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VDH : Mexifornia, Five Years Later
The flood of illegal immigrants into California has made things worse than I foresaw.In the Spring 2002 issue of City Journal, I wrote an essay about growing up in the central San Joaquin Valley and witnessing firsthand, especially over the last 20 years, the ill effects of illegal immigration (City Journals editors chose the title of the piece: Do We Want Mexifornia?). Controversy over my blunt assessment of the disaster of illegal immigration from Mexico led to an expanded memoir, Mexifornia, published the following year by Encounter Press. Mexifornia came out during the ultimately successful campaign to recall California governor Gray Davis in autumn 2003. A popular public gripe was that the embattled governor had appeased both employers and the more radical Hispanic politicians of the California legislature on illegal immigration. And indeed Davis had signed legislation allowing drivers licenses for illegal aliens that both houses of state government had passed. So it was no wonder that the book sometimes found its way into both the low and high forms of the political debate. On the Internet, a close facsimile of a California drivers license circulated, with a picture of a Mexican bandit (the gifted actor Alfonso Bedoya of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre), together with a demeaning height (54), weight (too much), and sex (mucho) given. Mexifornia was emblazoned across the top where California usually is stamped on the license. In such a polarized climate, heated debates and several radio interviews followed, often with the query, Why did you have to write this book? The Left saw the books arguments and its titleMexifornia was originally a term of approbation used by activists buoyed by Californias changing demographyas unduly harsh to newcomers from Mexico. The Right saw the book as long-overdue attention to a scandal ignored by the mainstream Republican Party. Posted by: anonymous5089 2007-02-08 |
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