“They should send all Mexicans back, they are taking our jobs.” Many times I’ve heard this statement and variations of it. It seems as though immigrant hatred -speakers show their ignorance, since not all Spanish-speaking members of our community are Mexicans- has historically intensified during times of economic uncertainty. Immigrants are the common and easy target, in a community where jobs are scarce, the eyes turn to the brown people who do not speak English, or speak it in a broken or heavily accented manner. We are the common scape goat, and the vox populi believes in the homogeneity of the United States of America as the panacea to the nation’s problems. The panacea to our community’s economic problem.
During the last few months of economic uncertainty I have seen the effects of job losses in my community at large, but I have seen the Latino community be particularly hit by job cuts. I have heard from patients and their families at the hospital, many have lost their jobs in the manufacturing and RV industries, many have left the country, and have returned to their hometowns to look for a better life, if not permanently, just long enough for economic changes to take place and for unskilled labor to become a hot commodity again. Immigrants have a special frame of mind, even if they have lived in a community for years, they know that the tide might change any minute and the time for moving might come again. Immigrants are not of one place alone, home will always be the home country, the maternal home is where the food will always be the most flavorful and nourishing. Yet, immigrants do not longer belong entirely to their hometown, they have transformed to a bird of passage who moves with the winds of economic opportunity.
Cihuacoatl's Blog 