• Home
    • Get the Podcasts
    • About
      • Contact Latinopia.com
      • Copyright Credits
      • Production Credits
      • Research Credits
      • Terms of Use
      • Teachers Guides
  • Art
    • LATINOPIA ART
    • INTERVIEWS
  • Film/TV
    • LATINOPIA CINEMA
    • LATINOPIA SHOWCASE
    • INTERVIEWS
    • FEATURES
  • Food
    • LATINOPIA FOOD
    • COOKING
    • RESTAURANTS
  • History
    • LATINOPIA EVENT
    • LATINOPIA HERO
    • TIMELINES
    • BIOGRAPHY
    • EVENT PROFILE
    • MOMENT IN TIME
    • DOCUMENTS
    • TEACHERS GUIDES
  • Lit
    • LATINOPIA WORD
    • LATINOPIA PLÁTICA
    • LATINOPIA BOOK REVIEW
    • PIONEER AMERICAN LATINA AUTHORS
    • INTERVIEWS
    • FEATURES
  • Music
    • LATINOPIA MUSIC
    • INTERVIEWS
    • FEATURES
  • Theater
    • LATINOPIA TEATRO
    • INTERVIEWS
  • Blogs
    • Angela’s Photo of the Week
    • Arnie & Porfi
    • Bravo Road with Don Felípe
    • Burundanga Boricua
    • Chicano Music Chronicles
    • Fierce Politics by Dr. Alvaro Huerta
    • Mirándolo Bien with Eduado Díaz
    • Political Salsa y Más
    • Mis Pensamientos
    • Latinopia Guest Blogs
    • Tales of Torres
    • Word Vision Harry Gamboa Jr.
    • Julio Medina Serendipity
    • ROMO DE TEJAS
    • Sara Ines Calderon
    • Ricky Luv Video
    • Zombie Mex Diaries
    • Tia Tenopia
  • Podcasts
    • Louie Perez’s Good Morning Aztlán
    • Mark Guerrero’s Chicano Music Chronicles
      • Yoga Talk with Julie Carmen

latinopia.com

Latino arts, history and culture

  • Home
    • Get the Podcasts
    • About
      • Contact Latinopia.com
      • Copyright Credits
      • Production Credits
      • Research Credits
      • Terms of Use
      • Teachers Guides
  • Art
    • LATINOPIA ART
    • INTERVIEWS
  • Film/TV
    • LATINOPIA CINEMA
    • LATINOPIA SHOWCASE
    • INTERVIEWS
    • FEATURES
  • Food
    • LATINOPIA FOOD
    • COOKING
    • RESTAURANTS
  • History
    • LATINOPIA EVENT
    • LATINOPIA HERO
    • TIMELINES
    • BIOGRAPHY
    • EVENT PROFILE
    • MOMENT IN TIME
    • DOCUMENTS
    • TEACHERS GUIDES
  • Lit
    • LATINOPIA WORD
    • LATINOPIA PLÁTICA
    • LATINOPIA BOOK REVIEW
    • PIONEER AMERICAN LATINA AUTHORS
    • INTERVIEWS
    • FEATURES
  • Music
    • LATINOPIA MUSIC
    • INTERVIEWS
    • FEATURES
  • Theater
    • LATINOPIA TEATRO
    • INTERVIEWS
  • Blogs
    • Angela’s Photo of the Week
    • Arnie & Porfi
    • Bravo Road with Don Felípe
    • Burundanga Boricua
    • Chicano Music Chronicles
    • Fierce Politics by Dr. Alvaro Huerta
    • Mirándolo Bien with Eduado Díaz
    • Political Salsa y Más
    • Mis Pensamientos
    • Latinopia Guest Blogs
    • Tales of Torres
    • Word Vision Harry Gamboa Jr.
    • Julio Medina Serendipity
    • ROMO DE TEJAS
    • Sara Ines Calderon
    • Ricky Luv Video
    • Zombie Mex Diaries
    • Tia Tenopia
  • Podcasts
    • Louie Perez’s Good Morning Aztlán
    • Mark Guerrero’s Chicano Music Chronicles
      • Yoga Talk with Julie Carmen
You are here: Home / Blogs / PENSAMIENTOS WITH ALFREDO SANTOS 3.25.18 “PENSAMIENTOS ABOUT ST. PATRICK’S DAY”

PENSAMIENTOS WITH ALFREDO SANTOS 3.25.18 “PENSAMIENTOS ABOUT ST. PATRICK’S DAY”

March 26, 2018 by Tia Tenopia

Pensamientos About St. Patrick’s Day

There was a time in America when the Irish were not welcomed. There were signs in the windows of business saying, “No Irish.” or “No Irish Need Apply.” It was said that these refugees seeking haven in America were poor and disease-ridden. They threatened to take jobs away from Americans and
strain welfare budgets. They practiced an alien religion and pledged allegiance to a foreign leader. They were bringing with them crime. They were
accused of being rapists. And, worst of all, these undesirables were Irish.

Today we hear the same thing only this time it is the Mexicans that are the burnt of the attacks. How does one fight off such attacks today? The same way the Irish did in the 19th century, by getting organized and voting. No hay otra.

