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GUEST: Professor Ronald Takaki, Professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, author of “A Different Mirror : A History of Multicultural America,” and “Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans”

There was a time when, if you wanted to find the anti-immigrant demonstrations gathered on a street corner, you looked for the cluster of American flags. But at Monday’s May Day marches, it was immigrants who waved thousands of US flags in an effort to demonstrate their patriotism. The flags are in response to criticism of earlier marches where Mexican and Central American flags dominated.

In addition to the US flag, the National Anthem is considered a sacred symbol of American patriotism. But the imminent release of Nuestro Himno, a Spanish language version of the Star Spangled Banner, has sparked a very interesting debate. Many Latino immigrants are distancing themselves from the anthem, fearing a backlash from English speaking Americans. One person said, “There are some things you just shouldn’t touch, like ‘The Star-Spangled Banner. It was written a certain way, and that’s the way it should be sung.” During our interview with Spanish language DJ, El Piolin, he too expressed that the anthem should not be sung in Spanish, even though his own syndicated show is in Spanish. Robin Hvidston, a member of the Minuteman Project agrees. She said, “I feel excluded. Most people in the U.S. can’t understand the song. It’s meant to apply to a certain group of people. It strikes me as being divisive for our nation.”

Meanwhile, some Republican Senators submitted a nonbinding resolution on the Senate floor last week that said the national anthem and the Pledge of Allegiance “should be recited or sung in English.” This morning’s Washinton Post, cites that “President Bush declared last week that the national anthem should be sung in English not Spanish, but he evidently never told his own government or campaign organizations.
The State Department posts four Spanish versions of “The Star-Spangled Banner” on its Web site, and accounts from the 2000 election suggest that the song was at times performed in Spanish at Bush campaign events. Critics even turned up one reference to Bush himself singing the anthem in Spanish on the trail, but there was no confirmation.”

Even the supposedly pro-immigrant Senator Kennedy criticized the Spanish language “Nuestro Himno.” It’s an interesting question about how patriotic immigrants can be. Patriotic enough to carry the US flag, but not to sing the US anthem in their language.

Another interesting question is, should people buy into right-wing definitions of who qualifies to be a good American? Many of us remember after 9-11, feeling the pressure from right-wing America to wave a flag to prove our allegiance to the state.

Sonali’s Subversive Thought for the Day:

“It’s patently obvious that patriotism isn’t practiced by those who inculcate it into others. It’s a sentiment that’s infused in us so that we’ll put ourselves at the disposition of our exploiters. When we take the gun in hand to defend the nation, that which we’re defending is the property of our bosses. Let us open our eyes.” – Ricardo Flores Magon, from a 1917 essay on Patriotism.