First paragraph (Teaser):

News, analysis, and opinion is carefully screened by the publisher and editors of The Miami Herald to serve the dominant ethnic needs of the community.

Rest of the text:

Scrambling Eggs in Magic City

Miami is an attractive model of the latinoamericanizacion of the United States of America. While poor Latin Americans view Miami as paraiso, Miami's civic leaders, particularly those involved in real estate speculation, are presently proud to call Magic City a "world-class city." The run-of-the-mill resident of Miami-Dade county, whose median income is $38,819, cannot afford to buy one of the 100,000 condos just coming onto the market. Yet those residents, sixty percent of whom are foreign-born, mostly latinos and latinas, are as proud of their bright city as they are of their diverse ethnic heritage.

Miami has a huevos revueltos or scrambled-egg culture. And you might be asked if you want your jamon on the side, or chopped up in the eggs. Despite the diversity of the latin cultures in Miami and the presence of other ethnic groups, Miami's multiculturalism and multilingualism is largely bicultural and bilingual; to wit, Cuban-American and Spanish-English. Cuban Spanish predominates: a Cuban-American citizen can succeed in Miami without speaking a word of English. He might, for example, get his news from Knight Ridder's el Nuevo Herald instead of its partner, The Miami Herald.

The most politically powerful group in Miami is the light-skinned Cuban Americans. Their power is derived from their numbers, political favoritism, and tight ethnic cohesion. Cuban exiles are occasionally referred to as "the Chosen People" of all the Spanish-speaking groups. They are indeed an admirable people. The second and third generations have largely been assimilated by the multicultural Blob. Some younger Cuban Americans laugh at the notion of a Hispanic Chosen People, and refer to the "hard-line" Cuban exiles, who resent assimilation, as "a bunch of red necks."

Of course the term 'ethnic' refers to a foreign culture or nation within a broader culture or nation. The jury is still out on which ethnos is superior. Western civilization supposes itself to be the superior mental culture to the extent that it suspends judgment, transcends relative ethnic prejudices, and freely exchanges ideas and goods. That is, the Western ethnos is superior to the extent that it is scientific, objective, materialistic, and capitalistic. Since it is superior as it gazes down from above at all the particulars below, it is apparently destined by some inevitable natural or divine process to be "universal." No doubt that its freedom and liberty should be imposed on the world in order to free the inhabitants for globular assimilation. Of course the superior attitude of the First World might seem to be an ethnocentric hot-air balloon to other ethnic groups who do not appreciate its arrogant grandeur; or, as relatively comfortable Westerners prefer to say, are jealous of the great civilization's wealth and freedom.

The most pernicious forms of ethnocentrism (the belief that your own airs don't stink, and in fact are the finest perfumes ever made) known to humankind are racism and nationalism. In Miami those two forms seem to coincide from time to time in the close alliance between the right-wing fractions of the United States and the Cuban exiles. That coincidence and alliance is resented and despised by many red-blooded Americans including Cuban Americans Otherwise, with that in mind, they like to play ethnic card games and dominoes and eat scrambled eggs with grits and flattened toast. Their bilingual daily newspaper, el Nuevo Herald and The Miami Herald, reflects their mood, and plays ethnic card games from time to time. Sometimes, however, the editors move to far towards ethnocentrism. In those cases they do not know they are playing ethnic cards, and tend to project their own faults on a stereotypical scapegoat.

Playing the Ethnic Card

The Herald editors penned an ethnic editorial (2/4/05) under the rubric, Playing the ethnic card - Sen. Hatch insults Mr. Gonzales, Hispanics, and Americans.

"Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah played the ethnic card," charged the editors in typically terse and tense prose, as if it was news faithfully handed down from on high as the absolute truth.

"The Utah Republican suggested that Hispanic Americans would punish anyone who voted against Mr. Gonzales. He thus managed to insult both Mr. Gonzales and Hispanics in general.... Mr. Gonzales has never made his way by pushing his ethnic identity.... He is surely proud of his heritage, but he would deny that it represents a professional credential. Likewise, it's disparaging to suggest that Hispanics wouldn’t make a decision on issues of substance.... The office of attorney general is too important to be decided by ethnic politics."

