I just finished watching a CNN show on illegal immigration in Georgia. It is hard for me to explain just how I am feeling after listening to what amounted to ranting and raving by two white men who think illegals are ruining this country.
You see my grandmother came to this country from Mexico. Though she has been gone for over 30 years, I am not sure she ever was "legal." She married my grandfather (who had come here from Italy) and worked hard all of her life. She had seven children, one who died at birth, and six who lived.
Sadly, my Aunts and Uncles like to forget about being "Mexican" as the "Italian" part is just more "American." I lived in the flat above my grandparents and still remember my grandmother shapping tortillas with her hands, making them flat by slapping them back and forth and then placing them on a hot, black iron skillet, ever pressing them down to pop the air buble.
More.....
Neither of my grandparents were ever able to speak much english, yet they managed to own their own business, buy property and send all of their children to college. Why am I going on like this? I am not sure, but the CNN show I saw tonight has caused me to reflect back on my family, and on those who continue to leave Mexico to come here for a better life.
One of the men on the CNN show tonight kept talking about how Mexicans don't blend in, how they are not "Americans" and how they have different values and ways of life. The other white male was screaming at day workers "You are criminals" and worse. These men feel that their country is threatened by people they don't know, and people they don't care about.
Employers in this country continue to hire illegals because they can't get Americans to work for the low wages they offer. Without the illegal workers in this country our economy would be worse than it is now. Those two white men who hate illegals don't "hate" the low cost of the services they pay for because of the low wages paid to illegals.
It pains me to think that my very own grandmother is the person these men hate, that I, her granddaughter, most likely is not seen as a "true" American. To look at me you would never know my heritage, but does that really matter? I feel estraged from my heritage in so many ways, not knowing the culture that my grandmother grew up in, not really able to claim an understanding of the country my grandmother came from, and worse, not even being able to speak the language of my grandmother.
Those that come to our country come here because they can get jobs, because they want a better life for their children, because they will work hard to make a better life, because they can find work here.
Illegal immigration is an issue in this country, however the problem is never addressed, those who hire illegals.
My life has been almost void of any "culture" from my heritage, yet the "blood" that runs through my body is that of my grandmothers and her family, many who are still in Mexico.
More and more I feel that this issue defines us as a nation in more ways than can be measured, and at the same time it blends us, which, I guess, is something that many never want to see. I am a "blend" of mexican, italian and more, but above all I am an American, proud to be part of this country, and also always proud to know that my grandmother came here to give me that which I enjoy today.