Analysis of "The Legacy of Generation N"

     "The Legacy of Generation N" by Christine Haubegger appears in Chapter 11 of The College Writer under the heading "Cause and Effect."  Through attempted stabs at humor...Some successful ("...bloodless coup of 1992...", and "We may only be 11 percent of the population but we buy 16 percent of the lip liner."  [173]), some not much so, ("Our children will ask us what it was like to dance without a partner."  [174]), she attempts to map out the impact Latinos and Hispanics have had on this country while enlightening us to her political views and presenting inaccurate and misleading information.
     According to Biography.jrank.org, Ms. Haubegger was born of a Mexican-American mother (does this denote a full-blooded Mexican woman born in the United States or perhaps a woman of Mexican and a second, unidentified background?) while no mention of the race and nationality of her father is given.  She was adopted and raised by an anglo couple who stressed the importance of staying in touch with her Hispanic heritage. Ms. Haubegger graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1989 with a BA in philosophy, then acheived a juris doctor degree at Stanford Law School in 1992 before founding Latina magazine.
     Does any of this lend credence to her credentials as a writer, especially on a topic such as this?  Philosophy has pretty much been accepted as the truths by which we govern our lives.  In layman's terms, "If it works for you, go with it."  This is the impression Ms. Haubegger has given me in this essay; her truths, her philosophies, her ways of life work for her, and she wishes to impress these upon her readers as well.  By doing this, though, I feel she has turned her back on the race, culture, etc., of the adoptive parents who were there for her when those of Latino descent were not, and this is not something that printing a magazine in bi-lingual format can easily fix, or even excuse.
     I have seen first-hand how ethnic/racial identity crisis can affect an individual, the clashing of two cultures at times dismissing them from both simultaneously or leading them to preference of one over the other.  My children are bi-racial (white/black) and I have witnessed them adhere to my preferences--my likes and dislikes--for a time, then sway toward their mother's, back and forth again before settling into their own identities, which become an assimilation of both cultures and philosophies.  Never has there been a full embracing of one, allowing the other to fall to the wayside as seems to be the case with Ms. Haubegger.
     Ms. Haubegger stated, "Latinos are true Americans." (173) when the fact is that only the peoples indigenous to this country may lay claim to that fact, unless we all fall under the cloak of "Manifest Destino" (173).  We must remember the Mayans, Aztecs, and Incans inhabited Mexico, and while it is true that Spanish Conquistadores forced their language upon the conquered peoples of that region, what is now the United States was populated by Anasazi, Cherokee, Creek, Micmac, and eastern Woodland communities just to name a few, each with its own distinct dialect.
     Ms. Haubegger seems to take a great amount of pride over the fact that Latinos procreate, "...at a rate seven times that of the general population." (173), and she attributes this to, "...natural increase rather than immigration." (173), yet it is important to point out that as of 2005, statistics from the PEW Research Center show 78 percent of all illegal immigrants are of Latino/Hispanic descent with 56 percent coming from Mexico and the remaining 22 percent hailing from other Latin-American countries.  Furthermore, the Latino population in the United States almost tripled from the time she wrote her essay in 1999 to 2006 when it was estimated to be at 44.3 million.  On top of that, the Center for Information Studies estimates the number of illegal Latino/Hispanic people in this country to range from 7-20 million, with a realists view of 11-12.5 million that were never a factor in "natural increase."
     "We are just getting started. Our economic concentration..." (173) sounds like nothing more than a virus infecting its host, which is basically what human beings are anyway as we in no way establish an equilibrium with our ecosystem.  This just seems to drive the point home on a more personal level as population levels continue to increase at the same exponential rates as cost of living, homelessness, unemployment, and overall poverty.
     In the same paragraph (4), Ms. Haubegger speaks of, "...reputation for family values." (173), and while I do not claim to know what happens within the confines of every Latino/Hispanic home, I do know what research has told me.  As of 2007, approximately 70 percent of all adult Latinos and Hispanics claim Catholicism as their theological affiliation (cara.georgetown.edu).  As of 1999, 28 percent of inmates housed in federal prisons in the United States and 17 percent of all inmates housed in state prisons are of Latino/Hispanic descent.  Furthermore, homicides excluded, 49 percent of all victimizations and 43 percent of all violent crimes in this country were done so by Latinos (law.jrank.org).  This should in no way suggest that all Latinos are bad people, but it does shine a brighter light onto the exact nature of the "family values" of which Ms. Haubegger spoke.
     Ms. Haubegger does make a couple of valid points in her essay, those being, "This is going to be a bi-lingual country" (174), and "The American standard of beauty will necessarily expand to include a female size 12" (174).  Bi-lingual, multi-lingual...This country has been in the same position before, as Dutch, English, Nord, Spanish, French, and many other peoples first colonized the lands, their dialects mixing with those of the natives to make what we know today.  So is "Spanglish" next on the agenda?  And how will street-speak, ebonics, and hip-hop fuse with that to create yet another unique dialect?  Is the English language as we know it soon to be extinct, or will mankind once and for all have a universal language akin to Swahili?  As far as the female size 12 is concerned, I for one am happy to see society as a whole embrace the thick thighs and little bowl belly that seem to predominate the female physical form; it is a welcome distraction from the toothpick-thin models the "fashionistas" say we must emulate.  But while I may agree with these things, I do not agree with the fact that Ms. Haubegger almost demands that I accept her truths, her philosophies, her prose as inevitability.  She takes a jab at conservative politics while asking us to accept her liberal views as fact.  She gleefully recounts how, "...a taco-shilling chihuahua became a national icon." (173) while failing to mention that it was Mexicans and Mexican-Americans who protested the ads, demanded a boycott because Taco Bell was telling the world that all persons of Mexican descent were dogs, thus the reason "Yo Quiero" became bi-lingual overnight.
     She makes me feel like a 98-pound woman being raped by a 350-pound man; there's not much I can do about it so I should just lie there until its over, yet I shall not do this.  I will accept that which I choose to accept on my own terms.  I will assimilate that which I deem worthy of assimilation at my own pace.  I am motivated not by racism, bigotry, or even prejudice.  My motivation lies in what I know to be true based upon the facts my research has provided, not personal truths (mis)guided by liberal philosophical beliefs.