The debate was bitter, but the Senate confirmed Alberto Gonzales by a vote of 60-36. Gonzales, the Texas son of a Mexican-American migrant worker, is an old friend of President Bush, whom Gonzales faithfully served as a White House counsel. Gonzales has been admonished for being the "yes man" who advised his friend and employer that the president is above the law and can therefore with immunity disregard international and U.S. laws protecting human rights.

The Herald reported on the very same day (2/4/05), that several Republicans suggested that Democrats risked a Hispanic backlash for opposing the first Hispanic named to a top Cabinet position. Senator Hatch, who was singled out by The Herald editors, perhaps because of a latent ethnocentric perception of the Utah Republican as a red-necked WASP from flyover country, warned his colleagues, "Every Hispanic American is watching."

It appears that the uncritical ethnic prejudice of the Miami editors precluded them from making an example of a prominent Cuban-American member of the hard-line Miami exile community: Republican U.S. Representative Mario Diaz-Balart, a member of the Congressional Hispanic Conference.

"With such a ridiculous number of (Senate) Democrats voting against another highly qualified Hispanic, it is no surprise Hispanic support for Democrats keeps eroding," stated Representative Diaz-Balart, implying that Democrats are prejudiced against Hispanics, the overwhelming majority of whom are, of course, Democrats. Even some hardened Cuban exiles softened up enough to become Democrats given the conduct of President Bush.

Mario Diaz-Balart, by the way, is a cousin to Fidel Castro's son, Fidelito Castro Diaz-Balart, a product of Fidel Castro's former marriage to Mirta Diaz-Balart, a marriage from which ensued a bitter family feud with political repercussions. Mario Diaz-Balart's grandfather, Rafael Diaz-Balart, was the lead lawyer for the United Fruit Company, infamous to many Latin Americans as the business arm of Yankee imperialism. Rafael then served as cabinet minister to the brutal Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. Mario Diaz-Balart offended many South Florida Cuban exiles, who hate Batista as much as Castro, when he tried to get a local university's law building named after his grandfather. Playing the ethnic card yet again in 2002, he proposed redistributing Miami and other cities to create the existence of predominantly exile congressional districts, then announced his candidacy for the Miami exile district's seat.

The Miami Herald is an Ethnic Card

In response to my query about the criteria for choosing columnists for publication at the Herald, Tom Fiedler, its executive editor, stated, "A complex calculus comes into play in choosing columnists -- market need, experience, reputation, credibility in a subject, demographic profile (i.e. race, gender and ethnicity) -- that goes beyond the ability to write well. Some excellent writers simply never get a column because they're in the unfortunate position of not being the right something-or-other to suit the paper's needs at the time when an opening occurs." Emphasis added. (Letters 10/14/04)

My daily scrutiny of The Herald since I received that momentous message has led me to premise that the same criteria for columnists applies to analysts and reporters; that is, The Herald, on the whole, has a marked ethnic bias. Not that the editors and journalists are tendentiously ethnocentric in the pejorative sense; but it seems that truth plays second fiddle to the "market need" of the publication, hence the publisher and its editors reflect the parochial and patriotic ethnocentrism simply because it is profitable to do so. That is to say, the paper plays the ethnic card game for money. Of course some newspaper officers and employees may in fact be personally prejudiced in favor of a particular ethnic group.

Alberto Ibarguen, King of Diamonds

Such may be the case with Alberto Ibarguen, who recently stepped down as Publisher and Chairman of Knight-Ridder's Miami Herald and its sister publication El Nuevo Herald to head up the Knight Foundation, where he is expected to carry on his fight for press freedoms and press diversity at an annual salary of around one-half million dollars.

Ibarguen, an influential member of Mesa Redonda, Miami's elite exile fraternity, might be the author of the editorial singling out Senator Hatch as an ethnic-card player. He also might be the author of regular editorials characterizing Castro as The Devil Incarnate and wishing Castro dead. An editor (or the publisher) played that parochial and nationalist ethnic card most recently in an editorial (2/16/05) objecting to the fact that Parade magazine, which it carries as an insert, had dropped Castro from its list of the World's 10 Worst Dictators. The editorial was entitled, 'The Most Awful: FIDEL CASTRO BELONGS ON LIST OF WORLDS WORST DICTATORS.'

