They Come When the Rain Drums

WALKING on a morning after the rain falls for hours, I find worms strewn everywhere. Or I used to.

I’m thinking of Syracuse, New York. Neversink, New York. Gaithersburg, Maryland. And a few other places on the East Coast. I cast my mind back to the other places I grew up: New Mexico, Miami Beach, Massachusetts, San Diego…I don’t remember the worms. I don’t see them do this in Oregon…though that may be simply because the rain either falls all day and night, or the sun shines hotly for weeks at a time.

But maybe the call and response is the worm’s nature everywhere. Mother nature’s musical tears charming the earth-bound snake. Perhaps the conga-taps and pebble-bone raps of la lluvia that dance atop the woolen roof of their mud-sky dome home call them to the light. Is it a song that seduces? Is it a hammer that challenges? Is the sound of the rain—like the machines drilling down into Zion and getting nearer by the moment—a threat that demands they rise? Or is it a murmuring bass-laden call that undulates their five hearts into a loam-cresting shape? Do they respond but all the while attempt to escape?

There is another call and response that brings us far worse than worms. Worms, after all, churn the soil with their passage and their ingesting and filtering of the earth. They are useful and productive creatures. I speak now of a vile force in our culture today often benignly titled “those opposed to immigration.” Not “those concerned with the growing amount of poverty on the continent,” and not “those who fear losing their insurance.” I’m not talking about “people who wonder if all that stuff FOX says is true,” nor am I referencing “people who miss the way their town was before all the immigrants came.”

Because being aware of the culture changing and having feelings over it is not offensive. It is human. And normal. And all and any of us might feel that way. Change challenges the human creature, who seeks stasis often, even though s/he is an example of flux moving matter into motion until it melts away into dust…dust that never stands still but soon rises with the next breath of wind, and is breathed in again by the living. Perhaps it is because we are but an ever-fluctuating body of rivers and masses; drinking in, giving back the earth; aging, changing, growing, shrinking, spreading; our very molecules leaping out and trading places with those of the objects and people we surround ourselves with—that we seek some containers limiting the flex and flow of our lives. The preference of one type of culture is evidence, too, of that desire. The unwillingness of the aging to see that their world cannot last, and is everyday being reshaped by the younger…this is understandable. And a piece of that. The conservative mindset, too, is one you can reason out. It appeals to many because it soothes us in that sense. It is a lie, at heart. But oh, all the energy that is expended in creating the illusion that it does what it means to: contain, conform, civilize and stand as a bulwark against dawn drum-circle dances of expansiveness and transformation.

But the clan I speak of is not one of these people concerned with change. That would make them rational to a degree. These I mention are…no longer rational. If they ever were. These ones stepped away from that land at some point, now paddling manically over the stagnant swamp of hate. The group(s) to which I refer will overlook a story if it does not mention their chosen targets, but become sudden activists if the same story brings in those they choose to hate. And then they will appear, and advocate such things as watching people die in front of them; or suffer from lack of medical attention or lack of food, because they are Other. Because “they shouldn’t BE here” or because “it’s their own fault.” And so on. And so on. And so on. Visit any article online that discusses immigration, immigrants, or familes identified with a Spanish last name!

Because you can call these ones forth in a flock by the simple framing or titling of your post. It’s like a turkey call…if turkeys frothed blood and lived on handfuls of mescaline corn, that is.

Unlike worms, when any topic online touches on IMMIGRANTS or the USE OF SPANISH or (heaven forbid) BOTH….a horde of loathing, greed, fear, and inhumanity will flock to the article as if horseflies sniffing out an open wound. And there they will alight, and seethe, and with gangrenous lungs, heave. And they don’t just live online, unfortunately.

Nor does it matter what their pseudonyms, URLS, or station call letters proclaim. Like the NeoCons of late, these types employ language not to express the essence of their intentions, but to disguise them.

