A Critical Look at "Hispanic" Culture

My own experience as a first generation immigrant and my 20-year process of becoming an American citizen by choice surprised me in many ways. One of them was to discover what is being pushed as  "Hispanic culture" in the academic and progressive forums in the United States.

The use of Spanish as an "equal standing", alternative language in the United States instead of embracing English as the common lingua and a persistent campaign lambasting the US as a "racist" and "colonialist" country is a sad commonplace in higher education as much as in "Latino" and "progressive" outlets that paradoxically promote immigration to -not from-the US.

For UCLA Professor Ernesto Caravantes, author of a series of books critical of "Hispanic" culture such as "Clipping their Wings" and "From Melting Pot to Witches' Cauldron: How Multiculturalism Failed America" ,  "Hispanic culture" has a different set of significant connotations.

Here are some eye opening excerpts from the second book:

"I was at one of my book signings some time ago, when a woman raised her hand to speak. She was a Mexican immigrant, and told me that she had a 13-year old son, whom she is raising here in Southern California. In other words, her son is an American citizen by virtue of his birth. She said she makes it a point to tell her son of all the virtues and wonderful aspects of Mexico. She wanted her son to be proud of his Mexican heritage. 

What she said made me pause.

Presumably, this woman and her husband had immigrated to the United States in search of a better life for their family. Mexico had failed them on multiple levels. The United States was seen as the country most able to offer educational and occupational opportunities. Why, then, would they have left a failed country to come to the United States to raise their children and then exalt Mexico, a country which they were only too willing to leave behind?

If this woman were to really think about the best for her son, would it not be better, and certainly more logical, for her to tell her son of all the virtues of the United States? This is the country that, after all, saved this family from poverty and misery."

Caravantes presents some keys to understand the problem, all of them coming precisely from flaws of the "Hispanic" culture that keeps Latin American countries as failing societies that systematically expel their members:

• Education is not a priority :

"Education is not at the top of the list of priorities.Hispanic-Americans value other things more, such as honoring one’s roots and honoring the soil of our ancestors; Judeo- Christian ideals, especially in their Roman Catholic manifestations; family and the multi generational containment of many members within a household; folkloric traditions and festivals; the Spanish language; and being "educado", which means being well- behaved and demure, which does not mean the same thing as “having education” as we understand the term. That is their choice, and their right. They have an inherent right to set upon themselves the values which they hold dear. There is absolutely nothing wrong in valuing one’s roots, traditions, language, and family. There is a fear among Hispanic immigrants that if they learn to speak English, they will lose their cultural identity. "

I would set a personal hypothesis about why this happens based in personal experience and massive research confirmation: in  most Latin American societies education and intellectual capital are not related to upward mobility. PhD-holders are as (or even more) likely to be cab drivers than those with just elementary school education. More often than not they kight be working for them. In most of Latin America, wealth comes from exploiting natural resources -soy, oil, raw minerals, sugarcane-, crony capitalism-based oligopolies or low-value added commerce, not from knowledge, innovation or technology. There is, thus, little incentive for pursuing an education and lots of disincentives.

•  Backward-looking "nostalgia" for the country of origin:

"The nostalgia for the old country, which seems to be the mentally contagious virus among Hispanic immigrants, must not cloud their awareness of, and search for, the information that can help their children attain a good future in this country. As a matter of fact, that very nostalgia, and the wish to recreate the environment they left behind in our inner-city neighborhoods, can be rightly blamed for the low socioeconomic levels seen in our Latin American populations in the United States. They look back to the old country, not forward to a more prosperous future."

To those who have personally experienced underdeveloped economies, absence of rule of law, weak institutions, endemic corruption,  and ruthless dictatorships, romanticizing the culture they left behind before coming to the United States seems nonsense. It is hard for them to understand why those who think that way didn't stay home rather than cutting their beloved roots to come to the often distrusted and despised "Yankee" culture.  

"Beggars cannot be choosers" goes the English saying. That might explain part of the contradiction, perhaps adding fonder family and personal memories that might take precedence over politics and economic realities as time goes by. The Cuban and now Venezuelan diaspora seem to indicate the opposite.

Those who came to the US fleeing Latin American dictatorships like 1960s Cubans, cataclysmic economic meltdowns (pick any decade for the last century) or the current Venezuelans fleeing all of the above along almost two decades of the so called "Bolivarian Diaspora" (see chart below) , United States looks like the Promised Land, a land they worship with a level of intensity that makes born-Americans look unpatriotic.

Caravantes summarizes what those Americans born in Latin America feel about this kind of "nostalgia":

"Do modern Hispanic immigrants not remember why they originally immigrated to America? Do they not realize that they can provide a better life for their families here? If they are so nostalgic for the country they left behind, then they really have only one practical recourse—to return to the source of all this nostalgia, their mother country, and leave enough space for other immigrants and political refugees who truly desire to live in this country."

• Resistance to adopt English, force-fed "Spanish" as part of "identity politics"

Caravantes asks the logical question to be asked to those who insist in forcing Spanish to US-born children as a way to "preserve heritage":

"Would it not be better for her to tell him about the universities in the States, about applying himself in his studies, and mastering the English language, so that he could get a good education? Furthermore, the logical choice for any immigrants is to have their children master the English language. The SAT and ACT tests will measure Latino students’ proficiency in English, not in Spanish."

