The Myth of Aztlán

Bill O'Reilly

Channel surfing should be an American pastime, up there with baseball and road trips. In that half-hour between "Seinfeld" reruns, I sometimes like to just sit and vegetate, every couple of minutes laughing as I remember a Seinfeld observation. So I'll sit there, trying to find that channel between the channels that shows nothing but "Simpsons" episodes. I haven't found it yet, but I have come across some very interesting things. Such was the case when I stumbled upon Bill O'Reilly's program, "The O'Reilly Factor," on the fair and balanced Fox News Network.

That day's topic was on the supposed desire of Mexican-Americans to create a new country, sometimes referred to as Aztlán, out of the American Southwest and northern Mexico. Sensationalism quickly superceded fair and balanced journalism to present a frighteningly biased account of the threat posed by immigration. Had it been the only time I'd come across such a view I would have easily forgotten about it, but it wasn't. The desire of a few individuals to create a new nation has been presented inaccurately on popular news programs and widely read articles. The continued propagation of such a biased view is dangerous because it stigmatizes millions of immigrants as traitors to the United States -- and it contradicts all evidence available on Mexican immigration.

Such opinions are not surprising given our country's history of mistreating recent immigrants. At various points in history, the Irish, Italians, Chinese, Jews and Japanese have been lambasted by "native" Americans for their religion or appearance. Luckily, the cheap labor provided by these groups always trumped racist sentiments and the groups were allowed to assimilate (to varying degrees) into American life.

Behind the extremist views there is a legitimate concern about the impact of immigration on all Americans. Issues such as national security, job losses and environmental degradation are impacted by immigration and should be discussed as openly and honestly as possible. However, many in the country have seized on the lingering trauma of 9/11 to advance a malicious and xenophobic agenda.

Pouncing on this fear, pundits have been more than willing to promote the radical desire of a few Mexican-Americans to arouse nationalist sentiment. That small number of Mexican-Americans want to create a new country out of the American Southwest and northern Mexico. They believe the large Hispanic population in these areas could vote to secede from the United States.

The basis of this new nation lies in an old legend chronicling the Aztec migration south from Aztlán, their homeland, to central Mexico. Aztlán's location is now believed to be somewhere in the American Southwest. In the 1960s, Chicano movements rediscovered this myth and used it to develop pride in their heritage. Instead of viewing themselves as foreigners, they realized they had actually returned home.

Known by many names, including Aztlán, Reconquista (Reconquest) and Republica del Norte (Republic of the North), this attempt at creating a new nation supports pundits' belief that immigrants are here to destroy the United States. Populist pundit Bill O'Reilly, for example, has these people calling for Aztlán on his show more than he should. This plan is presented to the audience as something representative of the general Mexican population. The thousands of illegal immigrants arriving daily, they argue, are implicit actors in this goal. O'Reilly presents the plan for Reconquista as a real possibility rather than the distant dream that it actually is.

As a matter of fact, there is strong evidence that contradicts O'Reilly's claims and shows that there is no implicit scheme to conquer the US. In reality, immigration is an essential economic benefit to the United States and many immigrants end up here because it's practical -- not because they want to take over.