As someone who tries to follow how the story of illegal immigration is presented in Spanish-language media, I found two recent scenes on Univision news programs to be especially interesting.
The first provided a rare and fleeting acknowledgement of the fact that many Latinos, including some illegal immigrants, are astonished at how easy it can be to enter the United States illegally. The other, far more common on Univision, presented a lengthy diatribe by a popular Mexican-American singer who denounced resistance to illegal immigration as anti-Latino racism.
The first scene appeared on the evening news. It featured a Honduran man named Angel Aleman who had been detained by the Border Patrol in south Texas after crossing the border illegally with his infant child. With remarkable candor, Aleman, who had just been released and was about to board a Virginia-bound bus with the child, said he had this message for the U.S. government: "Well, just thank you, and excuse us for invading the country."
Having worked many years in the southwestern borderlands, I know that many Latinos feel that illegal immigration has become a destructive force in their lives. But their anxiety rarely is acknowledged on Univision, which prefers to present a united Latino front.
The second scene played out in the Sunday program "Al Punto", as Univision anchorman Jorge Ramos tossed softball questions to singer Lupillo Rivera, whose family immigrated to California when he was a child. Last week Rivera joined a counter protest against demonstrations in Murrieta, Calif., that sought to block the entrance into town of three buses of illegal-immigrant children who had been arrested in south Texas.
This was one of the most painful and poignant stories within the larger border crisis, pitting those who are alarmed at the chaotic influx against those who charge that the alarm is racism in disguise.
Saying he had come to "defend the rights of all our undocumented countrymen," Rivera insisted that the Murrieta protesters, one of whom spat in his face, were racists. "This is a personal hatred," he said. It is a racist hatred. ... They simply don't want us here. They simply don't want the Latinos, the Hispanics. It doesn't matter if you are legal or illegal."
When Ramos said Rivera has been promoting a new album titled "El Rey de los Borrachos" — the King of the Drunks — Rivera said his concern was not to sell records but to ask a question: "Who can think of throwing children out of any country — innocent children? It doesn't matter if they are black or blue or green or brown or white or Martians."
Having made that powerful and legitimate point, Rivera went back to waving the red flag of racism. "Why are they doing this against the Hispanics?" he asked. "I guarantee you, if they had been Russians, they would be flying them around in first class." He added that Asians would also be treated royally.
You can see the interview here, in a Univision video headlined: "This isn't about immigrants. It's about the Latinos in this country." The sub-headline says Rivera was "attacked during an anti-immigrant demonstration."
You can see Rivera singing one of his trademark songs in this video.