How the Great Proletarian Revolt affected me on this day:
Not at all.
Maybe because 99% of our city is immigrant or first-generation.
Maybe because 99% of our elected officials are immigrants or first-generation.
Maybe because we have an open-door policy with La Ciudad wherein no visas are required for 18 miles (basically our whole city).
I know that I complain about the EP a bunch, and that those complaints (mostly about drivers and large women wearing belly shirts) are very shallow. But here is something that I love about my new home:
We are a vibrant city that works really well, to my eyes at least, and I have not heard anyone say the following things since we moved here:
1. "If you want to live here, learn to speak the language"
2. "I can't stand these illegals."
3. "Mexicans are a drain on our economy"
**I heard all of these things while in Utah this last time.
Guess what--I don't speak very good Spanish, and sometimes others do not speak so good the English, but we work it out just fine.
Guess what--I have no idea who is illegal and who is legal--maybe my neighbors, maybe my paperboy, maybe my extraordinarily hot UPS guy. We all just want to live our own lives and have our own families.
Guess what--our entire EP economy is run by Mexicans. Some from Mexico, some who have only been to Juarez on field trips. Not a drain, more the glue that holds the...water to...our...drain pipes.
Thanks for not walking out, thanks for not punishing our city for the way that the rest of the US feels. I like it here, and I am becoming more and more enamored with the proletariat masses. Go Miners!
ps: If you want to do something about Mexicans, why not try helping--check out what is going on 18 miles from my home:
http://www.amnestyusa.org/women/juarez/
pss:Thus endeth my Che sympathies.
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9 comments:
Thanks for first hand perspective. Things get so skewed in the media. What a great example of a community working to improve itself and the lives of its residents.
Well, I did look at the paper this morning, and the headlines were all about the walkouts--in the other parts of the countries. Our fair city had "hundreds" (Keep in mind we are a city of well over 700,000 and in 2004 the census reported that EP was 80.4% Hispanic. So a tiny portion walked out or protested--and most said that the reason they did not go to work was because they were afraid of looting or retribution. (None of which happened.)
Again--it is not that we don't need reform, or that our population is not politically active, or want green-cards, it is just that the Latin are the majority--and everyone is fine with that. (Although, I am dying to get some real Texas BBQ out here--the "TexMex" is just not as saucy-licious!)
Hey ya Jen,
Great post! Being stuck here in WV as I am at the moment I am forced to glean my info from the news (always a bad idea, lol).
Your 'Che sympathies' have made me fondly remember the days in the mid 90's when my blonde blue-eyed friend Amber and I would go to Zapatista rallies in LA and march around shouting "La gente vive; La lucha sigue!" along with the rest of the crowd. Just two little gringas with socialist leanings, improving our Spanish with help from some very hot revlotuionaries, selling t-shirts to raise money for Commandante Marcos. That was a great time -- when politics was about the poor, the foreign, the people -- a time when we actually thought marching would do something -- a time before $3/gal gas. Ah, those were the days!
Speaking of the situation in Juarez ... did you ever see the documentary Señorita Extraviada? I saw part of it on PBS, but missed a big chunk of it so it's on my Netflix list. What I saw was really good.
talk to ya soon -- I swear.
-kayt
Thank you for posting more about the disappearances. I think it is one of the great ignored contemporary tragedies.
Couldn't agree with you more. I've been meaning to post on the topic, but haven't quite gathered my thoughts.
Lu-I am not that politically active. At all. Sometimes I vote, and sometimes I pay my electric bill on time. That is the extent of my current civic-mindedness. And, the last movie I saw was "Elmo in Grouchland." Welcome! You will fit into our little community just fine--especially if you get a viral shirt!
Carina--I channeled you, but without the smartness. Did you like my dueling statistics?
Honestly... too smart for me. I have no say one-way-or-the-other and am not following all the hype.
Call me irresponsible.
Have you hung your lanterns in the half-bath? As long as you stay on top of that...
well, I'm not so politically active anymore either ... I fear I'm slowly turning into one of those people that used to be a 'hippie', but now just talks about it, LOL:) I usually vote (I consider it my license to complain), but you're way ahead of me on the electric bill thing :P
BTW, was the Elmo movie any good? When GiGi gets older (old enough to enjoy a story with a plot anyway) you'll have to make sure she sees "A Bug's Life". That's the most recent "kid" movie I enjoyed renting (yes I rent "kid" movies too -- silly rabbit, who says Trix are for kids?)
-k:)
viva la raza!
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