« Something Stinks in Lima | Main | Hey, That Ain't Culo! »
31 de Enero, 2008
Why Are Mexicans So Damn Kind and Smart?
Categorized under Corazón , Frontera , New Mexican Memes , Raza | Tags: borders, Change, Hope, Immigration, Mexicans, Mexico
I GUESS THE ANSWER to that is just another mystery, like so many of those that disappeared with the ancient tribes of México. But look to José to break it down:
ECATEPEC, MEXICO -- Jose Luis Gutierrez is the mayor of the biggest city in Mexico you've never heard of, a sprawling suburb of Mexico City built by people on the move.And the charismatic Gutierrez has done something almost as unheard of: He has declared this city of as many as 3 million people a "sanctuary" for the illegal immigrants from Central America who pass through here each day.
He has ordered his police officers and city officials not to arrest, extort or otherwise harass the migrants. He's also ordered them not to cooperate with Mexican immigration agents.
"Let them go and guard the borders," he said. "For Ecatepec, migration is not a criminal act. It's a universal right: the right to seek work and the right to travel freely from one place to another."
Do ya hear that rumbling, cracking sound? That's the heads of Minutemensos, Buchananites, Tancredists, and Malkinochts (the word just feels right, don't argue) all exploding in unison. Read on for more brainsplattery humanitarianism.
Thousands of undocumented immigrants pass through here every year, but you won't hear many Ecatepec residents call them "illegal.""A lot of people help them," said Guadalupe Ambriz, a 33-year-old resident of Xalostoc, an impoverished Ecatepec neighborhood divided by the rail line. Ambriz, like many residents along the tracks, lives in an old boxcar that's been converted into a home.
"They might let them take a bath, or give them some food, or some old clothes," Ambriz said.
Given Ecatepec's history, the mayor's decision was not a controversial one. This city is made up of migrants, people who resettled here from other impoverished corners of Mexico, including the nearby states of Oaxaca, Hidalgo and Puebla.
Well, no wonder they don't mind! They aren't like us here in the USA, where we all sprang from the hull of a walnut shell kept moist in the patriotic pockets of Benjamin Franklin! If we were, say, a nation of immigrants, than perhaps we'd have a reason to see things similarly, but as we always say in my home, "Bless the Walnuts of Ben Franklin."
And every year Ecatepec sends many of its sons and daughters northward. There are large communities of Ecatepec natives in California, Texas and other U.S. states."For us, the bravest people of Ecatepec are the ones who go take the risk of going to the north, with all the abuse and the hatred that goes on there," Gutierrez said. "Those people are heroes for us."
And those people are laborers to us! So, you know. One person's hero is another person's lawnboy, as I always say.
Immigration is a deeply personal issue for him, Gutierrez said. One of his cousins has lived in the Los Angeles area, "without papers," for 10 years."We were raised together by our grandmother," Gutierrez said. Because his cousin is in the U.S. illegally, he hasn't been able to return to Mexico and the two men haven't seen each other in a decade. "All those people who have gone to the north are our blood," the mayor said. [...]
AH, and José hits upon the one irrefutable reality that many North of the "border" just cannot grok. Nuestra sangre is like un rio, it knows no fence nor wall of fear.
"For years, our police protected the extortionists," Gutierrez said of Ecatepec's officers. "The immigrants didn't complain, but the residents did. It just added to a climate of excessive violence in a neighborhood that was already dangerous."Recent months have brought changes to the migrant trail. The last working rail line in Mexico's southern border states shut down in July, leading many migrants to walk for days past immigration checkpoints, or to hire smugglers to get them across Mexico. [...]
"It's a hard journey," said Armando Peña, a 40-year-old bicycle-taxi operator in the Xalostoc neighborhood. Last year, he paid a smuggler the equivalent of $1,000 to get him to Los Angeles. "But if you want to get ahead, it's the only way."
But can't you just "fix your own country," Armando? I mean, I'm pretty sure that a lot of thread trolls on the 'Net could solve the dilemma for you. They have all kiiiiiinds of insane solutions to their own fear. Unlike José, weighed down by all this "reality-based" and empathetic thinking.
Vote for José I say! (Unless Pedro's on the ballot.)
| 
| 
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Comentarios (9)
mariachi mama dijo:
Have you read this article?
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/2008-02/mexicos-southern-border/gorney-text.html
Also, something that you will NEVER read in the US press...Mexico is currently offering immigration amnesty to her "illegals", for at least the second time since 2000. Basically, if you came before 2005, have kept your nose clean, it's possible to legalize your status.
