Three weeks ago I wrote a blog titled the Hyphenated American.  My point in that blog was that we (by which I mean we of the declared “other”) hyphenate not to separate ourselves from the traditional Anglo-Saxon definition of what it means to be American, but to be recognized as being part of and more than the limiting Anglo-Saxon identity that continues to uphold a myth that has little room for an expanded, inclusive version. By hyphenating, we add to the concept.  By hyphenating, we embellish, improvise, americanize in a way not yet considered, and in doing so augment and amplify the potential definition that will one day include all voices, not just a select few.

Just yesterday I was browsing through Barak Obama’s change.gov site and found an interesting national effort on this very topic being pushed by the National League of Cities.  The National League of Cities has articulated a national agenda that it is pushing on such topics as health care, economy, and more, but there is one item on their agenda that caught my eye.  This item is a platform the National League of Cities calls Municipal Action for Immigrant Integration. Again, the integration theme surfaces.  This concept of integration is central to everything that we are working to do as change agents in our community, and I believe it is something that more and more people in the U.S. will eventually take up and discuss in a more honest and serious fashion.

Hyphenated Americans exist because life in the U.S. teaches immigrants that they are invisible until they “become Americans” (in an Anglo-Saxon mythological sense).  Neighborhoods, communities, towns, cities, and states do not yet offer pro-immigrant government and civil society structures. So our question becomes, at this point, what do we do?  Do we continue to live as separate, as “other,” or do we consciously work to expand the definition of a United States American?  I believe that we are upon a time when we need to begin the work of expanding the longstanding, limited definition, which can only take place if the work of integration is taken up in earnest.

But what does it mean to do integration work?  First and foremost, it means that the previously unrecognized “other” is fully recognized and respected as a valuable and integral member of the community. With this recognition comes full and equitable access to opportunities that are available to all people who live on this land and pay taxes to this government and adhere to this government’s laws.  With this recognition comes a full slate of services offered in respect of and for those of us who differ in culture and language.  With this recognition comes respectful, difference-affirming behavior by those who serve the public at their most vulnerable.  More importantly, integration implies a reciprocal, relational way of building communities.  In being relational, we affect others as much as we are affected by them.  We learn from and teach.  We share and we accept.  We open ourselves to the idea that we can grow in our capacity as humans if we learn how to see life from a different vantage point.  In doing so, our community grows stronger.  This is the work that has not begun.  This is the work that I believe the 21st Century is drawing us towards.  If we take up this work today, then we could find ourselves one day eliminating the need to hyphenate ourselves not because we have finally become LIKE the dominant community in which we live but because the larger community has expanded to accept us as we are and has been revitalized, maybe even redefined, by us.

Tags: barak obama, change, hispanic, immigrant, integration, latino, latinola, national league of cities, obama, puentes

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 16th, 2008 at 12:04 am and is filed under Puentes Director. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.