Yet, we know who these people are. We have all met them in our lives…haven’t we?  If you are black, if you are white, if you are golden, brown, red or some shade in between all these, you have met them. No matter. Because we all were once young. And if you were ever young, weak, or alone on the wrong street, you’ve met them. If you’re a woman, you’ve met them. But it is true, there are some, perhaps, who have been very lucky, and never actually had the opportunity to be there, in the middle of their circle. At the foot of their leer. On the end of their chain. They are the group with sticky fingers who use bright stickers to disguise the meat locker. They are the sullen faces that sag with the sensual anticipation of your pain. They are the hands that lift you up out of your own shoes and bind you, and beat you. They are the enemies of the vulnerable child. They are the plunderers in the home of the host. They are hateful to all mankind, because they can turn equally on anything and anyone; they channel an energy that needs no real reason to destroy, but drools at the opportunity. They wear crosses. Or bent crosses. Or crossed pikes. Or stiff collars.

Their arguments fall hollow. Their logic gapes with holes. They are not there to understand, reason, enjoin, connect, uplift, receive, exchange, or otherwise communicate or make progress. They are there to exterminate.

They find the presence of (A, B, or C, and here it is the Spanish Language and the people they perceive as MEXICAN) objectionable for whatever reason, and all they say and do is done and said in the name of removing that presence, in denigrating it, in casting it as an infectious or deviant light, in extirpating and erasing this OTHER element they find so very repulsive.

And they move with great mobility. Because those who harbor this energy do worm their way into our politics, and our culture, our courts, and our laws…. And they are aided by a culture of celebrity-priority, reaction and momentary concentration…and yup, racism.

When a virulent anti-immigrant (which is seen largely as Anti-Mexican and thus draws as much as a yawn in the larger culture) is allowed to flourish; when so much talk of ENGLISH ONLY and ENGLISH FIRST and OFFICIAL LANGUAGE is hammered forth by everyone in politics including the President of the United States of America; when ICE is allowed to do its dirty work without a massive media rejection and inspection…an ugly force moves through our nation.

And its’ tendrils reach out and choke people. This is not an abstract notion. This force materializes in myriad forms on our plane. For a moment, I’m speaking of online comments, and then in the next breath I talk of sheriffs and schools and banks that target the Brown™. Just as the ugly entity I describe can suddenly inhale and then breathe itself out into the shape of human beings where it can further its ugly ends.

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TODAY’S STORY BEGINS at Devonshire Elementary, a school attended by 500 students. A little over 200 of those children are Hispanic. As you can see by the screenshot [below] taken of the website, the school boasts of its “various academic programs that are in place to reach students from a variety of cultural backgrounds,” including the “bilingual Girl Scouts.”

In 2006, a woman named Ana Ligia Mateo was hired as a bilingual secretary for the east Charlotte school. This is useful, obviously, so that she can serve as a liaison for the part of the community that speaks Spanish more comfortably.

But wait—do I need to break this down? To that non-reasoning group I mentioned, it won’t matter, even if I do. If I were now to introduce a story where, for example, the secretary was critiqued by staff for speaking Spanish, the Vile Group would strongly side with the opposition. It wouldn’t matter what she was legally hired for and it wouldn’t matter why she chose to speak Spanish. This anti-Spanish clan will bellow forth, starchy shorts tweaking their vocal chords, fuming about Official Languages—as if this is all an ego game, or some war of lingual conquest. We might remind them that many American citizens speak Spanish more comfortably and that there are no standing laws against doing so, and that especially in an emergency, people can revert to the language that comes easier. So you would definitely want a Spanish speaking person as secretary in such a population.

To the Vile Group—again, if they had interest in meeting your mind (or their own morality) to begin with—you might paint an example. For instance, if you were vacationing in Mexico (as many US immigrants, or, I mean “Expats”) and you were not so great with language and you witnessed a violent crime (because rememeber, that’s what happens in Mexico!!!!), you might find yourself babbling in English to the neighbors, or to the police. Trying to get help. You might not even have the words to speak in time, to save a life, or right a great wrong.

Thought exercise: If people in the US read of an Ex-Pat living in Mexico…who tried to report a crime in English…and was publicly criticized and lost their job in Mexico for speaking English as they reported that crime…and the criminal got away, but the Ex-Pat had no job anymore…what would readers say about that? I imagine they would be incensed. It sounds surreal, doesn’t it. We can’t imagine it happening in Mexico.

No, that is the sort of thing that happens here in the US, though.

