To go from trying to stay alive while crossing the border, to enjoy-
ing the bounty of Kmart and Burger King, to joining the Nature
Conservancy and the Sierra Club is a complex task requiring more
than a single generation.

What happens when all that assiduous effort to recycle trash,

block power-plant construction and try to ban internal combus-
tion engines butts up against the real needs of millions of the
desperate who first want the warmth of four walls, a flush toilet
and basic appliances? Tearing out vineyards in the Central Valley
to build HUD-supported housing tracts ensures such immigrants
a decent home. Erecting more freeways accommodates millions
more of the second-hand, often severely polluting cars that poor
immigrants drive. Building schools, hospitals and clinics meets the
rising demands of millions of young Hispanics without birth con-
trol or insurance. And all these services are somewhat antithetical
to preserving untamed whitewater rivers (which could be dammed
to provide water and power for a thirsty, energy-hungry state),
green belts (which cause the remaining usable land to become too
expensive for affordable new tract houses), and stringent restric-
tions on dumping, hunting, fishing, camping and use of public
lands (which mostly hurt the poor, who rarely are acquainted with
complex laws or have easy access to proper public facilities).

Even the libertarians of California have their own dilemma.

In theory, they advocate open borders—the Chicano dream of sin
fronteras—and the idea that capital flow, not centralized govern-
ment, adjudicates who comes and who goes. In principle, they
support the right of a small businessman to choose who works for
him—preferably for low pay and with little hassle. But in reality,
the free-market and corporate establishment sighs when thousands
of California residents root for Mexico to beat the United States
in the World Cup. A contractor or a farmer going to his favorite
restaurant is piqued to witness two dozen men, exhausted from
work, stripped to their boxer shorts while their work clothes are
in the wash at the laundry next door. And the motel owner who

MEXIFORNIA Victor Davis Hanson

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