Centro Journal ISSN: 1538-6279 [email protected] The City University of New York Estados Unidos

Jordan, Howard Reseña de "His Panic: Why Americans Fear Hispanics in the U.S" de Geraldo Rivera Centro Journal, vol. XX, núm. 2, 2008, pp. 261-267 The City University of New York New York, Estados Unidos

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in the U.S. Hispanics Fear Americans Why [ 261 ] , The City University of New York—Hostos Community He writes: “the contemporary debate over “the contemporary immigration is a writes: debate He 1 Howard Jordan : The central thesis of Rivera’s book is that at the heart of the immigration debate book is that at the heart of the immigration debate thesis of Rivera’s The central In sum, many of the pictures in this book are fantastic but its conceptualization is of the pictures in this book are fantastic sum, many conceptualization but its In The book ends with two pictures, taken in 2000, of the graves of Puerto Rican graves of the Rican of Puerto in 2000, taken pictures, with two book ends The poor and its organization is a mess. Where the responsibility for this lies is beside the Where the responsibility is a mess. poor and its organization the flaws of the book willCultural the knowledgeable reader be annoying. To point. doubtful, will buy it, which is outsiders, if they even have bother to a hard time the flaws of the book will about. Ironically, understanding what this book is ultimately Yomo Whether them because they will havemean nothing to no frame of reference. someone who will is playing a tres, a cuatro, or whatever no importance to be of Toro these readers will or a cuatro or a tres before. Hopefully, Toro Yomo has never heard of enjoy the images, learn from something away with a greater the captions, and come But, how many American musical history. of appreciation of the richness and diversity reading this review if you are I encourage you Well, sell? to is this book likely copies If you know it has its flaws, tremendous documentary buy it because, despite to value. only you’ll through their recordings enjoy seeing Bobo, and Machito about Puente, that’s have you are old enough to seen them live. If them in action, as Maybe it were. the be supported; to needs contribution Alava’s the case, book is for you as this well. is not the best of its kind but This book musicians he portrays must be remembered. its imperfections. its value outweighs musicians Rafael Cortijo and Ismael Rivera. This is the crowning oddity of oddity of This is the crowning Rivera. Cortijo Ismael and Rafael musicians Cortijothe book. both island-born Rivera were and legacy is and their musical on the had an impact they Yes, tradition. musical Rico’s Puerto tied to intimately suggest to but it is a stretch they are that developedmusic that in Spanish Harlem, only is not featured be would peculiar that they It legacy. part of Spanish Harlem’s use pictures of their graves. to choose also that the author would in this book, but to Are we ignore. hard to have but it is The symbolism may been unintended only legacy is at this point documentary in nature? believe that Spanish Harlem’s Afro-Caribbean traditions that Afro-American and symbiosis of the cultural Is century the first half of the twentieth during over? in Spanish Harlem place took are tombstones and Rivera’s The images of Cortijo’s Alava believed this. I doubt arbitraryAlava’s selection criteria. best, they reflect At nevertheless jarring. College On March 2008 in a packed art Community College gallery in the 2008 in a packed room at Hostos On March presentation by hear a gathered to students, and administrators South Bronx, faculty, Rivera. Geraldo,America: Geraldo media personalities in one of the most recognized States-born and againstis a nativist prejudice number of United the growing foreign-born Latinos. surrogate for the deeper, more fundamental concern, the mostly unspoken but widely the mostly more fundamental concern, unspoken for the deeper, surrogate His Panic: Why Americans Fear Hispanics in the U.S. By Geraldo Rivera New York: Celebra Books, 2007 272 pages; $24.95 [cloth] r e v i e w e r an Emmy-award-winning journalist and a fixture on American televisiondecades, for four American journalistan Emmy-award-winning and a fixture on has which one of the highest enrollment of immigrants in the City chose Hostos, Panic: discuss his new book His to University, acknowledged fear that America’s essential racial and ethnic character, indeed our national identity, is being altered…. To many there is a gnawing feeling that we are all ‘foreign,’ that we don’t belong here whether we are born in this country or not” (p. 36). The book proceeds to debunk prevailing myths about Latino immigrants, namely, that they cannot assimilate, refuse to learn English, are would-be terrorists, steal American jobs, and breed crime and disease.

