If you are a Hispanic American in California, the “Anglos” have left a gift for you. It’s a lesser-known part of the Constitution of the United States that the “Anglos” established in 1789, after the founding of "El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles de Porciúncula" by the 14 families, that allows you to take charge (philologists, note here that the difference between “charge” and "change” is just one letter) of your country, something that may not have been available in the country, or countries, of your heritage.
This gift, Article V of the Constitution, empowers you to work toward changing what you don’t like about the U.S. while keeping those things that you or your ancestors came here for.
Now, let’s be clear. If you have at least some Mexican blood, you likely have ancestors who were here in what is now the state of California generations before the “Anglos.” There was a well-established way of life here in California for generations of your ancestors, but you have a heritage of changing things when you think your government isn’t working well, starting with El Grito de Delores on September 16, 1810, culminating in Acta de Independencia del Imperio Mexicano, on September 28, 1821, the day after Guerra de Independencia de México ended 300 years of Spanish rule.
After that, with Mexico City so far away and so unresponsive, your ancestors lived pretty much independently for another generation. As a matter of reference, the distance from Los Angeles, and even, San Francisco, to Mexico City is less than the distance from either Los Angeles or San Francisco to Washington, D.C. Then, with the help of a golden tsunami of people from many places, you ditched Mexico to form your own California Republic. For those of you from other Latin American countries (or elsewhere), you have your own history of revolutions.
The Hispanic Heritage Month, established by President Reagan (a former governor of California), is September, and it coincides with the independence of Mexico, Chile, and five of the Spanish-speaking countries in Central America (Panama, once part of Columbia, is a special case and Belize, formerly British Honduras, has English as its main language).
There are more than 60 million Hispanics in the US (that number has doubled in just the last 20 years), making up about 20% of the population and half of the U.S. population growth in the last decade. There are over 15 million Hispanics in California, comprising 40% of the population of our state. Hispanics have served in our country's wars going back to at least the Revolutionary War.
Your ancestors, and maybe you, endured an arduous journey to get here. Your role in the future of the United States will be relatively easy compared to what most of your ancestors sacrificed. But don’t think that you are alone. Almost all of us Americans have ancestors who came here for a reason, mostly to flee from something - war, famine, poverty, religious or other persecution, tyranny.
Even the original inhabitants of the Americas who came here prior to the Europeans must have had similar reasons for their arduous migrations. So now consider whether you or your ancestors fled to tyranny. Has our national government become too tyrannical? Who would know better than you?
Being Hispanic, you have a culture that treasures family above almost all else except your strong religious heritage. Other ethnic groups that have come to this country have also treasured family, but treasuring family in Hispanic culture is second to none. After all, what other group has a quinceañera for Mija? Coupled with your strong religious heritage inherited mostly from Europe, you can have a significant and singular impact in shaping the future of your country, yet again, using Article V of your Constitution. Many of you have blood that is a blend of the Latin Europeans and the original inhabitants of the Americas. Many of you have a history here that is longer than any “Anglos.” Doesn’t that make you uniquely qualified, and responsible, for forging the new direction of your country? It’s going to be forged anyway, so are you going to just stand by, or are you going to help forge it?
What are you waiting for? Are you waiting for the federal police to just go away? Is there another country to flee away to for the best use of your heritage, after spending perhaps generations here? Canada, perhaps? Canada doesn’t have Article V. Canada’s “founders” did not really provide for amendment of their constitution in the same way as Article V does. Instead, their parliament passed legislation in 1982 on how their constitution can be amended, but that is the subject (perhaps) of another article. Our Constitution, including Article V, stands above our legislative branch. Canada does not. In the U.S., only the people, through their states, can change the Constitution. That appears to not be the case in Canada, at least not in the same way.
Join the nonpartisan Convention of States, or at least find out more. Use the Article V gift the Anglos started our country with. After all, it’s your Article V too.
