Mexican Immigration

“El que calla otorga” – Mexican proverb
("Who is silent consents")

Whether it’s been my own prejudices that have clouded my view on Immigration and Human Rights on the U.S. / Mexico Border or the “anti-immigration” rhetoric that has been so prevalent towards people of color since 9/11-over the past eight years I have been one of the many citizens of the United States who has bought into the lie that the U.S.-particularly California-has becoming increasingly overcrowded and immigration from California’s neighbors to the South needs to be tightly regulated.
I hate to admit that I have harbored horrid, stereotypical views of Mexicans crossing the border illegally-only to crowd jails and use taxpayer resources.
How could I have been so blind? Did I not study the history of California in 4th grade? Many of the injustices that were done to my people- African Americans-have been done to the Mexicanos.
California used to belong to MEXICO! Enterprising Americanos snatched it from Mexican rancheros in the mid nineteenth century. Ironically, the Mexicans in California initially welcomed Americans, offering them land grants if they complied with Mexican cultural norms such as converting to Catholicism and becoming citizens. The Americans that complied with the Mexican government were called “Dons”.
As more Americans came to California, zealous for landownership and desirous for wealth, they became dissatisfied with their relationship with the Mexican government. According to Ronald Takaki, an award-winning author and a professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of California Berkeley, on June 6, 1846, Mexican General Mariano Vallejo was abruptly wakened at his home by thirty armed Americans, eager to overthrow him and establish the “Bear Flag Republic”.
What does this have to do with immigration? Everything.
If California once belonged to Mexico and it was Americans who stole the land-who is actually the illegal citizen?
Over the past few months I have been working in ESL (English As A Second Language) Education. At night I work in a transition classroom at a local high school, where Spanish-speaking students are eagerly learning to read and write in Spanish and English in order to better assimilate in America.
Domingo Gomez , is an irrigation worker. Last night-amidst the blustering wind and pouring rain-he walked several blocks in order to come to class. Maria Lopez, a jovial, mestizo-looking woman in her forties wakes at six every morning to go to work as a care-giver and then she comes to class. And last- my amiga viejo, Selena Salvador, wakes up at seven, goes to work as a housekeeper, and then attempts to scrutinize handwriting and verb congregation worksheets for three hours before she crawls into bed.
Juanita, Juan, Julio, Emilia…they all have similar stories. To learn a language , to assimilate to a culture, to belong to a land that is rightfully actually theirs.
Who is the actual bandit? What does this mean for me? Rather than selfishly cling to “my rights” as an American I need to be doing everything in my power to join the fight for immigration reform that allows all prospective Americans with a fair opportunity to become a citizen of the United States of America.

Isaiah: 1:17