Threatening American identity and English only Rivera begins his discussion of the Latino threat to American identity by citing Samuel Huntington’s book, Who Are We: The Challenge to America’s National Identity, which calls for a “reaffirmation of the national white Anglo-Protestant heritage” and maintains that the “single most immediate and most serious challenge to America’s traditional identity comes from…continuing immigration from Latin America, especially Mexico.”2 Rivera argues that Huntington’s fears are unfounded because most Latino immigrants will end up assimilating. Moreover, he states that given the changing demography of this nation, the genie has been let out of the bottle and, as go Latinos in the United States, so goes the future of this nation. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, by 1950, there were fewer than 4 million Hispanics in the country. By 2007, there were more than 45 million. In Los Angeles, whites are already the minority, representing just 30 percent of the population, compared to Hispanics at 48 percent. The author concludes that “the browning process” (p. 45) is inevitable and if the current trend continues, Hispanics will make up the majority of the nation’s population by the end of the twenty-first century. In the chapter entitled “Will America Be Like Quebec,” Rivera tackles the English- Only movement, which seeks to make English the official language of the U.S. He begins anecdotally by saying that he knows of no second-generation Hispanic immigrant child who speaks no English, and by the third generation, most do not speak Spanish and have to learn it as a second language in school. He backs this up by citing the 2000 U.S. Census, which indicated a 25 percent increase in English-speaking ability between Mexican immigrants and their American-born offspring. That is 7 percent greater than the increase from 1980. He adds that children of Spanish-speaking immigrants are learning to speak English at a faster rate than those of previous generations. These conclusions were recently borne out by the $2 million study, Inheriting the City: The Children of Immigrants Come of Age, published in May 2008 by Harvard University Press and the Russell Sage Foundation. This decade-long study of adult children of immigrants to the New York region concluded that immigrants are rapidly entering the mainstream and faring better than their parents in terms of education and earnings, even outperforming native-born Americans in many cases. According to Rivera, the hostility against Hispanics is no different from that directed against earlier generations of Irish, Italian, German, and Jewish immigrants. In the nineteenth century, nativists blamed immigrants for everything, from crime to disease to terror. Finally, they assimilated, and the next group of immigrants became society’s scapegoats. He notes that the golden period of immigration occurred when Ellis Island opened for European immigrants (not, however, for the Chinese). During the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, people could come to the U.S. as long as they were not convicts, prostitutes or had infectious diseases. But after the passage of laws like the National Origin Act of 1924, most visas were given to those from the United Kingdom and Scandinavia. Italians only received 3 percent of visas, while Mexicans and other Latin Americans received none. There was never an Ellis

[ 262 ] b o o k r e v i e w s [ 263 ] segregated Regiment of the 36th Texas Infantry Infantry Texas of the 36th Regiment segregated st Infantry from Infantry Rico—called the Borinqueneers— Puerto noting that “no ethnic The author argues that today, despite 90,000 Hispanic Americans on active duty Hispanic 90,000 despite The author argues that today, citing these and other examples of Latino heroism, Rivera rebuts nativistAfter The author returns to the theme of Latino loyalty to America in the chapters, America in the chapters, to the theme of Latino loyalty The author returns to th loyalty persists. He tells the story of an illegal Mexican immigrant, Marine Rafael Peralta Peralta Rafael the attack on Latino mostly Latino non-citizens servingand 