Politically correct term of latinos as hispanics. Id like you to dig into that and tell me why you refer to come are supposed put it this way. How dare you refer to break out of the politically correct bubble of latinos and refer to hispanics. What are the roots of that . Guest thank you for that question. I think both terms are in a way false in their own way. I think the term hispanic, for example, is the product of the bureaucracy. Bureaucrats working in the Nixon Administration in the 1970s were all of a sudden faced with this big influx of new immigrants. Because of the laws were changed in the 1960s, a lot of home were immigrants from latin america including me and my family by the way. We came here in 1974, and it was almost like they did know how to handle this multitude of people. More important than that, this is the aftermath of the Civil Rights Act which was created for africanamericans and then all of a sudden the bureaucracy and many of the leaders, the activists of these groups also want to get in on the act. And so the bureaucracy create more for miners which by the end of the 70s were africanamericans, hispanics, native americans and asians. So the term hispanic was created, it minority eyes is different immigrants. But it sets them apart from earlier immigrants, and it does so with the purpose of giving them affirmative action in government set aside. Explicitly if you go back through these documents you see that this is what it says it does. Host was visibly governments intent . Was this active within the government . Was an act of outside pressure groups that were putting pressure on the government . What you think . Guest i think both. The activists, especially mexicanamerican activists, theres a famous book written in the early 70s saying to mexicanamericans, and they wanted to make mexicanamericans into one of the minority groups. I think you have to understand that the mexicanamerican rankandfile themselves is really hard. They did not want to be seen as minorities. They didnt want host most saw themselves as white. Guest mainly due to the state if you look at how the box on the census form. By the way, these classifications doesnt have to do with reality. Host far be it from government had to do anything with reality. Guest right. Government should not be involved at all in racial classifications. Government should strive for a colorblind policy so we can have a colorblind society. The government from the beginning has been involved in classifications. Out of that comes the term hispanic. When i arrived and i was informed, host lets divert a little bit. You say you immigrated here. Emigrated from where . Guest i was born in cuba and i left cuba, you know, horrible circumstances, communism and all that. Then went to spain at the age of 12 and two years later became mayor, new york, queens, new york. Tell people host im a yankees fan and. Guest im a yankees fan. But i did go to shea stadium a lot and to tell people i was raised on the fidel castro Francisco Franco [laughter] when i was first informed by one of my uncles theres this new term being banded about hispanics and will be called hispanic. What . What is that about . On cuban. What i was becoming was american. Tennessee was of as a cubanamerican. American first. As a concerned american but also as a cubanamerican. Very proud of my heritage in the lineage. A race for the future my book, to shine a light on the list because a lot of books written about hispanics and the use that term no, does not, it doesnt do any of these things. I wrote to shine a light on this to say look, and by latinos by the way we can go on about that later but hispanics itself was a product of the bureaucracy in order to get a permanent action and other government benefits to this group and other groups. Host the term hispanic very inaccurate term because within that generalization of hispanics, ma there are so many subgroups, cubanamericans, Puerto Ricans are also caribbean, like cuba is caribbean nation, but you also have Central Americans and then you have the old his so called Hispanic Group mexicanamericans in southwest. Lets dive into that. The variations within the big umbrella of hispanics. Guesthispanics. Guest that is one of the worst things about these labels, hispanics or latina which hardly ever use is that it conceals these differences and it creates this monolithic community. Obviously, language is a very powerful bond. The fact that guatemala immigrant can a writer and can communicate in spanish, thats very important. But i can tell you a guatemalan are right here in the u. S. Would not see an argentine as a compatriot. And a guatemalan american would have much more in common with americans are not hispanic if she would lets say a venezuelan. So i think that yes of the language very powerful bond. We both agree, but host are there any other ties . Language is the most obvious i am of the various hispanic or latino subgroups, but are there any other ties to your aware of in researching your book by the way i decoupled that you. I was inspired reading thomas seoul who im sure we both admire and he wrote a book called ethnic america. I saw your book is almost like, almost an improvement in that it does go deeper into the phrase, focus on latinos or hispanics. Im fascinated by the we go into the history, and not on diversity it seems to me your premise of the book, not on diversity among the different Hispanic Groups but generationally there is a difference as well. Guest i think it is a very important point and i go on, i looked into this deeply in the a race for the future. Take mexicans americans. Its to begin with a misnomer in many ways. Some mexicanamericans never belonged to the spanish colony of mexico. The thing we have in common is we were all colonized by a bearing power, either spain or portugal. Thats a very powerful thing. The cuisines are very different. The cuisine of mexico is very different from the cuisine of cuba. Cubans and Puerto Ricans share many traits, many ethnic, cultural, culinary treats. We both like baseball but in south america they dont play baseball. They play soccer which host