Editorial:
There is an old fable about two weavers who promised an Emperor a new suit of clothes that was invisible to those who were unfit for their positions, stupid, or incompetent. When the Emperor paraded before his subjects in his new clothes, a child cried out, “He isn’t wearing anything at all!” This fable comes to mind with a recent spat involving activist, Enrique Morones, the community and La Prensa San Diego.
The issue started with a quote in the UT about the Border Patrol being “compassionate” concerning Central American refugee children. The U-T article was written by Roxana Popescu she wrote:
“Some people, for the first time, are seeing the human side of the Border Patrol. They’re human beings just like anybody else,” said Enrique Morones, a human rights activist who said he’s been cooperating with the Border Patrol to provide humanitarian relief to border-crossers for decades. “Are there incidents when they’ve been abusive? There’s incidents when activists have been abusive. A lot of times, they get the bad rap, and that’s not fair.” (emphasis added).
Some persons in the community were pretty upset with Morones calling activists abusive and comparing them to the Border Patrol. La Prensa’s Tezozomoc followed by stating the above and adding:
“Hijole, Morones can you name one time where an activist has shot, killed, tazared, beat, rape, unlawfully arrested, anyone????”
The original U-T story was published on July 14, 2014 Tezzy was published on July 18. On July 22, Morones emailed La Prensa asking for an apology stating he was misquoted, stating he didn’t say abused but “unethical.” Were still trying to figure what’s worse, abuse, or “unethical?” La Prensa informed Morones that we had nothing to apologize for and that he should talk to the reporter who quoted him. It was after this communication, on July 22 that Morones finally emailed the reporter, seeking a retraction. This was one week after the story was first published.
It’s obvious that without La Prensa raising the issue, Morones would not have sought a retraction! The UT responded but did not submit a retraction, but stated the following, “Human rights activist Enrique Morones, who was quoted in a Page 1 story on July 14, was misunderstood or misspoke when speaking about the history of tensions at the border. He does not believe that there have been incidents in which activists have been abusive.” U-T reporter, Roxana Popescu (according to our sources) stands by her quote and is adamant she quoted Morones correctly!
It must be noted that Morones is, or was a member of the Union Tribune’s Latino Advisory Council and as such is friends of U-T editors that he is now accusing of having, “a long history of anti-Latino misquotes, stories and positions.”
To La Prensa and many in the community, activists Morones’ term of “activists being unethical rather than abusive” is not the big problem of him being “misunderstood.” The biggest problem to La Prensa is that Morones stated to the reporter (which he never disclaimed) that he has, “been cooperating with the Border Patrol to provide humanitarian relief to border-crossers for decades.” As one person stated, “this would be like an Afro-American activist saying he has been cooperating with the Klu Klux Klan for decades.”
In our opinion herein lies the problem, the issue is not simply a Morones problem, but an issue that has plagued the Hispanic community historically…the lack of a collective memory of our history!
The Border Patrol since 1924 is the only law enforcement agency (patterned after the infamous Texas Rangers) that has been created to deal with Chicano/Latino and Mexican problems. The Border Patrol has a long history of abusing, killing, and making a mockery of persons of Mexican ancestry human and constitutional rights in the US.
If Morones wants to be a social service worker that provides water and teddy bears, La Prensa has no problem. But if he (as he states) is an “activist” protesting human right abuses and seeking political policy solutions to these abuses, he cannot then turn around and proclaim that the Border Patrol that is responsible for this abuses as “compassionate,” and that he has been cooperating with them for decades! Folks like Morones, as well intended as they might be, only muddles the water, instead of creating the necessary political movement to bring about change and hampers progress towards solutions.
We doubt that Araceli Rodriguez, who this week filed a lawsuit against the Border Patrol, would consider the Border Patrol “compassionate” after having to bury her young son who was walking home from a basketball game when a border agent shot across the border, through a fence, killing her son along Calle Internacional in Nogales. The agent shot him not once, but EIGHT times in the back. “Compassionate,” we think not.
All of this takes us back to the fable of the Emperor with no clothes: Morones tells us he is an activist, but as the young child declared in the fable … he has no clothes on!
(updated)