For many immigrants in the Valley, life continues as it did in ...

I'm finding it hard to believe there is ANY attempt to assimilate. Someday I do hope I will walk into a Hispanic establishment and see a white, black or asian working there.

Immigrants want the American Dream... My grandmother (of full Danish decent) was born in Iowa to immigrant parents who spoke Danish in the house. When they went into public they used what english they knew until they assimilated. I remember my grandmother telling me that she wanted to be taught Danish and her parents telling her "No! We live in America! You will speak American!" This is assimilating into and capturing the American Dream, not closeting you and your family into little barrios and never attempting to fit in. My entire family for the last 8 generations in this country have worked for this. Now its all being pissed away!

"Some 62 percent of immigrants (from Mexico and Central America) over 15 are married, compare" of others.

Using the base of comparison as age 15 and then boasted such a high percent married is NOT an indicator of assimilation, or family values -- but the opposite. It shows a much higher percent of Latinas get "knocked up" and see motherhood as an excuse not to continue educations or work in a professional career. I

f you factor out African Americans, there are way fewer than half of American citizens/ legal residents who are married or have kids by 15! Only in Latino countries do girls become "women" at 15 during their quincenearas, and many consider their 8th grade graduation like high school, since their parents never made it that far.

The sexism in Latino society and the lack of emphasis on higher education for both sexes continues for generations, as does this belief that having as many kids as possible is a good thing, so the sooner they start the better. They'll really become assimilated and First World when that mentality is gone, when they're more like Italy as a Catholic country, than Mexico/Salvador.

Above, first para cut off: "compared to 52 percent of native Americans."

I agree that there is very little attempt to assimilate by many of these people. What drives most of the legal citizens nuts is that many of these illegal immigrants come here and make no attempt to blend into the "American" way of life. But instead, they come over here, take whatever is given to them by our liberal government and give nothing back. Dave's parents story is an example of how it should be done. You move here to start a new life, and you should first start to speak the language. People like Dave's parents understood that the best way to get ahead in this country is to first speak the language. That way, they can succeed in school, get good jobs and then live that American dream that first brought them here.

Immigrant community needs to concentrate on developing manufacturing vs. just setting up restaurants. The numbers show America will be brown and if the browns don't start making things rather than just packing tacos, America will become third world. Tariffs must be charged on all imports. Good luck brown folks, we whites couldn't hang together, so we are dying off separately. I know you will be wiser. Hasta la Vista, baby.

"Only 7 percent of the children of Latino immigrants speak Spanish as a primary language, and virtually none of their children do." This number is by far too low it is unbelievable. Are you lying? I would think the statement should read only 7% speak English. And the point "none of their children do", where did you do this research?

I think if they all want to live here in the US. They All need to Learn to speak /read and write English! just as all of us natives do. If they left thier countries is for a reason, its because they did'nt want to live there,(what ever the circumstances) Right? So, they should respect Our Country and learn OUR customs. We AMERICANS need to stop accomadating ALL Foreigners.

It's cool and all to know about your culture and stuff but assimilation is just as important too, especially learning the language of the place you live in. I was at Universal Studios yesterday and I felt bad for the girl scanning tickets and fingerprints of annual passholders. This Latino family was in front of me and the employee kept telling the daughter, who looked like she was 9 or 10, to put her left finger on the scanner but the daughter didn't understand so she just stood there. The employee tried miming what she wanted the daughter to do but the daughter and her dad just stood there for seriously 5 minutes with these blank looks on their faces and then finally the dad told the employee "No English." Frustrating! At least try some other way to communicate, don't just stand there and stare.

To "Only 7 percent",

A lot of Latino immigrant children speak Spanish, but they are also immersed in American TV and society. From my experience, many of these immigrant children don't speak Spanish or English too well so a good portion speak in Spanglish. Since they really don't speak Spanish well, the language is lost over generations and sometimes in the second.