35,000 Marine in the military, immigrant, Mexican illegal an of story the tells He loyalty persists. it to grabbed a grenade and cradled who in 2004, while serving in Irak, Company, of “A” Alex Another Latino, absorbing the blast and saving the lives of his comrades. his body, for his heroic service was awarded a Purple Heart from the Dominican Republic, Jiménez, Another citizen officer in Baghdad, his wife was while facing deportation in the U.S. die for I am willing to deportation, “If wife faced as his “illegal” Guatemalan remarked, be with my family” I just be allowed to (p. 218). why can’t States, the United has writing that “there never terrorism, been link Latino immigration to to attempts to According terrorism penetration of our Southern border”a single verified (p. 125). Clearinghouse, in 2004–2006, of the 814,073 people Action Records Transactional the Security (DHS) in immigration courts, just charged by the Department of Homeland Division, which lost 1,126 soldiers and whose men were awarded 31 Distinguished whose men were Division, which lost 1,126 soldiers and the and 1,685 Bronze Stars. In 492 Silvers Stars, Service 12 Legions of Merit, Crosses, the service referred to of the Harris, William General their commander, War, Korean 65 pride in itself and its heritagegroup has greater Rican people…nor than the Puerto and zealous in its support of the any that can be more dedicated have I encountered stands” (p. 207). States democratic principles for which the United “Heroes and Deportees” and “Importing Terror.” There he blasts the love-it-or-leave- Terror.” “Importing and and Deportees” “Heroes the it attitude of nativists by exhaustively to documenting the Latino contribution wars. that Latinos have notes served He honorably in all U.S. defense of the country. War World in I and 65,000 War World Ricans served example, 18,000 Puerto in For the heroic 141 points to II. He Latino immigrants and American loyalty Latino immigrants the chapter of Latino patriotism. In the theme to severalRivera devotes chapters in which he details his Puerto personal story, American,” he shares his Be an to “Proud his father, 1937, America. In and for his love roots, Rico, Puerto for Rican-Jewish he met where City, York New to from Cruz Rico, Bayamón, Puerto Rivera, emigrated at while working City, from woman Jersey Jewish a Lilly Friedman, mother, Geraldo’s shop. Geraldo learnedto sent him, at age Spanish when his parents a coffee fifteen, family grew His East Lower Rico. up in the Side in Puerto live with his grandparents Rivera lovinglyand eventually his dad, who, criticizes Long Island. movedto on assimilating even becoming II, “was keen War World serviceArmy in his after by changing discrimination combat sought to parents (p. 8). His American” more on the Geraldo, think it was Riviera (hoping people would French). their name to East live on the Lower Side, not on Long Island. other hand, chose in the 1960s to (p. 14), grew Rican his Puerto assimilation” this “cautious As a young adult, he rejected those who longer responded to no He mustache, and fully his ethnic identity. embraced legal services at a community law called he practiced and later Rivers, him Jerry office, period this during was It Lords. Young Rican Puerto radical the for attorney the became and immigrant rights.that Geraldo developed his strong belief in social justice Island for Mexicans. The history of immigration policy thus weakens the argument argument the The history weakens thus policy of immigration for Mexicans. Island came here legally earlier immigrants nativists that the as to opposed by present-day against discriminated them. the system since many Latinos, 12 faced charges of terrorism, or 0.0015 percent. He critiques the DHS for its misuse of federal power, unnecessary persecution of undocumented immigrants, and unwillingness to suspend raids during the period of census counting. Rivera sarcastically remarks, “Are our foreign enemies infiltrating our nation, hidden among the hundreds of thousands of apricot pickers or meatpacking plant workers…from Mexico? Is Obama or Abdul disguising himself as Juan or Pedro? Don’t we all sort of look alike?” (p. 124).

