The following comes from a September 10 Crux article by Inés San Martín:
For those who seem to think that “making America great again” means reducing its Hispanic footprint, Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles, who many observers believe could become the first Hispanic Cardinal of the United States, has a reminder: We were here 100 years before you.
“As we all know, in the standard narratives, the history of our country begins [with Plymouth Rock] in the 1600s with the Pilgrims and the Mayflower,” Gomez said on Thursday, when he delivered a public lecture on the issue of immigration in the United States at Boston College.
“But my friends, I want to suggest, that with all due respect to the Pilgrims – they got to this country about a hundred years late!”
Long before the U.S. had a name, hence before George Washington and the 13 colonies or Plymouth Rock, Spanish and Mexican missionaries and explorers had settled in the territories that today are Florida, Texas, California and New Mexico.
The Hispanics weren’t the only ones to arrive to the U.S. before the Pilgrims: the first Asians, from the Philippines, had done so about 50 years before.
“Something we should think about: the first non-indigenous language spoken in this country was not English. It was Spanish,” Gomez said in his remarks, underlining that even though he couldn’t dedicate his address to the Hispanic and Catholic roots of America, he did want to recover the country’s “forgotten history.”
“We remember the first Thanksgiving, the Declaration of Independence, the Revolutionary War,” he said. “That story is not wrong. It’s just not complete.”
This incomplete version of the country’s history gives a “distorted impression” of the nation being founded as a project of Western Europeans.
“It makes us assume that only immigrants from those countries really ‘belong’ and can claim to be called ‘Americans,’” and this misreading has “obvious implications for our current debates.”
Furthermore, immigration reform “is a spiritual issue,” a test for “our faith, our humanity and our compassion.”
Count the straw men in the column. Logic isn’t one of Archbishop Gomez’s strong points. Where Gomez says “country” he often means “region”.
The truth is that although Mexican culture was present in the western part of North America, the nation that became the United States of America had no Mexican influence on its founding, structure, law, nor cultural ideals; it was entirely a Christian-European project.
The truth is also that the more Mexicans and South Americans bring their Latin culture and social values to the United States, the more it is being transformed into a nation modeled after the failed socialist nations in Central and South America. Why would they wish to transform America into the kind of country they fled?
exactomente Senor Sawyer
Is this another bishop supporting Hillary Clinton??
As one born and raised in the Great Lakes area [both sides of the US Canadian border], I certainly had to make significant expansions to my understanding of early North American colonization when I moved to San Diego.
Amen, Archbishop, Amen.
Trivia Which current US State Capitol first had European settlers?
True historical understanding ? Or propaganda ? I find it hard to believe that someone from the Great Lakes area would have had an education deficient in American history. Both of my parents grew up in Cleveland, Oh. I have relatives there.
All due respect to the Archbishop, the only accent American history needs is Americanized English; Archbishop Gomez makes the same mistake he made in his book which I reviewed on Amazon; he’s giving advice to the wrong audience. The primary resistance to massive immigration is the desire to effect “change” rather than to assimilate gratefully into the American society as they find it—the attitude of “muscling in” rather than joining in. Immigration is assimilation; e pluribus Unum! And the goal of citizenship should reflect an attitude of gratitude. My father did, and he preached it.
but aren’t the spanish western europeans? it was their project first.
Archbishop Gomez is quite good on Euthanasia and other topics, so I will give His Exellency a pass on the Crooked Clintons. Almost all Catholic bishops are with the other side.
Is Archbishop Gomez a Clinton supporter?
Amen, David Dreadlow. That’s what the Archbishop is saying. The Spanish governed Florida and the Southwest for 200 years before significant numbers of non Spanish European settlers arrived in the early ninteenth century. This was one of the factors leading to a desire to join the United States when Mexico declared independence from Spain in the 1820s.
But the Spanish influence remained. After all, Los Angeles is only the last two words of the nine word Spanish title of the original pueblo.
my comment referred to the archbishop’s phrase in parapraph 9 of the original version linked at the top of the article.
Gomez says the Hispanics arrived in the “U.S.” before the pilgrims? The U.S. didn’t exist when the Hispanics arrived. If Gomez has to rely on this this type of sloppy rhetoric that bludgeons history to make his points, he’ll get no respect from me. Further, by definition, “this country” didn’t exist until it was formed. The Hispanics were aced out. Apparently they had no nation building skills. And they still don’t. That’s why South America is a political disaster. So now they want a piece of action here, because they’ve still failed in their home countries.
