El Tricolor

The Mexican flag has been a potent symbol in the latest protests:

That image -- protesters waving and wearing Mexican flags -- has angered anti-illegal immigration activists.

"This isn't Mexico," said Joseph Turner, founder of Save Our State. "This is America. . . . What (annoys me) most is the arrogance that they are going to fly a foreign flag on my soil."

The Mexican flag has long been a hot-button issue in the immigration debate. For some, the flag represents cultural pride and unity among Mexicans and Mexican Americans fighting for their rights here. For others, it symbolizes an invasion by Mexicans into the United States.

... University of California, Irvine, Professor Frank Bean said the flag doesn't signify loyalty to Mexico, but rather loyalty to each other.

"They are saying, `We are together in fighting against these people who are trying to make felons out of us,' " said Bean, co-director of UC Irvine's Center for Research on Immigration, Population and Public Policy.

... Jose Covarrubias, 16, a junior at Garden Grove High School in Orange County, carried both flags Monday. He doesn't think anyone should read too much into protesters' use of the Mexican flag.

"St. Patrick's Day just passed," Covarrubias said. "Just because they wave an Irish flag doesn't mean that they care about Ireland more than they do the U.S."

My suspicion is that the Mexican flag is as much about nostalgia as it is about unity - the remembered, nuturing mother land. But in the context of a demonstration, many protestors also understand that American nationalists will be annoyed by the tricolor's presence, and that is exactly why they'll make certain the Mexican flag is just as ubiquitous as it is possible to make. It's all about ordinary people taking a stand against their detractors!