Samuel P. Huntington: A Year after his Death (Part I)

The prominent American political scientist, historian and Harvard professor, Samuel P. Huntington, best known as the author of The Clash of Civilizations died on December 24, 2008 on his residence in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. He was 81 years old. His passing was noted in virtually all newspapers of this nation and with it brought a renewed interest in his writing, bringing a modest increase in sales of his books in Amazon shortly thereafter. The works of Huntington are still quoted, especially by a few conservative critics and thinkers, but few of us remember what the aforementioned title and his political ideology were about.

The Clash of Civilizations, was instrumental in shaping the political ideology of the conservative right during the Bush's years with the belief that there are groups of people or governments that do not adhere to the principles of the United States and Western Europe, or as Bush said, "the civilized world," and these ideological and cultural conflict would become our new war front and as a result, we are now suffering the consequences. His subsequent book, Who Are We? The Challenges to America's Identity, published in May 2004, subscribes to the nativist position that foreigners and having a multicultural identity are detrimental to the Anglo-protestant fabric of the American nation. In essence, the question for him was what makes the American identity. His resolve consisted of three factors: the "American Creed" (the belief in democracy, power of the government, individual rights, and to uphold of the constitution), "the Protestant work ethic," and "the importance of religion in our lives" (as opposed to most Europeans). For him, the Latino population, mainly Mexican in his view, due to history, culture and tradition, are incompatible with the Anglo-Protestant values. The central premise of this book appeared in a form of an article a month prior to its publication in the Mar/Apr edition of Foreign Policy. The article titled "Jose, Can You See" states that immigrants from Latin America are unlike those of the 19th century in that they fail to learn English and acquire the values of their new nation, choose to live in segregated communities, and hold allegiance to their country of origin instead of the United States.

When I read this article, I remember that I was so upset because I knew that what he wrote was not true based on my experience which I believed are universal truths of many Latinos like me. Unfortunately, too many Americans still hold this belief and will likely not go away any time soon, one just has to listen to the daily news reports coming from Texas and California or from the protesters against illegal immigration. What follows is a reprint of personal essay I wrote in 2004, a week after I read the article.

(Continues in Part Two)