Opinion> Miguel Perez> My Own Mold 11 04 12

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My Own Mold

If I write a column criticizing Republicans, some people assume that I must be a Democrat. If Democrats are my target one week, others conclude I must be a Republican. But if I blast both parties in alternating columns, as has happened coincidentally in the past few weeks, some people don't know what to do with me.

I don't fit into their conventional ideological molds.

As an independent, I consider myself an equal-opportunity critic — free to be critical of whoever deserves it. But to many of my readers, I'm supposed to be either a liberal or a conservative columnist. If I break those molds, some people need clarification.

"What do you mean? I don't understand," noted a letter from one of my readers, reacting to a column about immigrant-bashing Republicans. "I thought you were a Republican!" Until that point, she must have read only the columns in which I criticized Democrats.

Of course, saying that I am a Republican would be a joke to the conservative extremists who so diligently express their hatred of immigrants on websites where my columns are published. Regardless of how many columns I write criticizing Democrats — for example, last week's column — they still believe I'm a bleeding-heart liberal.

And when I take a conservative position, as I tend to do on U.S. foreign policy issues, the real bleeding-heart liberals also need clarification.

"I find your political views quite to the right," another reader wrote after I condemned Jimmy Carter's trip to Cuba in my column last week. "What is your political definition? I need to know that so I can analyze your articles with more certainty."

In other words, he needs to know my ideological mold.

Frankly, if the choice is only between liberal and conservative, I don't fit into either! This is how I explained it in another column five years ago:

This wouldn't be a column without a good dose of opinion, and my opinions are formed by my own life experiences. You are what your life makes you. I was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1950, and I came to the United States as a refugee at the age of 11 in 1962. ... My life has shown me the ruthlessness of a right-wing dictatorship, the repression of a communist regime, the struggles of U.S. immigrants, and the economic, social and even violent discrimination suffered by minorities.

That makes me generally a liberal on domestic issues and a conservative on U.S.

foreign policy. And that makes me difficult to read, especially for people who want to cast me into a mold.

It happens to all of us. You express an opinion based on one of a trillion issues that concern you, and based on that single remark, you are either a liberal or a conservative. And when you express another opinion that breaks your assigned mold, some people don't know where to place you.

But when a columnist expresses many opinions to thousands of readers, it happens practically every day. I'm supposed to be either a liberal or a conservative columnist. Some readers want me to be like those predictable talking heads on cable TV — the ones whose opinions we know, even before they express them.

Yet I refuse to be defined or limited by the parameters set by those two words. Living under communism, as I did in my native Cuba, taught me not to allow being molded by the party line.

When I condemn flag desecration and anti-American sentiments abroad and when I recognize the need for U.S. Latinos to learn English and accept some personal responsibility for child abuse, domestic violence, drug dealing and other social ills, I break the liberal mold.

But when I come out in defense of immigrants and the downtrodden, when I say Latinos also have a right to dream the American dream, it's hard to peg me as a conservative.

Believe it or not, I pay a high price for this. If I were consistently conservative or liberal, it would be easier for everyone — from editors to readers — to fit me into a mold, and this column undoubtedly would have a larger following.

When I began writing opinion columns almost 30 years ago, had I been willing to betray my own principles regarding half the issues I had to deal with, had I become as predictable as most other opinion writers, I could have been a star.

Had I been willing to stick to the conservative party line on domestic issues, turning into a Tio Tomas to betray my fellow Latinos on issues such as immigration and multiculturalism, I could have been a poster boy for Latino-bashers. They always are looking for self-loathing Latino Uncle Toms to prop in front of TV cameras. But who wants to be a famous Tio Tomas?

Had I been willing to follow the liberal party line on foreign policy and betray the principles I share with my fellow Cuban-Americans and other immigrants who came here seeking freedom and had I been willing to see only the atrocities committed by right-wing dictators while turning a blind eye to socialist repression, the liberals would have adored me.

But nah, not me, I make my own mold. Readers who love my column one week may absolutely hate it the next. But I sleep better that way.

To find out more about Miguel Perez and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.