After watching "Hotel Rwanda" (a truly haunting and humiliating film) it's hard not to feel uneasy when I read about Spanish-language DJs fomenting racial demonstrations and promoting criminal behavior.
The promoters included such on-air celebrities as KHJ's Humberto Luna, KBUE's Ricardo "El Mandril" (The Baboon) Sanchez, Renan "El Cucuy" (The Boogeyman) Almendarez Coello — whose often risque show has cast him as a sort of Latino version of Howard Stern — and Sotelo, better known to listeners as "El Piolin," or Tweety Bird. Coello's and Sotelo's morning talk shows are among the highest-rated programs in any language in Los Angeles."They were the key to getting so many people out," said Mike Garcia, president of Local 1877 of the Service Employees International Union. "If you listened to Spanish-language media, they were just pumping, pumping, pumping this up."
And the demonstrations were mostly peaceful, but with 500,000 angry people filling the streets and highways there's no way to have guaranteed that. We're not yet to the point where the radio DJs are advocating violence as was seen in Rwanda, but they're certainly pushing lawlessness.
"I told God that if he gave me an opportunity as a radio announcer, I was going to help my people," said Sotelo, who himself illegally crossed the border in the trunk of a car in 1986 and gained legal status a decade later. "I think we have to make sure the message went through to Washington, to let them know we're not criminals."
Except, of course, that illegal immigrants are criminals. If the majority of citizens wants to change the laws then let's have that debate, but those who are already here illegally shouldn't get a voice in the matter, any more than the burgler who breaks into your house should be arguing with you about interior design. I'm glad that the House and Senate have passed such widely divergent bills, and I'm eager to see how the debate plays out, but we as a society -- of every race -- shouldn't let our laws be dictated to us by a pack of criminals.
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