Another monster is now haunting Huntington

This is not the place to critically examine the arguments put forward by Prof. Huntington to justify his theory on the supposed clash of civilisations. Now that Bush's preventive war on the Islamic world is in full swing (American military is deployed in hundreds of bases all over the world -- many of them in predominantly Muslim countries), the old professor has identified a new threat to America -- a threat from within its own borders. In his article, El reto Hispano a EE UU (The Hispanic Challenge to the United States), published in the current issue of the Spanish edition of the prestigious American journal Foreign Policy, he identifies the Hispanics (the Spanish-speaking Americans) and in particular, the Mexican- Americans as the new "other".

(I wonder whether he feels the same way about the thousands of Hispanics who are fighting in Iraq as part of the American occupation force including their supreme commander in Iraq, General Ricardo Sanchez, who is a Mexican-American).

Why does Huntington consider the Hispanics as a potential threat to the United States? Because they are different. They are darker (a mixed race of American-Indian and Spanish peoples), speak Spanish and practise Catholicism. Huntington thinks that they do not appreciate the value of education and easily resign themselves to living in poverty (in other words, they are lazy). Thus according to Huntington both ethnically and culturally they are different. The members of the dominant group in the US are "pure white" (pink-coloured), of Anglo-Saxon origin, speak English and practise Protestantism. (Huntington, of course, belongs to this group.) Huntington thinks that there is a silent invasion underway in the form of massive illegal immigration across the Mexican border. The Mexican-Americans are not like the huddled masses of European stock, who entered the United states through the Ellis Island to work and build the nation.

According to Huntington, they, the Mexican-Americans do not come to the United States to work but to exploit the wealth of the nation. Since many of them live and work in the South Western parts of the United States , Huntington believes that they have a hidden agenda for doing so, i.e., to reclaim the territories lost to the United States in the Mexican- American War (1846-48). He feels that illegal immigration together with the high fertility of the Hispanic women (Currently the Hispanics constitute only 12.6% of the total US population. But according to the Census Board, by 2050, it may reach 24%) will pose a threat to the cultural and economic integrity of the US. Eventually they will undermine the status of English language in these areas and will form a solid cultural and economic bloc independent of the rest of the United States. Prof. Huntington expresses his racist fears about the Hispanics but he does not explain, how, most of them, in the first place, became Americans.

Hunger for more and more land had been the driving force that guided the Anglo-Saxon adventurers ever since they landed on the shores of the New World in the seventeenth century. After the establishment and consolidation of the original thirteen colonies, the settlers looked towards the South and the West. "The native Indian had no place in their scheme of things." He and his race had to be destroyed to satisfy the need (or greed) for more land. " Nearly all Englishmen -- Puritans, Quakers or Anglicans -- visualised the conquest and settlement of the New World in terms of the exclusive possession of the soil. All new lands conquered were for the immediate benefit of the new arrivals (from Europe)." Once the Indians had been mercilessly dealt with, the Americans turned their eyes to the vast tracts of land held by France, Spain and later Mexico.

The doctrine of Manifest Destiny was the ideological foundation of this relentless expansionist policy. Like Huntington's latest theory, Manifest Destiny was essentially a racist idea. According to Prof. Ronald Takaki of the University of California, it " embraced a belief in American Anglo-Saxon superiority". In the words of Prof. Ramon Eduardo Ruiz of the University of California, "pervasive was the belief that what Americans upheld was right and good, that Providence had designated them the chosen people. In a political framework, Manifest Destiny stood for democracy as Americans conceived it; to spread democracy and freedom was the goal." (Some readers have, no doubt, identified the same rhetoric in President Bush's recent policy statements.) This was a clear case of "self-serving idealism with an undercurrent of racism".

Again, according to Prof. Ruiz, "Manifest Destiny had no place for the assimilation of strange and exotic peoples. Freedom for the Americans -- this was the cry, regardless of what befell the conquered natives". As a result of Manifest Destiny's claims to these lands, the United States expanded in an unprecedented manner. Louisiana was purchased from France in 1803. Florida was acquired in 1819. Mexican Texas, which included parts of present-day Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico as well as all of Texas was conquered by American Anglo-Saxon settlers in 1836 (remember, El Alamo) and finally annexed in 1845. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo of 1848, which ended the Mexican-American War (1846-48) gave California and New Mexico (including present -day Nevada, Utah and Arizona) to the United States. "Mexico emerged from the Peace of Guadulupe Hidalgo bereft of half of its territory." Another chunk of present-day New Mexico was ceded by Mexico to the United States in 1853.

All this happened more than one hundred and fifty years ago. What is the current attitude of the ordinary Spanish-speaking people who live in the Southern and South Western parts of the United States?

I have had the privilege of travelling through most of these states where Spanish is widely spoken and I have not found any desire on their part to secede from the United States. There are Spanish-speaking people, whose ancestors settled in these territories more than four hundred years ago. There are hundreds of thousands (maybe millions) of illegal immigrants, who came to the United States in search of work. They have hardly any political inclinations. Their maximum ambition in life is to be able to work legally and eventually to become American citizens. Like most illegal immigrants, they are loyal, law-abiding citizens. They are caught up in the struggle for survival. They perform menial tasks, which ordinary Americans do not want to perform. It has been pointed out by Prof. John Kenneth Galbraith that if all these illegal immigrants were expelled from the United States, its impact on the American economy would be disastrous. Agriculture, as an economic activity in Florida, Texas and California would virtually come to a standstill.

Therefore, instead of exploiting the wealth of the country, they certainly contribute to the well-being of the United States economy. Again, as Prof. Gregory Rodriguez of the University of Pepperdine points out, the Hispanics have proven to be so hardworking that their purchasing power as an ethnic group has increased by 65 per cent since 1990, which currently moves a four hundred thousand million dollar economy in the United States. (This is larger than the GDP of many medium-sized countries of the world)

Huntington is worried about "the defeat of the English language" because of the spread of Spanish in the United States. This is true that many Hispanics speak Spanish in the first generation. In the second and third generations Spanish is usually replaced by English as their first language, not only because it is the official language of the country but also because at present English is the most important international language of the world. This is nothing extraordinary. In the first generation, the Jewish immigrants to the United States spoke Yiddish, the Italians spoke Italian, the Poles spoke Polish, the Russians spoke Russian etc. In Britain, in the fifties and sixties, the immigrants from South Asia, spoke their native languages. But their children learnt English. This is true that because of the growing Hispanic population in the United States, many Hispanics speak not only English but also Spanish. When I visited the South and the South West, I was impressed by the ease with which the people switched from one language to the other. Everywhere in the world, knowledge of more than one language is considered as an asset. Yet, it seems, in the paranoiac world of Huntington, where he is haunted by imaginary monsters and non-existent demons, it is tantamount to subversion. In my opinion, most Hispanics consider themselves as loyal citizens of the United States. I am afraid, Prof. Huntington has to look for his monsters elsewhere.