Dear Editor, Congratulations to the Mercado family and their
daughter Anarely.
Dear Editor,
Congratulations to the Mercado family and their daughter Anarely. They are examples of the mythos of the U.S. culture that anyone with the desire to work hard can “make it” in the USA.
Hopefully they are an inspiration for the many immigrants who continue to seek for safety and a decent living for their families.
However, this family is not typical of the immigrants I work with. It is important to note that the Mercado family arrived here 20 years ago when the ability for illegal immigrants ( if they were illegal) to gain amnesty and become legal residents was possible. During the last twenty years there were several windows of opportunity to gain a green card.
The fact that this family was able to work hard and eventually buy a house in the most expensive housing market in the country is admirable.
Their children were born in this country and had access to good public schools compared to Mexican public schools. In my opinion this does not fit the description of a “migrant worker” although I know for funding purposes this category is quite broad.
The migrant workers I know are for the most part illegal. They have to either use expensive fake social security cards to find a legitimate job or work under the table at sometimes less than minimum wage.
They do not have access to legitimate drivers’ licenses and insurance and so have to depend on others or pray if they have access to their own transportation to their jobs. They rent in crowded conditions with other families, one of whom is probably “legal” and helping out his relatives. They move often because of lack of steady incomes and their children often don’t spend the whole year in one school.
Many of them do attend adult school in the evenings, though they are bone weary from sometimes two jobs in a 24 hour period. The children of “these people” as they are often referred to by the white middle class, are at times shunned by their classmates.
They do not fit in. They are obviously poor and struggling with the dominant language. They don’t know the customs, and lingo of our TV and video culture. Their parents are lucky if they have a seventh-grade education in their country of origin. Most likely it is a fourth or fifth grade education in a poor rural school with 60 children in one class.
They cannot help their children with reading or math though they have the same aspirations for their kids as the Mercado family.
Where are the resources in our society and schools to help these, the most vulnerable and at risk of our children?
Perhaps if we the people of the United States weren’t spending 80 billion dollars a year on an illegal war that has killed thousands of Iraqi children along with over 2,000 American soldiers. we would have the resources to make this a land of opportunity for all children in this country.
Natasha Wist, Morgan Hill