one of the great gifts of mexican catholic culture to the US is the strong presence of the traditions that vatican II did its best to eradicate in the in its north american adaptation. from what i have seen the church in mexico did not attempt to eradicate and discourage devotions and prayer to the saints. archbishop gomez knows that the war with mexico was a shameful land grab that took advantage of mexico at a time of internal weakness. the only thing that stopped the US from taking the whole enchilada was lack of enough troops to control the vast expanse (congessional deliberations decided the stopping point)
Had the US taken the whole thing, Mexico would’ve been a lot better off, because their time of “internal weakness” seems to have continued for a couple hundred years. You want world government? You’ll get it. That’s what all this is about. It’s called the end of the United States. That’s what Obama/ Clinton/Soros are doing, and behind all the rhetoric of the bought and paid for US Bishops, this country is going down. We need leaders, not sheeple. http://www.wnd.com/2015/09/obama-puts-u-s-on-fast-track-to-world-government/
I see its we against them? Just over 40 years ago we were ALL Americans the HYPHENATED Americans such as African, Latino, Asian, Gay, Straight, are the new way we call each other, I find it so odd that LIBERALS who preach diversity and inclusion are the FIRST to point out our differences every single day. I for one prefer being called an American, yes of white European heritage but does that even matter? Well according to the LIBERALS it certainly does, and on a side note tell the good Archbishop that people from Spain are considered WHITE , just thought he should now that since it seems to matter.
One day in Europe someone asked me where I was from. I answered “I’m from America.” He asked me, “what country?” :) It’s not un-American to point out the history of the country. We are no longer a white-northern-European-Anglo Saxon nation, and haven’t been for fifty years, and never really were on the west coast. It was the 1850s before the Gadsden Purchase that allowed us to have a southern-route railroad, land we bought from Mexico after the war.
Now if White European Americans said that we need MORE WHITES and ENGLISH speakers my goodness the calls of RACIST, NAZI, BIGOT, XENOPHOBE, NATIONALIST, HOMOPHOBE, would be billowing out of the heavens by the LEFT LOONS it would make your heads expolde, only the LEFT can say they want to continue to see the BROWING of America because the WHITE MAN IS SO EVIL and must be destroyed. Hey thats what the DEMONCRATS say everyday, I shant say Hillary since she did have another “medical episode” this morning at Ground Zero, the video of that at Breitbart.com is quite disturbing. I do wish her well and hopefully those who love her tell her to seek medical help and pull out of this election, she is not well!!!
History is usually written by the “victors.” You learn what they want you to know. If you grew up on the East Coast in the 30-60’s you learned a different history from what is taught in schools today. In those days there was all great achievements of the English colonies, and Oh-yes there was some Spanish stuff on the west coast, kind of history. On the East Coast we didn’t even learn about the Japanese internment until much later. The truth is that a large part of the Western Hemisphere was discovered an settled a hundred years before Jamestown, etc., yet those facts were not really taught in schools, or at best glossed over. Our take over of Spanish America is not a clean history.
Janek, I too say she needs to stop and get out of this race, who and why is keeping her going? It could be just her, but my God, should not Bill Clinton or Chelsea Clinton intervene and say enough is enough? There is something wrong with Mrs. Clinton the MSM has tried in vain to hide whatever it is i.e. Parkinson’s, brain trauma, Epilepsy, the coughing, helping up the stairs, the African-American “handler” that is at her side constantly, who by the way is not Secret Service but a doctor, and now this happens today at GROUND ZERO.
Judging from the comments on this site, the stench of Americanism is still deeply ingrained in much of American Catholic thought. Perhaps this is due to the intense nationalism Catholic schooled children were indoctrinated with which was a direct result of somehow Catholics being thought of as less American which was in doubt exacerbated by the two world wars.
How any conservative Catholic would prefer an English Protestant derived system which openly ridiculed and set out to destroy the glory of Spanish Christendom(including Latin America, which also includes the southwestern U.S.) is beyond me.
As for myself, I’ll take the great and holy Catholic monarchs King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella(whose cause is still open for…
JMS: Something tells me you don’t dwell in the Fragrant “Glory” of Spanish Christendom. Don’t blush, Abp Joe Gomez prefers the Heavenly “Stench” of Anglo-Protestant America too. ME THREE.
. . . And as a conservative Catholic (is there any other kind?), I love the smell of “English Protestant derived system” in the morning. It smells like . . . Liberty.
Arzobispo Gomez forgot to mention the part about the hispanic of roots our national anthem, The Star Spangled Banner. Ya know, “Jose, Can You See. . . .”
Hey, Arzobispo Gomez. I’ll see your Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria, and raise you one Leif Erikson (Alifio de Erik).
Amen to the Vikings. You would think he would also know that some believe St. Brendan (Ireland) got over here on a voyage even earlier than the Vikings. Who doesn’t learn about the spanish presence in this hemisphere in school history ? We did and I was in school before the big PC caca hit the fan. I grew up in Texas where every kid was required to take a whole year of TX history in 7th grade. We drew maps of TX including one showing the Native American tribes and where they lived. No Aztecs or Mayans there. Re: The War with Mexico – apparently it was okay for Mexico to gain their independence from Spain, but not okay for TX (and subsequently Calif. etc.) to gain their independence from Mexico.
