Many Americans are often perplexed by political support among Latinx and Hispanic-American voters for candidates who often demoralize and create anti-immigration policies, closing the same passage ways that they or their family members came through over the last few decades, with exception for those families for whom the Southwest United States has always been home.
The relationship between the US and Latin American countries geographically dispersed from Mexico to South American and the Caribbean, is long and complex. It follows the sails of a dream called Manifest Destiny, whereby White American property owners and presidents have looked South as if gazing down the rolling hills of the National Mall, toward these countries, not as sovereign nations, but as extended plantation fields for the extraction of natural resources and labor exploitation since the South’s loss of the Civil War.
Modern American politicians have an equally long history of coercing Latin American leaders through trade deals, military support including training by the School of Americas, and even funding intra-regional conflict including regime changes. Examples for further self-study include critical analysis of the creation of the Panama Canal; the 1980’s wars in El Salvador and Nicaragua; Iran-Contra Affair; NAFTA and the creation of the maquiladoras; the World Bank’s Structural Adjustment program; drug wars in Columbia; the 2009 regime change in Honduras; and of course the infamous Bay of Pigs off the coast of Cuba.
Like a mathematical quotient, these nations (and the Caribbean) have been unduly impacted by American foreign policy, creating winners and losers, and a driving force for members of both group seeking resettlement in the United States for a safer lifestyle. For some, they come in praise of a government that protected their upper-class status while in-country. For others, they come to escape the lack of economic opportunities created by monocrops, environmental degradation caused by years of over-harvesting by US companies like Dole, militarization of police and suppression of human rights, and/or to escape violence created by escalating drug wars and a rise in youth gangs as economic opportunities to make a sustainable-living continue to decrease.
In addition to arms and structured debt, American foreign policy in Latin America has also included the spread of American racism and the ideology of White Supremacy. Insecurity driven by rejection of creole generations by their European ancestral roots of origin (read Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys), many nations pursued a path of Blanqueamiento – whitening- to erase their African and Indigenous peoples’ lineages. This included strategies to increase European immigration and attempted erasures of African and Indigenous languages and culture, domination of their lands, and genocide pogroms. Resettlement of Italian and German fascist regimes escaping prosecution after World War II also contribute to an anti-Black sentiment. Finally, Latin America’s historic Catholic roots, embedded in a process to de-Indigenize and be reborn ‘civilize’ – and continual spread of Evangelism- continue to fuel alignment with America’s conservative political philosophy.
This synopsis is an over simplification of course, but offered to shed light and understanding on why many (not all of course) Latinx and Hispanic cultures align with America’s right, even when contradicting their own day-to-day best interests. It is also my intention to highlight the critical need to address anti-Black racism embodied within these cultural groups before we can strive for a utopian dream of building authentic Brown-Black political alliances.
In my next blog post, I share an introduction to a thesis paper written in 2011 as a case study in the rise of anti-Black racism in Cuba as an example of struggles found in other Latin American countries today.
As we seek to heal our nation, regardless of who wins this current election, may we take the time to have authentic and honest conversations on our histories and seek a common understanding to build empathy, open-mindness, reconciliation, and opportunity for true community building of a pluralistic nation.
Alisa's thoughts on Beloved Communities 