"There can be only one good reason for Castro not to be on this list - that he's no long around to oppress his people. It will mean that Cuba is free," concluded the editorial, deciding yet again what is good for Cuban citizens.

Ibarguen, publisher of El Nuevo since 1995, replaced David Lawrence Jr. as chairman and publisher of both papers, shortly after El Nuevo ran a front-page hoax (July 1998), that Fidel Castro was mortally ill. More recently, after Castro fell flat on his face and broke some bones, an editorial celebrated the fall with a condemnation.

Since he took over both papers, Ibarguen did his best to ensure that nothing deemed offensive to exile leaders would run in either paper, not even offensive music reviews: in 2000, Ibarguen spiked an article criticizing Gloria Estefan's CD. In 2001, he spiked editorials condemning the firing of Alberto Milian from radio station Habla El Pueblo - Milian had exposed the disreputable record of politician Angel Gonzalez. Columnist Max Castro was shut out from El Nuevo because he advocated ending the punitive embargo against Cuba. Ibarguen spiked Editor Martin Baron's editorial on the Elian raid, and replaced Baron with Tom Fiedler.

A summit meeting of the Mesa Redonda with Elian's advisors, Carlos de la Cruz and Carlos Saladrigas, was held in Ibarguen's office. Ibarguen penned and ran an editorial in El Nuevo condemning the raid: the editorial was entitled "Que Verguenza!" (What a Disgrace). As a consequence of Ibarguen's leadership, El Nuevo was characterized by some Hispanic intellectuals at the time as an "ethnic cartoon." Although Ibarguen was a lawyer by profession, he had no reservations about creating an appearance of ethical impropriety in his blatant conflict of interest.

After Fiedler was selected as editor, Ibarguen continued to sanitize criticism of the exile community while currying favor with President Bush, going so far as to write an editorial endorsing embattled Bush nominee Otto Reich in 2001.

There is much more, but that should suffice for a hand of ethnic card playing. When Ibarguen resigned from the paper, civic leaders celebrated his long-standing integrity at length in a front-page article. "He is widely credited with turning El Nuevo Herald into one of the nation's most respected Spanish-language newspapers and with boosting The Herald's financial performance... instilling more of marketing focus..... He also gained respect as a staunch advocate of public service journalism and press freedom.... He has the unique ability of bridge the cultural divides that are unique to Miami...."

Alberto Ibarguen, by the way, was born in Puerto Rico; he served the Peace Corps in Venezuela and Columbia before taking up the practice of law. Jesus Diaz, who emigrated to the U.S. from Cuba in 1970, is replacing Ibarguen at The Herald. Diaz is an accountant: that might be good for both business and politics at The Herald since he is well versed in the real difference between debit and credit and knows how to keep the books balanced accordingly.

Mel Martinez, Jack of Clubs

The Miami Herald has flattered Mel Martinez at length lately. Martinez immigrated to the United States from Cuba via Operation Peter Pan. He is a member of the "value-oriented" Cuban exile right, the so-called Cuban "hard liners" who take credit for winning (Democrats: "stealing") Bush his first term in office.

We should keep in mind, however, that not all hard-liners or exiles in general are of the same political color: some went over to Clinton some time ago, and were of course deemed national traitors by Bush - uncompromising loyalty, regardless of adherence to higher principles, is the primitive definition of integrity. The current war on Iraq and the harsh policies of President Bush towards Cuba, policies that punish the exile community's relatives in Cuba, have also alienated many Cuban-Americans. While serving as Secretary of HUD, Martinez personally helped President Bush plan the harsh measures that hurt Cuban families hardest. The Bush travel restrictions and other punitive measures, cost Martinez and Bush some support among the exile community because the sanctions only added to the impoverishment of relatives in Cuba; according to many Cubans, the Bush measures amounted to "a hypocritical attack on Cuban families."

