I grew up in a rural Arizona town in the 70s. Lots of cotton and citrus ranching.

[blondeatlast]

Consequently, lots of migrants; there simply weren't enough citizens to accomplish the work. Even though many citizens, including many Anglos, would work in the fields in summer for extra income, there just weren't enough workers to sustain the economy. So the migrants came from El salvador and Mexico.

So I went to school with plenty of children of migrant workers. I played with them, they attended my and my friends' birthday parties, and at the end of the season, we hugged and promised we'd see each other next year. They worked in the fields with their families often, too. There was little resentment of them, most of that came from the winter visitors who rarely saw a (gasp!) Mexican.

I'm truly baffled by what has happened since I left Coolidge/Randolph. My experience was that virtually no one paid a second thought to where the workers came from--in fact, in summer, after the snowbirds left, local biz was grateful for the income.

Let me repeat, I am absolutely baffled by what happened. I support unions--and I supported the occasional strikes that occurred in the fields. I became a huge fan of Cesar Chavez. These were friends--yes, they were dirt poor, but in a town based on agriculture, that wasn't so unusual to have the classes mixed (we all attended the same school).

Where did the hate come from? I honestly don't remember encountering anything but mild grumbles from the snowbirds while growing up. This is just my story, anecdotal (but very emotional, I can't help that, I needed to say it)to be sure, but I honestly don't understand what happened? When did migrant workers (many of whome we very well knew came from Mexico and El salvador) become "illegals"?

When did it become okay to deny Constituutional rights (nowhere, but nowhere, does it say the Constitution applies only to citizens, btw)? to openly hate those who try to earn an honest, meager living?

What have I missed?

[Warpy]

1. What happened?

Right wing hate radio.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

3. That's it. It's manufactured hate.

Personally, I think it's to distract and give them something to blame the increased drug cartel violence on. Which has nothing to do with immigration and everything to do with the failed war on drugs.

[blondeatlast]

7. That's definitely part of it. You should hear McCain's radio ads--

apparently, it's only "illegal" "brown" people who commit drug-smuggling and our local violent crime.

And hell, I've never even used marijuana.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

9. They have to blame immigration for the drug cartels increased power

If they honestly reviewed the situation and admitted their polices were the reason for the rise of such violent criminal entities, they'd never get back in office. So, confuse, distract and blame the Latino's for stealing the jobs of the voters. It really doesn't matter if that's true or not, so long as it keeps people from looking too deeply at the root cause of the situation.

[Hello_Kitty]

2. The majority of immigrant workers are not in farming anymore

They are working as maids, janitors, in meatpacking plants, in construction, etc. The number of industries that "can't find enough workers" and "jobs Americans won't do" has grown exponentially. Immigration (among other things) has been used to bust unions and lower wages. All this nonsense from Chamber of Commerce "think tanks" trying to convince us that flooding the labor market with workers improves anyone's economy but those of the people at the very top doesn't fool anyone.

[blondeatlast]

5. That doesn't explain the hatred--which was never there before.

AZ has been my home since 1970. I was a child then, but the change is palpable.

Back in the day, it wasn't okay to blatantly hate. Now I see the hate directed at people who are convicted of ebing brown, period--whether they are "legal (I despise that label)" or not.

[Hello_Kitty]

32. Right wing demagoguery and tonedeaf liberals.

When working class Americans are being trained to resent a certain group of people by nativists, it doesn't help when liberals tell them "they work harder than you". Really, it just pours gasoline on the fire.

[dflprincess]

10. And, in the cases of construction & meat packing, the immigrants

have been used by employers to help break unions. And we hear its all the fault of immigrants. Ynless you're paying attention you don't hear a whole lot about the companies who are the real cause of undocumented workers. I don't know why people aren't smart enough to take their anger out on those who really caused the problems.

It wasn't that long ago that a job in a meat packing plant paid well and had become safer & cleaner. Now those plants and jobs are deteriorating to what they were when "The Jungle" was written and the people who are working in them don't dare to complain.

[Flaneur]

18. I watched the meat packer unions get destroyed.

It was red-blooded, All-American scabs who replaced union workers back in the mid-1970s.

[dflprincess]

25. And who is working in the plants now?

Not anyone who dares to unionize - even the scabs cost more and expected better conditions than what the immigrants put up with.

[profile this]

4. Fear

Black president

[Lone_Star_Dem]

6. Nah, it predates the Obama administration.

This has been a process in the making for the past 8-10 years, at least.

[blondeatlast]

8. It's been growing exponentially lately, but I first started noticing the

attitude shift in the late 90s. It's really exploded in the past 5 years, IMHO.

[EFerrari]

17. Anti-immigrant hysteria is as American as our flag.

But it got ramped up again starting with Reagan and again as the right wing nuttery bought up the media.

[sinkingfeeling]

11. What happened? Vast numbers of older, white Americans retired to Arizona. They're afraid of becoming

a minority group. We're talking Sun City types.

[Oregone]

12. Pain & Sickness

Both are plentiful in America. From the well-to-do downing Paxil like candy to those scrubbing their dinner tables. America has lost its soul, and the result is meaningless pain and suffering abound. And when people feel like this, they need to seek out a source. This time around, its immigrants (like many times before).

[EFerrari]

13. In the 80s. Reagan's dirty wars in Latin America made refugees

out of a lot of people -- something like a quarter of the population of El Salvador alone.

So what had been for the most part a season migration changed into something else.

[blondeatlast]

16. I'm not big on history, but that time-frame fits the change in the ways of the migration

based on my own experience. still, I didn't see the resentment and hate until quite recently. There's been a HUGE shift in attitude that I trace back to about 6 years ago, maybe 8.

