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Nativo Lopez: by Steve Sailer UPI, May 17, 2002 |
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Although seldom mentioned by the English-language press, Nativo Lopez is a political near-legend in Santa Ana, Calif., an immigrant-attracting Orange Co. city that now has a larger population than Cincinnati. In a place where almost three-fourths of the residents speak Spanish at home, Lopez plays a prominent dual role as a local school board member and as national co-director of Hermandad Mexicana Nacional -- the Mexican National Brotherhood -- a sizable non-profit community service organization for immigrant families. A Los Angeles Times writer recently compared the distinguished-looking 50-year-old Latino leader's role in Orange Co. to that of Al Sharpton's in New York or Jesse Jackson's in Chicago. As a spokesman for immigrants, however, Lopez's position is inherently more difficult than that of African-American politicians because a much smaller percentage of his primary constituency is eligible to vote. Lopez often raises a cry that most Americans haven't thought about much since 1776: taxation without representation. Lopez is no stranger to controversy. The voter-registration efforts of HMN were at the heart of the lengthy but inconclusive Congressional investigation into the results of the 1996 House election in which Loretta Sanchez narrowly defeated incumbent Bob Dornan. Currently, a group of Santa Ana parents is attempting to have him recalled from the school board, claiming he is not fully enforcing the ban on bilingual education that became law in California with the passage of Proposition 227 in 1998. The author of that initiative, Silicon Valley businessman Ron Unz, recently gave $1,000 to the campaign to recall Lopez. Unz commented, "Nativo Lopez is a truly remarkable political survivor, the Houdini of Southern California Latino politics." Lopez took time to answer questions via e-mail: Q. You've been compared to Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, but whom do you consider your role model? A. Beatrice Lopez-Vigil. A humble working-class single head-of-household Mexican American woman who raised eleven children, six natural and five adopted. She was a victim of spousal abuse, which led to her divorce. She worked two jobs most of her life to support her children and see most of them obtain a college education. She rose up against adversity, and taught discipline, work ethic, respect for elders and family, love for reading and education, service towards your fellow man, perseverance, and humility. My mother. Q. What do you mean when you say, "I represent all those who pay taxes. I didn't say voters. I said taxpayers." A. In a city like Santa Ana, the majority of the resident population is non-citizen and non-voter, yet the city could not operate without the generous tax contributions of the residents. For a school district like Santa Ana Unified, I would estimate that close to seventy percent of the parents are non-citizens, and therefore, also non-voters. Without the tax contributions of these parents, however, we could not operate the schools. Citizen, and resident, civic participation is imperative for democratic governance in society. Governance of such local municipalities and school districts must by necessity be inclusive, and elected officials need to be mindful of such a broader concept of governance. This principle is as old as Athenian practices in democracy. Q. Mexican Foreign Secretary Jorge G. Castaneda suggested a number of years ago that California allow resident non-citizen to vote in local elections, as some European cities do. What's your take on that? A. The Mexican government has not even approved the right of Mexican nationals to vote in their own national elections while living and working abroad, and contributing literally $8 billion annually in the form of remittances to families and local communities in Mexico. Various European countries permit such voting arrangements. I recommend that Castaneda practice what he preaches. Q. What is your opinion of the controversy within the Bush Administration over whether local police should enforce the federal laws against illegal immigration? A. Almost to the person, the local police chiefs of major U.S. cities, particularly those with large immigrant populations, have repudiated the suggestion that they are equipped to enforce immigration laws. Public safety can only be secured with the public's cooperation. Cities that enjoy large immigrant communities, with a large percentage of undocumented residents, could not be policed adequately without the cooperation of the immigrant resident. The police chiefs understand this principle very well. Again, it goes back to the concept of appropriate governance strategies. Q. What do you think of President Bush's plan for some kind of amnesty for undocumented Mexican migrants? A. Towards the end of President Ronald Reagan's second term, his Labor Department published a study that projected a twenty million person shortfall of the U.S. labor force by the year 2000 due to various irreversible factors well known to the demographers who study U.S. population trends. In the conclusion of the study, the department recommended a flexible U.S. immigration policy in the future, especially as this relates to the labor needs of the U.S. Remember, it was President Reagan who signed the first legalization program for all eligible undocumented immigrants... We are now past the date indicated in the study. President Bush is an economic realist and listens attentively to the business community, which has also (favored) flexibility in our immigration policies. Q. What was your stance in 1998 on the Prop. 227 English immersion education initiative? A. I opposed Prop. 227 in 1998, as did the overwhelming majority of Latino voters. There was near unanimity amongst national, state, and local Latino organizations and elected officials against this California ballot referendum. Prop. 227 constituted an assault on the language rights of limited English-speaking students, and their taxpaying parents. It did not and does not address the extreme disparity of education funding suffered by poor urban school districts. It seeks to impose one method of learning, which is anathema to everything that we know about education and early childhood development. Q. How do you answer the current recall campaign against you, which argues that you are holding back enforcement of Prop. 227? A. This is a canard invented by a conservative Republican English-Only group that seeks to impose its ideology on our parents and deny them the right of choice in their children's education, as permitted under Prop. 227. Check the record. Our district is in complete compliance with all provisions of Prop. 227. In fact, 90 percent of the 60,000 students enrolled in SAUSD are attending mainstream English classes or classes with English support. Q. What is your opinion of Ron Unz? A. I have no opinion of Ron Unz. Q. Are you covered adequately and fairly by the English language media? A. We absolutely are not covered adequately in the English language media. In fact, historically there have existed serious issues of bias in the coverage. Certainly, much of this has to do with the extreme low representation of Latinos and Spanish-speaking personnel in the higher echelons of the corporate media, written and electronic. It is for this very reason that organizations have sprung up in the Latino communities to address issues of bias, fairness, and equity of representation in the media.
Steve Sailer (www.iSteve.com) is a columnist for VDARE.com and the film critic for The American Conservative.
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