my immigration thoughts/research..an essay

I am posting for two reasons. 1) I am proud of it. 2) I think it is relevant and hope that it will lead to conversations and newfound knowledge. If you can make it all the way through, I hope you'll let me know what you think.

Immigration: the Immigrant’s Perspective

"If one wants to study what it means to be a human being, it is crucial to include the history of immigration. There are many tragic stories and everyone comes for different reasons."
–Gabriela Perez, illegal immigrant

On a bustling, September night in downtown Puebla, Mexico, I opted for the cheaper, more dangerous route of hailing a random cab off of the street rather than calling the recommended, more secure taxi whose price discourages rather adventurous (or maybe just cheap) travelers such as myself. I had waited only a few seconds, when the stop-light at which I was standing flamed red, and traffic thickened. After scanning the white and blue taxi cabs for only a matter of seconds, I boarded the backseat of a normal looking sedan and bid the driver, “To Cholula, please.” The driver was wearing a Puebla soccer Jersey complete with Volkswagen insignia and bright sun representing Sol beer. This was normal garb for what you might call, the taxi cab class—those in the lower class who have no other source of income but what they make driving. Although I would like to think that it was because of the clothes I was wearing or the color of my skin, the driver pegged me as an American by my South Carolina accent which bled through into my Spanish. A conversation that I would not forget ensued:
“Are you from the United States?” he probed.
“Yes,” I replied. “Have you been there?”
“I lived there for 3 years!”
My first Mexican immigrant! I had never actually talked to a person in Mexico who had immigrated to the States. This immigrant did not just want light conversation; he wanted me to know how he felt.
“Have you heard about the flood in New Orleans?” (He pronounced the city’s name more like “Niyu-Orleyans” in his Mexican-trying-to-say-a-word-in-English accent)
I returned, “Actually, my friend was just telling me that there is really terrible flooding there. He said that people had to leave everything that they owned and that pretty much everything got destroyed. It sounds really terrible.”
“Yes, it makes me very sad,” he stated.
You see, I didn’t watch much television while in Mexico, so the events surrounding the flooding of New Orleans had reached me late, and the news seemed very surreal and unbelievable. I couldn’t understand why the look in that man’s face said that he deeply hurt for what had happened in a place that wasn’t even his own.
“It makes me very sad to see this happen to people that I care about,” he said. “I lived in New York for three years working in a doughnut shop during the day and as a janitor at night. I care just as much for the American people as I do for my own Mexican people. This is a tragic event.”
“It is very tragic,” I replied, not really knowing how to empathize as he did since I still hadn’t even seen pictures.
I will never forget the level of paradox that riding in that cab left me with. We continued to talk about his stint in America and the fact that it was never his intention to stay there. He simply wanted to work to make a decent wage and then come back to his family. One thing, however, was clear. That man cared not only for what our country has to offer, but he honestly hurt and cared for the people who were his unknowing countrymen. To this day, I can’t help but think that he reached a deeper level of compassion for the people of New Orleans than I have. His sense of citizenship was something far deeper than myself and most people of our country will ever achieve.
And thus my interest in and concern for immigration from Latin and South America began. During my stint in Mexico, I discovered quite quickly that discussion was the easiest and surest way to learn; as the taxi driver taught me, a foreign culture can teach you and grasp you so that you never forget the person that you became after experiencing life there. Part of me guards America as my country, but the other part cares deeply for Latino immigrants. I have a duty (which I take on happily) to educate myself in what conversations are going on in our government and what the national sentiment is towards Hispanic people as a whole without disregarding the Hispanic perspective.
On the American front there has been quite a bit of action revolving around the topic of immigration with people like Bill O’Reilly supporting the stationing of armed American National Guard troops on the border and Tom Tancredo from Denver proposing that we build a giant wall, thus sealing immigration, across the entire U.S./Mexican border. President George Bush wants a Guest Worker program which would allow a controlled number of immigrants to enter our country for three to five years in order to work and then return to their homeland. Meanwhile, protestors who are pro-immigration have taken to non-violent marches. In Los Angeles, what you could consider a hub of immigration action, protestors tallied to over 500,000 people in a single march (LA Times).
