LANGUAGE WARS: Nativo Lopez vs. Unz, Gersten & Tuchman
by
Ernesto Cienfuegos
La Voz de AztlanSanta Ana, Alta California - January 17, 2003 - (ACN) There will be a major battle fought in the city of Santa Ana, California on February 4th that will have nationwide repercussions for all Mexican-Americans. The battle will take place among the voters of the Santa Ana Unified School District and will pit the district's majority Mexican-American immigrant population against powerful and well funded national organizations whose stated missions are to destroy public bilingual education for Mexican immigrant children, to stop immigration from Mexico and to control the birth rate within Mexican-American communities.
In order to understand why the opposing forces are gathering in Santa Ana for the battle, one must go back a bit into the history of Alta California. The first California State Constitution that was drafted soon after the Mexican-American War had the following provision on Spanish language rights: "All laws, decrees, regulations, and provisions emanating from any of the three supreme powers of this State, which from their nature require publication, shall be published in English and Spanish." To the drafters of the original California Constitution, this provision was legally required by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848), in which Mexico had ceded nearly half its territory to the United States.
By and large, Spanish language rights in California, for its original inhabitants and new immigrants from Mexico, have been respected but with the arrival in the state of Jews, these rights have now been under constant attack.
The most effective attack on Spanish language rights has been against Bilingual Education for Mexican immigrant children. In 1998, a group of wealthy Jews, in conjunction with the Jewish media, launched a powerful campaign to effectively outlaw Bilingual Education in the state's public schools through their successful passage of a ballot initiative called Proposition 227.
The principal players behind the campaign were Ron Unz, Gloria Matta-Tuchman and Linda Chavez-Gersten. As vehicles, the trio, used a 6 million dollar per year operation called U.S. English that was funded by foundations and individuals interested in immigration controls and eugenics. Linda Chavez-Gersten, a "malinchista" Mexican-American woman married to a Jew, was Executive Director of U.S. English and Gloria Mata-Tuchman, another "malinchista", was on its Board of Directors from 1989 to 1992. Ron Unz, a wealthy Jewish entrepreneur, and Gloria Mata-Tuchman were co-chairs of the Proposition 227 campaign. Today in the battle that is about to take place in Santa Ana, Linda Chavez-Gersten and Ron Unz are working together through an organization called "Center for Equal Opportunity". Gersten is its Executive Director and Unz is on its Board of Directors.
Ron Unz, a Jewish racist, does not hide his views of Mexican-American children. He was quoted by the Los Angeles Times on August 31, 1997 using crude ethnic stereotypes. He compared today's Spanish speaking Mexican children unfavorably to his own Jewish grandparents, "who came to California in the 1920s and 1930s as poor European immigrants." He said, "They came to WORK and become successful . . . not to sit back and be a burden on those who were already here!"
Opposing Ron Unz and the two "malinchistas" in the February 4th battle is Nativo V. Lopez, a Santa Ana Unified School District Board Member and Executive Director of Hermandad Mexicana Nacional. Ron Unz and Linda Chavez-Gersten, through the "Center for Equal Opportunity" have engineered a recall election against the popular Mexican-American leader and protector of Mexican immigrant children's rights.
Unz and Gersten have targeted Nativo Lopez because he has encouraged Mexican-American parents to use the waiver provisions of the Unz/Tuchman Proposition 227 that allows for the continuation of bilingual classes if enough parents request them. With the city of Santa Ana being about 80% Mexican-American and the school district about 95%, there is a huge number of parents signing the waivers from the Unz/Tuchman mandates.
Ron Unz alone has pumped in over $100,000 of his personal funds into the recall campaign even though he does not live in Santa Ana. Linda Chavez-Gersten has utilized the resources of the "Center for Equal Opportunity" to recruit parents in the district to go against Nativo Lopez. On the website of the "Center for Equal Opportunity" she is providing an 1-800 telephone number with the following notation: "The Center for Equal Opportunity is currently seeking to interview people who have had a negative experience with bilingual education programs, especially parents. Call CEO toll free at 1 (800) 819-2343." The Gersten organization also publishes a "Parent Guide" to educate them about the "harmful effects" of bilingual education.
Ron Unz has traveled to the district to meet with the recruited parents that are "fronts" for the recall campaign. These manipulated parents have formed a recall committee against Nativo Lopez and Ron Unz has provided them with office space, office equipment, telephones and computers as well as an undisclosed amount of cash.
The battle in Santa Ana is hugely symbolic. This may be the last skirmish in the Language Wars of Alta California. Will the Jew with his vast amounts of money finally deal a mortal blow to Bilingual Education for Mexican immigrant children? I wouldn't count on it. My bet is that Ronnie will learn a big lesson. He will learn to keep his Jewish nose out of Mexican-American educational issues and perhaps go off to learn some Yiddish or Hebrew in Israel. As for the "malinchistas" Gersten and Tuchman, it would be great if we could arrest them, shave off their bleached blonde hair, and parade them "naked" along Cesar Chavez Boulevard in East Los Angeles. We would line up our school children along the parade route and provide them with rotten tomatoes so that they could hurl them at the two "collaborators" as they passed by.
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