THE IRISH FIND THEIR FOOTING—AT THE BALLOT BOX

Although stereotyped as ignorant bogtrotters loyal only to the Pope and ill-suited for democracy, the Irish were deeply engaged in the political process in
their new home. They voted in higher proportions than other ethnic groups. Their sheer numbers helped to propel William R. Grace to become the first
Irish-Catholic mayor of New York City in 1880 and Hugh O’Brien the first Irish-Catholic mayor of Boston four years later.

A generation after the “Great Hunger”, the Irish controlled powerful political machines in cities across the United States and were moving up the social ladder into the middle class as an influx of immigrants from China and Southern and Eastern Europe took hold in the 1880s and 1890s. “Being from the British Isles, the Irish were now considered acceptable and assimilable to the American way of life,” Dolan writes.

Now it was another ethnic and racial group’s turn to bear the brunt. No longer embedded on the lowest rung of American society, the Irish unfortunately
gained acceptance in the mainstream by dishing out the same bigotry toward newcomers that they had experienced. CountyCork native and Workingmen’s Party leader Denis Kearney, for example, closed his speeches to American laborers with his rhetorical signature: “Whatever happens, the Chinese must go.”

Kearney and the other Irish failed to learn the lesson of their own story. Yes, the Irish transformed the United States, justas the United States transformed
the Irish. But the worst fears of the nativists were not fulfilled. The refugees from the Great Hunger and the 32 million Americans with predominantly
Irish roots today strengthened the United States, not destroyed it. A country that once reviled the Irish now wears green on St. Patrick’s Day. That’s something to raise a glass to.

Alfredo R. Santos c/s.

_____________________________________________

Copyright 2018 by Alfredo Santos, La Voz Newspaper – March/April, 2018
E-mail: info@workersdefense.org Phone: (512) 391-2305 Fax: (512) 391-2306
Mailing Address: Workers Defense Project, 5604 Manor RD Austin, TX 78723

All photos in the public domain.

Filed Under: Blogs, Mis Pensamientos Tagged With: Alfredo Santos, La Voz, Mis Pensamientos, St. Patrick's Day

BURUNDANGA BORICUA DEL ZOCOTROCO 1.10.21 “CRISIS DE LA ESPERANZA”

January 10, 2021 By Tia Tenopia

Burundanga de Zocotroco Crisis de la Esperanza Completar un ciclo es ocasión de terminar y comenzar, no sin evaluar el que y como ha sido. La ultima vuelta al sol estimo que ira como El Año Catastrófico del 2020. Nos azota una pandemia que amenaza con la muerte como real e inminente y un retroceso […]

MARK GUERRERO’S CHICANO MUSIC CHRONICLES – GILBERT ROCHA

December 27, 2020 By Tia Tenopia

This week Mark Guerrero features musician Gilbert Rocha whose band The Silhouettes included the late great Ritchie Valens.  Rocha later played with the doo wop duo, The Perez Brothers, and Rulie Garcia aka Johnny Chingas, who wrote and recorded both serious and comic songs in a pseudo pachuco style.  In this Mark Guerrero interview, Gilbert […]

RICARDO ROMO’S TEJANO REPORT 12.27.20 “A PARK FOR THE PEOPLE”

December 27, 2020 By Tia Tenopia

Giving Life to a Park for the People By Ricardo Romo and Dr. Carlos Orozco Milam Park is a small, historically beautiful gem of the city of San Antonio. The park is located between the old multiethnic farmer’s market and the San Rosa Hospital now known as Children’s Hospital of San Antonio (CHOSA). A large […]

POLITICAL SALSA Y MÁS with SAL BALDENEGRO 12.12.20 “HISTORY MATTERS…”

December 12, 2020 By Tia Tenopia

History matters… History instructs. History inspires. History matters. Ignoring it is problematic and causes discord. A couple of recent events bring this to mind. One has to do with César Chávez and his hard-line stance in the early 1970s against the importation of Mexican workers to work in the fields. A member of a Listserv […]

More Posts from this Category

New On Latinopia

LATINOPIA ART SONIA ROMERO 2

By Tia Tenopia on October 20, 2013

Sonia Romero is a graphic artist,muralist and print maker. In this second profile on Sonia and her work, Latinopia explores Sonia’s public murals, in particular the “Urban Oasis” mural at the MacArthur Park Metro Station in Los Angeles, California.

Category: Art, LATINOPIA ART

LATINOPIA ART SONIA ROMERO 1

By Tia Tenopia on October 7, 2013

Sonia Romero is a graphic artist, muralist and print maker. The daughter of Chicano art pioneer Frank Romero, she has boldly set out on her own artistic trajectory. Her art includes stunning prints, canvases and public murals. Latinopia visited Sonia at her studio in the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles where she spoke about […]

Category: Art, LATINOPIA ART

LATINOPIA ART GASPAR ENRÍQUEZ 1 “RETROSPECTIVE”

By Tia Tenopia on May 4, 2014

Gaspar Enríquez is a renowned Chicano artist whose airbrush portraits of barrio youth are haunting and memorable. Drawing from museums and collectors around the United States, in April 2014, the El Paso Museum of Art mounted a retrospective of Gaspar’s art titled Metaphors of the Barrio. Latinopia visited the exhibit and asked Gaspar what inspires […]

Category: Art, LATINOPIA ART

© 2021 latinopia.com · Pin It - Genesis - WordPress · Admin