As American as Cinco de Mayo
By Allert Brown-Gort

Cinco the Mayo is upon us again, a time to eat chips and salsa, and for some a great excuse to drink Mexican beer. It is not, as most Americans think, Mexico’s independence day, but rather the anniversary of the Battle of Puebla where Mexico defeated the French forces supporting Emperor Maximilian in 1862. However, it is a holiday that is celebrated much more widely in the United States than it is in Mexico, because the commander of the Mexican forces, General Ignacio Zaragoza, was a Tejano — he was born in Goliad, Texas. 

Previously only celebrated in the Southwest, it has become the Latino holiday in the United States, and one that is gaining currency throughout society — all the way up to the White House with its Cinco de Mayo fiesta in the Rose Garden. The obvious reason is that as the Latino community has grown and expanded throughout the country, the culture and the people are ceasing to be “exotic” and have increasingly become part of everyday life.

But the way to this new normality is uneven, because so many members of this community are relatively recent immigrants. The process of integrating these immigrants into American society is fraught with a great deal of cultural fear, even while there is widespread recognition that they are an economic asset. These fears explain why as a nation we act as if the growth of this community is not a permanent state of affairs. On the one hand, we give a strong message of not wanting the immigrants to stay, denying them such basic services as licenses to drive and making it difficult for their children to pursue higher education. And on the other hand, many express the opinion that these immigrants obviously do not want to learn English or integrate into broader society as did previous waves of immigrants, because of the proximity to their homeland.

And yet, immigrants are of obvious value of to the country. Businesses widely recognize that they take jobs that most American would not. It is because of these immigrants that the United States’ economy is not facing the severe depopulation pressures facing Europe and Japan. And. as The New York Times reported recently, the vast majority of immigrants pay taxes, including Social Security and Medicare, and receive very few services in return.

The result of our schizophrenic view of immigrants is increased border control with lax employment enforcement. An unintended consequence of this situation is that, where previously workers returned to their homelands after a few months, the danger and the costs associated with crossing the border have increased so much that rather than risk multiple crossings whole families are now moving here. And, as families relocate, many more children are being born and raised in the United States — making an eventual return highly unlikely.

It is now said to the point of cliché that our immigration system is broken, and so by all means let us recognize reality and move as quickly as possible towards fixing it in as rational and humane way as we can. Although this is obviously a complicated issue, we should keep in mind the millions of children of immigrants, both American and foreign born, and what a significant portion of our workforce (and our retirement) they represent. A good place to start would be by moving forward on the Dream Act, legislation that has been stalled in Congress that would facilitate access to higher education by undocumented children, those who came without being asked, and by virtue of their upbringing now identify themselves as American. Doing all in our power now to assure their smooth integration into society will be an investment we could never regret.

Cinco de Mayo, then, is a good time to reflect on the Latino community, and what it means to this country. As General Zaragoza’s Texan roots demonstrate, the Latino presence in the United States is an essential part of American history. Latinos have been a part of North America since before the arrival of the first English colonists, and the original Latinos in the United States did not need to immigrate, they were migrated when the U.S. absorbed half of Mexico as a result of the war of 1848. However, because of the migration wave of the 1980s and 1990s, there are now millions of people in this country that are living in the shadows, but who are here to stay. They are an essential part of the economic fabric of this country, and more importantly, they are the parents of Americans.

And in the inexorable way of life, familiarity between Latinos and mainstream U.S. society will not breed contempt, it will breed babies. I can easily imagine a time when Cinco de Mayo will become just like St. Patrick’s Day, parades, beer and all — a day when “everybody is Latino” — because so many of us will be able to count a Latino forebear or three somewhere in the family tree. The issue for us now is whether our descendants will all be better off because we had the foresight to make certain that we took the appropriate steps to allow the efficient integration of these newcomers into the American family.

Allert Brown-Gort is associate director of the Institute for Latino Studies and a Fellow at the Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies at the University of Notre Dame.