A nation of ideas
On the 4th of July nearly 10 years ago, U.S. District Judge Filemon Vela asked me to give a speech to nearly 100 immigrants he would soon swear in as U.S. citizens.
Why the judge would ask me to do such a thing I don’t know, but I gave it my best, hoping I wouldn’t disappoint him. I guess whatever I said that day made the grade because he would ask me again a few years later to attempt another such speech.
At these sort of events it’s difficult to come up with words to match the significance of the event. Matching words to the lofty ideals of American citizenship is a tall order. Author and philosopher Jacob Needleman reached high on this topic with his 2002 book, "American Soul," where he wrote about the core of being an American.
"It’s freedom — unformed yes, but open to any kind of possibility," Needleman wrote.
In words that would ring true at any citizenship ceremony, the author wrote, "To be American is not to be born anything at all. To put it another way, to be American is an idea. America is a nation formed by philosophical ideals that have been thought through by human beings — it is the only nation in the world so constituted."
Being open to any kind of possibility means a young man who grew up of modest economic means in South Texas can grow up to be a federal judge, and become a leading American citizen of his day in this part of the world. This was the passionate message of Filemon B. Vela to the scores of area youngsters he spoke to over the years. See, he would say, if I can do it, so can you.
It’s a common, but always uplifting American ideal, this whole idea of growing up to be somebody, no matter where you come from. I thought of that ideal when I read the recent obituary of Dr. Joseph Zavaletta, and how decades ago when he was a very young man his parents put him on a bus in Brownsville with a few dollars in his pocket. His destination was San Antonio, the first city on his life journey to seek the medical education and training that would one day make him one of this city’s finest physicians.
Anywhere in America can be an incubator for such dreams. Donna, Texas, can be such a place. When I went away to college, in this case Denton, I met a young guy from Donna. We both wanted to be journalists, and aside from that fact, we struck up a friendship based largely on being Rio Grande Valley natives. We had common cultural experiences and backgrounds, and when he talked about the Donna Redskins, I could instantly relate.
I never thought I was in his league, and I was right. He spent some years in the newspaper world, but then really got serious. He would earn post-graduate degrees in English and literature (a master’s and Ph.D.) at Harvard, teach at the University of Notre Dame as an assistant professor. Today, he is back in Denton at the University of North Texas as Dr. Jaime Javier Rodriguez.
The Donna native’s first book, "The Literatures of the U.S. Mexican War: Time and Identity," will be published this spring by the University of Texas Press. When I e-mailed him recently to congratulate him on his achievements, I mentioned that I had told my teenage daughter about his successes.
"Wow," she said, "and he’s from Donna."
"Small town, but big dreams," I responded.
When I relayed this to the North Texas professor of English, he wrote, "Right, little town, big dreams, sometimes too big."
No dream is too big, perhaps, because as Needleman wrote, America is open to any kind of possibility, even going from Donna, Texas, to Harvard University, and then writing books published by the University of Texas. To be American is to be born — or adopted — into the unbound possibilities of freedom, and seeing where an idea, a hope, an aspiration can take you.
It is the only nation so constituted, a weakness and strength of America all wrapped into one possibly great journey.
This column is one of many online commentaries about Brownsville and Rio Grande Valley life that can be found on brownsvilleherald.com. Click on ‘Blogs’ on the Web site to access the commentaries.
