Tensions mount over Puerto Ricans

[Butters]

Hispanics who don't speak English should be deported. They're taking jobs from Americans. Their children are burdening our schools.

They should all get back on their boats and go back to wherever they came from.

Those are not the words of Jan P. Hall, the fifth-grade Sadler Elementary schoolteacher accused of belittling Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, Haitians, Middle Easterners and others in a letter to members of Congress.

The comments come from Central Florida residents who have bombarded the Sentinel with several hundred calls, e-mails, letters and online postings since the Orange County School Board suspended Hall last week.

The letter became the latest flash point to divide Central Florida as demographic changes have created a vibrant Hispanic market whose visibility has taken many older residents by surprise. From the cultural to the political, the changes seem to be happening quickly.

Earlier this year, oldies fans were incensed when one Clear Channel Communications radio station switched to Puerto Rican salsa.

Last month, the federal government filed a lawsuit against Osceola County, where Hispanics make up more than a third of the population, charging that the county's at-large election system discriminates against Hispanics. A group of mostly Hispanic residents also has sued Kissimmee on similar grounds.

The letter attributed to Hall seemed to open the floodgates of discontent. Hispanics were horrified at the letter's hurtful words, while non-Hispanic voices rose not only to support the First Amendment right of free speech but also, in many cases, to agree with the letter's divisive contents.

Backlash to diversity

"If a person of color says bad things about white people, it is opinion," noted one posting signed "Learn English" at an OrlandoSentinel.com bulletin board last week. "If a white person [says] something bad about a person of color it is 'racism.' We WHITE people are the MINORITY in Florida. Where are our groups to fight for OUR rights?"

The majority of Floridians are non-Hispanic whites, but Hispanics are now Florida's largest minority group.

The backlash to diversity is typical of times and places in which people work their way through significant demographic changes. Some historians and social scientists hold that nativist views -- often based on real issues as well as imagined fears -- are not any different from attitudes held against Italian, Polish, Irish and German Catholic immigrants of past centuries or the anti-Asian sentiments of the late 1800s and the early 1900s.

"This is a process in which groups are seeking power and control over their lives," said Robert Adelman, a sociology professor at Georgia State University. "And, because there is a perception that many immigrants, particularly Latino immigrants, have entered the U.S. illegally, many Americans complain about, and fight against, immigrants entering the education or health-care systems."

Yet Central Florida's predominant Hispanic group consists of Puerto Ricans, who are U.S. citizens at birth. The letter's call to close the borders on immigrants would not apply to Puerto Ricans in any case.

The battle about language, however, drives much of the debate.

Diana Andrews, a 32-year-old office worker from Kissimmee, was among those who wrote to support the teacher. America should wake up, she stated, because tensions will escalate, and "we'll end up having a war within this country."

Andrews said she is not speaking out of hatred.

"I've noticed a lot of other cultures that talk down about Americans and can't stand white people, but yet they are here working, taking jobs and getting a better life for themselves," Andrews said. "I can't get certain jobs because I am not bilingual. That's discriminatory to me."

Slow transition

Because of the sheer size of the Hispanic community, today's newcomers do not renounce their culture to assimilate -- a process that can take two or more generations.

[Butters]

"Hispanic growth in Orlando is going at a dizzying speed," said Luis Martinez-Fernandez, director of the Latin American, Caribbean and Latino Studies Program at the University of Central Florida. "A Hispanic person can come here and hold on to the consumer lifestyle of the United States without changing his cultural values and belief system. That transition does not happen so fast."

Cesar Perales, president of the New York-based Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, said the tensions are catching the attention of national groups. His organization met this week with Orlando attorneys willing to volunteer time to represent Hispanics. The group joined petitioners in the Kissimmee lawsuit.

"For some time we have been hearing about the need for us to work in Central Florida," Perales said. "The letter . . . is representative of the issues and the sense that long-standing residents of Central Florida, the Anglos, if I can use that term, truly resent and don't understand the new Latino community."

It's a tension that will last until Hispanics are welcomed as full partners in shaping the Central Florida reality, said Samuel Lopez, 58, a Puerto Rican activist who leads the United Third Bridge civil-rights advocacy group in Melbourne.

"Anyone who thinks that the problem is going to be over if the teacher is fired is wrong," Lopez said. "It's not over. It's just the beginning."

Many of those who speak publicly, such as liberal radio personality Jim Philips, are emphatic in saying that they are not racists or xenophobes. It's the right to speak up, even at the risk of offending, that's at stake. Others agree with the letter's sentiments but say they would have expressed their thoughts differently.

