I am a retired teacher of English as a Second Language in Northern California, and always read your columns with much interest. Of course, my students in a community college here have been, in the majority, Hispanic, though I have also lived and taught in Africa and China. In this article, youre not talking to me (I guess youd call me a pre-boomer WASPerson whos always voted Democratic) in this one, but I have a couple of comments. First, I sure hope Nancy Pelosi--my god, isnt she the daughter or granddaughter of immigrants?--sees it, because youre so right about her (non)agenda. But the other thought is about your remark that the Hispanic citizens here dont care about immigrants, especially undocumented ones, which concerns me more. Ive seen it function in all immigrant groups, regardless of country origin: baldly put, its the idea that I had to go through this stuff, and you should have to as well--this describing the attitude Ive seen taken by successful legal immigrants, and it takes sometimes brutal forms, once seeing a legal Guatemalan reporting an illegal worker to the local police. Of course the Guatemalan, with a family and pregnant wife here, was taken and sent home. It reminds me of my pediatrician husbands saying that the older physicians put medical students,residents, and interns through grueling stuff on the same rationale. Admittedly, it is a nasty human instinct, and Ive no idea what could be done about it--theres also the fact that no one--native-born or naturalized who might want to shelter an undocumented person--wants to have anything to do with USCIS. I have to sign an affidavit myself for friends who are petitioning to have conditions on their marriage for the wifes citizenship application(the husband has been a citizen for 30 years--but you must hear stories like this all the time). If they call me in to swear, what Im afraid of is that Ill be tempted to slap some officer silly or say something that would screw up my friends petition. The worst border experiences Ive had--all long before 9/11--were on returning to the US--e.g. having extremely rude,invasive questions from the officer at a checkpoint between Vancouver, B.C. and the US--over and over again. Oh, for goodness sake, dont use my name in any publication! Who knows why theyd do this to a 75-year old grandmother like me, but the last thing I need is to be on some no-fly list and be stopped at an airport.Years and years ago, here in the Bay Area, a small convent/college of Dominican nuns sheltered an undocumented family of eleven.When (then)INS came to investigate, the whole group of nuns stood on the convent steps and dared them to come in...and they backed down. Names interest me, and you mentioned divisions among Hispanics(Ive been corrected here in Calfornia, by Latinos, who say the term Hispanic is inaccurate). Your family name has a spelling that doesnt seem to be Spanish--just out of interest, could you tell me what it is? At any rate, keep up the good work, please!! Your columns are excellent--such a good mixture of subtle needling and intelligent comment. Thank you for them.
Posted on: Thu, 02 Oct 2014 06:23:25 +0000
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