In its storied history, America has had to rely on specific generations to make enormous personal sacrifices for the country’s sake.  One generation fought to create the country; another generation struggled to keep it whole and not let it disappear into disunion; another generation beat back fascism; others outlasted communism; and another now fights international terrorism.   HispanicLatinos are no different.  They are a new generation of Americans being asked to save and to hold their country for a far greater purpose than the vast majority of HispanicLatinos might have ever considered – except that many of them start behind the social, economic and political curve.  And the dimensions of the responsibility they bear are daunting.  How to help save a country that seems in decline internally is no small task.

HispanicLatinos have many fronts to cover, but how behind the curve are many of them, really, when they have every freedom and opportunity before them, Arizona not withstanding?  And how far behind are those HispanicLatinos who survived decades of mistreatment, ignorance and inequality to maximize innate talents and abilities?  Indeed, in today’s world all can change in a flash, and technology can be a tool for breath-taking progress.  Many HispanicLatinos might be behind the curve today – but can recover and overtake it tomorrow.

Any process that seeks to achieve significant change at the group level requires a level of self-awareness, including self-criticism, at the individual level, for individual HispanicLatinos, with their hopes, dreams, struggles, personal or otherwise, form the HispanicLatino population.  Without self-examination, many HispanicLatinos will continue to limit themselves and not grow their personal capacities.  This is not an exercise in self-hate.

Pressing themselves in a way no one has asked them to before, they face more difficult times still if they do not embrace their critical participation in the country’s future – and they might not succeed unless they define themselves in a way that they alone can decide.  HispanicLatinos will have to converse with themselves so that they can use their history proactively to fill in any gaps in their identity.

Fortifying their identity and solidifying their sense of purpose are necessary to create a stronger foundation for the HispanicLatino – and American – community.  They must not let history weigh down their progress but they can remedy the past and prepare for the near future by completing themselves as individuals and making each other whole.

The importance of the moment boils down to nothing less than this: Right now, HispanicLatinos as a group are not going to be enough for their community and their country to succeed.  Something new has to emerge – something that focuses, directs and motivates understanding of – and engagement in – the world around them: A new HispanicLatino identity.

What does a new HispanicLatino identity look like, and how do HispanicLatinos go about forming it?  The very process of self-assessment and self-determination will formulate it.  A core step is understanding the evident truth that surrounds them and that they hardly can fail to understand:  How Hispanic and Latino the world around them has become.  In doing so, they can come to realize that something around them has changed and that they, too, must change – an essential ingredient to the new beginning HispanicLatinos can and must make.

After all, they have a historic, generational responsibility to fulfill.

Feel free to forward these blogs adapted from previous writings, with additional thoughts published invariably in between.