Palabras por mariachi mama spat forth on el 31 de Enero, 2008 at 09:21 AM
Capsicum dijo:
Hrm. Reminds me of the parable of the forgiven debtor somehow. . . naw, that can't be right. In America, we aren't allowed to use Biblical analogies except to prop up the Decider in Chief's agenda.
Palabras por Capsicum spat forth on el 31 de Enero, 2008 at 02:19 PM
No One of Consequence dijo:
Fix their own country? Our elites fucked their country with NAFTA. People need to realize, this is a class war. Rich people in Mexico and rich people in the U.S. got together to pass NAFTA. Nobody else -- nobody else -- wanted it. Have you EVER heard the Republicans, as a party, via their noise machine, criticize Clinton on NAFTA? Nope, you never will. It was bipartisan. That investor-protection treaty allowed Mexico to circumvent its own labor laws, creating slave labor that undercut its economy. . . and the latter took a second blow when China instantly offered cheaper slaves.
White supremacists rush to the polls and to the web to vote for the very political faction that ensures the U.S. will include more and more brown people than ever. Why court the white supremacists vote, then? Well, once you have the cheap labor here, you have to make sure that they learn their place. . .
The mayor is thinking in terms of class. As soon as he did that, what happened? The criminals and the politicians dropped out of the equation. He served his people.
It analogizes to race issues here. Whites had better learn that their best allies are blacks. Blacks had better learn that their best allies are Latinos. And we'd all better learn to stand with the Mexican citizens. We all have the same interests here. The only people who see things differently have chaffeurs and appear regularly on CNN.
Palabras por No One of Consequence spat forth on el 31 de Enero, 2008 at 02:26 PM
RC dijo:
Your Walnut Shell Genesis story was nice Nez. It reminds me of Mario de Andrade's Macunaima.
Palabras por RC spat forth on el 31 de Enero, 2008 at 03:07 PM
RC dijo:
And, oh yeah, bless Ben's walnuts!
Palabras por RC spat forth on el 31 de Enero, 2008 at 03:08 PM
mariachi mama dijo:
Massive anti NAFTA protest in el DF today. Not that it will do any good, but I get so sick of the "Fix your own country" types complaining that Mexicans don't do anything to try to change the system at home. Of course, most of them would probably like to see the protestors mowed down by machine guns because some of them are socialists!
Palabras por mariachi mama spat forth on el 31 de Enero, 2008 at 04:54 PM
El Aleman dijo:
Wow, I consider myself a pretty sharp dude (I kick ass at Jeopardy), but the walnut shell analogy is just over my head. Since, I pride myself on integrating cultural references into my daily lingo, could someone help me out here.
Also, thanks again for the perspective. Most of "pale folk" clearly haven't got a clue. Being a dutiful democrat raised in the Catholic tradition I guess I have a "friendly" yet generic attitude toward immigration. But, "No One of Consequence", you say I have lot more to learn. Standing with the Mexican citizens sounds great - now how do I do that?
Palabras por El Aleman spat forth on el 3 de Febrero, 2008 at 03:36 PM
nezua limón xolagrafik-jonez
dijo:
im sure you are a very sharp dude. not getting my whimsical images has nothing to do with that.
the walnut hull? nothing really. more of a statement about how we did not spring from dust, but migrated here. i'm sure you got that part of the agenda. why walnut shell? crosses over into "nuts," and specificity—as well as references to balls—are just funny. not to mention utterly irreverent.
Palabras por nezua limón xolagrafik-jonez
spat forth on el 3 de Febrero, 2008 at 04:16 PM
No One of Consequence dijo:
But, "No One of Consequence", you say I have lot more to learn. Standing with the Mexican citizens sounds great - now how do I do that?
If I knew the particulars (and had more money), I'd run for office. Until then, not voting for the free-trade branches of the Dems, and campaigning against them, is a good idea. Race and free trade are litmus tests for me; the former for more or less obvious reasons, but the latter because it determines the values of the pol in question. In any event, anything that hurts "free trade" (a misnomer if there ever was one) would be good for solidarity between us and the Mexican middle class. Okay, more accurately, it reduces antagonism between them and us.
Outside of votes, I'd work to undermine immigration distrust around you with people you know. Pointing out that immigration is a serious racial issue (we don't care if Canadians sneak over), that immigrants add to the economy net, that they have a lower crime rate than Americans (e.g., white Americans; the converse of the "criminal immigrant" meme), and so on. Public opinion is very important here. Shifting it is equally important.
Palabras por No One of Consequence spat forth on el 4 de Febrero, 2008 at 03:38 PM