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.MEXIFORNIA Victor Davis Hanson 145from the immigrant community, the unemployed and the half-employed—while this newfound affluence has made them, in away, angrier that they are still not as wealthy as others.In short, Humberto Gama is outwardly indistinguishablefrom many of the professors I work with.His car on its daily trekinto Selma looks not much different from those of soccer momson their way to upscale white suburban schools.Humberto’s is aPotemkin middle-class existence to be sure, but even its façadesimply did not exist a mere two decades ago, when I could easilyspot the clothes, cars, habits and general look of the illegal alienin a matter of seconds.Now these distinguishing marks have beendissolved by the advent of a globalized look, a veneer of samenessand fraternity, an equal access to the electronic world of imageryand message and the means to pay for it—with little regard foractual earned income or racial identification.This instant American satisfaction of the baser cravings hasenraged our European friends, who among their own youth see BigMacs displacing haute cuisine, rap eclipsing more sophisticatedmusic, and Star Wars trouncing grim Swedish melodrama.Ourliberal professors and journalists at home might enjoy the nuanceand minutes-long still shots of French film, but young whites fromMontana and Chicanos from East Los Angeles, if they watchforeign movies at all, alike prefer Jackie Chan.Immigrants fromMexico tend to agree with the latter, not the former.They under-stand that American mores and tastes in the culture at large set fewrequirements for full participation—not money, education, breed-ing, parentage, race, accent or religion.The Mexican immigrantsI know who listen to English-speaking radio are more likely toturn to the loud and sometimes grating voices of Rush Limbaughor Michael Savage than to the subdued and often nasal tonesof NPR.Almost anyone can understand the plot of an Americanmovie and sit transfixed by the human and technological pyrotech-nics—car chases, explosions, murderous heroes on a mission of [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]