Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Enrique Arias Personal Reflective Essay on Mexican Americans

These hard times that we are facing right now has affected many important people thru out the US. The people who keep this country running, the ones that take the jobs that other lazy people don’t want to do, the jobs that require a lot of work to be done but at the same time pay very little. That’s right Immigrants, but mostly Mexican Immigrants. In one of my trips I met a young man and his family in Coachella Valley, California. I got to see what their lives were like during these times. But does American Society value them?

In my opinion I think they are the ones that are struggling the most during these hard times we are facing right now. This family is struggling so much that the dad is not the only one that works in the family, the wife and the kid’s work right besides the dad because of the low wages these people are getting paid for their hard work. These kid’s are not getting an education like every other kid, instead they have to work with their parents in order to make enough money to support their family. But there is nothing they can do about it. Some young men express their feelings and what they see in these days of their lives by writing and singing songs. This young man’s song went like this; “In these unhappy times depression still pursues us; lots of prickly pear is eaten for lack of other food. No light is seen in the houses nor does water flow from the tap; the people are in tatters and in a deplorable state.”

His family helps produce some of the food we eat, and build most of the buildings where we live. Even though his family contributes so much to this Country, they live in one of the worst houses you can imagine with the worst living conditions. The house where they live in is made out of literally whatever they could find. They stay here though, because they figure that even though they get paid very little they will still make more here than what they would make back in their homeland of Mexico. But does American Society value them?

His family is in the group of people who have been targeted during these hard times we are facing. Ever heard of the Mexican Repatriation. This is what the government has decided to do with them. US citizens have started to complain about how it is possible that these people, that are not even US Citizens, are taking all the jobs away from all the real US Citizens. So they decided to give free train rides to these people to go back to Mexico. Some people are going voluntarily but some are being tricked out of the US. Now it turns out that some of the people being tricked out of the country are actual Mexican American US Citizens. Luckily for this young man and his family other people who live there have not yet targeted them. But everyday they live with the fear that they might not come back to their small house. So does American Society value Mexican Americans.

In my opinion, No American Society does not value Mexican Americans. They don’t care about all the contributions they make to this Country. They are trying to get rid of them by tricking them out of the country. So that they can get their jobs back but they are the same jobs that they did not want in the first place because they required a lot of work for very little pay. So no I don’t believe that American Society values Mexican Americans.

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