The magazine was declared dead long before the internet was and yet I derive great pleasure (and pain) through leafing the pages of magazines. Most recently, I was reading the latest issue of Newsweek, dated September 6, 2010. On the back page there is always a section called “Back Story”, featuring quick and graphical information about a current hot button issue.

The latest “Back Story” targets the “Anchor Baby” issue but it does so in a way that makes the children of immigrants o.k. and less scary, as a way to allay the fears of the white masses by adhering to the cult of celebrity and mostly white celebrity at that.

Who could hate the children of immigrants when they are in the company of those listed in Newsweek. For example the magazine lists Henry Ford, the son of an Irish father and Larry King, the son of a Russian mother and Austro-Hungarian father. For the women we have Joan Rivers, the daughter of Russian parents and Renee Zellweger, the daughter of a Swiss father and Norwegian mother.

Not all the examples are white celebs. We are given Alex Rodriguez whose parents are Dominican and the legendary Joan Baez, daughter of a Scottish mother and Mexican father. But, I wonder would the inclusion of “successful” people of color, specifically women of color and even more specifically Latinas work as proof of how safe the children of immigrants are if there weren’t European immigrants and their children on the list? After all the false debate around the 14th amendment is not built around the birthrate of immigrant Norwegians . It’s about Latina women, more specifically Mexican women and their children. Women like Cirila Baltazar Cruz and children like her daughter Ruby and young adults like those fighting for the DREAM Act.

What if as a counter-narrative to the nativist debate the mainstream media had a list of those children of immigrants, the one’s that do not get media attention for their commercial success? That isn’t to say we should celebrate the work of Oscar Hijuelos, Barack Obama, and Norah Jones, all who are listed as examples of the good children of immigrants who have made the U.S. better, but rather I would argue that it is the nameless, uncelebrated except perhaps in their own cocinas or comunidades, and their struggles that have brought the U.S. to where it is today in terms of the true benefits that immigration brings. But I suppose if the mainstream media started telling those stories instead of the stories of Colin Powell or Michelle Kwan then there wouldn’t be a need for spaces like this.