In return for the support of those who remained loyal, Bush awarded his exile clients with several key positions - Martinez got the Secretary of Housing post. More recently, the president encouraged him to run for the U.S. Senate against Democratic Candidate Betty Castor, former president of the University of Southern California. Martinez's hate-mongering, fear-mongering, gay-bashing political campaign strategy in Florida made him notorious throughout the nation. He accused Castor of harboring a terrorist, Professor al-Arian, during her presidency of the university in the 90s. Castor pointed out that she had fully cooperated with the authorities behind the scenes during their investigation of the professor, and that the professor had in fact been allowed to campaign with George Bush in 2000 and had been invited to the White House. Yet Martinez refused to cease slandering his opponent.

Much to their credit, the Herald editors, whether for the love of money or morals, chastised Martinez for his reprehensible conduct. Even more notably, the editors endorsed Kerry for President.

Martinez equated communism - personified by Fidel Castro - with terrorism, and curried favor among the exile community by alluding to the possibility of a U.S. led pre-emptive regime-change in Cuba, to be made in the name of human rights. He did not mention the fact that the United States was violating the human rights of 550 political prisoners at Guantanamo, Cuba, far more political prisoners than were being held by the Cuban government at the same time. Martinez influenced the Bush plan for transition and reconstruction of Cuba after Castro is removed. Needless to say, many Floridians who were paying attention to the Martinez campaign were dismayed by Martinez's imperial aspirations.

"The White House has always supported that human rights be respected in Cuba," Martinez said after winning the election, "and the plan the White House built for the future of Cuba - which is the one in which I have a part and of which I am very proud - includes the travel restrictions...." (Herald 11/5/2004)

The first Cuban-American U.S. senator said that his new position would afford him with an opportunity to plead with people to have "a tough attitude on Cuba.... I'm dying to go back.... The cause of the hurt is not here. It's their ruler. And I'd do anything in he world to see Cuba have the opportunity to do better." He stated his intolerance for any agenda that does not include "a total change in the (Cuban) government." (Herald 11/15/04)

The Toggling Senator

Under the rubric 'A historic day for Martinez, exiles', The Herald devoted the first four columns of its January 5, 2004 front page to admiring the bilingual facility of "the nation's first Cuban-American" senator, who "toggled" effortlessly between English and Spanish. Jorge Mas Canosa, chairman of the Cuban American National Foundation, called the swearing in of Martinez as U.S. senator "a historic event for our community." Jorge Mas Canosa is the son of the late "Boss" Jorge Mas Canosa, the amazing man who rose from washing dishes and delivering milk to virtually ruling Miami while amassing a fortune estimated at nearly one-half billion dollars. Rejecting assimilation by his Yankee host, the senior Mas aspired to getting rid of Fidel Castro's regime so that he could become Cuba's boss. He acted accordingly, and allegedly had numerous ties to persons Fidel Castro identifies as "Miami terrorists."

Senator George Allen of Virginia, who had recruited Martinez for President Bush, claimed that Martinez is "verification of the great promise of America." Martinez, referring to his slanderous campaign against Betty Castor, said, "Judge me by my life's work, not by an intense eight months of personal destruction." Martinez, whose agenda is regime change in Cuba (to "bring freedom and democracy to Cuba"), said he wants to provide funds directly to dissidents in Cuba - the Castro government has already accused and jailed dissidents for allegedly receiving covert U.S. funding for advocating the overthrow of the Cuban state and for assassinations, bombings, hijackings, and other terrorist acts.

Mel Martinez made another historic first in February, when, during his first floor speech, he addressed the U.S. Senate in Spanish, in support of President Bush's nominee for attorney general, Alberto Gonzales. Gonzalez, said Martinez, represents "todos nuestros suenos y esperanzas para nuestros hijos," i.e., all our dreams for our children. The senators were reportedly "uncomprehending" when Martinez played the ethnic card. All right, that might offend some super patriots, even more than patriots were offended by Jeanette Rankin's votes against the world wars, because, she said - breaking protocol by making a remark when casting her vote - she was a woman. But never mind, Cubans have certainly come a long way since they were called "monkeys" on the Senate floor a century ago - perhaps Senator Martinez will make monkeys out of a few of them, as if there is not enough monkey business going on in the cloakrooms as it is.

The Herald had not yet finished playing the ethnic card: it ran an article on bilingual politics (2/14/05) - "Bilingual politicians gaining clout. U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez's use of Spanish in the Senate highlights a growing trend among Florida politicians."

