Eugene Rodriguez is a fourth generation Mexican American. He attended Cal Santa Cruz and received a Master’s degree in classical music from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. For the last sixteen years, the forty-eight -year -old classical guitarist has been at the helm of Los Cenzontles, a non-profit cultural center in San Pablo, California that he founded.
At Los Cenzontles, he and his staff have encouraged kids to work hard, practice, take joy, dance, make wonderful music and art. Musicians at the center have collaborated musically with The Chieftans, Taj Mahal, and Linda Ronstadt, among other accomplished singers and musicians.
Eugene Rodriguez has dark skin and black hair, and like many Mexican-Americans, he was taught to assimilate.
And there was a reason for this.
Self-preservation.
“Mexican Americans have a strategy,” he tells me, ”Blend in and don’t make waves.”
He says: There’s been an undercurrent in the United States that Mexicans are less than human.
So very few Mexican Americans made waves.
Now all that has changed, because Arizona has passed a new immigration law. It requires all policemen in the state who “reasonably suspect” someone to be in the country illegally to stop them. And if they don’t have papers, to arrest them. Reasonable suspicion that a guy is an unauthorized immigrant must be accompanied by a law being broken — your tail light is out, for instance, or you have a messy front yard, in the eyes of the policeman. Next, the cop must have more than one reason to reasonably suspect you’re an undocumented immigrant. For instance, a person who dresses in a way a policeman thinks indicates that a person is an “illegal alien,” and travels down known smuggling corridors (that would be almost any road in Arizona) could arouse sufficient “reasonable suspicion” to be arrested if he’s not carrying papers.
Honestly, I didn’t make that up.
It’s in an instructional training video for Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s deputies. The guy in the video is Kris Kobach, who wrote the law and is called a “nativist” by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
As for Kobach’s video on what constitutes “reasonable suspicion,” you can see it here.
This explains why Rodriguez, an accomplished American with degrees and honors, intuits he could be stopped by any policeman in Arizona who “reasonably” suspects that he’s an unauthorized immigrant.
That outrages him.
His great grandfather was an Arizona pioneer.
“It’s too much,” he says.
In a way he’s grateful for the new law, because in his view the law has given voice and shape to discrimination against Mexicans that has been festering in the United States for decades.
So Rodriguez, a guy who says he never made waves, is now giving voice to a reaction to Arizona’s law: An outraged call to action.
In a song.
Rodriguez wrote a corrido, which is a stylized Mexican ballad about a current event. This particular corrido is about Arizona’s new law, and it’s called ”Estado de Verguenza,” which means “State of Shame.” It calls for Mexican Americans to fight Arizona’s fear-based racism with money, votes, and pride.
It calls for them to make waves.
You can hear it here. And also see it. It’s on YouTube.
THIS FROM MY COUSIN, JAMES GREENE:
Hi, Terry!
I really like the new format of your blog. It’s got a lot of good stuff to think about. I hope all the anger you and others are reporting doesn’t obscure the fact our laws must be obeyed. I think there is a reason more than 50% of the nation supports Arizona flawed law.
I read the information about Kris Kobach, doesn’t sound like the greatest, most ethical or most reputable person to work with; Los Cenzontles, looks like a worthwhile, public service group; the two articles in the Border Reporter, and watched the corrido.
Your blog and Los Cenzontles’ new position, and Bay Area papers imply the law is already in force. My understanding is that it won’t be in force until some time in July (July 29?)
I think it’s worth bearing in mind the Mexicans are extremely intolerant of illegals from south of their border and engage in severe forms of harassment ranging from murder to severly beating and robbing illegal Latinos from further south.. Their protests in this country are somewhat hypocritical and hollow in view of this. Arizona is insisting anyone entering the state must be in the United States legally. What on earth is wrong with that?
Nothing has been said implying Arizona can’t make changes to the law that are more realistic and equitable in the future and consistent with this position. What I see is a lot of emotion and no real proposals.
We’ve seen a lot of that in California recently, particularly in most of the current crew of politicians running for the various offices. Meg Whitman, one of three GOP candidates for the Governor’s office, said there are better ways to deal with illegal immigrants than Arizona’s approach, but did she offer any proposal. NO! She’s just pandering. No one is sure where Jerry Brown, the leading Democratic gubernatorial candidate stands on any issue. He simply keeps everyone guessing and implies he supports the stronger side on any issue.
One thought that occurred to me is why can’t illegal immigrants working for reputable established businesses be issued a work visa that allows them to work legally in the state. Self employed illegals working in legitimate business would have face a greater challenge establishing they are engaged solely in legal employment but I think an equitable solution is possible.. The details of how this work visa might work would have to be worked out. But the bottom line is to somehow legalize the presence of gainfully employed, otherwise honest, hard working illegals working for reputable businesses, avoid the disruption to the state’s economy and its citizens’ sense of securty, and exclude and target drug and human trafficking and other illicit activities engaged in by a small but powerful, well organized group of people.
Just how difficult is it recognize there are two groups of illegals? If you read the Border Reporter, it may extremely difficult since those seemingly uninformed American officials appear to have shown up for a photo opportunity and demonstrate they are tough on illegals.
I don’t really care whether the captured smugglers were part of a bigger cartel or not. The bottom line is they were engaged in an activity that is extremely illegal in this country. To defend that group is to imply an illegal has a “right” to do anything he/she wants to do to earn a living.
Where do you draw the line?
I received a comment that named a woman in Tustin California submitted fake records to get a US work visa, and fake bank documents and paid $5000 for a US tourist visa, and is now applying for citizenship.
Since I have no idea whether this is true, I removed the comment and rewrote it without the woman’s name.
I’m really not sure where to start on this law, I did read it briefly, but it will require a better reading
The thing that really puzzles me, is that if you are illegal why are you entitled to be able to make a living in the us, or have free health care, and just because you hop the fence, and have a baby on this side, have it declared a citizen. There are plenty of people who are citizens that cannot get medical attention when they need it.
I do applaud your governor for starting a solution. Where I live people are suppose to provide identification which shows that they are legal in order to get a job, but sometimes it is not real, if the employer finds this out, all they can do is let the employee go, can’t turn him in. but if someone finds out they are employing people without papers they can be fines.
this law will probably get washington moving, which would be good