Sleeping giant of US politics waking up and asking to be heard (Irish Times)

[struggle4progress]

Saturday, October 15, 2011
LARA MARLOWE

... THEY ARE the sleeping giant of US politics, a community whose demographic and economic weight far surpasses their political influence ...

“The Mexican president Benito Juárez was a friend of Abraham Lincoln,” Huerta reminded the audience. “Mexico freed its slaves before the US did . . . Sí, se puede.”

Huerta and other speakers argued that a raft of anti-immigrant laws being enacted by states were self-defeating. “Alabama will be like Georgia and west Texas,” Huerta predicted. “Lots of businesses will close because they can’t get workers. We have to educate people. Everybody who came to this country was an immigrant.” ...

“Brown is the new black,” Huerta said, reflecting the widespread perception that racial prejudice has shifted from African Americans to Hispanics ...

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2011/1015/1224305836961.html