Hey Archbishop Gomez,
My ancestors are Spanish and French, having arrived in the U.S. in the early 20th century. I am an American, so I speak English, the de facto language of business, education, and government in the United States. I completely understand (and am proud of) the history of the early non-English explorers. Among their friends and family, people can speak any language they wish. But when conducting daily affairs outside of their home, they must be proficient in ENGLISH. I notice that you don’t mention Latin, the official language of the Roman Catholic Church, from which Spanish is derived. Those priests and missionaries were attending Masses said exclusively in Latin. And somehow they managed to evangelize quite…
This is definitely NOT Catholicism.
This is right from the Democratic Party playbook to emphasize secular culture that divides us over Catholic morality that binds us.
Silly Archbishop—does he really like the Spanish accent of Fidel Castor and Hugo Chavez et al?
Soon we will hear Hillary Clinton speaking in a Spanish accent or with a few words like “taco.”
Or even better, we will see Abp Gomez warmly greeting Clinton as she makes a visit to the Cathedral in L.A.
It’s all so predicatable—-sadly.
More like La Raza’s playbook.
If Archbishop Gomez wants a second career as a back-benching history professor then he should resign from his seat in Los Angeles and apply for a university position.
Until then, he should stick to what is proper to clergy and, especially, a local ordinary: overseeing proper celebration of the sacraments and catechetical formation within his territory. He can start by cleaning up the Los Angeles Religious Education Congress.
I haven’t read his silly book and I don’t intend to.
An article from LifeSiteNews is questioning whether a $91 million “refugee grant to the Catholic Church had anything to do with “silence on Hillary”, or even better “support for Hillary”. They show the account page with all the numbers.
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/follow-the-usccb-money-trail-to-understand-bishops-silence-on-hillary
I never thought to see the day when the Catholic Bishops would support Hillary and the Clintons.
Coincidentally, the establishment of the RNC is still pouting instead of fully supporting its candidate. Or has there ever been a saint as the candidate of any party? Are we electing a pope? I don’t think many of the bishops wouldn’t even qualify. They’d be too far left, – still.
Many Hollywood elite, like Barbra Streisand, have said if Trump is elected they will leave the country and move to Canada or Australia. I haven’t heard any of these people say they will go to Mexico or some other Latin country. Why? Do these people really not want to live in a place dominated by people of color?
Actually, I think Barbara Steisand has said that if Trump is elected, there will be NO PLACE TO HIDE from him.
Besides, if Trump were elected, he would build that wall, and keep people like Streisand from going to Mexico.
Wow, some of our Founding Fathers were Filipino. I did not know that. Those powdered wigs are distracting. Will Abp Gomez advise Lumpia, Pancit, and Adobo as reparational works of mercy for a heretofore “not complete” Thanksgiving Day?
Mmm mmm, good! Works for me.
A Majority amongst Minorities seems to grant special consideration not warranted by others more Minor in Numbers. Besides, didn’t Norsemen land long before either pilgrims or conquistadors.
As for the term Indians – because Columbus mistook this place for another a continent and huge pacific ocean away – they have gotten stuck with the generic title when there is much diversity amongst the various tribes.
Michael McDermott is wrong as usual. Columbus didn’t mistake the Atlantic for the Pacific. He mistook the Atlantic for the Indian. Ocean that is. There was never a route to India from Europe via the Pacific Ocean. But then again, facts were never McD’s strong suit.
Having sailed the Pacific and also rounded the Cape of Good Hope I can assure any doubters (and ‘anonymous’ (Paid?) Homosex Trolls) that there is a route to India via the Pacific Ocean.
It is long and dangerous – and it took Magellan (who died en route) and his successors (who tried to claim credit) to prove the world was round and could be circumnavigated.
As for Columbus – he never saw either the Pacific or the Indian Ocean – but only the Atlantic. When he found land it was the Atlantic side of the American Continent (actually islands thereof) but the term Indian stuck, regardless of the revisionist hyrstory of ‘anonymous’ Trolls – who if they had a smidgen of integrity would identify themselves (and their sponsors /…
Counted.
As for Columbus – he never saw either the Pacific or the Indian Ocean – but only the Atlantic.
When he found land it was the Atlantic side of the American Continent (actually islands thereof) but the term Indian stuck, regardless of the revisionist hyrstory of ‘anonymous’ Trolls…
– who if they had a smidgen of integrity would identify themselves (and their sponsors / affiliations) before posting bogus nonsense about the Earth and its Oceans and the Sea Routes thereof.
At the risk of catching some flak for daring to suggest that a foreign nation might have a good idea, regarding what to call the “Indians”, may I suggest we steal the Canadian term “First Nations”? In Canadian parlance this refers simply to their status as first chronologically to inhabit the area. It has no implications that these people are in any way ‘better’ than the later arriving Europeans and Asians
i think it’s significant that our lady of guadalupe chose to locate her apparition site ‘south of the border’. the mystery of going to the periifieries and to seemingly insignificant people(vide fatima, vide holy land, wandering bedouins).; the spanish accent’ will probably ‘ be the cornerstone the builder rejected.