Mexican, American as a Single Identity

The global economy has made the world smaller. An event unfolding in Mexico will make the distance between the U.S. and its neighbor to the south seem imperceptible. The advent of a new law that enables Mexicans to maintain their birth nationality when they acquire U.S. citizenship will have a tremendous impact on lessening the cultural distances between the people of the two countries.

The law is drawing criticism from those who say that dual citizenship should also allow voting in Mexican elections, while others criticize it as encouraging an “invasion.” What both of these points of view miss, and miss by a wide margin, is the genuine sentiment among Mexican immigrants in the U.S. of appreciation and loyalty for both countries.

I know this personally, having come to this country as a child, and I know it as a matter of fact. Thousands of Mexicans who have established a life in the U.S. have felt loyalty enough to become U.S. citizens and they take the privilege of voting in elections very seriously. The National Assn. of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials has reported that naturalized citizens vote at a rate significantly higher than U.S.-born citizens.

On an everyday basis, these naturalized citizens consider themselves true contributors to their adopted homeland. By the same token, they feel a deep connection to their country of origin in their language, their cultural traditions and a heartfelt cario (love) that they are unwilling to leave behind. Pedro Arias, an immigrant from the state of Jalisco, stated this most succinctly in a recent article in The Times when he said, “This [new law] allows me to become a citizen here without feeling I’m abandoning Mexico. This country has treated me well and I love it, but I am still Mexican.”

All of us have personal stories that make the same point. My mother realized the dream of all Mexican immigrants when she returned to Mexico and established a small business in our hometown of Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua. She called it Casa California because, she said, “California has been good to me and I want to salute it in my hour of prosperity.”

I have been working on the promotion of U.S. citizenship among Mexican immigrants since 1981 when I was a community relations manager for the Carnation Co. and we published a guide to explain the advantages and process for citizenship. We did a survey among 1,000 Latino citizenship class students to find out why they would labor for three hours in a classroom twice a week after a full day’s work. They gave three reasons: They wanted better job opportunities, they wanted to have a voice through their vote and they wanted to sponsor relatives’ immigration. On the other hand, Mexicans who avoided U.S. citizenship most consistently stated that they did not want to lose their right to own property in Mexico because they, like my mother, planned to return someday and start a business.

As part of the political organizing that occurred during the reapportionment process of 1981, many Latino activists concluded that encouraging immigrants to naturalize was the only way the community would gain appropriate political representation. In meetings with Mexican government officials, we began to raise the possibility of double citizenship so that Mexicans would not lose their property rights if they became U.S. citizens. I remember a particular meeting where, as a member of the Los Angeles Board of Education, I raised the issue with Mexico’s secretary of foreign relations at the time, Fernando Solana. The question was considered undiplomatic, but the political empowerment of the Latino community was much too important to worry about politeness.

The U.S. should not look with apprehension at the prospect of having Mexicans become U.S. citizens and retain their nationality and property rights in Mexico. Historically, Mexicans have proved to be quite capable of living in two worlds, in two cultures and speaking in two languages.

Los Angeles was founded in 1781 by families who traveled from what is now Sonora and Sinaloa, Mexico. At that time, they were carrying the Spanish flag. Forty years later, those families were under the Mexican flag. For a brief period 25 years later, they carried the California bear flag. Two years after that, and ever since, descendants of those families have proudly flown the U.S. flag. New immigrants have learned the lesson of the early families and have struggled to learn the new ways while maintaining a sense of self-esteem by appreciating their cultural roots.

In the practice of real living, of providing for your family, what truly matters is human dignity, a respect for others, and a sense of striving together for quality of life. For immigrant families, finding a level of comfort with our cultural plurality should start with understanding our history, our cultural traditions and our vision for a good future that we can pass on to our children. Just as Mexicans have a particular history in relation to the U.S. and to California, the same applies to Chinese, Koreans, Russians, Armenians, Jews and Muslims from the Middle East--every variety of newcomer in our midst.

As Americans, we should not demand that immigrants reject their past and renounce who they are as the price for obtaining a document that calls them U.S. citizens. Instead, we should delight in the fact that this center of the world can be a model for all countries going through similar demographic changes. The world is smaller, and the future does not bode well for those who demand a rigid definition of nationality and cultural identity. We will do our children a huge service if we can confidently say to them that citizenship status does not prohibit us from speaking a variety of languages, practicing a variety of religions and enjoying a multitude of cultural traditions.