Melissa sent this to me because Luis is the assistant-manager at one of our favorite restraunts and I just wanted to share his story.
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Without borders: Former illegal immigrants settle in to success in the U.S.
by Sarah Voss
Lexington Herald-Leader
As a 20-year-old, Luis Castillo left medical school in Mexico to come to Lexington, where he found work as a house painter. A year later, Minerva Castillo, a 19-year-old high school graduate, arrived and made money by cleaning houses.
To Read the Article
5 comments:
Oso,
As the article states there has been an influx of Mexican immigrants (legal and illegal) to the South. Unfortunately tensions are already erupting. I saw a report the other day that hate crimes against Hispanics in the South is on the rise and has eclipsed those against African-Americans. At the college I work at there is a minimal grant for high-scoring children of mexican laborers (a lot here in Lexington because of farming and horse industry) to give them a chance to improve their lives. A regional politician found out about and is trying to stop it by playing on War on Terror fears and outlawing noncitizen receiving grants to attend Kentucky colleges? (With bullshit arguments about it robbing qualified Americans of a place--we are community/technical and accept everyone that wants to go and the grants are publicly funded). Dr. Kearney is our president and he is a good man, sort of a the humanist-admistrator, he recognizes the politician as the racist he is and has been fighting him tooth-and-nail on this issue, including in pubic debates. Its one of the things that attracted me to the college--when I interviewed with Kearney I brought up this problem and we spent half the interview speaking about political problems like this and our responsibilities to do something about it.
The rate of influx does affect certain regions though. Schools in southern Cal have had fights over the last few years over classes being taught primarily in Spanish, rather than English, because most of the attendees are Mexicans who are here illegally but have the right to attend public school. So those kinds of things do affect life in an area. I just heard a report like 2 weeks ago on NPR and they said the current population of LA is now 50% hispanic. Huge rapid changes that cause turmoil.
I'm not sure how to handle illegal immigration, but I'm not too fond of amnesty. I know so many people who have waited years to come to this country legally, who have left family behind, etc, because they don't share a border with this country. It feels like we are sanctioning the illegal methods, and I know I sound silly, but it doesn't seem fair. Flame me. =)
Susanne,
As an expatriate Californian let me just say that American's probably have such a strong anxiety about illegal aliens because they stole the land?
Also, your mention of LA now being 50% hispanic is kind of silly when you consider at one time it was Mexico...
If we were really worried about it, as a nation, we would work to "really" improve the quality of life South of the Border, rather than take advantage of it for factory labor, and illegal labor her in the US.
This is not a "flame", just response :)
The "they" who stole the land referred to "us" Americans, not the "illegal aliens"...
I don't know about other folks, but the land and ownership of it is not an issue with me. I don't look at southern Cal as rightfully Mexican land. Ownership of land has changed many times over the millenia and choosing a past owner as the rightful owner is what is causing all the Israel/Palestine problems. There can be no resolution if we look at land ownership that way I believe.
No, mostly my concern is twofold. One, that illegal Mexicans are granted citizenship while many other nationalities are deported. Two, I am surprised at the rate at which illegals are crossing the border. I think most Americans think it is just a few thousand each year. But the demographic views of southern Cal's hispanic population over the last 50 years has increased amazingly. It's not just southern Cal either, it's other parts of the south and even all the way up here in Seattle. LA has not been predominantly hispanic all along Thivai.
The economic issues are another ball of wax lol, and I haven't had enough coffee to get into those. =)
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