or football. Guest when i got to spend as a 12 year old boy, at recess i had to play soccer with with spaniards have been playing soccer since they were born. Host a bit of a disadvantage. Guest it was very humbling experience because a cuban came out with a bat in my hand. But lets take mexicans americans. We forget time the largest of the groups. Guest 66 of hispanic americans are from mexico. They really are by far the largest and most important. Their cultural and put in the southwest cannot be denied and has to be taken into account. I compared only to the influence of the scots irish in appalachia in the south where i was just in scotland for example, and you go come you listen to scottish music and recognize the music of appalachia. I was told what are my sons does this sound familiar to you . Its the same thing host hatfields and mccoys . Guest exactly. You go to texas, new mexico and to lesser extent colorado and its the same thing. Of cultural influence, accountable is nothing without his rodeo orders last of the user spanish words. Host cowboy came from guest yes. That had is, im not sure it came from mexican hats. Maybe not go there. That cowboy must be seen, many of the traits of the cowboy is his stoicism, his individualism. It can really be traced to mexican men. Mexicans have this very important imprint, especially new mexicans can trace their ancestry to the 1500s. You talk to new mexicans. I talked to one, i go to my book, a race for the future, very proud of that. He says the spanish confusing court who crossed the rio grande it in 1590. Cuban americans like me began to arrive in earnest in 1959 obviously because of the toms arrival of fidel castro and have the complete its true there was a cuban migration in the 1900s, in the 1800s, but the bulk of the cuban migration begin postcastro. We have been here since the 60s. Puerto ricans are born in a state, the state of puerto rico which is, its obviously, they cannot vote in puerto rico but they can host faceting come you talk about this in your book, duality among Puerto Ricans in the 1 cents they are not as assimilated as some of the other groups that come to the United States, but a born american citizens. Talk about that. Guest they dont expect the cultural host defined that. Guest you a ride and you are cut off from your country of origin and. Host as an africanamerican or black americans i know nothing about this guillotine. Guessed it is faceting the way many africanamericans have gone back to africa and looked for the roots. Traditionally many of european immigrants who arrived never went back to sicily. Went back to ireland than once in their life. Were cut off from home country. In fact, some immigrant communities keep traditions here that have disappeared in the home countries. Its the case with many germanamericans, have driven traditions that are disappeared in germany proper. Host was fascinating, you say that and im a big fan of brazil and i went to salvador and found there were some traditions that the african transplant to brazil have brought and kept, so much so now you have west africans going, kind of like a reverse cultural phenomenon, going to learn some other ancient cultural traditions that theyve lost. Guest is a simmer situation in cuba which is second on to brazil and france brazil is only second to cuba and having a large and important african cultural imprint husband absolutely. A lot of people dont know that. A lot of people dont make that presumption. Dive into that a little bit because the number of cuba and the integrated particularly after 1959 after the rise of castro, was this a mixture of cubans . Was it afrocubans this report shall he . Was a european cubans or white cubans, mixed cubans . Guest obviously many mixed cubans came as well. What i have heard is that has cubans came into florida, a southern state, segregated state, the whites were not segregated but a black cubans go dark cubans were and they could not stay in being segregated from the former compatriots. So many of them went up north. And us you have a very important colony of cubans in new jersey, starting in the 60s. I dont know that for a fact but ive heard that this was something that happened in florida that black cubans said im not going to be segregated. I grew up with that guy. So they moved north where there was no official segregation. So yes, the socalled hispanic unity in this country is very varied. I think the term hispanic i dont like its origins because i dont think the from and of action i dont think, im going to hammer what was said but she said that it robs hispanics of real power. I completely agree with that. The history of immigration in this country is going through broken glass to succeed. Et al. You did it. The martini means that it. The italians did it. With hispanics is the first time that the federal government intervened and said we must help you. And it happens because the time they come in to the 70s is 90 that the federal government must be into everything. Host lets go down into that more. Tell us how this new classification enabling hispanics or latinos to have access to a affirmative action and to government benefits and even see themselves different. How has that entered the traditional process of assimilation and integration directory thats what sets them apart the it draws a line between them and the immigrants and says you are different. Dont aspire to what they did. And, in fact, what we have done, and its very unfortunate weve done this to this country, is now our government under own institutions through up roadblocks to assimilation. Our schools which were the cauldron, the melting pot happened were set up by the Founding Fathers from the beginning. Jefferson was very interested in education. He set out the university of virginia. He understood that it was there that Republican Values need to be taught. Host that is small our republican. Guest of course. Republican as the republic. They were very consider the keeping it republic and they thought Republican Values would be taught at the Public School level, and they were until sometime in the middle of the 20th century