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Culture: the tie that binds

Juan Hernandez came to Phoenix to recently.

Juan Hernandez came to Phoenix recently to tout his new book and to film a commercial for a local credit union.

Hernandez is the half Mexican, half White Texan that Mexican President Vicente Fox appointed to his cabinet as director of the Office of the President for Mexicans Abroad. During that time, he called himself "The Gringo in Mexican Los Pinos" (equivalent to the White House). He resigned that position in 2003, hit with flak from both Mexican politicos and U.S. citizens who referred to him as an "American traitor." The late newsman Peter Jennings, during an interview, once asked him, "Who are you loyal to?"

"Asking me to pick a culture is like making me choose between my mother and my father," said Hernandez during an interview at Latino Perspectives offices. His mother was a Fort Worth socialite and his father a Mexican law student.

A researcher and poet by trade, Hernandez is touring the country to promote The New American Pioneers: Why are We Afraid of Mexican Immigrants?

His thesis is simple, if a bit Pollyanna-ish politically: The United States should welcome Mexican immigrants – undocumented and legal – as "New Americans" who will take both countries into a new era of prosperity and cooperation.

The umbilical cords between Mexican workers and the economic foundations of the U.S. and Mexico cannot be cut, so both governments must learn to live with it, he proposes. For example, the stability of Mexico depends on the $20 billion the country receives each year from Mexican expatriates. To deport the estimated 12 million undocumented workers, as some right-wing U.S. Congressmen suggest, is economic suicide for the United States, he says.

To play politics with reform is a mistake, he says. "When it comes to immigration, it seems the chaos on the border is exceeded only by the chaos in Washington," he observes.

Hernandez’s message is not a popular one during the current rancorous and politically charged debate over immigration reform. But it is as pragmatic as him making commercials urging Mexican immigrants to sign up with a local credit union. Hernandez the realist understands that money underscores the whole immigration dynamic.