Immigration, crime, and disease In his chapter on “Immigrants and Crime,” Rivera confronts the question of whether immigrants are committing crimes at higher rates than U.S. citizens. It was precisely this question that led to his writing of the book. On The O’Reilly Factor, the highest- rated cable program in the country, Geraldo and Bill O’Reilly nearly came to a fistfight over this issue. The debate started with a story about a drunk driver in Virginia Beach who killed two teenage girls in a terrible accident. The driver was an “illegal” Mexican and had previous misdemeanor convictions for public drunkenness and drunk driving. O’Reilly blamed Meyera Oberndorf, mayor of Virginia Beach, for making the city a sanctuary for illegal immigrants, and thus felt he was responsible for the girls’ deaths. Accusing O’Reilly of making a “cheap political point,” Rivera roared, “He could have been a Jewish drunk, an Italian drunk, or an Irish drunk, would you still care?” (p. 5). The book cites statistics showing that immigrants are no more prone to committing crimes than are the native-born. The nonpartisan Center for Immigration Studies reported that individuals who are in the country illegally commit relatively fewer crimes than the rest of the population and the General Accounting Office, analyzing FBI records, found that foreign-born individuals account for about 19 percent of the total arrested in 1985 in six major cities while representing 19.6 percent of the aggregate population. Even more revealing is a five-year Immigration and Naturalization Study that shows a lower recidivism rate for immigrants than for the native-born. Rivera concludes that attempts to link crime with immigrants are the most nefarious type of “fear mongering” (p. 145). The chapter on “Disease” begins by condeming the mainstream media and policy makers for returning to the days when “The connection between immigration and disease has long been used to generate distaste toward immigrants that sometimes borders on panic…And often the panic is accompanied by anti-immigrant violence” (p. 133). In a May 2007 60 Minutes interview by CBS correspondent Leslie Stahl profiling Lou Dobbs, Stahl took issue with Dobbs’ statement on an April 14, 2007, CCN program in which the latter stated that “the invasion of illegal aliens is threatening the health of many Americans.” Dobbs added, “There have been 900 cases of leprosy for forty years…There have been 7,000 in the past three years.” When asked to substantiate these allegations, Dobbs said, “if we reported it, it’s a fact.” But in a New York Times interview by David Leonhart with the Director of the National Hansan’s Diseases Program, it was revealed that leprosy was “not a public health problem.” The Southern Poverty Law Center later accused Dobbs with false reporting and creating a climate that led to hate crimes and attacks on Latino immigrants. Rivera observes that this attempt to connect immigrants with disease fosters racial intolerance and notes the irony that many seasonal workers returning to Mexico are infected with HIV/AIDs contracted in the U.S.

They are stealing our jobs A commonly held myth that fuels anti-immigrant hostility is that Latino immigrants take jobs from U.S. citizens. As the economy worsens, and due to international

[ 264 ] b o o k r e v i e w s [ 265 ] In his analysis, Rivera blasts bills like H.R. 1940, introduced in April 2007 by April 2007 by in introduced his analysis, H.R. 1940, Rivera blasts bills like In counters these unsubstantiated claims with facts. A White White A with facts. claims these unsubstantiated counters Panic The book His The 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution established that “all persons born established that “all Constitution States Amendment of the United The 14th Republican Congressman Nathan Deal of Georgia, which seeks to amend the amend the Deal of Georgia, which seeks to Congressman Nathan Republican as automatically conferring Constitution by removing birthplace in the U.S. never pass,citizenship. Such a bill likely given the burdensome legislative would although Deal the author, to According of amending the Constitution. process women he objects to does not blame immigrants for seeking refuge in the U.S., While the Census Bureau specificallywho come to havechildren born their here. statistics on children born of foreign mothers, it does not break out the data keeps The book argues that anti- mothers are legal or illegal. on whether these children’s to fuel anti-immigrant sentiment. have these numbers immigrant forces inflated babies” have a multiplier effect by also challenges the notion that “anchor It fact, under current law, In sponsoring the parents under present immigration law. the fact an illegal or citizenship cannot use immigrant parent seeking residence exceptional, suffer “extreme, that their child is a citizen, unless the minor would the child must reach Moreover, deported. and unusual hardship” if the parent were an baby girl born to points out, “a