I've seen some of my friends that are from legal and illegal immigrant backgrounds, and some of them can't speak Spanish even if their parents speak it all the time. They understand it, but they can't speak it or refuse to. By the fourth generation, it's usually gone. Just roll into the Central Valley of CA. If you took a good portion of the descendants of Latino legal immigrants, many of them are unable to speak Spanish even if they had a Spanish speaking ancestor. Even now, some of the descendants of illegal immigrants have lost the ability to speak Spanish. Even with your and other's views against illegal immigration, this percentage doesn't seem too far from the truth.

Mr. Ramirez is very observant on many levels - My Grandfather was from Mexico - came here when he was 26 - learned the language and assimilated very gracefully into his "new "country with all it's opportunity and promise, but still held his ancestoral roots. I don't agree with Mr. Ramirez's numbers on those that don't speak english - I find it hard to believe that such a small number would influnence hiring trends, school language programs, employment language trends, billboards and the such - I believe that MOST of the "immigrants" we deal with in Los Angeles don't care about assimilation, don't care about education, don't care about respecting the laws and in-fact are here as an aide to family back home AND to take advantage of a built in baby sitting system, health care system, job system and overall culture that has catered to ignorance. I know I sound awful, and will be accused of bigotry - but it frustrates me to see whole commuinites, whole groups of people, schools and on and on just disintigrate before your eyes! Yes it's true that most culturals cling to thier "roots", BUT what seems to be the BIG difference is that ALL those cultures educated thier children and EXPECTED that they would DO BETTER then they (the parents) did - this new culture of "immigrants" seems to have a different agenda .... and I don't think it is to the benefit of thier "culture" or the country.

the problem will be solved in several years. When the ones that do not assimilate, do not learn English, will finally figure out they will not be able to succeed financially and have to move back home. :)

"You can now live in some communities in America and live your entire life as if you were still in Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala or Honduras," Pacoima neighborhood activist Edwin Ramirez says while munching one of La Costa Azul's house specialties.

Well, DUH!! They've transferred Mexico over here, with all of its gang problems, high crime rate, and low standard of living. That's why we should've secured the borders a long time ago to prevent this from happening. These immigrants, and a lot of them are illegal, are not gonna assimilate, will never ever assimilate as long as they're clustered together in illegal-alien neighborhoods like Pacoima, Santa Ana, Maywood, Huntington Park, Arleta,..... All they hear is La Raza, El Piolin.

I think most Americans really like our neighbors in Mexico and Central America. The have a wonderful culture and they're an attractive and good people for the most part. We want them to become Americans -- but legally and in an orderly fashion. When they're here, we'd appreciate it if they'd make the effort to learn English -- the language of our Constitution and laws. We'd like them to respect the fact that the Southwest USA is not an extension of Mexico that deserves to be "returned" do them as if it was illegally taken. We'd like them to not abuse our welfare and medical system -- and we'd like our government to stop accomodating that theft.

Good article.

While I think Ramirez's concerns are overblown, I also see his point. As stated in the article, much of this is part of the normal process of assimiliation, which doesn't happen overnight. It takes generations, especially when immigrants tend to group together in neighborhoods and cities. It's not just Mexicans and other Latinos. The same thing happens with the Armenian community, the Chinese community, the Korean community, etc. I understand that in Sacramento, there is a Russian Orthodox community where many of the recent immigrants and elderly cling to Russian.
Furthermore, America has a tradition of NON-assimilating communities. The best known of these these are the Amish. The Amish are primarily descendants of Swiss immigrants, so there is an ethnic component as well as the religious one.

Bureaucratic Mess wrote:

I think most Americans really like our neighbors in Mexico and Central America. The have a wonderful culture and they're an attractive and good people for the most part. We want them to become Americans -- but legally and in an orderly fashion. When they're here, we'd appreciate it if they'd make the effort to learn English -- the language of our Constitution and laws. We'd like them to respect the fact that the Southwest USA is not an extension of Mexico that deserves to be "returned" do them as if it was illegally taken. We'd like them to not abuse our welfare and medical system -- and we'd like our government to stop accomodating that theft.
Good article.

