Is America Libre “a wake up call to the dangers of extremism,” as its author Raul Ramos y Sanchez has claimed? Or does it deserve Phil Elmore’s epithet given on World Net Daily, where he called the novel “a thoroughly evil book” and said that it “…exists for one reason only: to foment hatred and revolutionary sentiment among” Hispanics?
Elmore titled his “review” of America Libre, “Anti-Anglo racist tripe.”
Now just when I was ready to complain to the novel’s author about his portrayal of non-Hispanic whites as ignorant, bigoted, arrogant, culturally blind, mean and nasty, Mr. Elmore chose to open his virtual mouth and vomit a rant of such reactionary, xenophobic, anti-immigrant venom, that I am left blushing before Raul Ramos and all Hispanic-Americans.
America Libre is a work of speculative fiction set in the second decade of the 21st century, centering around the evolution of Manolo Suarez, from loyal American and veteran Army Ranger to militant Hispanic nationalist and traitor. A lot happens in this novel’s 353 pages–probably too much.
Even by mainstream standards, this book is thin, considering the subject and number of characters at play. Were I Mr. Ramos’ publisher, I would have highlighted a dozen or so key passages and then said, give me another 350 pages.
However, Latina Magazine and USA Today both recommended America Libre on their summer reading lists, and if you want a fast-paced political thriller that you can read over a weekend, America Libre delivers. It’s entertaining and thought provoking. But considering the issues involved, from civil war to concentration camps to murder, love, devotion in marriage and loyalty to country, this book may have worked better had it been written to be read over a Russian winter instead of a California summer.
But this weakness hasn’t kept America Libre from resonating with Latino media. In addition to a long list of interviews and book signings, Raul Ramos won the 2008 International Latino Book Award for Best Novel-Adventure or Drama in English, beating out veteran novelists Guillermo Arriaga and Cristina Garcia — no small achievement.
Still I keep coming back to the writer’s aspiration for America Libre to be more, to be “a wake-up call.” The author is obviously up to the task. He can plot an epic, multi-layered story and he can write crystal clear prose. Raul Ramos’ background in marketing might have been behind the decision to hyper-compress the novel, which hasn’t hurt it in the media but has left it vulnerable to criticism by serious readers of American literature, a vulnerability that radicals like Phil Elmore like to exploit.
Publisher’s Weekly described the problem succinctly, as an ironic “lack of diversity.” The so-called “Anglos” do tend to be very shallowly depicted, and they do behave abhorrently and inexplicably. But I am reading from the point of view of a middle-aged white man, so my emotional reactions may be biased.
If I were lucky enough to sit down and have a conversation with Raul Ramos, I would ask him:
- Is this how Hispanics really see non-Hispanic white Americans?
- Where are all of the other ethnicities that call America home in your book?
- Among the “Anglos,” where are the progressives, the anarchists, the socialists, the LGBT activists, the civil libertarians, the Greens and the Reds?
- Do you think we would quietly let the government force Hispanics to live in segregated ghettos or be hauled off to concentration camps?
- Don’t you think we would do a little rioting of our own in response?
Then I cringe. Memory and history make me shudder.
I cringe at this point in the imaginary interview because it’s not impossible to anticipate Mr. Ramos’ answer, which could be very short and to the point: You’ve already failed other victims of government power, why should we think you would be there for us?
He could point to the internment of Japanese Americans during World War Two or at the silent acquiescence of liberal whites to the Jim Crow laws that abused African-Americans for almost a hundred years after Reconstruction or to the systematic murder and oppression of indigenous nations and cultures within the United States, abuses that didn’t really come to an end until the 1970’s.
But that’s all ancient history, you say.
Perhaps.
But to that, Raul Ramos would only have to go back a few years to point at the shameful passivity of America’s so-called progressives. He could answer my challenge by asking:
- Where were you and your progressives, anarchists, socialists, LGBT activists, civil libertarians, Greens and Reds during the so-called War on Terror?
- Did you do anything to stop the murder of civilians by the United States military in Iraq or Afghanistan?
- Did you force the government to shut down the prison at Guantanamo?
- Did America’s self-described “progressives,” who number in the tens of millions, take to the streets by the tens of millions and confront the Bush Administration after it became clear that it was engaging in war crimes?
No.
- Aren’t you even more passive before President Obama?
Yes.
From the viewpoint of the victims, we did nothing. We organized a few protests. We finally elected a new president. But on the whole, we did nothing, nothing, nothing. As bombs fell we did nothing. As prisoners were tortured mercilessly, relentlessly, we did nothing. As civil rights were abrogated and human rights were violated, we did nothing.
As soon as the pictures from Abu Ghraib came out in the media, there should have been massive protests and strikes that would have brought this country to its knees and forced President Bush and Vice-President Cheney from office and put them and their accomplices on trial. But we did nothing. We did nothing then, like we did nothing while Japanese-Americans were being sent away to concentration camps, like we did nothing during Jim Crow, like we did nothing after Wounded Knee… Our long tired history and present reality of passivity before government lends credence to America Libre’s premise.
“Nothing will come of nothing,” says Shakespeare’s Lear, and war and self destruction results.
The flatness, the two-dimensional depiction of “Anglos” in America Libre, their moral absence in the narrative as viable human beings capable of asserting any counterweight to the oppressive will of a rogue government, is a permeating nothingness invading every chapter of this book. And as in King Lear, nothing in the face of power results in war and human misery and death.
Many “Anglos” may be appalled by the depiction of their race in America Libre, Hispanics may find it spot on. Non-Hispanic whites may consider the book’s premise absurd, or as Phil Elmore put it, as some kind of…
La Raza fantasy of the “reconquista” – a Chicano nationalist movement that seeks to retake portions of the United States in the name of Hispanic racial and social justice. It is hate and an invitation to cold-blooded murder in the name of hate.
Hispanics and Americans from other minority groups may have — are having! — an opposite reaction to this novel. To them, the plot and characterizations in America Libre are more than plausible and are logical extrapolations from history and personal experience. In that, they are absolutely correct. Latinos have every right to think that when push comes to shove, most Americans won’t be there for them to stop a government gone mad, because we have failed others so many times before.
America Libre is a novel for all Americans. The emotions and the thoughts it provokes, the challenges it presents to us regardless of race or ethnicity makes it an important book. While not perfect, it is powerful. It certainly is not “an invitation to cold-blooded murder.” It is an opportunity to understand the experiences and fears simmering beneath the surface of America’s largest ethnic minority group.
As you read this novel, take the time to read yourself too. Those who feel threatened by it, who feel that their race and culture are being mis-characterized, should pause long enough to consider how Latinos may have felt threatened by the myriad characterizations of their people and culture in the media. Free your mind to empathize and understand. It’s not that hard and America Libre makes it easy.
@EileenLeft