Panic His Thus, the book the age of twenty-one. change start a petition to illegal have wait until 2029 to immigrant in 2008 would to the illegal status of the mother” (p. 190). or naturalized in the United States…are citizens of the United States.” This amendment States.” citizens of the United States…are or naturalized in the United African slaves as propertyoverturned court decision that characterized the Dred Scott argues that many nativists havewithout the rights of citizenship. Rivera abandoned judicial hatred of Latino immigrants. Children born fuel their of illegal to immigrantsprecedent babies,” presumablyhave because they further been described as their parents’ “anchor anchor in this country. drop quest for citizenship by allowing them to “Anchor babies” and the attack on the 14t amendment “Anchor treaties like NAFTA, immigrants are often blamed for our nation’s economic woes. woes. economic nation’s for our blamed are often immigrants NAFTA, like treaties Numbers organizations like he examines First topic. this complex Rivera tackles which have called “wage immigrants Foundation, Heritage right-wing and the U.S.A. report fellow by senior research authored Robert Foundation Heritage A thieves.” make earnings of subsequent “three hundred years to take would argued that it Rector Steve Republican Iowa immigrants” (p. 159). generation of second up for the first and illegal native-born of causing the death of twenty-five aliens a day” King “accused American the cost immigrant households would each low-skilled also claiming “that taxpayer a million dollars” (p. 160). Council of Economic the President’s 2007 prepared by report of June House labor for half of the have accounted that “foreign-born workers concluded Advisors and jobs, creating output, economic overall fueling decade, past the in growth force The lower by as much asincreasing 80 billion earnings a year. for native-born workers The book cites (p. 161). a suppression of inflation” to contributed paid foreign worker American several documenting that Latino immigrants are not displacing studies social have than their forefathers, and rarely had higher incomes over-utilize workers, senior subsidize white workers that many so-called “undocumented” notes services. He as much as the Social Security system $7 billion a year andcitizens by paying into collect on the benefits. in payroll to taxes, yet they are unable Medicare to contributing Rivera sums up his analysis by arguing that “nonpartisan, non-ideological, scientific (p. 169). America economy” greatly the to data proves immigrants contribute that One troubling dimension of the challenge to birthright citizenship is the criminalization of the parents and the detrimental impact it can have on the children. The book recounts the story of Elvira Arellano, an illegal immigrant from Mexico whose son, Raúl, was born in the U.S. She was given sanctuary by the Adalberto United Methodist Church and became an immigrant rights activist with La Familia Latina Unida in Chicago. When she went to give a speech at Our Lady Queen of Angels Church in downtown Los Angeles, she was arrested and deported to Tijuana. Her son, Raúl, would remain in the U.S. with his grandmother. Rivera cites Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa “when families are torn apart, our communities are torn apart” and asks the rhetorical question, “Is America safer now that this mother is separated from her son?” (p. 194).

Si se puede: Latinos fightback After this analysis of the anti-immigrant sentiment toward Latinos, the book His Panic offers some solutions. First, like most pro-immigrant advocates, Rivera calls for a policy that provides Latino undocumented immigrants with a path to citizenship. In addition, the author calls for Latinos to exercise their political muscle in challenging this attack on their community. In his chapter on the “Two-Party-System Threat,” Rivera warns that the Republican obsession with Latino immigration is feeding a Latino backlash against the Republican Party. The book rightfully points out that Cuban refugees have under the present Republican administration received better treatment than Haitians, due in part to racism, but also because the Cuban-American community votes Republican. The gifted journalist warns that Republicans “have by their actions on immigration reform put themselves on the wrong side of history and an inevitable demographic trend that could cost them dearly in future elections” (p. 243). This backlash is borne out by data provided in the book. In contrast to most Americans who in the 2006 elections identified the Iraq war as the single most important issue, for Hispanics, it was immigration policy. So, while in the 2004 elections, 40 percent of Hispanics voted for Republican congressional candidates, in 2006, the number dropped to 26 percent. This shift led to major losses for the Republican Party. Rivera adds, “as a live-and-let-live libertarian who has often voted Republican, I will never vote for any Republican (or