The history of America has been built on a foundation that consisted of many immigrant groups, none more important than each other. Immigration has made us what we are as a nation and has given us the best of what America can be. Yet, lost in the history book are the contributions of many ethnic groups that impacted, defined and refine what we stand for. Lost in our history is the importance of the Hispanic contribution to a nation that would not have been America and its continuing definition of its concept of diversity.
With the largest immigration in American history, the Browning of America has started a dialogue as to who Hispanics really are, considering the fact how long Hispanic presence in the Americas and their impact on how they have Hispanicized America.
Before the U.S. Census Bureau categorized Hispanics into an ethnicity, their presence was an integral part of America's history. Hispanic settlement flourished successfully in St Augustine, FL, the great southwest, what is now called New Mexico; centuries before the establishment of the Virginia Bay Colony in 1607, before the first Africans were sold to America in 1619 and before the Pilgrims dropped anchor in Plymouth Rock, MA in 1621. As the Sons of Liberty movement began taking shape in the 1750s in New England, the Hispanic liberty movement had already developed against Spain and the colonization of the Spanish territories, what are now Texas and the great southwestern states. Without the Hispanic call to action; America's revolutionary history may not have been written.
Hispanics have contributed in every avenue of American life since the inception of this great country; very few understand the contribution of Bernardo de Galvez. Galvez, a close confidant of America's foundering father George Washington, his contribution to American history is lost in many of our history lectures and curriculum. Galvez, then governor of the Louisiana territory, sent gunpowder, rifles, bullets, blankets, medicine and other supplies to the armies of Washington in support of America's cause. Once the war began, he mobilized Hispanics troops from islands of Puerto Rico, Cuba and Mexico, all committed to defeating British troops and supporting America's independence movement. Hispanics continue to play a vital role in every military conflict, in every war, in every battle and on every battlefield, Hispanics have put their lives on the line to protect freedom, liberty and democracy in the Civil War, World War I & II, Vietnam and the present day war on terror in Iraq and Afghanistan. Hispanics have always met the challenge of serving America with great commitment and admiration. Without the Hispanic commitments towards freedom; America's history may have been written another way.
What would America's history be without our anti-immigrants rhetoric, long before the barring of Jewish ships from docking on our ports, long before the Irish Need Not Apply, long before the Italians were lynched because of their catholic faith, Hispanics were caught in America's web of hate, something we call today "racism."
We must be vigilant that Benjamin Franklin in 1753 warned of immigrants over-running America, and not only was he concerned about the increasing number of immigrants, he worried that they would threaten the Anglo-English language and insisted that America must set the principle of Anglo-conformity as the model of immigration. Samuel Huntington, who some argue was our first president under the Article of Confederation, once described brown skins Mexicans as savages and uncivilized. Interestingly, both gentlemen were signers of the Declaration of Independence, which preaches Life, Liberty and the purse of Happiness. Fast forward to the turn of the 20th century when America welcomed millions of immigrants through Ellis island, Mexican immigrants encountered in the early 1900's, then the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) in 1916 began implementing a series of anti-health laws targeted at Mexican immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.
The health department and our government rationale was that Mexicans were bringing diseases into the United States, therefore American health policies had to change in order to secure the border, protect Americans and keep Mexicans out of America. Anti-immigrants rhetoric has become synonymous with American history, a nation that prides itself as being a melting pot, yet that pot never melted. Hispanic influence reminds us we still live in a nation where color and ethnicity gauge what we truly stand for. As America delves into the murky depths of the current immigration debate, it has ignored who we are as Americans, immigration has always been the basic DNA of America and it has taken away the best of who we are and what we can become as a nation. The Hispanic presence has challenged America to search for an identity and has left a nation scrambling to maintain a sense of what true democracy can and cannot be.
Without the Hispanic presence, America's concept of civil rights may have not been taken place, and protecting rights for all Americans, regardless of color, race, gender, age, sexual orientation and defending these rights against discrimination have long been important issue for all Americans. Despite America's commitment towards justice, equality and security, the movement may have never taken off without the dedication of several Hispanics who held America to its true values of democracy.
Years before Gandhi and Dr. King took up their cause for human rights and dignity, Dr. Hector P. Garcia fought peacefully for the dismantling of segregation signs, racism and discrimination in many Mexican American communities in the great southwest in the 1940s and 50s. He later became the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, to the first Mexican American to be given the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1984.
Without Hispanic feminist Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz in the 17th century was defending and advocating for women's rights in a time when women had no rights. She challenged the basic norm of women education and rights both in her native Mexico and former southwest Mexican territories i.e. modern day California. Her vision still remains an important icon but often lost in women's history, without her vision the women civil rights movement may have not started.
One might be able to conceive what America would or wouldn't become had there been no Hispanics to hold our nation to its true values. It's Hispanics that constantly reminds us we are a nation of immigrants and the values that each hold binds us deeper than separates us. Before we were defined as an ethnicity, Hispanics led the way in promoting the ideals that make us Americans and has challenge the basic idea of American democracy. Without the Hispanic commitments towards freedom; America's history may have been written another way.