 Photos courtesy of Jane Williams
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The photos on the left are from a student protest in my parents' home town of La Habra, Calif. The non-violent protest was composed of roughly 500 students who walked out of classes at one of the local high schools and one of the local intermediate schools. My Mom, who took the shots, runs the La Habra Journal, the community's primary newspaper.
The shots on the right are of a construction site in Stapleton, S.I. Last week, somebody put up some anti-Mexican graffiti. As I noted at the time, the site is a building reconversion project that has relied heavily on immigrant (presumably undocumented) labor. Almost every construction project that doesn't involve city-owned property on this corner of the island relies on Mexican labor at some stage, however, so it's a bit unclear why the graffiti writer chose to target this one. It is the most visible project in the neighborhood, so perhaps that was a factor (albeit not a mitigating one since the writer felt comfortable risking his or her own visibility).
Whatever the reason, I would say the Mexican labor situation here on Staten Island expertly summarizes the Republican Party's dilemma when it comes to undocumented labor. I have no doubt that the non-union contruction companies putting up many of the local buildings and townhomes are run by tough-minded businessmen who nod their heads in sync with Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity on 770 WABC-AM whenever they're driving around in the pickup truck. I also have no doubt that many of these same people see the fact they don't have to pay social security, medicare or city, state, and federal taxes in a quasi-libertarian stick-it-to-Uncle Sam kind of light.
I'm not saying the owner of this building or the person in charge of this particular construction company feels that way, of course, but I am saying that the Republican Party, which has historically branded itself as the defender of business interests, free markets and small government, is in a tough, tough spot on this one.
Then again, I also wouldn't be surprised if the person who produced this piece of graffiti was a Democratic-voting union operative sending a message to the Republican businessman as opposed to the hardworking Mexicans on his crew. Immigration, after all, is one of those funny issues that tends to bend and twist stereotypes to the breaking point.
Take those girls on the upper left, for example. They attend a high school whose mascot is the original Zapatista -- as in followers of Emiliano Zapata, leader the 1910-1919 Mexican Revolution. They speak English with a Valley Girl accent, I'm sure, and are already feeling a little bit concerned that their one-day walkout will have a negative impact on their upcoming grades and tests. The boys, meanwhile, tote skateboards and backpacks and look about as threatening as your average Southern California mall rat. Their parents -- unpictured but in many cases third or fourth generation descendants of the refugees who fled north during that aforementioned Revolution -- already vote Republican on most issues and take extreme pride in being both American and Mexican in terms of heritage.
Long story short, when people on the radio and the Internet accuse politicians of "pandering to the Mexican vote," they forget that in many parts of the country, the Mexican vote looks a lot like the Italian vote here on Staten Island or the Cuban vote down in Florida. Only a political moron would antagonize an entire ethnic group on purpose, and, contrary to popular opinion, people who can get themselves elected to public office are generally not political morons.
Granted, the Mexican votes aren't here yet on Staten Island, but if the number of baby carriages around Port Richmond, Tompkinsville and Tappen Park is any indication, it's well on the way. Just like the Russian vote, the West Indian Vote, the Chinese vote and the vote of just about every other ethnic group that uses Staten Island as a stepping stone in the traditional migration route from outer Brooklyn to middle America.
Maybe the person who painted this one man political protest was simply trying to cover up the writing already on the wall.
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