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Pues yo si entendi.

I was a kid in the 50s and well remember this. On Saturday nights, when the citrus farmers would truck their laborers into town to do their shopping, the Border Patrolmen would walk up and down the main street, walk up to any Hispanic-looking person and ask "Tienes papeles?" Do you have your papers?

For the most part, the people being questioned were part of the Bracero program, people from Mexico legally brought in to help the farmers. But some of the people being questioned were U.S.-born citizens.

That was the problem. American citizens were insulted to have their citizenship questioned just because they were Hispanic. Many of their families had been here since way before the gringos came. Many of them were doctors, lawyers, teachers, etc. and resented being taken for mojados. Talk about racial profiling.

Yeah, I know just how the Arab-Americans feel. Well, OK, it never happened to me because I was light-skinned and looked very much like any American kid. But, like Sotomayor, I have empathy and I could feel their humiliation.

If the Republicans want to introduce a bill to bring this back, they can really kiss their Hispanic members goodbye for good. Gone are the days when Hispanics shrank away from demanding their rights.

What if the illegals were coming in from the Scandinavian countries and the Border Patrol was questioning every blond(e), blue-eyed person right on the street? You'd love that, right?

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