At Devonshire Elementary, two years after Ana Ligia Mateo was hired as a bilingual secretary, a new woman, Suzanne Gimenez, took over as principal. Note: Gimenez is not Latino/Hispanic; her name is, through marriage. And sadly, just as in the case of Lou Dobbs and his Mexican Wife, it seems the intra-cultural marriage has resulted in the non-Latino member of the couple becoming active in an anti-immigrant or anti-Spanish language/anti-Latino culture agenda. It’s sad, it’s wrong, and it’s just nasty to watch.

Like Gimenez’ sudden dictum that no Spanish was to be spoken by the bilingual secretary anymore.

Unless dealing with a situation where using a language other than English would endanger people, or harm the business, this is simply a ridiculous thing to require. But if another language used in a given moment would prevent harm to individuals or companies…what then? Would the Vile Group still protest its use?

Yup.

We see the English-Only rule instituted more and more, but not so much for the professed (and the only legal) reasons, though they provide cover for individuals feel they are reinforced finally for their own nasty preferences. These types feel reinforced by gauging the people and media around them. And when killers commit hate crimes against the Spanish-speaking/Latino community, especially when the guilty parties are let go or exonerated…it sends a message. When the victims of hate crimes are violently abused and violated and harmed…yet the case is not ruled a Hate crime…and they live but kill themselves later…the shadow over gente grows.

This hostile spirit that lives in many people is allowed to bloom when the individual believes the ground is fertile. And the rampant anti-immigrant:mexican:latino:hispanic:spanish-speaking energy is given voice and presence in many ways.

But I was telling a story about a bilingual secretary, sorry! I don’t mean to get off track.

So, two years after Ana Mateo was hired as a bilingual secretary for a school that celebrates cultural diversity on its website homepage with groups like the Bilingual Girl Scouts, a new principal is hired. And she demands no more Spanish be spoken.

When Mateo continued to aid parents by translating English or speaking Spanish to them when necessary, she was repeatedly told to stop by Gimenez, and forced out finally, before Gimenez’ first year with the new school had lapsed.

There’s that force, working to crush, squeeze out, eradicate my people’s culture. And not just mine. Boriqueños cultura, too. People from Spain, in fact, who aren’t even Latino. Many of us are connected to the Spanish language. And a smaller group keeps trying to make us feel vile…when it is they. They are the Vile Group.

Oh, I forgot one detail. The event that precipitated Mateo leaving the school.

One day in September, a parent came to Mateo, crying. “Distraught.” Understandably distraught. She was telling the school secretary that one of her sons’ classmates had been sodomized with a stick by another child at the school. She was trying to report a sexual crime against her son. Of course, she couldn’t speak English.

(Mateo) asked Ms. Gimenez if she could translate for the parent. Ms. Gimenez refused and told the parent her seven-year-old son could translate. The parent continued to cry and eventually left without having her issue resolved because she could not understand Ms. Gimenez’s responses.”

The suit says after an encounter with another distraught parent who could not communicate, Gimenez “screamed at (Mateo) that she could not speak Spanish to any parents.”

Mateo was sent to a conference room, the suit says, where Assistant Principal Kimberly Vaught told Mateo she knew Mateo could empathize with the parents because she “crossed the border just like them.” Mateo, who is described in the suit as a U.S. citizen who is “Hispanic/Nicaraguan,” said that was not true.

—Worker: School Banned Spanish

Even when they are trying to be reasonable, certain types of people let many categories blur together: Hispanic, Nicaraguan, Puerto Rican, Mexican, Immigrant, Spanish, Border-hopper, Criminal, Bad, bad, bad. And for people who have no issue collapsing the boundaries that stand, logically, between all these areas, the same kinds inevitably insist on so many impassable barriers in our culture and on our land.

I don’t know about Assistant Principal Kimberly Vaught, but the kind I spoke of above do not employ logic, but a type of racial or cultural psychosis. And they are not just pointedly harmful to the presence, peace of mind of Latinos…were the rest of the People a bit more focused and thoughtful about it, they’d see that these types are the enemies of all good People. To use your position of power to silence a victimized child and all in the name of lingual hegemony?

The principal and assistant principal of Devonshire Elementary are not fit to hold office or wield power. They will be removed or heavily disciplined, I imagine. Most people, I do believe, will see this type of authority as a danger to the growth of our society, a society these types would sooner see stunted or rife with harm, than take a shape other than what they prefer.

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See and do more at Change.Org: Here, and to watch the Vile Group flock, see same issue but in “Immigration” category.