Just a snapshot here, but in Houston we
have a rather large assortment of various South-of-the-Border types
from all over. I have one Bolivian SIL and one Chilean SIL for that
matter.
The South Americans, by and large are
educated professonals. The Argies, the Bolivians, the Chileans and
so on tend to get along together reasonably well. Not so much the
Venezueleans
We have here scattered throughout the
metroplex millions of Mexicans. Southeast side, Spring Branch –
there are neighbothoods where you won't see a sign in English for
blocks. The Guatamalans are in a small vecino off Westpark. There
are corners where the men stand to wait for someone to pick them up
for some casual labor. They are not to be confused with the
Hondurans 4 blocks up, or the Niicaraugans you passed a few blocks
ago. They don't mix. They don't play well amongst themselves, and
they all resent the Mexicans.
What we don't have is a bunch of
“Hispanics”. We have a bunch of folks from roughly the same area
of the world, with all the baggage that comes from being raised in a
small, dare I say, Balkanized area. You expect Armenians and Turks
to get along? They carry the baggage of dozens of little border
wars, tribal conflicts, grudges and animosities. They go to
different churches (mostly, but not all, Catholic), venerate
different saints, celebrate different holidays. Some are Creole*,
some are Mestizo, some are Indio, some are quite Black. This is not
a pint of chocolate milk, just now spilled at the border, to be
sopped up with a roll and a half of Bounty. This is an invasion
of... I dunno. Fire ants? All from different mounds, hostile to
each other and to the new enviornment.
The USA can't just dump out a box of
SpectraCide, either. We've got to go in with tweeezers, pick up every
damn one of them, and return them to the home mounds. The
alternative is that they will colonize, they will make new mounds,
and then some well-meaning sonofabitch will come along with a shovel
and, **,
try to mix the mounds.
*partly
European and pale
**irony
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