schmick host the progressive era. Guest the progress is made a feint dry in 1920s, lost, but that again and decided to win in the 60s. Which have now is we no longer assembly in the Public School system. We no longer teach civic values. The civic values they teach is how to demonstrate. But host how do balkanize. Guest so host under the guise of multiculturalism. Guest that is by the way is a very worrying thing. Let me go back to what i said and they go into the in a race for the future. This battle was won in the 1910s in the 1920s, progressives wanted to have what they called the transnational america, which was a place where you would have different pockets, a federation of definitions so they called it. They lost that fight to the assimilationist. The assimilationist one. We have is result is a country comes together and is able to fight world war ii. As a country, you see these movies from world war ii that they got from brooklyn and then mexican guy from texas and an irish guy from boston, and theyre all coming together to fight in the john wayne movies. These guys host they never gave up, did they . Guest this is what you see today. Its the same ideology. Not the same people. They are did but these are the errors. Host an excellent point at a think its important that we communicate that more and more. These are of americans that were pushing this balkanization and breaking away from the small our Republican Values that sustained us as a country. These are not born guest i think one was given. Host mostly this is a homegrown movement. This is something that did not come across because of immigrants. Oftentimes it is something that is given to immigrants or forcefed to immigrants. Guest majestic thing. They see immigrants and especially hispanics as agents of change. These people who want to see hispanics as agents of change. Aye to this in my book, a race for the future. I make an argument that hispanics can and should be agents for conserving our traditional values and americas place in the world. We are seeing right now in the summer of 2014 what happens when america withdrawals from the military in the world. Hispanics, conservatives need to join the battle, join thats what the subtitle of my book, how hispanics, how come it can break the monopoly of hispanics. A liberal monopoly over hispanics. For some of reason we need to engage because hispanics a to b. Reached out. They can no longer, it cannot just be seen one message from the wisdom of the left, prescription of america as a racist place, as a place so unfair that hispanics need government intervention. We need host that does cut against usually those immigrate to the trendy because when they come to the United States theyre not coming to a miserable racist nation. The coming guest they are attractive are fundamentally two things. Liberty and our prosperity. Thats why my family came here looking for in the 1970s, and the use us as agents of change to transform this a historic experiment in selfgovernance that is produced so much liberty and so much prosperity. Its something i felt i had to fight against so i wrote a book. Conservative to reach out to hispanics and unabashed Norman Rockwell painting of america which still exist. We are a country of people teaching in together, helping each other to frank capra has a wonderful right. The only Government Official in a wonderful life was the Bank Examiner to George Bailey and he failed to at the end but its a wonderful life is about americans pitching in together, regular americans, immigrants. I think we have to go out and tell his tell us that this is america. Give them a mobility message, you know, how to repair human capital, how to repair social capital. That had to make sure the Financial Capital in the bank account. Host one of the things in your book is the breakdown, traditionally those conservatives that it had the vision that you and i both share that we need to reach out to minorities and reach out to latinos, africanamericans and the like have always had a stereotype. Its a good stereotype, which is latinos are hispanics are natural conservatives, a belief in family values, stronger families, so and so forth. To my great chagrin when i was reading your book i found that may have one time been the case among hispanics, but, unfortunately, you are following a lot of the trends that exist in the United States, particularly unfortunately among my people, black americans, what does a breakdown of the family. Guest reagan uses a hispanics are conservatives, they just dont know it yet. Hispanics do have some fundamental characteristics that are conservative. For several hispanics are very picture of the hispanics are well represented in the armed forces. Hispanics have a strong worth work ethic of the immigrant hispanic, i look at statistics, has a Labor Participation that rivals that of native born americans or higher. Hispanics believe in Strong Family and hispanics, especially mexicans americans, go to church. However, what has happened because the bulk of the demographic change has come from 1965, just as we had a social tornado tearing down norms have been in this country for decades, many immigrants have imbibed the culture that was presented to them. Host they assimilated to some of the negative social pathologies that exist. Guest the term downward a simulation, a horrifying statistic is the out of wedlock rate which is very high for hispanics as hell but its different but its high for all groups, even for cubanamerica cubanamericans. For hispanics as a whole it is 53 . Host wow. And that would not have been the case of guest no, no, no. Cubans, let me give you a statistic for cubans. I believe last year it was 48 . 10 years ago it was 29 . Then similar to the out of wedlock rate of nonhispanic whites. Illegitimacy is a problem because it spans upstream from a lot of social issues. Kids who are born and raised without a father are nine times five times as likely to drop out of school. Nine times as likely to commit crime and three times as likely to be imprisoned im quoting candidate barack obama in 2008 who said this, obama talks about this a lo