La Opinion (Editorial)
October 9, 2015
The year was 1930. The country was drowning in the Great Depression. Millions had lost their jobs and some, their fortunes.
President Herbert Hoover ‒ illegally and violating the Constitution ‒ ordered Mexicans and Mexican-Americans to be deported.
Between
500,000 and two million people were viciously persecuted and seized
from the streets of East Los Angeles, on Ash Wednesday, from their
humble San Fernando homes,
from the shops at La Placita, from their workplaces, from movie
theaters, from dance halls. The authorities targeted striking workers or
those who were demonstrating against layoffs. Many others, terrorized,
fled the country that discriminated against them,
losing it all as they left.
The
same scene played out in Houston, in San Antonio and throughout the
country despite the criticism of La Opinión ‒ already a staple of the
Latino community ‒ and many
others.
This
was the infamous “Mexican Repatriation.” Half of the people expelled
illegally, without trial or protections of any kind, had been born here
and were U.S. citizens.
After 85 years, the massive deportations were forgotten; school textbooks kept silent about it.
A
Republican presidential hopeful, Donald Trump, would rescue the event
from oblivion. However, instead of pointing out their cruelty and
discriminatory nature, he sees
it as a positive example; one that should be repeated.
Trump
wants to end birthright citizenship as dictated by the Constitution. He
wants to send these children back alongside their parents.
Some, in their ignorance, believe that this is a good idea.
The
same way it was justified back then, this atrocity is being defended
using the same fallacies: Immigrants take the jobs of the natives; they
exhaust the resources;
they are “rapists.”
That
is why an initiative started by a group of 5th graders from the Bell
Gardens primary school, in the Montebello Unified School District in
East L.A., is so important.
The children submitted a proposal to have our schools teach the history
of the Great Deportation.
Assemblywoman
Cristina García, who represents the area, took the project to the
California Legislature, where it was approved with the majority of votes
from both political
parties. California Governor Jerry Brown signed the proposal into law
yesterday, coinciding with the wave of paranoia and racial hatred that
stains the electoral debate.
Bill
AB146 decrees that the history of the massive deportation of 1930 will
be taught in schools, the same way as the Holocaust and the imprisonment
of Japanese-Americans.
Knowledge
and our youth’s education are the antidotes to hostility. That is why
the initiative of these 5th graders and the action of Assemblywoman
García are the best
answer to the voices of intolerance that are currently demanding
deportations.
Or,
as García said: “A certain Republican presidential frontrunner should
now see that his unworkable and reckless plan for mass deportation will
be a human disaster,
just as it was so many years ago. He could learn a lesson from the
minds and the hearts of our young school children.”
We salute these children and we congratulate García on her initiative.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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