We can no longer refer to Superman as an “Illegal Alien!”

Well, maybe “illegal,’ but not alien.

We owe this political gesture to Sen. Tony Mendoza (D) from Artesia, who introduced SB432 this summer and Gov. Jerry Brown, with no fanfare, in one stroke of his mighty pen, made it mandatory to remove the term from the California Labor Code.
Thus the term, put on the Code back in 1937, will no longer be utilized to describe workers who are not born or naturalized citizens in the United States.

According to Sen. Mendoza, “removing the term ‘alien’ was an important step toward modernizing California law because it is now commonly considered a derogatory term with very negative connotations.”

The new bill was one of 15 pieces of legislation Brown signed. The term, however, can still be found throughout the Code.
That being stated, the fact that the code word will no longer be at the forefront when discussing laborers in the Golden State, it may be viewed as a step in the right direction.

Respect for fellow human beings, it seems, travels on the backs of turtles. It takes a long time for all involved to realize that if one person is hurt by such a term, then it damages everybody. One hears that in one’s choice of house of worship, from wise elders and, in this particular case, from legislators.

Lest we forget that this is by no means the first time La Raza has been made to feel inferior. Back in 1855, when our beloved California was a mere five years-old, white America was appropriating land, natural resources and even cultural symbols from early Mexican residents, like the cowboy, for example. Originally, this icon was known as a “vaquero.”

It was around that time that the California State Legislature passed State Statute Number 175. This was the infamous, “Greaser Law of 1855.”

It called for the arrest and incarceration of persons, not only workers, who were of “Spanish and Indian blood.” In today’s vernacular terms this person would be known primarily as an ordinary Mexican. It is not news to call attention to the fact that tension between white residents and mejicanos has existed since the earliest settlements. Such antagonism has fashioned friction between the two peoples. But with the law behind them, whites expressed their hostility toward these citizens with Spanish-surnames, unabashedly and at times, violently.

You must remember that in 1840, California was seized from Mexico, where the Spanish-speaking and Native Americans were the majority. Because of the Spanish invasion of Mexico and their thirst for gold, the natives had become experts in gold mining. They had no choice, either they would mine the precious metal or perish by another metal-the sword, at the hands of the españoles.

Picture a massive influx of European immigrants who had no experience at mining anything. These 49-ers were the ones who influenced the young legislative body to create a “legal” arsenal to displace the Californios.

The wording of the anti-Mexican law sounds hilarious, “to protect honest people from the excesses of vagabonds.” Honest people? Vagabonds? Their law sought to punish the founders of the very land these Eurodudes ripped off! LOL.

Seriously, the law permitted the early law enforcers to arrest, using force if necessary, any person suspected of being a vagabond and be sent into forced labor or even deported. The act also authorized local militias to impose terror against the Mexican communities and confiscate their properties or even lynch disobedient persons with impunity.

How would the lawmen know if a person was a ‘vagabond?’

According to the law, a vagabond was a person identified by the term “Greaser and, generally, all people of Spanish or Indian blood.”

The current act of striking the word ‘alien’ from the Code will be enforced next year. The old ‘greaser’ law was killed within a year of its birth.