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Mixing things up, for America’s sake

Editorial Culturallyintegrated 'Comidas', 'Casas', and 'Celebraciones'

"Americans love Mexican music, Mexican art, Mexican architecture, and Mexican food, the only thing that is Mexican that they don’t like is Mexicans!"

I paraphrase this one-liner from a Paul Rodriguez stand-up routine back in the ’90s.

While I wonder whether this is still truer than we would hope today, it does trigger some new questions. Are Americans afraid of the arrival of immigrants or afraid of the arrival of new cultural norms? Is America fearful of immigrants or the threat they represent to our way of life? Is America fearful of losing its identity to the cultural morphing inevitable from the immigration of people and ideas from other countries?

While these questions create interesting fodder for anthropologists, philosophers and politicians, on the ground it is somewhat a moot point, since this country has always and continues to absorb the great ideas of the world. And perhaps this fear is most prevalent in those communities where the arrival of immigrants is a new phenomenon (as in much of the Southeast United States). This is unlike Tucson where incremental cultural integration has been going on for centuries, leaving the city richer for the experience.

In this month’s issue we take a look at some of the cultural integration that is happening around us, from food to home décor to holidays and, in a broader sense, to our own American Latino culture in an exclusive interview with author and social observer Richard Rodriguez.

CULTURALLY INTEGRATING ‘COMUNIDADES’

Reporter Keith Rosenblum talks with Richard Rodriguez about the power of cultural integration for our Latino community and for America at large. Rodriguez looks through an integrated lens as a Mexican-American intellectual, openly homosexual, pro-American, anti-bilingual education, pro-cultural integration advocate. He admonishes street gangs to tap into their Mexican and Indian heritages to push "not a few more blocks" outside of their turf but rather "throughout the land, to explore, to make something of themselves."

He challenges successful Mexican-Americans to shed the "soul-sustaining sacrament and myth of victimization." He talks of the "flattening" of America where "we are mixing in bewildering ways." He argues that Hispanics are being "Americanized" and Americans are being "Latinized" – all to the enrichment of society. And the "browning" of America is not about the arrival of a new race or culture but the blending of many.

CULTURALLY INTEGRATED ‘COMIDAS’

Ruben Hernandez guides a gringa on her first visit to a Ranch Market where they witness the harmonic convergence of that great American icon - the supermarket - with the cultural shopping experience of the pueblo mercado. Anita Mabante Leach talks to Deseo Chef Roberto Madrid, who proudly pledges his palate to the Culinary Republic of Nuevo Latino, an imaginary place where a classically trained chef "reunites all Latin countries." We take a look at empanadas from around the world and we invite you to send us your Nana’s recipes as we attempt to collect the great dishes of the Southwest.

CULTURALLY INTEGRATED ‘CASAS’

Brilliant, dramatic colors, architectural styles from around the globe and appliances for the modern Latino family combine to create the culturally connected casa. Georgann Yara tells us about homebuilders who are integrating new construction trends with multigenerational Latino family sensibilities, like oversized family rooms and kitchens to accommodate extended family and socializing. Mother-in-law suites are replaced with Nana’s casita. These culturally blended neighborhood developments may have been going on for a while. I’ve noticed the primarily Anglo gated enclaves of North Scottsdale all have magical Spanish names, while recent immigrants in central Phoenix are living on streets named for American presidents.

CULTURALLY INTEGRATED ‘CELEBRACIONES’

Writer Coty Miranda explains how Dia de los Muertos, an Aztec celebration that predated the arrival of Spanish conquistadors by centuries, survived an attempted extermination by blending with the Roman Catholic Church’s All Saints’ Day and is now celebrated by non-Hispanics as an alternative to Halloween. And Ruben Hernandez shares ghost stories - some of which are rooted in traditional Mexican folklore while others grew from the streets of Phoenix.

All this blendification takes a little while to settle. Maybe if America is patient, Paul Rodriquez’s observation that Americans love Mexican culture will be replaced by Americans loving a new American culture with a Mexican flavor. Our society will learn to love a new, yet uniquely American, culture that represents the best of all of us: culture and people, all part of the country’s fabric.