I was stunned when we passed "English Only." I thought it didn't have a chance--but that was the beginning of the public "acceptable" intolerance.

[EFerrari]

20. I know. I grew up in Silion Valley when the nails were barely cool

on the track homes in the segregated suburbs there. That meant, there were still children in our school that came from the old orchard families and their workers and some of them were Mexican American. There was racism in the Valley but not this popularized, accepted, vindictive public hatred that we're seeing now.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

14. They're scary because they're fighting back and won't stay in"their place" anymore.

Just like the civil rights movement was scary in the '50s and '60s.

[randr]

15. A convergence of factors

When the economy tanks people look to blame others, most often the working class below them.
People like Lou Dobbs, Rush Limbaugh, and there kin built career's inciting racial hatred in the guise of an imagined political stance.
At one time religious organizations would speak out against racial and ethnic hatred. Thanks to the take over of the Christian faith by the right wing we no longer have anyone of any moral character to counter the maddness.

[blueamy66]

19. I grew up in rural Chandler.

All of my best friends are Hispanic.

We played with the children of the workers as well.

I cannot even eat in our lunchroom anymore because I cannot listen to the hate speech anymore. I would rather sit at my desk.

[Lance_Boyle]

21. Migrant farm workers are H2A holders here legally.

Illegal aliens are... not here legally.

They undercut wages and take jobs from the legal H2A holders, too.

[blondeatlast]

24. If you really believe that, well, I'm happy for you.

Disneyland is a lovely place; I never knew you could live there.

[profile this]

22. Numbers

The latino population has exploded. We will be the majority soon. It's fear. They see it coming.

[KittyWampus]

23. An ex-boyfriend lived in AZ decades ago and told me he met plenty to Aryan Nation types.

My illusion had been it was filled with Sedona New-Age types, liberal retirees from the NE and some Native Americans eeking out a living.

[profile this]

26. Glad I'm not

the only one. I have been beating myself up for moving out here a few years ago without doing much research, but I was under the same impression.

[Still Sensible]

27. What happened is the political money flow!

I grew up in Sierra Vista, about 15 miles north of the border. That was in the late 60s & early 70s. It was an issue even then, as was the flow of drugs into our town targeting Ft Huachuca, which has since been incorporated. The "Reagan Amnesty" in the 80s was doomed to fail because it lacked any real intention of enforcement. The republicans weren't going to really go after the business interests that continued to violate the law. Why that would mean those folks would have to hire citizens and that would drive their labor costs up... not to mention those same businesses would have to spend money to improve working conditions, pay payroll taxes and perhaps even minimal benefits and the like.

But what also has happened since is that the results of that doomed-to-fail law, when coupled with a certain level of racism and subsequent events--including the miserable failure of the "war on drugs," the incredible corruption and failure in the Mexican government & economy, and the escalation of violence on the Mexico side of the border--has given the right wing another perfect storm fund raising mechanism.... What also happened in the 25 years or so since that immigration band-aid was passed is that the fundamentalist right wing has virtually taken over the GOP and is the primary grass-roots source of contributions. Sure, big business is still the primary institutional source for the party... But it is this marriage of convenience that is "what's changed."

And neither of these two factions has any interest in solving the problem. Why should they? It's quite similar to the abortion issue, the other gigantic fund raising tool of the modern republican party! These are both gut issues that play to the racism and misogyny of the fundamentalist mind and lead to a windfall of grass roots cash.

They are also two visceral issues that overcome the rational disconnect between middle class and lower middle class right wingers and lead them to vote against their own economic self interest... Helped along immensely by the explosion of the pandering Limbaugh-Beck-Hannity-Dobbs self serving media circus.

Follow the money! Just my humble opinion.

[Greyhound]

28. What have you missed? Apparently the entire transformation of this state.

The Pima cotton fields are now the 101, malls, casinos, and vacant office parks. The citrus (and flower and dates and...) groves are almost gone. Meanwhile we have had an unprecedented influx of "religious", racist, greedy, incompetents from just about every part of the country that drowned out the "westerners" that were here. Just as Phoenix is larger than the rest of the state combined and therefore determines all Arizona policies, the dumbasses outnumber the rest of us and are imposing their dumbassery on everyone.

I escaped this idiocy in '89 but family circumstances have forced me back here for now, and even though I found it intolerable 20 years ago, it is much worse now.

[blondeatlast]

29. I'm torn. I think about leaving, but I really love it here.

Now that my hubby's (well, almost an ex) has left me, I think about going to a more socially liberal place. But I love, love, love the desert; love the geography here, and of course, my longtime friends.

But damn, I really, really, really hate the people here now. Selfish, ignorant bastards, the lot of 'em. for now, I'm here to stay.

[azmouse]

30. The population of the state has doubled since 1990.

Most of that growth came from out of state.

The older folks came thinking they had entered their own personal paradise... and how dare the "brown people" actually want to share in the bounty of the state with the white people.
And in general, the people that retire here are better off financially and are Republican. They have a sense of entitlement.

I first moved here in 1990 and came for the diversity. I love the desert and I love the people. I see the changes you're talking about. It makes me very sad to see a once beautiful state become a seething pit of hate. It wasn't always that way.

[blondeatlast]

31. I never, ever, ever thought I would be living where I am now.

I remember when Bell Road was the last bastion of civilization.

I have to agree--the influx of people from the last decade and a half have really messed the place up. Before 1995, I don't think English Only or SB 1070 would have passed; the hatred back then whispered. Now it shouts--and our nutjob leggies, backed by those whose hate hides behind their votes--feels free to shout it.