(A response to Hispanic Columnist Ruben Navarrete)

Commentary:
By Herman Baca
Chairman Committee on Chicano Rights

There’s an old saying that states, “no matter how many college degrees you give a burro, he is still a burro.” That saying brought to mind statements (I read) made by 2 burros against persons of Mexican ancestry. One of them was an old white racist with lots of money and the other (sadly) a brainwashed so called HAVARD educated His-Panic columnist.

I read, heard and viewed toupee wearing loser Donald Trump’s statement announcing his candidacy for President of the US. My initial reaction was the same (I am certain) as every other Mexicano/Chicano/Latino that I have spoken to…total anger.

Trump ignorantly, idiotically, and apolitically insulted over 125 million Mexicans and 60 million Chicanos/Latinos in the US by stating, “When do we beat Mexico at the border? They’re laughing at us, at our stupidity. And now they are beating us economically. They are not our friend, believe me…. When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They are bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.” Trump’s comments like the downing of the Confederate flag can simply be explained as the last gasps of white supremacy.

Then I read His-Panic Ruben Navarrete’s A LESSON MISSED column (San Diego U-T 6-25-15) and I asked myself, what’s the difference between Trump’s comments and Navarrete’s? Navarrete is a Harvard University graduate and a “nationally syndicated columnist.” In his autobiography A Darker A Shade of Crimson he brags about how he confronted bigotry. Pulling himself up by his own bootstraps, a self-made boy who got straight A’s, a valedictorian, and that his efforts alone got him into Harvard. Affirmative action and the sacrifices of others (Cesar Chavez, Corky Gonzales, Bert Corona, Reis Tijerina, etc,) had nothing to do with it. In other words, Navarrette adheres to the His and Her Panics movements political ideology/philosophy … primero mis dientes y después mis parientes, or in English me, me, me!

According to foremost Chicano Historian Professor, Rudy Acuna, “Navarette four years before had been a Chicano, and was passing himself off as Mr. Aztlan.” Here in San Diego, CA Navarrete after he was laid off (or fired) as editorial writer and columnist from the San Diego U-T he was complaining that, “everybody left on the editorial board is a white male.” After in a true malinche turnaround, Navarrete began to lap dog the extreme right wing gringo media line (to sell his columns) by opportunistic lambasting young Mexican undocumented immigrants raised as toddlers in the US, called DREAMERS. In past columns Navarrete wrote that, “those so-called DREAMERS deserve to get for Christmas, a scolding” and “gee, kids, can we get you anything else? Maybe free massages the next time you stage a sit-in?”

However the most ignorant and uneducated attack (that I have witnessed in 45 years) against our youth was his June 25, 2015 column. In the column Navarrete shamefully bashes a young graduate student, Indira Esparaza of the University of California, San Diego. First pointing out that Esparaza had entered the US illegally with her parents (when she was a toddler) and then, “proudly unfurled the Mexican flag and thus made herself the center of attention.” Since Navarrete disdains flags, has anyone seen a column he’s written against the Confederate flag?

In his column Navarrete states, instead of receiving a diploma, Esparaza should have received an “Incomplete.” “Missed some courses — “Gratitude 101,” “Introduction to Civics” and finally, “Flag Waving and the Importance of Context,” etc. The reason for Navarrete tirade was that he got his “American” (Mexican-American) hyphen side inflamed.

His column insinuates that Ms. Esparaza is not an American, like him. She is uneducated (“Incomplete”), ungrateful (“Gratitude 101”), not a good citizen (Civics), and waving the wrong flag (“Flag waving context”)? Wouldn’t “flag waving context” been; if Esparaza had unfurled the Russian, Chinese flags? Not satisfied with the above Navarrete continued by adding insult to injury in writing that, Mexico had contributed Nada (nothing) to Esparaza’s education. That’s probably true, but the reality is Mexico’s corrupt system (supported by US $$$ and power) is one thing, and the Mexican people is something else.

So my question to His-Panic Navarrete is; what was Ms. Esparaza’s offense? That she: shouldn’t feel proud of her heritage, culture, history, parents, family, ancestors, or people that are part of her birth right? Didn’t stay in her place? Had the audacity not to continue denying (like him) who she is? Or finally that, “she has a responsibility not to antagonize and rile up other members of that community,” i.e. white people? Then maybe Navarrete really didn’t believe any of the above, but wrote the column to make a few $$$?

Whatever Navarrete’s reasons, I applaud Ms. Esparaza. Why? Because unlike Navarrete’s brainwashed His-Her Panic generation Esparaza showed that she will no longer be cowed by the shrinking white minority to define how she feels, and who and what she is.

Another reason, unlike Navarrete’s His-Her Panic generation is that many of my generation still remember…being told to stay in our place. I personally remember (some 65 years ago) of getting slapped as a child in grade school in New Mexico for speaking Spanish, hearing parents telling their children (to protect us) not to speak Spanish around white people (because they didn’t like it). Hiding our school lunches (greasy chorizo burrito), the NO MEXICANS, N*!@#*! OR DOGS allowed signs, and Mexicans/Chicanos US veterans that died in WWII not being allowed to be buried (especially in Texas) in white cemeteries, etc.

Mr. Navarrete accuses Ms. Esparaza of missing, “some courses.” If anyone missed “some courses” it appears to be Mr. Navarrete, who for all his hullabaloo of graduating from Harvard appears to have flunked, his history. Proof, simply read his apolitical columns and you will see that he is all over the political landscape. Our people have hundreds of issues/problems and Navarrete uses his Harvard education to attack our youth? If that is education; then it is an indictment of Harvard and the entire US educational system. The real question is what has Mr. Navarrete’s Harvard education contributed towards solving the issues/problems facing this nation’s 60 Million Chicanos/Latinos? However, the bigger problem for our community is that Navarrete and (the His-Her Panic movement) rhetorically use the Chicano Movements struggle against discrimination and racism; only when it’s convenient to make $$$.

Why Navarrete used his Harvard education to attack our youth, one can only wonder. However one thing is certain; what we (all of us) are witnessing is a historical clash of generations. One is a dying “Si Senor” generation, and the other a generation (represented by youth) that will no longer accept the “Si Senor” philosophy. Why? Because changing demographics will make them, their children, and grandchildren the majority population in the American Southwest, and the US in the next one hundred years!