Panel Discussion on Immigration featuring Dr. Manuel Vasquez and Dr. Philip Williams

The United States of America now includes over fifteen million Latino-Americans; the staggering number continues to increase. Latino-American culture has brought along an influx of great thinkers, problem solvers, political activists, artists, and assiduous peoples. On my behalf, I am Latino-American; I was born in this country and my parents are of Cuban and Colombian descent. The issue of immigration can stand up as a controversial issue as public opinion tends to be very unalike amongst the public itself. Despite public opinion being widely diverse, one issue is prevalent: what can society do about immigration?

I attended a panel discussion which involved Dr. Manuel Vasquez, Center hair of the Religion Department and Dr. Philip Williams, Director of the Latin American Studies Center at the University of Florida. Dr. Philip Williams began the panel by informing the audience about the history of immigration reform in the United States. Williams discussed reform acts in the sixties all the way up to the present day. One point that had particularly struck me was the fact that immigration reform occurs every few decades. Williams’ last points was when he stated that the topic of immigration had finally come to a new debate when the “Summer of Trump” was initiated. When Williams ended his discussion, Dr. Manuel Vasquez began his discussion.

Dr. Manuel Vasquez’s oration discussed topics within the present day’s immigration troubles. Using a power point slide, Vasquez demonstrated quotes that presidential candidate Donald Trump had stated such as the infamous, “…they are all rapists (Trump was referring to the Mexican immigrants)…” Vasquez demonstrated Trump’s quotes to make a comparison to the past. Vasquez, after adding some humor, compared Trump’s quotes to the past’s quotes. A striking correlation was found between politicians of the past and of the present: both have not learned. The politicians of today have not learned that at one point, the politicians themselves were immigrants. The politicians of today have not learned that there are benefits in having a healthy relationship with the opposing country where people are immigrating from. Dr. Vasquez ended his panel with a quote by the pope, “We, the people of this continent, are not fearful of foreigners, because most of us were once foreigners.” (Pope Francis, 2015)

#art #exhibition