Conservative radio personality Doug Guetzloe says the issue has fired up his listeners more than any other has.

"There is an outrage out there," Guetzloe said. "The firestorm from the Puerto Rican community pales compared with the firestorm created from trying to breach what we view as her constitutional rights . . ."

Assimilation tops the concern of Michael Phillips, 51, a real-estate appraiser in Orlando.

"The majority of American people are pro-immigration. The concern is we are not controlling immigration," Phillips said. "I am happy for anyone who wants to come, citizen or otherwise. Come as an immigrant, pass through the system, but they need to assimilate."

Losing 'who we are'

To experts such as Evelyn Luciano-Carter the idea of assimilation is misguided. The Maitland consultant on cultural issues, who is of Puerto-Rican ancestry, said expecting people to forsake an established culture and embrace another set of values is too much to ask. Instead, she said what will likely take place is acculturation, a blend of cultures over time.

"Assimilation forces us to lose something of who we are," said Luciano-Carter, 48. "Who identifies the foreigner in a nation of immigrants? What makes you American? Isn't it the fact that you are white, blue eyes and blonde? Isn't that what is being said?"

Eric Gonzalez, a Puerto Rican artist, looks at the controversy and the growing tensions with mixed feelings. As someone who arrived in Orlando in 1974, when the metro area had fewer than 50,000 Hispanics, Gonzalez is a community pioneer. He remembers a time when area Latinos had to drive all the way to the one club in Casselberry where they could dance salsa.

By Orlando standards, Gonzalez, 52, is an old-timer in this community. He condemns prejudice but realizes that Central Florida's diversity, which includes more than 464,000 Hispanics, might intimidate some non-Hispanic old-timers who fear the demographic shift.

"We have contributed to some of these perceptions," Gonzalez said, adding that newcomers should "learn the social rules here. Instead of being ambassadors of our ethnic background, we become more of a cause for fear."

[Yujike]

When they arrived in the US Italians ate from garbage cans and lived in boxes because they did not have papers (WOP). In Boston, many signs proclaimed "No Jews, dogs or Irish allowed." The Japanese were "interned" during the second War, even when many had been born in the US. The asian migration was discouraged by laws passed by Congress. The bottom of the social ladder gets the heat. In time, hispanics will go through the same process of becoming americans. PR's give Mexicans a hard time and now Mexicans are giving Guatemalans and Salvadorians a hard time, these in turn, will do it to some other group. Is like trial by fire. This is the US, we thrive because we get a new group every 10 years or so(mainly due to some agression by the US in their country) who will do the things the others feel too superior or "americanized" to do, like CLEANING THE BATHROOOMS and servicing the population. Look at Europe, they had to bring in asians, arabs and others to do the jobs their own citizens refuse to do and look at the tensions this has created. What would happen to the central Florida economy if these groups were banned and denied entry?? Whites will start eating out of garbage cans and sleeping in boxes. They would not like to relive the past.

[L_F_Miranda]

While true that the recent influx of Hispanics has risen tensions among those fearful for their jobs, the truth is that these fears are real on one side, but premature for the majority of us.

1- Immigrant Hispanics are NOT competing for the jobs of the Middle Class, that will be at a later date down the pike when their kids and our kids enter the professional work pools.

2-Immigrant Hispanics are moving into low skilled jobs for now, thus depressing the wages of our own unskilled people. It's Poor Blacks and Puerto Ricans who have most to loose from the competition. The owners of Capital have the most to gain. How? It drives down wages and maintains an available pool of workers to keep wages stagnant.

Will this be the base for a revolution Eddier style? Don't hold your breath, at least not in the U.S. The ruling class in the U.S. is too astute. Read Michael Lind's "The Next Americans Nation." In it he explains how the forces of socialism have always been diverted by the White Over Class.

Why the borders WON'T BE CLOSED!

Because the immigrants, in the majority are SUBMISSIVE, they are preferred to workers who know their rights. They'll also work for peanuts until they drop. They'll live 10 in a room and get up early to make their bosses prefer them and not the other lazy "Mal-agradecidos" like the Ricans, who can always fall upon the dole.

Will Mexico do something? You've gotta be kidding! This immigrant wave is serving Vicente Fox and the Mexican ruling class much like the exodus of Ricans did for Muñoz in the late 40's and 50's. It's an escape valve for tensions.

By intellectualizing the immigrant influx, without knowing it, we are helping create the future Conservatives of America. Next to an "agradecido" immigrant, Another Rican and El Jibaro will look like Leftist Pinkos.

