How Are Things in the Old Country?
Thirty years ago, I was in a garment factory, covering the visit of a Portuguese dignitary who was in the factory because it employed a large number of Portuguese immigrants.
The dignitary approached a short, muscular man who worked in the plant and greeted him smilingly in Portuguese.
The man spat out a single sentence in Portuguese and stalked away.
I was standing next to a Portuguese-speaking city councilor.
"What did that guy say?" I asked the councilor.
"He said he doesn't recognize the government of Portugal," the city councilor said.
The American tradition of immigrating to America and then screwing around with the politics of the old country is long, even if it's not noble.
Irish immigrants to America formed an army in 1870 and raided Canada, striking at the British Empire they hated for its colonization of Ireland.
In 1933, American Jews called for a boycott of German goods and held protest meetings all over the country. The New York City rally was attended by 50,000 people.
In 1936, agents of Adolf Hitler helped form the German American Bund, a German American organization dedicated to getting the Nazis a little clout in America. Banners at their events read "Stop Jewish Domination of America."
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