Mike, very nice job capturing the reality of life in California. I'm intrigued by your comment (in a live session) about all this leading to comprehensive immigration reform. What's the alternative to mass deportation? Perhaps the potentially massive economic disruption and the insanity of breaking up communities and families will generate public support for legal status and a path to citizenship. In any case, it's a discussion that has to be re-opened, and your mention of it was the first optimistic note I've heard.
Hi Lenny. Yes I’ll be writing on this soon…I think there’s a real chance for CIR to happen, ironically under Trump. I don’t think it will be great terms and the pathway to citizenship likely much longer than anyone would want but immigrants really want worker protections more than citizenship and essential employers need the labor.
Mike - as they say, it took Nixon to go to China. Our ship likely doesn't get completely righted & bailed out in one maneuver. Like the ACA, a big imperfect step forward, and then years defending it, and "all of a sudden" it's the new normal and there's broader support for protecting & expanding a popular program. May it be so w/immigration improvements!
I'd just like to take a time machine back to the mid-19th century--and look around for a minute at the scene: California, still the colonial possession of Mexico, home to a string of stunning Mexican Missions--beautiful, serene, and most still standing. In the distance, among the Live Oaks are Haciendas overlooking vast ranches owned by--you guessed it--Mexican landlords. In the fields vaqueros herd the cattle and peons plant and harvest the crops, including the avocados introduced by Mexico, which grew then in vast orchards. Avocados which sell for more than $3 apiece nowadays, thanks to the fact that they're now once again grown mainly in Mexico and under tariff. Zorro was a folk hero something like Superman. Roadside cantinas served Anglos as well as Mexicanos. Maybe Modelo and Corona were first brewed in one of them. Certainly we Anglos first developed a taste for tacos and quesadillas at the time. So much better than bacon n' beans. So, Mike, the California I grew up in a hundred years later was and is still quite Mexican in several ways, and filled with not only Mexican people, new and old, but Mexican culture, California style. Doesn't it seem logical, no, fated, that Mexicanos today would be circulating back to the state that seems so familiar? And way better at creating jobs for them. than, say, New Mexico or Arizona. They are not as much illegal immigrants as returnees, after all. And Trump in his utter ignorance has no feel for this at all. More's the pity.
Leigh - I’m thinking along same lines but I can’t top your time travel trip 😊. For personal family ties and broader memories woven into society & culture, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo wasn’t so long ago. CA had a more hospitable climate than AZ so it’s natural that CA developed more, then commerce & industry followed. AZ’s copper wasn’t gonna attract family settlers; mainly just brought the Gadsden Purchase… a deal Mexico couldn’t refuse, as the saying goes.
Heritage & culture are powerful and in this case net positive. So many deeply red areas don’t have a similar positive impact from their regional history. Not to slight our indigenous predecessors - our trespassing ancestors rarely intermingled cultures with them as anglos did with Mexicans in the Southwest
Such good points. Delicious in their implications. Know what? I bet tortillas descended from Navajo fry bread! And we gardeners know all about the three sisters. Mmm. Something similar potentially and sometimes actually occurs any time a new culture begins blending itself into an older culture, enriching both. Except in the case of European colonialists, whose arrogance and ignorance made them less than able to embrace and adapt. Unfortunately that attitude, while gradually fading away, is still with us, and we might usefully view Trump&Co as its avatars.
It's a tough call to choose between warm, fresh fry bread from a stand outside San Xavier Mission (near Tucson), and anything stuffed into a tortilla made on premises at Burritos Hass in Nogales, Sonora.... having eaten my share of both, I have a slight preference native fry bread... but honestly, I usually like best whichever is on the plate in front of me!
If you're ever in Tucson, please try Cafe Santa Rosa for an "Indian taco" - yep, uniting the Mexican treat with Tohono O'odham fry bread.
Will do. My kid has an exhibition in Santa Fe right now, and wants to get some land in Northern NM. Fingers crossed. I'm not telling her I'd like to move in, which ups the odds of it all happening! Fry bread tacos, OMG.
My eldest sister lived in Santa Fe for 30 years, I loved visiting there! She liked to brag it was the only state capital without an airport (dunno if still true, she moved 25 years ago). We often stop there still, on trips between AZ & midwest fam - the people, the food, the art! Much of northern NM kind of... stark, on our driving route. Big & empty, with gems like Ghost Ranch and Ojo Caliente tucked in. You know they get snow in winters tho - yikes!
Superb piece
Thank you 🙏🏼
Excellent point about “you can’t deport culture”.
Mike, very nice job capturing the reality of life in California. I'm intrigued by your comment (in a live session) about all this leading to comprehensive immigration reform. What's the alternative to mass deportation? Perhaps the potentially massive economic disruption and the insanity of breaking up communities and families will generate public support for legal status and a path to citizenship. In any case, it's a discussion that has to be re-opened, and your mention of it was the first optimistic note I've heard.
