The Phoenix Art Museum has one of Picasso’s smaller and lesser-known works. I took this (blurry) picture of it sort of out of a sense of duty, not because I thought the picture was insanely great. Whatever.

Been reading Strangers Among Us, a book about how Latino immigration is changing the USA. The author believes there is no way at all to stop immigration from Mexico and South America, as the economic incentives are too great and the policies of the USA on immigration are such a total vortex of suckage. A short excerpt:

“But illegal aliens are the wrong target for public rage. The real culprits are the officials of both political parties who have refused to make hard choices.” (p. 100)

The author then goes on to describe a number of different Latino communities in the USA, and the different approaches they have taken to being immigrants in America.  The chapter about Cubans in Miami was the most interesting.  The Cubans had a great deal of help from the US Government, built a reasonably prosperous community, and had a fair amount of political power.  However, the community they built was insular, deeply distrustful of the outside world, and at heart, racist.  Since the book was published in 1998, there’s no data in there that’s newer than the mid-1990s.  I don’t know what the current Miami situation is, or how it might play out in the future, just that the author painted a pretty bleak picture of it as it was.

Also, the author repeatedly makes the point that “Latino” covers a huge amount of territory.  Maya from north Guatemala != Cubans != Dominicans != Mexicans. However, the distinctions and differences among all those groups blend together and get eaten by stereotypes in the eyes of most of us honkies, much the same way as a Guatemalan highlander might mistake a Brit for an American, or a Texan for a Michigander.  Classifying people into “ethnic groups” can save time and effort, but it can also backfire spectacularly.  The best policy is probably to take each person and judge them individually—but that’s not always possible if you have to deal with hundreds of different people every day, many of whom you’ll only see once or twice.