Deferred Action

I started hearing more and more about this new policy that the Department of Homeland Security has issued.  I don't much about it and I am still learning, but what I understand about it, is that if someone was brought to the US as children, and do not present a risk to national security, and who qualify following several guidelines, they will be considered for relief from removal from this country.  As a person who works at a Spanish Immersion school where we may or may not have undocumented families, I feel this is a very important issue to talk about and discuss.  I know in our class, the whole topic of illegal immigrants and the border is a very hot topic.  I am not sure how I feel about the whole issue.  From what we discussed on Tuesday night, it makes me feel like Americans that hire illegal immigrants are the one's breaking the law and they should be the ones that are punished for it as well.  I think one thing that I have really been thinking a lot about lately is the whole idea of immigration.  Our country is made up of immigrant families.  Yes, there are some that have been here for generations, but we are all part of families that immigrated here and took over the lands that we live on, and now we have a problem with letting people in, that are coming to the US for the same reasons our ancestors came here, a better life.  Really?  I will vent more about this in my final overview of the class...  it's a heated conversation I know.  But here is what I found on Deferred Action:

Immigrant Law Center and Deferred Action

Rodrigo y Gabriela

I wanted to share one of my absolutely favorite bands.  It is Rodrigo y Gabriela.  They are a duo from Mexico that specialize in playing fast acoustic guitar.  I heard them first on David Letterman and loved them right away!  My brother plays guitar in several bands and I love hearing him play.  I had to share this group with him and although I have never been able to see them live, he has and his phone call at 12:30 a.m. to me, made me extremely jealous! :)  However, he did hold his phone up so I could hear them to for about 30 minutes.  I hope you enjoy them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENBX_v1Po1Y

Esther Esqueleto and NAFTA

So, we had this fantastic field trip to one of my favorite places last week, El Burrito Mercado.  We were given an assignment to look around and find one thing that we could research and write about.  We have been studying NAFTA and how it affects people in the US and in Mexico.  I bought a Dia de Los Muertos paper mache doll.  Here is the story that I wrote about her:

My name is Esther Esqueleto.  I am originally from Mexico.  I am used during Dia de Los Muertos.  Dia de los Muertos is a Mexican celebration that takes place November 1 and November 2.  It is one of the largest celebrations in Mexico and is even bigger that Christmas.  It is a time for people to celebrate, remember and pray for the souls of their loved ones who have died.  I am the skeleton of an upper class woman and I am one of the most popular figures of the celebration.  I am an iconic symbol that is produced in mass quantities in different forms of production.
I am made from paper mache, usually by an indigenous person, who will make hundreds or maybe thousands of them.  If they were to sell me in Mexico, they would maybe get around 10 cents each from natives, or sell me for about $1 or so to tourists.  However, companies will buy me in bulk for usually 10 cents each.  After I am sold to these buyers, they will take me and sell me to markets in the United States for about $1 each.  When I was purchased at El Burrito, I sold for $7.95 plus tax. 


It is sad how people are affected by big business and governments decisions.  Last week I also had the opportunity to interview my partner Julie about her week and the readings we had in regards to NAFTA, here is what I found out.

I had the opportunity to talk with Julie about her week.  She was disappointed because she had sent some questions to one of her contacts in Mexico and hadn't heard back from him yet.  She was really looking forward to hearing from him, as she had many questions for him about his country, lifestyle and culture. 
We also discussed the readings we had.  We both felt that it was a difficult thing to read about and even more, a problem that might not have any simple answers.  Julie was disturbed by the reading where it talked about the people that were poisoned because of the toxic dumping in the plants that were built in Mexico and the suffering people went through.  However, as a business woman, we also talked how she said there were people here who would lose their jobs as well if things changed.  It's hard to figure out the answers. 

Selena

I was able to watch the movie Selena this past weekend.  I think my most memorable quote was by her father, Abraham.  In one part, he is discussing with Selena and her brother what it's like being Mexican American.  He says, "  We have to be more Mexican than the Mexicans and more American than the Americans, both at the same time!  It's exhausting!" 

It made me really think about how I look at Mexican Americans.  I really hope that I don't expect that from anyone.  What does he mean more American than the Americans and more Mexican than the Mexicans?  

