The national Tequila Party is not, as you might think, an alcohol-themed college soiree. It's a national movement, with roots in Nebraska, aimed at countering anti-immigration sentiment.
It draws its name from the Aztec legend of Mayahuel, lover of the god Quetzalcoatl. Mayahuel is said to have died at the hands of an evil goddess whose favored nectar was tequila.
"As Latina/os, we are reclaiming our Tequila Legend that symbolizes strong Indigenous women with Free Will," Shirley Mora James, a lawyer in Lincoln, said by email.
Mora James was one of the first on the Tequila Party scene. In her work against what she sees as an anti-immigrant mentality, she found DeeDee Garcia Blase, an Arizona Republican disappointed with her party's tough immigration stance.
Garcia Blase created the Tequila Party after only three Republican U.S. senators voted for the DREAM Act last year. The legislation would have provided a pathway to citizenship for people brought into the country illegally as children but who now attend college here or serve in the U.S. military.
"I started to hear pundits say that Hispanics were not going to be motivated to vote in 2012," Garcia Blase said.
Also unacceptable to Mora James: the term "anchor babies," referring to the U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants, and suggestions such as one made by presidential hopeful Herman Cain for an electrified fence at the U.S.-Mexican border.
The Tequila Party's main goals are to encourage pro-immigration citizens to register to vote and to educate other voters about immigration-related issues, said Mora James, who serves as national vice president and Nebraska co-president.
"We are here to empower, organize, educate and support the politicians that support the issues that are important to us," she said.
According to census data, Nebraska's Latino population grew from 5.5 percent in 2000 to 9.2 percent last year. Iowa's increased from 2.8 percent to 5 percent.
With about 3,000 Tequila Party members nationwide — including 30 in Nebraska — Garcia Blase hopes the group can become a pro-immigration countermovement to the Tea Party.
"The Tea Party tends to be anti-government; we're not anti-government. They tend to be anti-immigrant; we're obviously not anti-immigrant," Garcia Blase said. "The Tea Party people, they're just very far right and very extreme. We're about putting solutions on the table and working towards it."
Patrick Bonnett, founder of a coalition of Tea Party-affiliated groups in the Omaha area, said the goals of the Tequila Party and the Tea Party might not be that far apart, but that some in the Tequila Party overgeneralize about Tea Party members and their beliefs.
The two groups differ about whether illegal immigration is a problem, but they agree that immigration laws need to be overhauled, he said.
Today's anti-immigration backlash and reactions by groups such as the Tequila Party have historical precedent, said University of Nebraska-Lincoln political science professor Sergio Wals, who specializes in immigration.
Groups such as Germans, Italians and Irish saw similar pushback when they first came to the United States. Those problems usually dissipated after the groups organized politically, assimilated or did both.
"Bottom line, this is the exact same phenomenon repeated over time," Wals said.
The Tequila Party is unusual in that it aims to be nonpartisan, Wals said. That might be because Latino immigrants come from a variety of nations and cultures.
"You have a very ideologically diverse potential electorate, ranging from very conservative to very liberal," Wals said.
The professor said it's too early to tell what role, if any, the Tequila Party might play in next year's elections.
The group is having some success.
Garcia Blase was a main proponent of a recall election that last week in Arizona ousted the State Senate sponsor of the controversial law that allows state law enforcement officers to check the immigration status of people they detain.
The next major Tequila Party event is a "freedom ride" to Alabama next month to protest a law similar to Arizona's.
"We're talking about U.S. citizens — the profiling of U.S. citizens that have brown skin," said Mora James. "It's just not acceptable."
Those who favor tough policies against illegal immigration say their beliefs are a matter of public safety and common sense.
Nebraska State Sen. Charlie Janssen of Fremont has sponsored an Arizona-like bill and a repeal of Nebraska's version of the DREAM Act.
"We want to know who's living in this community," he said. "We want to know who's working with our children, and we think the average Nebraskan wants that."
Janssen said he has no problem with legal immigration, and any suggestion that his proposals are racist rankles him.
"That's a very terrible thing to say to try to refute my position," he said. "There's no basis in that at all."
The Nebraska Tequila Party co-president, Greg Mendoza of Lincoln, welcomes debate with Janssen or others. When people learn more about immigration, their support often shifts more toward pro-immigration policies, he said.
"My goal truly would be to find those individuals who oppose (us) and actually sit down and have a civil conversation," he said.
Contact the writer: 402-444-1084, roseann.moring@owh.com
Poster Comment:
The national Tequila Party is not, as you might think, an alcohol-themed college soiree. ~ count me out then