For starters, President Bush and Governor Bush speak Spanish. So does Senator Kerry. Some Florida politicians "identify the ability to speak Spanish in the state as a major plus for anyone seeking statewide office." But "most politicians agree Spanish is not a necessary." Governor Bush, whose wife is Mexican-American and who is allegedly being groomed for the next Bush presidency, said speaking Spanish is helpful, but the important thing is to be understanding of the diversity of the Hispanic culture. Someone else remarked that Fidel Castro speaks excellent Spanish, but not many Cuban Americans would vote for him. Yet another person remarked that, although speaking Spanish in Florida is advantageous, some communities feel threatened by what they perceive as Hispanic encroachment.

Pushing the Spanish thing certainly turns some Americans off. For instance, unemployed English-only speakers, English-French speakers, and English-Swahili speakers who are looking for a job in Miami and are denied employment because they do not speak Spanish, not only because the employer does business with foreign customers, but because the employer and many customers, all U.S. citizens, do not have to speak English and prefer not to speak it. Indeed, to get a low-paying telemarketing job at The Herald, the applicant must speak English and Spanish. Incidentally, the news broadcasts of the paper's television affiliate, Channel 4, carries Spanish subtitles, which offends some people - I like it because it is an aid to learning Spanish. Anyway, so much for the general linguistic virtues of bilingualism.

Bilingualism

"Bilingualism" in the United States means English-Spanish bilingualism. Business will do anything for money. It was not long before the big secret came out, that Hispanics had managed, despite all the discrimination early on, to save up some green to buy things with, hence big money invested in Hispanic culture and media.

Politicians, likewise, will do anything for money to buy votes. As we have so often heard, organized greed will inevitably bring all of us together into one big globular beehive some day. My father says we will all be gray and making a dollar an hour - but what common language will we speak? Emperors from the earliest times have wanted super highways and a universal tongue for their empires, and for very good reason. If we all speak English and Spanish, why not just one or the other, or some synthesis of the two? But what about Chinese, French, Russian, and so on? Should we not be trilingual, guadrilingual, cincolingual? Shall we be Jacks of all languages, and masters of none? Well, it seems Spanish, once the language of diplomacy, is staging a big comeback, or at least a friendly alliance with business English.

Apparently Miami Herald editors felt a twinge of conscience for their most recent, gushing propagation of English-Spanish bilingualism. For one thing, they played the Haitian card, and the African-American card; however, no mention was made of their dialects. Maybe the usually dense editors became worried about the bottom line when they received irate responses from both monolingual and bilingual readers who saw through the ethnic card being played, and said "So What?" to English-Spanish bilingualism. And maybe the editors received complaints from immigrants who do not want to be Hyphenated-Americans; from Lithuanian and Icelandic immigrants who are having sufficient difficulty learning English; and from American super patriots for whom English is good enough.

Here again, it is inadvisable to put everyone who speaks Spanish in the same puka, as the Hawaiians say. Spanish-speaking immigrants have told me, shaking their heads, that the refusal of many Miami residents, who are, after all, American citizens, to speak English, is insulting, and makes Miami seem like a foreign country – that’s why some of us who are tired of our own kind like it so much. They sympathize with English speakers, whose prospects for finding work are cut in half because speaking Spanish is practically a job requirement in Miami.

As for me, I like the Latinos of Miami - I like the Latinas even more. I have met many Cubans who love the United States very much, who are proud of their citizenship, and who are more than glad to help me understand a Spanish word or two. Yet I have indeed encountered older Cubans who folded their arms and silently glared at me or even turned their backs on me when I spoke English - that is insulting.

Imported Bilingualism

Miami Herald editors were moved to import an article (1/8/05) entitled, "Americans' fear of other languages is unfounded," written by Mary Sanchez of Knight Ridder's Kansas City Star. I lived in Kansas City for quite a while. Spanish is of course spoken by the many Mexicans and Mexican Americans in Kansas City; they do not push Spanish or care much about helping anyone else learn it: they toggle to English when gringos are around - hence a gringo may only hear Spanish spoken once or twice a year if he does not pass through the right neighborhoods.

