After reading an article on how Latino immigrants threaten America's identity, values and way of life, I went looking for one of the culprits.

Miriam Hernandez typed away at San Jose State University's Mexican American Studies office. The college senior and future schoolteacher wore a black T-shirt that said, ``Dangerous -- Highly Educated Chicano.'' She was planning a separate Latino graduation ceremony.

A likely suspect, I thought.

``I identify as a Mexican,'' she said. ``Even though I've lived here most of my life, and I've become an American citizen and vote, I consider myself a Mexican. That's my culture.''

But how would she identify herself 50 years from now? The Census Bureau predicted the other day that Latinos will number over 100 million in 2050 and minorities will outnumber whites for the first time. That worries a lot of Americans.

``I will always identify myself as Mexican,'' Hernandez said.

I showed her the current Foreign Policy magazine in which Harvard professor Samuel Huntington writes that Latinos, specifically Mexican-Americans, are not assimilating and are rejecting the ``Anglo-Protestant'' values that built America. I also handed her a copy of ``Mexifornia,'' a new book by Fresno State professor Victor Davis Hanson, who argues that identity politics, mass immigration and a loss of confidence in the melting pot have changed California for the worse.

The average voter may never read these guys, but the two conservative professors have done us all a great favor by clearing the air in the debate over immigration. It used to be just a pocketbook issue -- immigrants take jobs from Americans, depress wages, soak up public assistance and overwhelm our fiscally struggling schools.

The real argument, simmering below the surface, was based on culture -- Mexican-Americans and other Latinos are dividing the nation into two Americas, with two cultures and two languages. Latino America would be less democratic, contemptuous of white American culture and the Protestant work ethic, hostile toward individual rights, poor and ignorant and proud of it.

Of course, anybody who said such things was quickly branded a racist by Latino and minority leaders. For several reasons, including a bolder breed of arch-conservatives in a new post 9/11 climate, the gloves have come off in the debate over immigration and American identity. That's fine with me, because it really was about whose heritage counts and whose doesn't all along.

I have a few problems with the cultural argument against Latinos and immigration.

First, you'd think America had the only melting pot. Mexico's melting pot, with Europeans, Indians and Africans in the mix, is much older and more racially advanced than America's. We Mexicans -- yes, like Miriam Hernandez I can be Mexican, American and Chicano without confusing myself -- know the real deal. We're as open to interracial marriage, learning English and U.S. citizenship as any previous group.

Who said Anglo-Protestants have the one-and-only formula for the American way of life? Consider the unfounded fear that Mexicans are too family or group-centered to exercise fairness and democracy. I could make the argument that these qualities allow us to vote less selfishly and more in the interests of our local community, state and nation. American conservatives who lament the decline of family values should remember that Mexicans have this virtue in spades.

The greatest weakness of the Anglo-Protestant argument is that it predicts doomsday just because Mexican nationals boo the U.S. soccer team at games in Los Angeles or because José has replaced Michael as the most common name for newborn boys in California.

That's why I looked up Miriam Hernandez. She and other young Latinos would still be around in 50 years, when Latinos are poised to take over.

You never know, I told her, they could easily graduate from Latino commencements to hoarding weapons of mass destruction in the Arizona desert, adopting Spanish-only laws, and steering white home buyers away from Latino neighborhoods.

She laughed.

``I don't think you're from Mars,'' Hernandez said, ``but you sure sound funny.''

JOE RODRIGUEZ is a Mercury News columnist.