The passing by the House of Representatives of an extremely controversial bill called H.R. 4437 has been the center of particular disagreement and uproar as of late. The bill, proposed by Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo, calls for a large wall to be built across the entire boarder. It also cracks down on employers of undocumented immigrants, charging them $7,500 for a first offense, $15,000 for a second offense, and a whopping $40,000 for a third (“Immigration Enforcement Bill”). In addition, a convicted employer could face up to 25 years in a federal penitentiary. The bill also targets illegal immigrants, striving to deport all of those who do not have documentation (which will cost an estimated $3,000 to $5,000 per immigrant) (Ramos). To say the least, this bill, and much of the popular American opinion that is floating around currently, is not pro-immigrant.
If passed, H.R. 4437 will leave all illegal immigrants in paranoia as they will be persecuted as outlaws. Any documentation such as medical or legal help will leave the immigrant in serious danger of deportation and jail time. Many Hispanics in Nashville already fear this as there has been a great deal of difficulty in getting the community to step forward and provide evidence in the Aurelio Ceja murder case. Just last month Mr. Ceja, a senior citizen, was murdered in his apartment by an intruder who was looking for money. Due to the fact that in the 1990’s an illegal Hispanic male was taken to jail for reporting the murder of his wife and daughter for nothing more than the fact that he was undocumented, the Hispanic community still carries fear of prosecution even for providing evidence that could protect their community in the long run (Ramos).
Thus we must consider what the immigrant thinks about immigration. Through a local program that meets at Belmont called Hispanic Achievers, I have gotten to know quite a few immigrants, mostly illegal. Their stories have given me a better understanding of not just the American point of view, but the illegal immigrant’s point of view as well. The immigrant is concerned with surviving. He is concerned with providing his family with food, shelter, and education, something for which the wages in his country rarely provide. He is concerned with the American Dream—the opportunity for a better future for his family. You will not get this from the national media.
Gabriela Perez, mother of two, first came to the United States ten years ago from her pueblo en los Reyes la Paz, Mexico. In her country, she worked as a merchant selling blankets, coats, and an assortment of food. When her daughter began college in Mexico City to study Tourism, Gabriela realized that she could not make enough money in Mexico to support herself and her daughter’s college education. The average minimum wage in Mexico, which Gabriela was likely living well under, is a mere six American dollars a day. Thus, she searched for a guide to take her over the border. “Today,” she told me, “it is over a $1,000 to hire someone to get you over the border. It’s actually very scary. It’s hard to find someone trustworthy to lead you to cross—they’ll rob you or kill you. There is no completely safe and secure way. But back then, it was very cheap and very easy to cross.” As I said, her first time crossing was ten years ago; today, she counts five times that she has crossed between Mexico and America.
After crossing the border the first time by river and then going by bus to Nashville, she stayed only a year before she was forced to return for family support reasons. Gabriela made it clear to me that the one and only reason for coming to the U.S. is her children. Her daughter lacks only one year in college in Mexico to get her degree, while her son, who’s 14 years old, currently lives here in Nashville with her. However, her daughter may not be able to finish her degree if Gabriela does not start making more money soon. When I asked her how much longer she desired to stay in the U.S., she accounted, “If I can make enough money to get my daughter through school, and make a little bit more money to live on, I will go after that. This is not my country. I think I’ll only stay three more years at the most.” Gabriela made it quite clear to me that her desire is not to be in the U.S. Her home is Mexico where her past, memories, and family are. She is only here out of necessity.
