I got a phone call tonight, on my cell phone, from a young lady who said that Santa Ana Mayor Pro Tem Claudia Alvarez should “learn English” and “go back to Mexico.” The caller blurted out something about the Holocaust and then hung up.
I was left wondering if the anonymous caller knew anything about the Native American Holocaust? Or that Alvarez, like 60% of modern Mexicans and Mexican Americans, is a Mestizo – which means she is descended from Native Americans and the Spanish who conquered Mexico. (Another 30% of today’s Mexicans are thought to be Natives even today – in fact many of these people still speak only their native tongues).
Alvarez erred by comparing Santa Ana business owner and developer Irv Chase to Adolf Hitler – but she was trying to make a valid point – that Chase has systematically profited over the years by partnering with former Santa Ana City Manager Dave Ream to squeeze Latinos out of Downtown Santa Ana. Chase’s purchase of the Yost Theater, which Ream arranged to have effectively stolen from the Olivas family, is but one such example of this. Continue reading