Jennifer Lopez singing 'This Land is Your Land' in inauguration, interrupted with a Spanish chanting of the Pledge to the Flag, has been rightly seen as a moment of Latinx inclusion and representation.

But there was more historical symbolism to this moment #thread

Let's start with the fact that she sang a folklore song written by the communist sympathizer Woody Guthrie; a song that's often sang in socialist and leftist meetings. Now at the inauguration!

A beautiful rendition of socialist patriotism (now so sadly uncommon), the song was written by Guthrie in 1940. But why had he written it?

He was doing so in response to 'God Bless America' being played all the time on radio.Guthrie wanted a patriotism that spoke to working ppl

But who had written God Bless America?

The great composer Irving Berlin, a Russian-born Jew whose original name was Israel Beilin.

He had lived in US since moving there at age 5.

Irving wrote "God Bless America" in 1918 during World War I as an expression of his love for his adopted the country.

A Jewish immigrant writing such a popular patriotic song was definitely a milestone. KKK regularly attacked the song.

In 1941, President Roosevelt (who was yet to enter WWII) did something innovative by inviting a lot of celebrities to his inauguration. (It was unprecedented AFIK)

Charlie Chaplin and Mickey Rooney probably stole the show but another performer was... Irving Berlin; a symbolic act at the height of the Holocaust onslaught on the Jewish people that showed Roosevelt's anti-Hitlerite sympathies despite US not being in the war.

With 80 years between them, Jewish migrant Irving Berlin and Puerto Rican daughter of migrants Jennifer Lopez are symbols of US's expanding inclusion.

But more interestingly, their 2 very different songs are symbols of the ceaseless battle over the ideals and promise of America

One was written in response to another; to expand the meaning of love for America. It took 80 years for the more radical song be to be sung at the Mall.

If the communist sympathizer Woodie could look up from the sky now at J Lo performing his song, he'd sure be smiling.