When I explained that I was very interested in immigration and that I was actually interviewing a number of Hispanics in order to document their opinions, she replied with what I consider to be an incredibly profound statement: “If one wants to study what it means to be a human being, it is crucial to include the history of immigration. There are many tragic stories and everyone comes for different reasons.” Only the immigrant really knows what crossing cultures illegally is like, and for that reason, we must take interest in and seek to understand him or her. She then compared current Latinos in America with African Americans who come from a history of being treated as outsiders in a country in which they work and live. She takes hope in the fact that blacks used to be extremely disfavored, while now they have all the rights of other American citizens. One day, Gabriela hopes that immigrants will have all of the same privileges of their peers who simply have a birthright over them.
Gabriela also shared her views on the current political debate with me, expressing that she does not approve of a wall being built over the border, as this would provide even more of a parallel with the Berlin Wall in Germany. She believes that the border should remain immigrant friendly while implementing a Guest Worker Program. While she firmly advocates immigration, she also holds high standards for the immigrant saying, “If you are here, you must respect the law, respect the flag, and defend this country.” For Gabriela, immigration is not just an easy ticket to money; it is a story of family, struggle, and loyalty. She believes that the immigrant should not only have the privileges of American society, but that they should suffer the penalties as well; they should pay taxes, be accountable to laws, and ultimately be willing to fight for the land in which they live.
El Salvadorian Cecilia Hernandez is one of the more obscure Hispanic immigrants I have come into contact with, because she is now a United States citizen. Her story of immigration actually began 27 years ago after graduating from high school. She told me her account saying, “After finishing my studies in high school, I came to the U.S. illegally. It used to be a lot easier.” She told me that she simply crossed the border with a group of people, and they all headed for Los Angeles. I continued the conversation, probing for reasons behind her immigration. She responded: “I came to provide a better life for me and for my kids. The salary in El Salvador for the people who don’t have a profession is very low. Life there is very difficult. It’s not living; it’s surviving.” Cecilia’s case is very interesting because she did not have kids when she immigrated here. Rather, after finishing high school, she learned from the stories of other El Salvadorians about opportunity in the United States and decided to plan ahead. In comparison with most Mexicans, Cecilia’s planning was quite rare, as most other immigrants have tried to make ends meet in their countries of origin and been forced to move to the U.S. For Cecilia, the incredibly low wage of her country and the American Dream of opportunity for her children drove her to plan in advance and make her way to the States as a single woman fresh out of high school.
Twenty-seven years after crossing the border illegally, Cecilia has achieved her goal of raising a family with much greater opportunity for monetary gain and success. She is now a United States citizen. When questioned whether or not she saw it as a great boundary to become a citizen, she responded, “No, I don’t think it is really that hard. You just have to learn the history of the U.S. and speak a little bit of English. If one hasn’t broken the law [of course, with the exception of entering the country illegally] and respects the U.S., they can qualify.” I asked Cecilia, citizen of the United States for eight years now, if she sees immigration as a problem. She answered, “Immigration is not a problem for the U.S.; on the contrary. We are a race of workers and we’ll do jobs that Americans won’t.” She continued speaking of the pride she takes in the fact that her race of people are hard, honest workers. They are not coming to America because they see it as simply freer or, as some would like to believe, “just better.” Rather, they are in search of work for a decent wage. She supports an immigration plan that would provide amnesty or some way to work for Hispanics. She sees her people as a community of workers, the majority of which, unlike herself, want to come, work, and leave. Cecilia Hernandez is the perfect example of someone who would benefit from a program in which foreigners could apply to come and work with the possibility of applying for citizenship afterward.
Unfortunately, at this point in America, becoming a citizen does not seem to come as easily as it did for Cecilia. My best childhood friend, Andrea Stiles, for instance, married an illegal Mexican immigrant just three years ago. They recently had a daughter together. Despite Andrea and Guillermo's marriage and their daughter, Maria, the government will not grant Guillermo's citizenship, or even a Visa to work here with, due to the fact that he was already here working illegally before the marriage. For the illegal immigrant, there doesn’t seem to be a reasonable way to citizenship in our current system.
