Month: May 2017

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Trump is between a rock and a hard place.

This is a short political note:

If you’ve been watching the news you’ll agree with me that President Trump is between a rock and a hard place. During the presidential campaign last year I shared my view with many of you that he would become the most inept and inappropriate person to ever serve in the White House. Unfortunately, my prediction was right on.

  • He is only in his 4th month in office and the word “impeachment” is beginning to swirl in the air.
  • And, a special attorney has already been named to investigate him (see his photo).
  • And, for starters, the investigation is about his connections with the Russians and those of the people working for him.
  • And, it seems that the entanglements of Trump’s people with our sworn enemies are only beginning to come to the surface.

Keep an eye on the newspapers!

P.S. Robert Mueller, the Special Counsel appointed to investigate Mr. Trump (see the photo), represents in my mind the kind of dedicated official that our government relies on to do its job, despite the ineptitude of the politicians at the top, in a crisis and when there is none. I worked for the feds and I came to know folks like him. The ones I knew impressed me a lot because they always tried to do their job right. It’s one of the reasons why I don’t “buy” the Republican chant that raises suspicion on our government. I’m glad people like him are there and I hope the wrong-headed incapacity of Trump’s confederates doesn’t scare them away.

May 19, 2017

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MEXICAN CARDINAL CONDEMNS TRUMP’S BORDER WALL AS IMMORAL AND BIGOTED

The head of the Mexican Catholic Church condemned President Trump’s proposed border wall in the harshest words I’ve seen so far. He also blasted any Mexican company willing to help build the wall, and he also threw a strong jab at Mexican government officials for not speaking more forcefully on the matter.

A March 26, 2017 article in a leading Mexico City daily printed the hard-hitting words of Norberto Rivera Carrera, Cardinal and Archbishop of Mexico, condemning President Trump’s wall project as “immoral” and “bigoted.” He said that “Trump’s wall can only nurture discrimination and serve to subjugate millions of people.”

The article in El Universal referred, first, to President Trump allotting 2 billion dollars to build the wall, and, second, to Mexican contractors announcing their interest in bidding for it. Archbishop Rivera condemned the move by Mexican entrepreneurs in no uncertain terms: “It would be immoral for any [Mexican] company intending to invest in the wall of that zealot Trump, but more than anything else, the shareholders and owners ought to be considered traitors of the nation.” These are strong words indeed!

El Universal quoted from an editorial entitled “The Betrayal of the Nation,” printed in a church weekly by the name of Desde la Fe, issued on the same date.

The Cardinal added that the companies justifying their actions as “job producing” was nothing more than bogus; what they want, he stated, is to profit from the “shameful wall.” He lamented businessmen in Mexico who would collaborate in such a bigoted enterprise. “Taking part in a project that affronts human dignity is to shoot yourself in the foot.”

He also lambasted the government’s pussy-footing about it by parroting that the United States may do whatever it wants on its side of the border. But, “it is the usual short-sighted people who cannot see that the wall represents a threat that can only weaken the relations between the two countries and endanger peace.”

Referring to President Trump’s drive to deport undocumented workers from the United States, the church leader considered it “showing off the power to terrorize, by deporting people who have not committed a crime or faulted a regulation, according to law.”

Regarding the wall, he also declared that it “represents a monument to intimidation and silencing, it symbolizes xenophobic hate that seeks to drown out the voices of ill paid and ill-treated workers, of families who lack protection and of people who are violated.”

The idea of a wall represents “a departure from the noblest desires of mankind[; it is a retreat] which has brought much shedding of blood; it is a prelude to the destruction of democratic values and social rights.” He also added, “The wall represents the power of a country that is considered good, [yet endowed] with a manifest destiny to overwhelm a nation that it considers perverted and corrupt: Mexico.”

–Carlos B. Gil

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We Became Mexican American, a book

 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 1, 2016

VOTED “BEST BIOGRAPHY”

AUTHOR TELLS OF THE HARD RESOLVE

HIS MEXICAN IMMIGRANT FAMILY NEEDED

TO SETTLE AND THRIVE IN AMERICA

 KENMORE, WA.  We Became Mexican American narrates the story of a family emigrating from Mexico to the United States in the 1920s. Author and family member, Carlos B. Gil, tells how his folks settled against all odds to pursue the American Dream in southern California. This award-winning book offers you the following:

      It reviews what the Latino immigration experience represented for the author’s family,

            It explores the cultural shock of arriving in the U.S. for the first time,

                        including the difficulties of raising children in a new culture,

            It unveils the cultural conflicts inside the family as the children began growing up in America,

            It describes living in a Mexican barrio near Los Angeles, California, and it

            It discusses the personal process of slowly becoming Mexican American. 

