Simon Bolivar wrote a political pamphlet in 1812 called the Manifesto of Cartagena where he addressed the citizens of new Grenada about expelling the Spanish from their country; this shows how race and identity factor in to this revolution.
The major events in this revolution like Bolivar attempting to liberate New Grenades centered around freeing these places from Spanish control and uniting the people under one common identity, South Americans, so expelling one race and then subsequently supporting Another. Bolivar’s effort’s led to Colombia becoming a free republic, but this was short lived, for many revolts led to Gran Colombia being increasingly difficult to keep together. Eventually Ecuador and Venezuela seceded from Gran Colombia, once again changing the preexisting notion of racial identity in South America
In America, an often talked about issue is Spanish Immigration from Mexico and other parts of Latin America to America. This conflict is based around the issue of whether we should further prevent the Hispanic people from crossing into America with large fences and border control, or should we give them all easier ways of gaining citizenship.
The article I chose was written by Marc A. Thiessen, a reporter for the Washington Post, who writes about President Obama’s recent immigration address and talks about how Obama’s recent move to take unconstitutional executive action on immigration reform will severely hurt Obama’s chances for an actual reform in the future.
The Author also states that 74% percent of the population say that Illegal Immigrants should be allowed citizenship and all the responsibilities that come with it like paying taxes as long as they pass a security check.
The effect of race on the issue is clear to see. Often times short sighted people who are against freer immigration laws are blinded by some sort of bias or prejudice towards hispanics, and people who identify themselves as hispanic of any oppressed minority, even if they have had Us citizenship all their life, tend to side with freer immigration laws on the Hispanic people.
Race affects national identity and politics in a very big way. People don’t necessarily want to believe it but a big reason why president Obama was elected in first place was because the prospect of having a man of African descent in office for the first time was a great sounding notion. It would mean minorities would have more recognition in the House, it would be a great milestone for the Us and show how far we’ve come since the days when prejudice was an unavoidable part of everyday life, and of course Obama still wouldn’t have been elected if he also didn't prove himself in the election to be a competent leader, and an eloquent public speaker as well.
The article talked about how Obama’s speech would have been an incredibly effective one if he hadn’t of taken unnecessary executive action first. I do agree with this because the basic ideals he’s fighting for are still supported by the American constitution, ideals of freedom and equality for all people. It’s funny that even though our founding fathers stated in the declaration of independence over 200 years ago states that all men are created equal, yet today after how far we've come we’re still debating that simple fact, gay marriage laws are still being passed, immigrants are still being oppressed, and there are more hate groups now in the world than ever before in History. But that being said we have come a very long way, but through mostly unwavering tradition, and fear of the new, it has still stayed around, for no real good reason, for it has done no good and, will cause nothing but pain and suffering despair for the rest of eternity, yes the rest of eternity. No matter how far we come it will always exist, but the sign that I can even say the words “how far we’ve come” is a sign that there’s plenty of hope still left for the future and the present
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