I would add that "heritage" should not be an impediment in the process of becoming an American. One of the only class: non-hyphenated. "United" States means people united without losing their diversity, for a common goal and allegiance to a set of values, best expressed in our Declaration of Independence:

"We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved"

With that simple statement, our Founding Fathers severed any part of their cultural "heritages" -which were many: English, Dutch, Scotch,Irish- that could be in the way of becoming "One Nation Under God with Freedom and Justice for All".

Caravantes adds some interesting reflections:

"This stands in stark distinction to the European immigrants who flocked to this country in the 19th century. Upon landing on the eastern seashores, they cut all ties with their mother country, and immediately began to forge for themselves an American identity. They did not force-feed their children the language of the mother country, be it Danish, Norwegian, or Dutch. Yes, perhaps they did lose a part of their cultural identity, yet that loss was quickly replaced by a new, forward-reaching identity: an American identity"

American identity is not based on a shared past but on a shared vision of the future. That's the meaning of the Pledge of Allegiance that millions of new US Citizens take every year.

"I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

Filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi summarized the rite of passage from being an immigrant to being an American in "Citizen US" , showing the Pledge of Allegiance in all 50 states.

A hard look at the real "Hispanic culture"

In order to properly understand Spanish-speaking cultures (language being the one thing they have truly in common) , and particularly Latin American culture it's critical to study their own history, economics and cultural patterns.

In addition to Mr. Caravantes, Professor Lawrence Harrison provides a good start with his insightufl book "Underdevelopment is a state of mind: The Latin American Case" in which he analyzes the cultural factors that hinder the progress of Spanish-speaking cultures (included that of Spain itself).

More about the history behind these problems can be found in Michael Reid's "Forgotten Continent: A History of the Modern Latin America" - which chronicles the origins and evolution of the current and raging battle between radical nativist Left-wingers that demonize capitalistic US and promote a welfare-dependent culture -as Chavist Venezuela- and those who try to modernize their societies -as Chile-.

For those who want to look deeper into the reasons why  Mexicans indoctrinated from birth against the evils of their imperialist Gringo neighbor cross the Rio Grande in millions risking life and limb I highly recommend the insights of Alan Riding's "Distant Neighbors: A Portrait of the Mexicans" (a Best Seller in Spanish in Mexico precisely because of its criticism of the hypocrisies of the Mexican culture): 

For those who don't speak Spanish, an excerpt of Riding's book might shed light over the way actual Mexicans see their own culture and the causes for its weak rule of law:

"Rigid laws have always been adopted, but they were promulgated in an environment where they could not be applied. Corruption was therefore an aberration of the law, but not of society. And in a traditional Mexico, it provided a parallel system of operating rules."

Perhaps more important, the changing nature of the system had also affected the “quality” of corruption. When the country was governed mainly by politicians sustained by their own power bases, corruption was passed down through the system in exchange for loyalty.

It was a way of redistributing wealth within the pyramid of power and, as such, corruption contributed to political stability. But with the growth of presidential authority, particularly since the 1970s, power came increasingly from above rather than below and, consequently, the fruits of corruption began to move upward rather than downward. With top officials taking more for themselves and their bosses and sharing less with their political supporters, not only were larger illicit fortunes accumulated but this new wealth was also concentrated in fewer hands.

Corruption was therefore working less as a system than as a racket and many of the traditional beneficiaries began to object.

In a sense, the fact that corruption continues to flourish in myriad forms elsewhere in society confirms that the problem is cultural rather than moral. Even now, many old habits, such as conflict of interest, nepotism and influence- peddling, are not considered wrong, and since power rather than law dominates society, honesty itself is seemingly negotiable.

 As one politician put it, “corruption has been corrupted.""

Other interesting perspective on Mexico's and Latin American's institutional and social backwardness can be found in Jorge Castaneda's "Maniana Forever?: Mexico and the Mexicans",  where the author, a former Foreign Relations minister of Mexico, responds questions such as: 

"Why are Mexicans so successful in individual sports, but deficient in team play? Why do Mexicans dislike living in skyscrapers? Why do Mexicans love to see themselves as victims, but also love victims? And why, though the Mexican people traditionally avoid conflict, is there so much violence in a country where many leaders have died by assassination? 

And, of course, the classical "The Labyrinth of Solitude: Life and Tought in Mexico"  by Nobel Prize of Literature, Mexican polymath Octavio Paz:

and Claudio Velez's " The New World of the Gothic Fox: Culture and Economy in English and Spanish America" , where the author uses Isaiah Berlin's famous argument to make an analogy between the Anglo-Saxon's "Foxes" flexible and practical industry and Spanish' "Hedeghogs" romantic penchant for absolutism.

Understanding the shortcomings of "Hispanic" culture and striving to overcome them is not impossible. Countries such as 19th Century liberal Argentina and Uruguay and 20th century economic Chile have demonstrated that it is possible and enriching.

Just for the sake of the argument, it's useful to look at the many in our global word that share the Hispanic and American cultures as part of multiple identities, such as New York-born Argentinian musician Astor Piazzolla, who combined tango, American jazz, Gershwin, Bartok and Stravinsky, 

and Argentinian-born Israeli-American conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim:, who considers himself Argentinean, Israeli and musician -a universal language-:

Hispanic is not a concept, much less a "race", but one component of immigrants' cultural background -often as diverse as Piazzolla's or Barenboim's- that can and must evolve and mix into the "melting pot" of American life and back and forth into that of their countries of origin.