk punishment.

A quarter century ago, the last generation of Mexican-Americans was so desperate to drink of the fountain of opportunity that it made a devil’s pact with liberalism. Now, another generation poses a new challenge. In the next century, the final test of society’s best intentions is whether we are prepared to allow a new crop of affirmative-action babies the right to define and think for themselves. Those youngsters in Cambridge who have in mind a high-brow lynching must understand one thing: If you seek deference, you have the wrong Mexicans.