Hi Lenny. Yes I’ll be writing on this soon…I think there’s a real chance for CIR to happen, ironically under Trump. I don’t think it will be great terms and the pathway to citizenship likely much longer than anyone would want but immigrants really want worker protections more than citizenship and essential employers need the labor.
Mike - as they say, it took Nixon to go to China. Our ship likely doesn't get completely righted & bailed out in one maneuver. Like the ACA, a big imperfect step forward, and then years defending it, and "all of a sudden" it's the new normal and there's broader support for protecting & expanding a popular program. May it be so w/immigration improvements!
That’s a really great perspective!
Well, I read a lot of really smart writers on Substack 😉 so I'm expanding my mind all the time
Great piece. Especially important to recognize the depth of social bonds.
Doesn’t the graph and research suggest that sanctuary status had negligible impact on crime rather than led to a decrease in crime?
Thank you for helping to fill in the gaps in my understanding on this topic, Mike.
I'd just like to take a time machine back to the mid-19th century--and look around for a minute at the scene: California, still the colonial possession of Mexico, home to a string of stunning Mexican Missions--beautiful, serene, and most still standing. In the distance, among the Live Oaks are Haciendas overlooking vast ranches owned by--you guessed it--Mexican landlords. In the fields vaqueros herd the cattle and peons plant and harvest the crops, including the avocados introduced by Mexico, which grew then in vast orchards. Avocados which sell for more than $3 apiece nowadays, thanks to the fact that they're now once again grown mainly in Mexico and under tariff. Zorro was a folk hero something like Superman. Roadside cantinas served Anglos as well as Mexicanos. Maybe Modelo and Corona were first brewed in one of them. Certainly we Anglos first developed a taste for tacos and quesadillas at the time. So much better than bacon n' beans. So, Mike, the California I grew up in a hundred years later was and is still quite Mexican in several ways, and filled with not only Mexican people, new and old, but Mexican culture, California style. Doesn't it seem logical, no, fated, that Mexicanos today would be circulating back to the state that seems so familiar? And way better at creating jobs for them. than, say, New Mexico or Arizona. They are not as much illegal immigrants as returnees, after all. And Trump in his utter ignorance has no feel for this at all. More's the pity.
Leigh - I’m thinking along same lines but I can’t top your time travel trip 😊. For personal family ties and broader memories woven into society & culture, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo wasn’t so long ago. CA had a more hospitable climate than AZ so it’s natural that CA developed more, then commerce & industry followed. AZ’s copper wasn’t gonna attract family settlers; mainly just brought the Gadsden Purchase… a deal Mexico couldn’t refuse, as the saying goes.
Heritage & culture are powerful and in this case net positive. So many deeply red areas don’t have a similar positive impact from their regional history. Not to slight our indigenous predecessors - our trespassing ancestors rarely intermingled cultures with them as anglos did with Mexicans in the Southwest
Such good points. Delicious in their implications. Know what? I bet tortillas descended from Navajo fry bread! And we gardeners know all about the three sisters. Mmm. Something similar potentially and sometimes actually occurs any time a new culture begins blending itself into an older culture, enriching both. Except in the case of European colonialists, whose arrogance and ignorance made them less than able to embrace and adapt. Unfortunately that attitude, while gradually fading away, is still with us, and we might usefully view Trump&Co as its avatars.
OK, this isn't really wandering TOO far afield from Mike's original post, since we're still talking about cultural connections over time - people blending wonderful aspects of our different heritages into one beautiful neighborhood. On the tortilla: https://www.kcrw.com/culture/shows/good-food/mexican-tortilla-from-spain-tortilla-2023-tournament
It's a tough call to choose between warm, fresh fry bread from a stand outside San Xavier Mission (near Tucson), and anything stuffed into a tortilla made on premises at Burritos Hass in Nogales, Sonora.... having eaten my share of both, I have a slight preference native fry bread... but honestly, I usually like best whichever is on the plate in front of me!
If you're ever in Tucson, please try Cafe Santa Rosa for an "Indian taco" - yep, uniting the Mexican treat with Tohono O'odham fry bread.
Will do. My kid has an exhibition in Santa Fe right now, and wants to get some land in Northern NM. Fingers crossed. I'm not telling her I'd like to move in, which ups the odds of it all happening! Fry bread tacos, OMG.
My eldest sister lived in Santa Fe for 30 years, I loved visiting there! She liked to brag it was the only state capital without an airport (dunno if still true, she moved 25 years ago). We often stop there still, on trips between AZ & midwest fam - the people, the food, the art! Much of northern NM kind of... stark, on our driving route. Big & empty, with gems like Ghost Ranch and Ojo Caliente tucked in. You know they get snow in winters tho - yikes!