What blows me away about the Bush doctrine is the superficiality. What, I wonder, would be the elements necessary to really address this? I am sure there are brilliant position papers already written. But:

a.? Mexico stop creating and accepting policies which drive people off the land, keep them underpaid, etc., as much as happens now - so that not as many *have* to leave. [Is this realistic? Do they have the power to do this? If not, get them the power to do this.]

b.? U.S. just start handing out work visas / green cards? Start treating Mexican passports like U.S. passports? People will say oh no, then they'll all move here, but I doubt it. ?

Then there is the question of the attitude taken toward them-thar foreigners. Yet harder to crack.

P.S. and the pay. If the undocumented are legalized, and start making better money, will we still be interested?

Some businesspeople I know say yes, because they are better workers. That would be great but it often seems to me that we want, surreptitiously, to have semi-slaves.

i have family in westchester thu i've only been up there once. most of my fam are cali folks.

when i moved, some day laborers helped with the heavy stuff. we paid them $15/hour (more than i have ever gotten paid but i've never been able to move my heavy ass book cases either). when we paid them, we didn't have change so we just let them keep the change. they were shocked, they said that when they don't have change people short them! people are sure fucked up.

Yes, I know this feeling. I remember feeling this way many times in my suburban hometown in Texas, but ESPECIALLY when I lived in Los Angeles, depending in which neighborhood I was in.

I think one of the unique features of being half and half, or mixed blooded, is our ability to blend in a little. It may only be temporary, but we get glimpses of the other side. Also, you may not even be instantly recognized as being Mexican. It gives you a kind of ethnic ambiguity, people sometimes think you are Italian, or Jewish, or countless other ethnicity's and combinations of. When racist people find out you are half Mexican, sometimes they take the stance that screams, "Well, you are light skinned, well spoken, intelligent, you are not REALLY Mexican, just keep you mouth shut and be nice and I will not judge you as harshly."

Years ago, I remember spending a Thanksgiving in an exclusive country club in a golf resort in Palm Springs, California. I was there with my then boyfriend, who came from a wealthy, white family from the east coast. I instantly felt uncomfortable. The only brown people I saw were in the kitchen, or cleaning the bathrooms. I made the mistake of telling my boyfriend how I felt, which resulted in, "Its all in your head, you are making a big deal out of nothing." That night, I wound up in a alcohol fueled argument with his Dad about "the border". He was taking the old, racist, imperialist stance on how if the English had not taken this land and made something out of it, we would all just be savages running around killing each other. I left the next day. I could have kept my mouth shut and "blended in", but I wound up making a stink, and giving myself away.

yes, arban. i know what you mean. an ambiguity that you can accentuate or deny...that people's perceptions can aid or underline or push to the back of their own mind. it makes for many touchy possibilities in social situations, as you point out. thanks for sharing that. i relate a lot. the scene i mentioned above i write more of in other entries, and am writing one now that talks about it more.

there are many ways to "blend in," true. i eventually realized that in all that blending in, i was losing some very important parts of myself. realizations in Postcard Town helped bring that/me to the fore.