The Hispanic/Latino population in the United States is booming almost everywhere, but particularly in the areas that were sheared off from Mexico after the Texas Revolution and Mexican-American War in the 19th century. At the time, White Anglo-Saxon Protestant ("WASP") ideology called this "Manifest Destiny." Using the same logic -- that which happens, is destiny -- 21st century Manifest Destiny decrees the Hispanicization of the United States. Of course, there's much more to Latin America than Mexico. As of 2008, the Hispanic/Latino population of the USA comprised about 15% of the total population. It'll be interesting to see the 2010 Census results in the wake of the Great Recession.
Back to Senator John C. Calhoun of South Carolina from a couple of posts ago. No more racist nor xenophobic than most of his fellow politicians at the time, he argued against absorbing Mexico into the United States at the end of the 1845-1848 war:
To incorporate Mexico, would be the very first instance of the kind of incorporating an Indian race; for more than half of the Mexicans are Indians, and the other is composed chiefly of mixed tribes. . . not as good as Cherokees or Choctaws.
Seems to me that there's little chance of any new formal North American merger anytime soon, post-1853. Canada, the USA and Mexico will remain at odds for quite a little while, even while the European Union proceeds slowly forward. But demographics have their own arcs, and boundaries are artificial, impermanent creations.
9 comments:
It will not have no expressive progress in the relations human beings in the United States while the proper concept of race will not be modified, as Barack Obama considered. The solution for Latin American mestizos, indians, blacks and whites depends on the existence of steady democracies that guarantee for universalistas politics these rights to all. These politics are prerogatives of sovereign national states. Sovereigns or not, nations are “imagined communities”, in the happy formularization of Benedict Anderson (1991). They are imagined, also, for its intellectuals. When these abandon the commitment with its peoples start to imagine them as if foreign they were. If in U.S.A. this population increases gradual, is necessary to also govern for this population, with viable public politics. Beijus,
It will not have no expressive progress in the relations human beings in the United States while the proper concept of race will not be modified, as Barack Obama considered. The solution for Latin American mestizos, indians, blacks and whites depends on the existence of steady democracies that guarantee for universalistas politics these rights to all. These politics are prerogatives of sovereign national states. Sovereigns or not, nations are “imagined communities”, in the happy formularization of Benedict Anderson (1991). They are imagined, also, for its intellectuals. When these abandon the commitment with its peoples start to imagine them as if foreign they were. If in U.S.A. this population increases gradual, is necessary to also govern for this population, with viable public politics. Beijus,
What would happen when we apply these race based overlays to the other nations of the earth? I think we would find that no other nation on the planet readily accepts other ethnicity than those of Canada and the US.
Gad. Doesn't the fool know that their civilization is twenty times older than his and and even at the beginning more scientifically advanced?
Erik, I always "forget" the indian base on Mexicans. I grew up around so many "regular" ones. Ya know--the ones that were here first. I love my Indian heritage.
The hispanic population in south Louisiana grew hugely after Katrina. A lot of folks came in to work in the reconstruction.
These maps and posts are fascinating.
It will be interesting over the next few decades to see how people define themselves. Old ethnic and racial identities are blurring. Immigration, population shifts-- there are a lot of wild cards in the deck, aren't there?
Thanks all for the comments! Luma, excellent, will get to Benedict Anderson at some point. Mark, it'll be interesting to check out. Ivan, indeed. Forgive him, he was a South Carolinian ;-> Jodi, cool. Charles, makes sense. I remember seeing Mexican Army vehicles driving to help. Johnny, I couldn't agree more.
here is one for you
there are over 100 languages spoken in NYC schools
i think this diversity is what made us great to begin with
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