Opinion: Immigration and the Angeleno

The Los Angeles Times pundit was born at the intersection of Vermont Avenue and Sunset Boulevard.

That makes him an L.A.native. But, as he writes in an Op-Ed Monday for the Times, immigration is an issue that's dogged him all his life, first as an interpreter for newcomers and then as someone assumed to be from another place:

It was impossible not to be swept up in the debate over immigration, legal and illegal. Though immigrant-bashers always insisted their beef was with illegal immigrants, long-established Mexican Americans were not immune from their invective. A combination of demographic change and a polarized debate had imposed the specter of foreignness — even illegality — on all of us.

Rodriguez says he's curious how America--and he as an Angeleno--will change now that immigration out of Mexico is again slowing.

How about you?

Read the full Los Angeles Times Op-Ed here.