Democrat) who opposes rational immigration reform and seeks to score votes on the backs of illegal aliens” (p. 246). Second, Geraldo embraces the New Sanctuary Movement that began on Ash Wednesday, March 1, 2006, when Cardinal Roger Mahoney called on American Catholics to defy attempts to criminalize illegal immigrants and those who help them. Rivera draws historical parallels to the sanctuary movement of the 1980s that harbored Central American refugees fleeing civil wars in their homelands. Mahoney vowed a campaign of civil disobedience in the archdiocese’s 288 parishes in the majority Hispanic Los Angeles Catholic archdiocese. The movement now includes representatives in 18 cities, 12 religious traditions, and 7 denominational and interdenominational organizations. In a call for moderation he writes “[t]he fact that holy places are still considered sacrosanct in this country gives me hope that a middle ground [on immigration policy] will be found” (p. 203). A third solution offered by Rivera is more Quixotic. He calls on President George W. Bush to act as a latter day Lincoln and issue his own Emancipation Proclamation, in which he would pardon illegal immigrants and grant a general amnesty if the legislative branch fails to pass meaningful immigration reform. Such an act would “short-circuit this pending social collision…save racial and ethnic amity, and rescue bipartisan politics” (p. 260). This presumes that President Bush, who has the lowest

[ 266 ] b o o k r e v i e w s Identity National America’s [ 267 ] , Northwestern University to The Challenge We: Are Melanie Maldonado : “Hispanic” is Geraldo’s preferred term, but he recognizes, as does this writer, that asdoes this writer, but he recognizes, preferred term, is Geraldo’s “Hispanic” Who Samuel Huntington, is that, while rich in information and verifiable is that, while rich Panic of His One of the shortcomings by Community College attended the standing-room-only at Hostos crowd To This monograph is an important contribution to Puerto Rican, diasporic, and and diasporic, Rican, Puerto to contribution important an is monograph This (New York: Simon & Shuster, 2004). & Shuster, Simon York: (New Caribbean music studies. López’s book builds on the work of Félix Echevarría Alvarado’s Alvarado’s Echevarría of Félix book builds on the work music studies. López’s Caribbean Whereas that 1984 text La puertorriqueño. plena: origen, sentido y desarrollo en el folklore Los expands this body of knowledge with bembeteos serves primarily survey, as a historical Cultural anthropologist Ramón López unpacks the AfroPuerto Rican music genre López unpacks the anthropologist Ramón Cultural of plena through a detailed analysis by his multiple roles as informed intellectual, of plena, his research addition to ). In (from the barrio and barriado plena practitioner, Rican lore, transnational Boricua Three Kings of Puerto López has examined the As a plenero, movements, identity and memory. and other manifestations of cultural the hybridization delineate perspective to the author utilizes an auto-ethnographic and historiography also employs archival research He of plena and its translocality. and deconstruct generational shifts, theorize hegemony, unveil plena’s to romanticizations of this creole genre. Los bembeteos de la plena puertorriqueña bembeteos Los By Ramón López San Juan: Ediciones Huracán, 2008 260 pages; $15.95 paper r e v i e w e r 1 I have chosen the purpose of this review, For and “Latino” are interchangeable. “Hispanic” Latino. the term 2 notes Geraldo: The warrior The Geraldo: media for by taking on the his own career jeopardize himself willingRivera shows to dean of the academy” Limbaugh “the names Rush He hysteria. anti-immigrant stoking in leading the most savageof conservative in history talk radio campaign right-wingers news hands with CNN spokesman shake refused to against illegal immigrants. He destructive “so annual reception, have his editorial Morris William Lou Dobbs at the and solemnly of sensible dialogue” (p. 23). the cause choices delivered bullshit been to own his Television, on Fox openly and Sean Hannity criticizes Bill O’Reilly He ultraconservative for their views on Latino immigration. employer, the reader can Google theseWhile and a bibliography. it lacks footnotes sources, secondary on attack for its reliance it leaves subject to sources, sources. the work “I have had a good life and remarked immigrants of many nationalities, Geraldo been verywhich is why I …must present this defense in my profession, successful brought applause and a standing ovation by The comment of Latino immigrants.” Geraldo Rivera has age the media arena, at the truly of 65, Within the participants. emerged as true a and immigrant rights. defense of the Latino community warrior in popularity rating of any President in recent history, would expend what little political little political what expend would history, in recent President of any rating popularity hascapital he immigrants. defense of Latino left on a