It seems sad that he has to try so hard to impress both groups so that he is able to fit into the society in which he lives.  Do we all do that?  I think at some point we all do things to fit in, but to be judged by two cultures so harshly and not really fit into either fully, has got to be challenging.  

What a tragic story, of a woman who had her whole life ahead of her and it was cut short the way it was.  

Hispanic Heritage Month Celebration

Adams Dancers

This was a great weekend. I had the opportunity to attend St Paul Public School's Hispanic Heritage Month Celebration on Friday October 5.  The evening included several dance groups, art projects, food and a salsa band with salsa dancing. There were about 300-400 people from the community.  It was especially exciting to see a couple dance groups from the school that I work at.  The children work really hard during the school year and during the summer to learn dances from Mexico that they share with others at events such as this one.  I also met several new people and caught up with old friends I had not seen in awhile.

Adams Dancers

Aztec Dancers

Crafts

Adams Dancers

Enjoying the celebration

Salsa Band

I think that fascinates me, is the celebration of their culture.  It is so important and the celebration is a lot of fun.  I think, as we have been discussing in class, most Americans don't celebrate much of their culture.  Yes we have baseball, apple pie, and fourth of July, but what is our culture.

Aztec Dancers

Adams Dancers

Adams Dancers

Culture, according to one source, Culture refers to the cumulative deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving.  I know in my family, we have our beliefs, values, experiences, etc that we share, but I am not sure we necessarily celebrate it.  My family has a family reunion every year, where for one weekend, about 300 of us get together and celebrate our family.  I think that is part of a cultural thing.  However, I think we have our own "cultures" within our own homes as well.  Things we celebrate just as families.  Maybe that is more traditions, but I think traditions can help define us and our culture as well. 

How would it be?

In class on Tuesday night, we were asked to imagine what we would do if our government fell, all jobs were lost and the only place that people could go for jobs was south to Mexico.  What would we do, what would we take, what traditions would we take with us, etc?  I am not going to write what I wrote that night, it was to personal.  I will say, that that was a really hard question and very thought provoking.  What would I do?  It really made some of what I was already thinking become a little clearer.
See, last week when I watched the movie "A Better Life," I was really thinking about this very thing.  It is so hard to imagine facing all the trials you have to face to get here and then all the discrimination and low paying jobs someone gets when finally arriving here.
I was talking to a friend from Costa Rica this past weekend.  He is taking an English class that I am helping him with.  He is reading a book about the projects in New York and the trials families face there and the discrimination they face just by living there.  He was asked to relate it to his own life somehow.  He told me it wasn't hard to relate to.  He said no matter how hard he worked, or how much English he learned, he would always be judged and people would discriminate against him.  How sad! How sad that we live in a world like that.  And it's really hard for me to understand and figure out how I am feeling about it all.  Trying to imagine having to move to another country, what would I bring, what I would leave behind, what traditions I would take, is just a little to much for me.  It is a lot to think about.  I have a hard time imagining it and it opens up my mind to a whole new level of thinking.

A Better Life

Along with reading a really great book, Translation Nation, this past weekend I watched the movie "A Better Life".  I have to say, besides the sobbing on the couch that I did all night, it was so thought provoking.  I had a really hard time watching it and thinking of all the people that are in this country illegally who just came here for a better life.  I was moved by this father that all he wanted was a better life for his son and he worked his butt off trying to get it.  However, even despite all his hard work, terrible things kept happening to him.  I think the relationship that he developed with his son throughout the movie was awesome!!  You were able to see these two different generations and how they felt about and saw things, and how in the end they were brought together and their love for each other was stronger. 

"Translation Nation" also has been showing me this side of immigrants that I just have never seen before.  I love how in the book, he states how this country began with all immigrants who were escaping a terrible life and looking for a better one.  And now, we as a nation are trying to keep those out that want the same.  It infuriates me that we have become this way.  It shouldn't have to be so hard to try and follow your dreams and improve your life.  You shouldn't have to die in a desert trying to get somewhere that may or may not have a crappy job for you.  Families shouldn't have to be separated.  I think that is the main thing that I am getting out of this class right now.  I am learning that I really need to open my eyes and really get to know people and what they are going through.  See things the way they see it and not just my views. Learning the history of the Latino people and what they are going through today has been very eye opening for me and has changed the way I view things now.