The Star is a good paper. Like The Herald, it assiduously attends to the local "market interests." That means the interests of its "civic leaders," none of whom are Cuban exiles, to the best of my knowledge, but many of them are members of, related to, or employed by a few dynastic families. Coincidentally, Kansas City's civic leaders also have a marked interest in boosting real estate development in the Heart of America - a booster term for Kansas City, Missouri. Maybe Miami could have unloaded the old arena on them for more than $26 million it was sold for – just kidding, they are not that dumb: dismantling, shipping, and assembly costs would be prohibitive, and they know it.

I hesitate to say very much about Kansas City lest too many people from Miami learn about its secret, move up to the Kaw, butcher and distribute the cow before I return. But I will say that The Star suffers from the fault of many papers: journalists do most of their research from their cubicles, hence they are not on the streets long enough to really know what is going on - alas, the Man on the Street died a long time ago, or was relocated so a new arena or condominium could be built where his blighted home once stood. Once in a while, a human resources journalist will write a hackneyed article about thinking outside of the box she and the other writers sit in.

Mary Sanchez did her research of research conducted by researchers at a university, and she arrived at the same orthodox conclusion as the reputable researchers: that English-only speakers should not fear for their society or for the excellence of its language, for immigrants wind up speaking English very well as they are assimilated.

"A new study has disproved what the English-only crowd fears: the societal effects of immigrants who seemingly refuse to give up their native language for English. The fear is distorted.... The findings: 92 percent of second generation Latinos speak English well or very well, even though 85 percent speak at least some Spanish at home.... Pockets in the Southwest and California seemingly lend credibility to the idea that Spanish will somehow 'overtake' English. But even in the Mexican-migration heavy California, old patterns of assimilation play out, the study found.... English is not in danger. But, it is hoped," Sanchez concluded with an ethnocentric assumption, "the American arrogance toward foreign languages is beginning a slow, long-overdue death."

My own personal experience lends credibility to the notion that people will do what they have to do in order to succeed, and that might entail learning the dominant language of the nation they reside in and the languages of any foreign nations they might want to do business with.

A young lady from Mexico City stopped me in downtown Miami this morning.

"Do you speak Spanish?" she asked.

"Not very well, I am sorry to say, " I answered.

We continued in English; her English was well spoken, with an American accent. She sells Miami real estate to Mexicans back home, she said, and she visits at least twice a year, for two months at a time. I asked her for her opinion on bilingualism. Citizens who refuse to speak the language of their own nation are wrong, she said, and she knows some Miami Hispanics who refuse to speak English. It would be very strange if Mexicans in Mexico City refused to speak Spanish, she said. and spoke only English.

I am not so worried about Spanish per se, and I hope to learn more about it so I can see if Gabriel Marquez writes as well as the English translations. English is in enough danger from its own monolingualists, particularly those whose reading is limited to newspapers and most magazines, where broken and fragmented, bite-sized 'newspeak' prevails. Good grammar, in the broadest, non-technical sense of the term, that of the most eloquent language spoken and written, depends on the quality of the thinking process, which, in turn, is developed by liberal education. Given the dumbing-down and dumbed-up United States, it should not surprise us if immigrants excel in any language, including mathematics.

But one verbal language customarily dominates every advancing culture, not necessarily for the sake of ethnocentric - 'racist' or 'nationalist' unity - but for sake of convenience - a universal mode of communication that everyone fully understands, and, hopefully, strives to improve.

It is the function of a universal language that Miami's civic leaders, who are presently boosting their condominium city as a "world-class city", should be concerned with, so that Miami may be a cosmopolitan city and not simply a superficial and crass resort of the world's moneyed class riding on the back of a service industry whose servants must work two jobs to merely survive - a Cuban immigrant, a maid, recently told me that, although she does not like Castro, she wants to return to Cuba because all that Miami cares about is money, not ethnic culture. Well, it seems that money has become the universal language, and that it has rendered merely relative the ethnic identification wanted by so many alienated people today. Whatever the verbal language or culture is, it needs to be deepened in my opinion.

Conclusion

I enjoyed playing ethnic cards today. The more I play, the more I love Miami.