LOL... I really do see your point, but I wonder if it is as cut and dry as you say? Even though I am seeing most of that occur RIGHT UNDER MY NOSE where I live? I just wonder if it is that simple -- without someone wising up and doing something to stop it?

Wait a minute, we don't read... so that's out.

[Suki]

The competing economics again. People looking for the weaker links in the economic chain of command. As usual. Using hispanos as scapegoats for the systems lacks.

But, I did read some typical Central Florida resident arguing on line with a statehooder Puerto Rican who spoke bad English. The conversation went something like this:

Gringa from Florida: Why don't you people learn English and be real Americans? Be committeed to this society.

PR: We are real Americans. Puerto Ricans in Orlando and Kississimmee are USA citizens. We are committed to this society. And are just as American as you are. Yes, some of us don't speak English well, but speaking English well is not as important as being loyal to this nation and the constitution.

Gringa: Why don't you people in Puerto Rico accept already that you are not teaching English to your children and your not paying taxes and you are not really like us at all or interested in being like us really. You just want a job and money, but you don't want to be like us. Stay home and make money some other way, and spare us your lack of Americanism and English.

Vaya, la Gringa has some points. Lol!! The Statehooders want their cake and eat it too. They want estadidad jibara. There is no such thing. It is become a Florida Gringo and forget your Spanish and pay taxes and die as a culture. Or have the courage to go it alone and do your thing without the Gringos hovering over you making sure you don't take a bigger slice of their apple pie than they think you are entitled too. Get back on that boat boricuas and swim back wherever you came from. You aren't real Americans. You keep calling the USA dollar pesos, and quarters pesetas and you are gonna piss off the real Americans. WHo don't know you are a second class statutory USA citizen. All they know is you don't speak their language, and eat things real Florida Southern white crackers don't eat. And dance to music they don't dance to. You are some 'fake' American. And you need to realize to be a real American you better stop with the diversity of America. That is for wishy washy liberals and they definitely are not in charge of the white house. LOL!!

La dura realidad de la colonia. Las contradicciones.

[Eddier1]

LFM, after the Berlin Wall was torn down, the Old Soviet Union was
destroyed internally by a bloated bureaucracy of inflitrated bourgeoisie
whom Lenin and Stalin in their days tried mightly to search and destroy
among the vanguard, but without total success, since they were hidden;

Some though were found and transported to the Gulags or executed.
Then the smarty-pants white overclass bourgeois got on their high
horses and screamed "tyrants, monsters, murderers" at the likes
of Lenin and Stalin. And you think that these white overclass
individuals to his very day are smart in stopping socialism in America?

You are living in a country that since the early part of the 20th century
has had a socialist movement that stopped child labor, and eventually
brought about all the reforms including those of the New Deal and
its social security and general welfare programs...and you call all
that the "DOLE", the dole, eh. You read like some Irish immigrant
who invented that words of going on the "dole".

But then, you are a faddist of sorts, and latched on to M. Lind's
book like it was the bible of economics, what with his predictions
of a successful globalised world and even a one world federalist
gov't, and none of that has come to pass successfully! Haw, haw!
what idealism you are fanatically attached to LFM. It is ludicrous,
like when the Frenchman Ravel wrote before Lind that socialism
will give way totally to democratic liberalism, and all gov'ts in
the world will be liberal ones, and socialism will be interdicted
at each and every turn, and that hasn't happened either!

There are whites in America and "there are whites", but you
don't read all the books they writel. Have you ever read the
internationally celebrated book by John Reed, entitled
"Ten Days that Shook the World", he was a white American
and so was Upton Sinclair who wrote the internationally
celebrated book "The Jungle"?

Oh no, you don't read that because it would put a crimp
in your tirade against the Boricuas, whom you call dense
and other things that are too shameful to even repeat
unless one is as cynical and sadistical a Puertorriqueno
like you in DENIAL.

You wrote about 'revolution Eddier style', and seemed
not even to know that it was not necessarily revolution
of the mid 1917-1920's in eastern Europe, wherein
violence was a must in revolutionary strategy and
tactics or no survival possible. There are peaceful,
and bloodless revolutionary goals too that can be
achieved by reforms such that those goals will
fall as naturally as ripe apples fall off of a tree.

So amend your thoughts about me and revolution,
and try to break your obsession with Lind, who has
gone fallow as a false prophet. Broaden your
horizons, and read more widely and you may, if
you ain't too old, be able to obtain concepts that
will help you to achieve a new point of view that
will make you trash your old trite and irrelevant
ones that you are presently obsessed about.