Perhaps the most unlikely story that I heard was that of Lilián Ceron, a woman in her mid-40’s from Santiago, Chile who actually came to the U.S. legally. However, the surreal feeling of meeting an actual legal citizen came to an abrupt halt when I found out that Lilián’s current status is not legal. She took great care to explain to me that it is very difficult to obtain all of the papers (visa, passport, green card, etc.) necessary to come to the U.S. legally from Chile, but that she had done it. She explained that one must come from a solid mid to upper-class economic situation and have a solid reason to return to Chile afterward. She recounted for me the history of one of her friends who had actually met all of the qualifications but whose two daughters were in college. She was denied permission because the government did not think she had a good enough reason to return to Chile, seeing as her daughters were almost independents.
Lilián, on the other hand, was granted permission to come to America for six months due to the fact that her daughter has a very serious heart condition which demanded medical attention from experts here. So she came to our country legally, but things turned illegal when she simply decided to stay. At first, she would only respond, “I came to only stay for six months, but then I really liked it. So I just stayed.” After a great deal of badgering and returning to the same question on my part, she finally expressed more: “It’s the culture. Chile is very similar to the United States. In fact, it’s the U.S. of Latin America. But in Chile you can’t walk around with nice things like this jewelry or this watch because they would get stolen.” In a list of likes about the U.S. that she later expounded, security, environment, and education topped the charts as positive aspects of our culture.
Lilián currently works as a nanny for a family here in Nashville where she is with the kids almost every day of the week and teaches them Spanish. Her life as a legal immigrant gone illegal seems to be tainted only with the language barrier as, after six years here, she still speaks very little English. I asked her about her thoughts on the border question, and she was not shy to answer: “They [the government and its current immigration policies] have their reasons. You should respect the law, it’s true. But it’s so hard to become a citizen.” The implication of Lilián’s words is that, if becoming a documented citizen of the U.S. was easier, she would have no problem going about the process legally. However, as it stands, it was far easier for her to come legally and simply stay where she was.
And thus the story of my taxi ride with a sympathetic Mexican does not stop at the moment that he dropped me off outside of my house. Rather, it extends to the stories of these three women who have all experienced, in very different ways, the cruelties and liberties of immigration. They have tasted what it is to be in need and to live in the midst of plenty, to want only happiness for family while living thousands of miles from loved ones. The immigration question is not an easy one to answer; that much is obvious. However, it is my hope that the stories of those who are actually immigrants will educate us and spur us on to further empathy for such a prominent people who we claim to know so much about but have so few conversations with.
These conversations matter because our immigration policy is, right now, on the line. The fact that 40% of Mexico’s national income is money sent from immigrants to the U.S. back to their families in Mexico should matter (Work in Mexico Lectures). The closing of the border (by way of wall or not) will result in poverty and devastation for our southern, Latino counterparts. People are not coming to our country based on the thought that it is simply better. The reality is that it is impossible to live on the three dollars a day that many farm laborers make in small-town Mexico (Work in Mexico Lectures). Our border thus becomes a portal of compassion. For the strictly politically-minded person, perhaps it does not make sense to continue to allow a process that lacks so much control go on. My hope, however, is that the stories of these actual immigrants, or better yet stories of people you know, will make the topic of immigration personal and immediate. I must admit, in the debate of immigration, I will side with the Latino, because I know him. He has a name.

Works Cited
Becerra, Hector and Watanabe, Teresa. Los Angeles Times. “500,000 Pack Streets to Protest Immigration Bills.” 26 March 2006. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-immig26mar26,0,7628611.story?coll=la-home-headline.
“House Passes Immigration Enforcement Bill H.R. 4437. What Does It Mean? What Does It Include?” 19 December 2005. http://www.diggersrealm.com/mt/archives/001446.html.
Gonzalez, Betty. “Lectures on Work in Mexico.” Mexican Culture class. La Universidad de las Américas, Puebla. October 2005.
Ramos, Mario. “Immigration.” Hispanics in the United States class. Belmont University. 28 February 2006.