My Cultural Page

It has been a while since I have last written and it was probably due to a break that I needed and did not want to sound repetitive but maybe this needs to be talked about over and over again until there is recognition of differences.  I guess I do not like the fact that as a Mexican American I am automatically lumped with people born south of the border or that I should be guilt tripped into supporting immigration.  The question I ask is whose concerned with me because I have never felt more than three people have concerned with me beyond my mother, grandfather and a old family friend who passed away in 1987. My family friend Ken Hillman was himself even homeless living with his daughter Nancy as colon cancer took him away.

I am just adamant that that is not my issue because it priorities them, those born outside the US and us born inside the US just get ignored.  A Mexican American has no place and what makes it worse is that the few public journalists are adamant immigration supporters but I believe they do not think this out because there is this view that Mexico is the worse country out there and they will not have a future there.  If that was the case how do many deported who were US raised been able to adjust even when they are limited in their English and why does Mexico import so many Argentineans.  Can their skills truly be that beneficial?  If they were why would they be leaving their beloved Che country.  To continue to support immigration under some Quxiotic ideal is not to think scenarios out first from economic competition to the very definition of what is a Mexican American.  And yet its ignored that this newer generation of people even starting back from the 1986 immigration reform have benefitted much more than me or my mother. Call me a hater, yes I am, I believe I should be given an equal opportunity without the guilt trip view they place about "wo is me", I don't have a green card.  All I can tell you is that I don't view the statistics but the reality.  My uncle was one of those who moved from Baja California at age 40 and never really struggled for employment as a machinist and some time later he's retired and is a home owner while my mother has never owned a home and lives with a brother which she does not really like.

I keep saying this because I too have held the door closed to me while in higher education or employment as an instructor and they hire Mexico born who lack my academic output.  I do feel  cheated because I'm not viewed by merit and we are suppose to be a society of based on such effort but I'm not recognized.  It might seem an oxymoron to be want to be recognized by the very people and institutions that won't hire me but precisly because of that reason do I feel entitled to.  My 7 publications should mean something especially becaue I am a Mexican American writing about Mexican American issues.  I find it insulting that non Mexican Americans are hired based on some stereotyping that they look the same or have same names but the defining factor should be what defines an American which is the 14th Amendment.

And I know that this issue is quietly boiling because I have come across four Mexican American males that have views not too different from mind, the only difference was that I was willing to state my opinion much earlier because I was terminated and saw how CSULB hired immigrants with not relevant degress while ignoring my production and it pissed the hell out of me, still does.  In conversation with two who are adjunct instructors and one a chair, the commonality was they all stated that the differences between US born and Mexico born was reaching a boiling point and becoming an issue.  Another stated that somebody had to be responsible for those born in Mexico and that the excuse of "we didn't chose to come here" was a cop out.  The 14th Amendment does not accept such excuse as valid and why should we.  The last one stated that immigration was not something that defined Mexican Americans and was not something to be covered.  But he added something that I have also come to believe which is that these newer groups of people have not suffered the same way and are better off than those of us born here. He stated it is partly due to illicited money but that is clearly even more visible when seeing all these Mexican restaurants that sprung up like charter schools or churches.  Can one really make money from selling tamales or beans because if it was I'm sure we could have copied it.  I remember once a group of Chicano activists from the east side complaining why they could not find a place for their Mexican American University but paisas could selling food.  I found the arguement compelling because it proves I am not alone and not a bigot just questioning something we are expected to accept as gospel because some people say so.  And our ethnicity does matter because as he informed me, Mexican American graduate students are not attending Cal State LA's program and I bet alot of it has to do with the hiring of a Salvadorian, Guatemalan, Mexican national who were all attempting to change the departmental name to Latino Studies and were rebukked because they could not changed the name of the degree program which is Mexican American Studies.  Not applying to that program is an indication of such protest, along with other issues probabling related to feminism and other pc themes being force fed. That are not Mexican American issues people are interested in.

I did not feel lonely anymore in this debate but feel this should be addressed and it probably won't but political inaction keeps this issue relevant as Congress will not provide a solution and they should not because it effects Mexican Americans unfairly and does not hold Mexico accountable for their people.