50 years since my arrival from Cuba, I worry that America is crumbling
It has been fifty years since I first arrived on the shores of America, and it was love at first sight. Queens felt warm and welcoming right from the beginning. Over the past five decades, America has undergone significant changes, some for the better and others for the worse. Despite this, America is still a country worth loving.
The division in today’s political landscape over the love of America would have seemed strange to the young boy who landed at JFK on August 6, 1974, after being born in Cuba and spending two years in Spain with his family waiting for a visa. When we finally emigrated to New York, I found Jackson Heights to be full of endless opportunities.
The current election year highlights the divide between those who love America for what it is – the Land of Opportunity, despite its flaws – and those who view it as racist and oppressive, seeking to transform it. This division is the result of a process that I have witnessed firsthand for 50 years and devoted decades to studying.
Take the term “Hispanic,” which did not exist 50 years ago, and later, I learned that I might fit into that category. It was not until 1977 that the term was created by bureaucrats at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) through Directive No. 15, making its first appearance on the Census in 1980.
I remember my uncle Ramon, who took us in, coming home sometime in the ’70s and informing us about the term “Hispanics” that was in the works. He was a journalist, one of my mentors, and a living example of the American Dream. We were puzzled by this new category as Cubans on our way to becoming Americans, not seeing the need to be separated into a different group. Decades later, I realized the threat this division posed to the American Way of Life, which had called me here in the first place.
Leftist activists, similar to those who destroyed my native island under Fidel Castro, pushed reluctant administrators to create the Hispanic category. They understood the need to create marginalized special interest groups to incite a transformative revolt.
“The challenge with the work that I do at Voto Latino is that I can’t get people agitated because often times they don’t know the great harm that has happened under the structures that we have been raised by,” said their President and CEO Maria Teresa Kumar. “But once they start understanding it and recognizing it, they act and react, and fight.”
When Kamala Harris segregates her supporters into “affinity groups,” I understand her intentions. As an American born elsewhere, I have the privilege of comparing different cultures. Growing up in Cuba, Spain, and New York, I have seen drastic societal changes.
The Cuba I experienced in the 1960s was the backdrop for a chaotic communist revolution, attracting America’s internal enemies and terrorist groups. Franco’s Spain in the early 1970s was marked by his staunch opposition to societal change, and New York under Mayor Beame was a mix of excitement and danger, reminiscent of its current state under Mayor Alvin Bragg.
Despite the challenges, my love for Jackson Heights, Queens, New York, and America remains unwavering. I am driven to improve the country I love rather than transform it.
While the past fifty years have brought many changes, my attachment to America has remained constant.
Mike Gonzalez is a senior fellow at The Heritage Foundation and the co-author of “NextGen Marxism.”
