Univision's Citizenship Drive
05/11/2007
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Spanish language media giant Univision, has launched a citizenship drive, called "Ya Es Hora" (Now Is The Hour). The goal is to make millions of citizens out of Hispanic immigrants in the U.S. As the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday:

"Backed by the largest Spanish-language broadcast network in the U.S., a massive campaign by Latino media and grass-roots groups to spur millions of eligible Hispanic residents to become U.S. citizens is showing results that could influence the agenda and outcome of the 2008 election. More than eight million green-card holders – that is, legal permanent residents – are eligible to become U.S. citizens, and the majority are immigrants of Latin American origin, according to U.S. government data. Now, Univision Communications Inc. is using its considerable clout with the Spanish-speaking community in the U.S. to turn this latent voting bloc into an active and potentially potent force.

The citizenship drive started in January in LA, had a lot of success, and is now moving into other big cities. It's to be followed up by a voter registration drive in 2008.

"This is a totally nonpartisan effort" says Univision president Ray Rodriguez. If you believe that, I have some office space in the World Trade Center I'd like to sell you. Rodriguez also revealed some of the motives behind the campaign:

The campaign’s timing is crucial, he [Rodriguez] said, because the government is expected to raise the cost of applying for citizenship, and to introduce a new civics test that may be more difficult, later this year.

No, they wouldn't want a more difficult civics test, now would they?

Also, one of the Univision broadcasters promoting the program is Raul Peimbert. This individual, though born in California, has done broadcasting in both the U.S. and Mexico, and has even served as General Coordinator of Mass Communication for the Mexican State of Veracruz.

The Wall Street Journal article about the citizenship campaign is entitled "Univision Gives Citizenship Drive Unusual Lift" but there's nothing unusual or surprising about it, given Univision's function as a Trojan Horse for the Hispanization of the United States.

On second thought, maybe it's unfair to call Univision a Trojan Horse. The Greeks used the Trojan Horse to enter Troy using trickery . They didn't openly walk into the city and start a campaign to register Greeks as Trojan voters! What Univision is doing is much more brazen than what the Greeks did with the Trojan Horse.

What would happen if I tried to organize a campaign in Mexico to register Americans, Canadians and other English-speaking foreigners as Mexican citizens, openly proclaiming that I did so to further the interests of Anglos in Mexico ?

Would the government of Mexico tolerate that? To ask the question is to answer it.

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