Mala’s a little worried because she’s not in Kansas er the ‘hood anymore and today is Cinco de Mayo. In St Petersburg, Florida, where I am attending a conference on journalism and “new media” if you will, I have seen at least 3 Cinco de Mayo promos at local bars. They range from the innocuous margarita special type to the sombrero’ed, teta-licious dark haired mujer seen here. Not among the worse I have seen in my life. In general promotions feature white looking people (and I say this fully acknowledging that on visuals I do not always present as Latina) in sombreros and ponchos. They are drinking Mexican beer and I’m sure there is a maraca, a chile pepper, and a piñata thrown in for good measure. It reminds me of a running joke with amigo Kai about what makes an “Asian Salad” Asian. Throw in some sesame seeds somehow equals Asian. Slap on a chile pepper, you have something Mexican.

Every year here at VL, ever since we started, we write about Cinco de Mayo. We explain that it is not the Mexican equivalent to the Fourth of July. We’ve written about racist Cinco de Mayo parties on college campuses that rely on Speedy Gonzalez’ish stereotype at best, racial slurs at worse.

See we didn’t worry about hate after Arizona’s SB1070. That’s just the latest manifestation of it on a historical timeline of hate against Latinos who are now all painted as Mexican (see the case of Marcelo Lucero if you don’t want to believe me).

We can’t act like this is new though. It only feels new to some who have had the privilege of not following the immigration issue until it became “hot”, which in the progressive new media world, which I am calling the fifth estate this week, means when there is a bill in play in Congress or rumors of a bill or when big name bloggers suddenly want to claim Latino after purposely not claiming it for so many years so they could build their cred.

In 2007, a Cinco de Mayo celebration organized for the Latino community in Virginia was canceled because of the threat of an I.C.E raid.

Last year, Obama gave props to Mexico and wished everyone a happy Cinco de Mayo but didn’t mention immigration. What will he do this year if anything?

This year the context makes it all feel a little more dangerous than usual. There has been a rise in hate crimes against Latinos. Arizona is passing laws left and right (ok, mostly right), that criminalize living while brown and now a militia group in Arizona is turning Cinco de Mayo into Cinco de Ammo.

Arizona Citizens Militia calls on Arizonans to celebrate “Cinco de Ammo” by asking everyone to purchase five boxes of ammunition on 5 May 2010

A neo-Nazi organization, who has linked to VivirLatino and has their eye on us is calling for more direct action.

The neo-Nazi organization, the National Socialist Movement (NSM) have at least one anti-immigrant protest rally planned for May 5. An NSM member posted this comment on the white nationalist message-board Stormfront last week:

The National Socialist Movement is sponsoring a literature drive on May 5th to counter the demonstrations you know will be all across America as they cry about the recent AZ law enacted to enforce immigration laws. Participation in the 4th Region is mandatory, everyone on the streets !!! Let’s give White Americans something to celebrate on May 5th and do your part to
deport an illegal on May 5th!!

Make no mistake. Latinos in the United States have always been targeted by hate groups. In 2010 the difference is that the U.S. seems to be moving backwards with laws that legalize this violence on our communities.

Stay safe gente.