Latino Americans: 500 Years of History (Peril & Promise)

The screening of the Latino Americans, Episode 6: Peril & Promise (1980-2000) was hosted by Dr. Vilma Fuentes, Assistant Vice President of Academic Affairs at Santa Fe College February 24th 2016. This was the continuation of the previous screening of the Latino Americans, Episode 5, Prejudice and Pride (1965-1980). While the previous screening concentrated on the history of the Hispanic revolts for their rights, specifically the Mexican revolts, this screening focused on the massive inflow of immigrants from Central America who had to flee from their own country for the sake of not being killed or exploited.

Before the screening began, Dr. Fuentes talked about the benefits and the drawbacks of the massive Latino immigration. She also briefly stated the impact of the undocumented Latino population in the US economy as well as in the US politics. To reduce the negative effects of these undocumented immigrants, several attempts were made to legalize the children of these immigrants such as the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act (DREAM Act) which was supposed to provide legal status to children of undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. Although this would have secured a better future for children of these hardworking, undocumented immigrants, failed to garner enough support in the Senate or the House of Representatives

Finally in 2012, another policy was passed known as the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). The policy basically states that the undocumented youth who came here as children are protected from deportation and granted work permits for up to two years but not granted any legal status. In other words, they are still being said to deport from the country after working in the United States and paying taxes for two years, which is even a worse deal than remaining undocumented and working as well as getting paid under the table.

Even though the Latino population is the fastest growing minority in the United States and are making major contribution in the US economy (illustrated in the figures below), they are still not being fairly enough by the majority of the US government.

The screening of the Latino Americans, Episode 6: Peril & Promise (1980-2000), started off with the 1959’s revolution of Fidel Castro and the massive emigration of Cubans into South Florida who were upper middle class, middle class, as well as educated. These people felt that they were in some temporary exile and they held on to their Spanish (Dennis Baron). By now, as we all know, this is not the case. Back in the 1960s and 1970s, this was not taken lightly by many of the Americans. People like Amy Shafer, resented this notion of a bilingual community. This idea soon spread like cancer in the country by the late 20th and early 21st century. These people were not simply willing to show compassion to these people who were desperately fleeing from their country just to live another day. These revolts had adverse impact in the US economy as well as politics. These problems could have been easily resolved if these people were given the basic rights of language and freedom. But the people of this nation were blinded with their own pride of a nation which was simply given to them by God, because if He never wanted they would not have ever come to existence in this land, and were in no way willing to show sympathy and solicitude to these desperate immigrants. This is exactly the opposite what all of the different religions teaches the humanity (Karen Armstrong). The creator wants us to be sympathetic to the less fortunate beings. Not boast in pride of what the fortunate people has been able to acquire.

One of the main components that people as individuals should acquire is the practice of showing compassion to other people, especially to the ones who are really in need of help. The problems that the United States had to go through for such immigration issues could have been, and can still be easily, resolved if appropriate measures were taken to help those immigrants fleeing for their lives. Helping them, rather than fighting against them, would be beneficial not only to the individual states bit also to the entire nation as a whole.

Works Cited:

"Latino Americans." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2016.

"Google." Google. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2016.

"Nearly Eight-in-Ten Reddit Users Get News on the Site." Pew Research Center RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2016.

"American Immigration Council." American Immigration Council. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2016.

"Population Projections." - Main. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2016.