We Became Mexican American was awarded “BEST BIOGRAPHY” in two book competitions in the United States in 2013. And, in 2015 it won an “HONORABLE MENTION in Biography/Autobiography” at the 2015 Book Festival in Amsterdam (The Netherlands). The 2013 honors came from The 15th Annual International Latino Book Award ceremony held at the Cervantes Institute in New York City, May 30, 2013: 1) Best Biography in English and 2) Best Latino Focused Work. On March 8th his book also won Best Biography at the 2012-2013 cycle of the Los Angeles Book Festival for independent authors and publishers. As a result, his book “sits” at “The Table of Honor,” digitally speaking, which you can visit at: http://tableofhonor.com/?product_cat=biographyautobiography ).

For more information see http://www.facebook.com/WeBecameMexicanAmerican.

To obtain your own copy, go to:

barnesandnoble.com, amazon.com, or special ordering through your neighborhood bookstore.

For review copies or ordering multiple copies go to:

http://diversitycentral.com/diversity_store/books.php,

or send an email to orders@diversitycentral.com

The author is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Washington.

We Became Mexican American: How Our Immigrant Family Survived to Pursue the American Dream

was published in 2012 and revised in 2015.

Trade Paperback; $18.99; 422 pages; ISBN 978-0-9899519-1-3

Trade Hardback; $26.99; 422 pages; ISBN 978-0-9899519-06

E-book, $3.99: ISBN 978-0-9899519-2-0

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We Became Mexican American, a book

READER’S REACTIONS TO “We Became Mexican American”

Gil writes with a cinematic eye for detail, delivering intricate word pictures of the people, places and activities….Vivid, highly informative and entertaining, Gil’s book shines and should be a staple on the bookshelves of history teachers and their students.  (Blue Ink Review, October 2012)

As a lifelong educator in a variety of capacities I find this author’s provocative, endearing life story a special must read for all members of the American School System, regardless of their niche or expertise in the field of education.”  (Leo Valenzuela, October 2012)

Gil plays the role of storyteller and mass organizer in this textbook-thick account of how his family crossed both land and social boundaries to improve their living conditions and be together….[I]t’s an interesting, well-written account of an adaptable, immigrant family. [It p]rovides a unique perspective into the complex cultural struggles immigrant families face and the circumstances that bring them here.  Kirkus Book Reviews (November 2012)

It’s almost poetic. This has to be used in the classrooms for generations to come. You bring everything together in ten different ways: economics, social mobility, immigration, politics, etc. You bring it all together; you offer the big picture. (Phillip Boucher, November 2012)

[It is a] rich, textured portrait….  [This work] shows how the hard work and determination of these Mexican immigrants led to greater economic success and higher social status with each generation. Black-and-white photographs inserted throughout the text vividly express this change of fortune.  (Clarion Reviews December 2012)

Your book is not only inspirational, it is thought provoking and educational. I love history and your book personalizes historical events. As an immigrant myself, I can connect with your family. (Ignacio Marquez, April 2013)

I loved your book! All my daughters want to read it, and my mom. There were lots of things I could relate to. (Molly Montoya, April 2013)

Your honesty was brutal but told in a loving way. I, we are so proud of your book and talk about it all the time. (Rebecca Cruz, May 2013)

Quite an accomplishment. Something I wish I had done for my own family. I learned a lot…about the Mexican American experience, including its regional variations. The book also brought me…to reassess my own [Swedish] family’s experience which in some ways parallels your family’s. Chuck Bergquist, May 2013)

Reading about my great great grandpa Basilio Alvarez in his book brought me to tears. What a journey this book is taking me on…¡Gracias! (Vera Delgado, November 2014)

Again I was blown away by your discussion on why your family would not have been attuned to racism due to the idea of there not being a contradiction to the reality they began life with. Such a tender defense of these people, and I can apply that to my family too. (Abe Pena, February 2014)

It was fantastic! I was so drawn in and fascinated with the stories of his family and all they went through. I’m so glad to have gotten that glimpse into his family’s journey and a better understanding of the lives of some immigrants.  (Mary McLaughlin Sta.Maria, March 2014)

Categories
We Became Mexican American, a book

RECOGNITION GIVEN TO “We Became Mexican American”

2013 BEST BIOGRAPHY, at the 2012-2013 cycle of the Los Angeles Book Festival March 8th for independent authors and publishers.

2013 THE TABLE OF HONOR at http://tableofhonor.com/?product_cat=biographyautobiography for “the best of international book festivals.”

2013 BEST BIOGRAPHY IN ENGLISH at the 15th Annual International Latino Book Award ceremony held at the Cervantes Institute in New York City, May 30th.

2013 BEST LATINO FOCUSED NONFICTION BOOK at the 15th Annual International Latino Book Award ceremony held at the Cervantes Institute in New York City, May 30th.

2015 HONORABLE MENTION IN BIOGRAPHY/AUTOBIOGRAPHY at the 2015 Book Festival in Amsterdam (The Netherlands).

2016 BEST BOOK IN THE CATEGORY OF BIOGRAPHY from Pinnacle Book Achievement Award, National Association of Book Entrepreneurs, Winter.

2017 Featured on the front cover of Book Dealers World (vol. 2 no. 38 Spring) National Association of Book Entrepreneurs.

 

We Became Mexican American was published in 2012 by XLibris and a revised edition in 2014 by The GilDeane Group.