Mexico falling.

Living as I do in the second largest Spanish speaking city on earth, Los Angeles, I interact and live with many Mexican-Americans and Mexicans. Rather happily, I'll add. Mexican cultural contributions to my city are incalculable, and probably the largest influence - more so than "North American" influence. Not to mention the backbone. Until the recent crash one could, quite truthfully, state that many of the jobs held by the Hispanic underclass would not be done by others. This is not new in the American experience. Immigrants, legal or not, grab the low rung.

I no longer think others are not be available for the low rung labor jobs. Everyone is spooked. The shift in my neighborhood, Koreatown, in the last 6 months is palpable. Not long ago I never heard English in the neighborhood markets, only Korean and Spanish. Now English is as normal as Spanish. No, all the second language graduates did not suddenly invade. English speakers have been priced out of richer parts of town. (Mostly white, but not all. Black Americans are rolling downhill, too.)

I don't participate in the immigration wars much. Both the Conservatives and the Liberals have it wrong. Conservatives demonize Mexicans and Mexican culture in a way I find reprehensible. Fear of the "other" oozes whenever I hear a talking head pop off about "illegals". From my observation, few cultures have a work ethic as embedded as Mexican culture. Certainly American culture is much more beholden to the "something for nothing" ethic now, bromides about the Puritans not withstanding.

Liberals are, as usual, in their own sort of denial. A victim is found (immigrants)- and all rational thought leaves the discussion. Of course, sovereign nations have the duty to protect their borders. Duh.

Further, Mexican migrants in the Southwest are not at all the same as Irish migrants during the potato famine. Yelping "We are a nation of immigrants" is...well...dumb and beside the point. Mexico is different from Ireland for the most obvious reason - Mexico is right there. There is no ocean between us and them. An immigrant is not cut off from the homeland in the same sense. Certainly a migrant is a foreigner here. But vast swatches of Los Angeles are, for all intents and purposes, Mexican. People and commerce move back and forth in a kind of nether land. Mexifornia. Irish, German, Indian, Italian immigrants had no such experience. When they left their homelands, THEY LEFT.

That's a weather report, not a judgement. It is what is. Which is why I find the implosion of Mexico the most under reported story of the new year. The collapse of Mexico is a real possibility and not one American leader (including my favorite, SOS Clinton) seems remotely concerned with it. Northern Mexico is a few steps this side of civil war. A breakdown of Mexico would unleash a "humanitarian disaster" to use the hackneyed phrase. And not on our doorstep - in our living rooms. Why is next to no one discussing this?