In the early ninetees I closely followed the events at the Balkans. I could not understand how in a multicultural city like Sarajevo, Croats, Serbs and Muslims could grow so far apart, and even kill their neighbours because of their ethnical background. Sadly, I now understand how such a thing can happen. Most people judge people because they are of a different religion or ethnicity. They forget that behind every face there is a person of flash and blood. In my city, people from different ethnical or religious background live in separate areas of the city. They never meet, but they do host hostile prejudices.

As a social science teacher, I am struggeling to find ways to have my students think, really think, and not just vent their feelings about other people. I find it frightening how in most Western societies different groups in society are complete strangers to one another. I believe the only solution is to have students meet other students in real life. Only when they talk, work together and share lunch, they will see the image of G’d in the face of the other.

I frankly believe that, because many of the countries are smaller and less complicated in their situations, they’re more politically aware and understand the politics behind the machine moreso than an America would. Unfortunately, this country’s citizens fear their government, whereas in Latin America, most of their citizens don’t, even in places where mass genocide occurs.

Then again, some chapters have yet to be written, and we’re all still seeking to become one with the information and the dissemination thereof. Good comment.

Latin American nations have never really left the colonial and oppressive state of the “Conquistadoes”. Many of these nations have denied the majority of their people-mestizos, blacks, and mulattos, real social justice.It was easy for Vicente Fox, then President of Mexico to say that Mexicans take jobs that African Americans don’t really want in a disdain manner. Fox is an Irishman, he is not really a Mexican. But the Mexicans cannot really see that. People looking like Fox do not come to the States illegally, they travel here first class by plane on a tourist or student visa. The real Mexicans are the ones who risk their lives to cross the borders, and would accept a meager job in the States, do not look like Fox.

I love Latin America because I was born there, and it is home to Ernesto Che Guevara, Eduardo Galeano,Roberto Clemente,Rigoberta Menchu, Pablo Neruda and many, many more illustrious men and women. But what I do not like about Latinos is the fact thet they have an uncanny ability to fudge everything together and not see that within many latin american countries only a small elite group benefits from practically all of the policies and the majority of the people are usually left out of the loop. Since the majority of the people does not look like the ruling classes, that should be a serious cause of concern. This is why I believe that Latin American nations never really left the stage under the “Conquistadores”.

Latin American nations are not really independent. There are some good news, and hopeful moments.Take for instance Venezuelan, President Hugo Chavez was elected by the majority of people who look just like him and who are fed up with being left out of all the decision making , and also on the receiving end of the policies. For the first time in the history of the Americas, we have an indigenous president. Yes, President Evo Morales was democratically elected by a majority Indigenous population in the sister country of Bolivia

But until latinos change and emerge with the right eye to visualize the real picture, we will still have the confusion, and invisibility that still exist with the vast bunch of the non-elite population.

I want to address myself more directly to the topic of your post. I used to manage non-profit immigration advocacy programs and advocate in the state capitals and Washington, DC against restrictive immigration laws, as well as training advocates to represent immigrants in deportation hearings.

I have sat with weeping immigrants and families in my office, reviewing their alternatives, only to discover that for many of them the United States Government immigration policy did not offer any humane alternatives. Now that I have married an Afro-Brazilian woman, and I live in Brazil, I am an immigrant in Brazil and my wife and children would be immigrants in the United States, were we ever to go there.

I am utterly disgusted with the increasing restrictiveness of Unite States Federal immigration laws, (some of which could prevent my wife from immigrating to the United States) as well as state and local efforts to penalize immigrants, and efforts to deny immigrants health care and other essential services. (I once had to threaten to sue a school department until they retracted a policy that denied all education to undocumented immigrant children, which is illegal but was happening nonetheless.)

I feel you on this issue of discrimination against immigrants and the need to form and build alliances between American Blacks and Latin Americans. At the same time that ancestors of Latin American were being slaughtered or enslaved by invading Spanish and Portuguese, other white people were shipping Black people from Africa to the “New World” to live and work as slaves. Our histories are not the same, but we have far too much in common to ignore or oppose each others’ liberation struggles.

We Black Americans need to take every opportunity to consult, strategize and collaborate with Latin American groups because, as far as I’m concerned, we all are fighting the same oppressors and oppressor groups. I am sensitive to your point that many Latin American who speak Spanish and Portuguese are Black, many with ancestors that arrived on slave ships, just as our Black American ancestors did.

I have no patience whatever for resentful attitudes toward Latin American immigrants and immigration, perhaps because I just don’t understand these attitudes, except as expression of bigotry and ignorance. I cannot think of a single difficulty in my life that has been caused Latin American immigrants or by immigration, but I can think of a list an arm long that have been cause by America’s system of white male supremacy, like slavery, Jim Crow, profiling, job discrimination, and the Jena injustices.

So, I say to Black America: Let’s keep the focus of our anger where it belongs – on our oppressors and not on our oppressors’ scapegoats.

@ luz: of course we’re divided as a whole. our latinohood is dependent on so many factors. what it means to be one changes frequently depending on where you’re from and what you’ve been accustomed to as a latino. and the abuse of immigrants is insane. new age slaves.

The abuse of immigrants in this country is tremendous. It is alarming to see how this has become an accepted “violation of human rights” in this country due to the political pulse and media. Many immigrants are being paid less than half of the minimum wage in this country. Of course people will hire them. Why not? They save tons of money in the following ways: do not pay federal and state taxes for these employees, no worker’s compesation fees, no medical & dental, insurance, no 401K plans, and no unemployment insurance. There are “immigrants” working for about $1.50 per hour and have to work double shifts in order to be able to put something on their tables to feed their families. Who are they going to complain to? They are not citizens and don’t even really speak the language. Who is going to listen to them? The conditions in which they work under are sometimes oppressive, but how many turn the other way? Many do, including ourselves. People come to this country seeking opportunities. Hunger and poverty do not have a color or an ethnic breakdown.

This is key. Have you read Cecilia Valdes, the Cuban national romance? The narrator says that a European not concerned in daily life with slavery and racial ancestry would probably take Cecilia for white (and many characters confuse her with her white half sister, although they also refer to Cecilia as “bronze”) … but that a (Latin) American would have the “discerning eye” trained to notice her Afro-Hispanic difference.

There’s also a Brazilian 19th century novel, O Mulato by Aluisio de Azevedo, where the character is Afro-Brazilian but does not know it. He lives in Europe as a white but when he gets back to Brazil does not understand why everyone reacts to him … differently.

For what it’s worth. These books are my obsession of the evening.