You have my agreement in principle, but the devil is in the details. Clearly there are many hard working immigrants both legal and illegal that are not abusing the welfare and medical system. I think we need to make some place for these people along the lines of a guest work visa. I would leave open the possibility of citizenship, but I am against a blanket amnesty.
Los Angeles was Spanish and then Mexican before it was part of the U.S. and our culture has historically contained these elements. Anyone who doubts this need only look at the names of the streets! That said, I think there are very very few Latinos that want to reclaim any part of the U.S. for Mexico. It is the extremists that poison the debate (just as extremists and racists on the other side are hijacking the debate).
As a non-Latino (don't let my nickname fool you), I really LIKE the fact that there are taco trucks and little tiendas in my neighborhood. I like the fact that one can buy Mexican specialty foods at the "regular" grocery store.(The Super A Foods near me even has a Mexican bakery, deli, and meat dept.) A few miles away, the supermarkets have an abundance of Armenian items, and slightly closer than that there is an excellent Philipino market. A 15 -20 minute drive gets me to parts of L.A. with Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese and Thai flavors.
All this is to say that I agree with you as to the cultural value that Latinos and other immigrants bring to Los Angeles. We are incredibly lucky.

Bureaucratic Mess wrote:

I think most Americans really like our neighbors in Mexico and Central America. The have a wonderful culture and they're an attractive and good people for the most part. We want them to become Americans -- but legally and in an orderly fashion. When they're here, we'd appreciate it if they'd make the effort to learn English -- the language of our Constitution and laws. We'd like them to respect the fact that the Southwest USA is not an extension of Mexico that deserves to be "returned" do them as if it was illegally taken. We'd like them to not abuse our welfare and medical system -- and we'd like our government to stop accomodating that theft.
Good article.

and part of that "beautiful culture" is cockfights, bullfights, animal abuse, having litters of children when they cannot afford them, marking their "turf" like animals spraying bushes to mark their territory, eating white flour and lard tortillas, and stealing shopping carts, and the inability to drink alcohol without wanting to stab someone. Yup, it's a beautiful culture.

Peri wrote:

<quoted text>
and part of that "beautiful culture" is cockfights, bullfights, animal abuse, having litters of children when they cannot afford them, marking their "turf" like animals spraying bushes to mark their territory, eating white flour and lard tortillas, and stealing shopping carts, and the inability to drink alcohol without wanting to stab someone. Yup, it's a beautiful culture.

If you think that one culture or ethnicity has a monopoly on ugliness or bad behavior, I suggest you take a hard and honest look at yourself. Racism is a very ugly trait.

Marcos El Malo wrote:

<quoted text>
If you think that one culture or ethnicity has a monopoly on ugliness or bad behavior, I suggest you take a hard and honest look at yourself. Racism is a very ugly trait.

Funny, when I looked up "Truth" in the dictionary, it said nothing of racism? could you explain?

Mexicans are the only nationality in the United States, that by and large, are intransigent to English, and American customs. They want Ameica to be Mexico and THAT IS WHAT IT IS BECOMING WHILE AMERICANS SLEEP. THIS ISN'T ROCKET SCIENCE. I would throw every single illegal alien out of this nation, not out of some great hatred for them, but as a show of respect for the laws that the American citizenry has created for the purpose of SERVING AMERICANS, AND AMERICANS ALONE. I would throw the liberals who object, right out with them. Without the law being placed first, nations are doomed, because the breakdown of the laws is what characterizes every nation in history that has collapsed and is collapsing.

Marcos El Malo wrote:

<quoted text>
If you think that one culture or ethnicity has a monopoly on ugliness or bad behavior, I suggest you take a hard and honest look at yourself. Racism is a very ugly trait.

please tell me which of my statements were not true? how many Asians have you seen stealing shopping carts? How many Caucasians attend cockfights? How many African-Americans are eating lard tortillas?