Mexican Immigration – People/Events – Small Farmer’s JournalSmall Farmer’s Journal

Mexican Immigration

Small Farmers Who Come to the USA Eager for Residence

by Jim and Terry Fitzgerald of Bayfield, CO

Within the first article on Mexican farmers within the SFJ Winter 2003 Concern, I attempted to emphasise how small farmers reminiscent of Berta and Isaias are affected by forces reminiscent of neighborhood, ecology, politics and historical past. Within the second article there was an emphasis on the significance to our way forward for locations and other people which we mistakenly label “distant” or “left behind.” On this article there’s a continued emphasis on the primary two themes plus a concentrate on the attachment of small farmers to place-land, landscapes, household and pals. The journey of Luis Garcia to this nation is related to the three themes. He says he left Mexico for private reasons-a divorce; however his determination was clearly additionally affected by political, ecological and historic elements. His expertise tells us lots in regards to the so referred to as “downside” of latest migration. His longing to return to Mexico tells us a lot about learn how to resolve it.

The U.S. Mexican border is a wierd phenomenon. A 2000 mile line drawn by way of deserts and mountains which divides a really wealthy nation from a really poor one. A cab driver in El Paso as soon as informed me that it was good to cross the border to Juarez as a result of “you will get a lady for 25 {dollars}. Right here in El Paso it will price you 150”. Sadly most of the “ladies” strolling the streets of Juarez are younger ladies of 14 or 15.

Terry and I as soon as helped a bunch of 15 ladies, males and youngsters who had been Mam Indians from Guatemala. That they had been in an accident and had been stranded in Durango on their strategy to Florida. They needed to make it possible for the used van they bought had tinted home windows, curtains, a jack and a spare tire. Fifteen dark-skinned individuals with out sure items of paper don’t have any proper to exist right here. They will’t be seen. They will’t ask for assist if they’ve a flat tire. They left Durango with nice braveness and concern. I feel that many immigrants are heroes who threat each factor for a good life for themselves and their households.

The robust identification which many individuals really feel for his or her nations is curious. Not way back, highly effective individuals started to create a brand new idea of bodily area. They drew traces all around the map of the world and created one thing referred to as nations. Very quickly there was no place left on this planet which was not a part of some nation. Everybody inside a set of boundaries belonged to that nation and no different. These nations, that are merely the names now we have given to sure historic circumstances, have develop into issues – mounted and everlasting in our minds. We “love” our “nation.” Folks inform me that “Mexicans” ought to keep in “Mexico.” Or they are saying that “Mexico” ought to give their individuals jobs – as if “Mexico” had been a residing particular person. After all the place I sit in southern Colorado was “Mexico.” Maybe it is going to be once more sometime.

Cultures typically don’t match simply throughout the traces drawn by nations. The Mexican tradition of Berta, Isaias, Federico, Azuzena, and Luis is fiercely household oriented. And but many rural ladies in Mexico right this moment know that their youngsters will depart to make the damaging journey north earlier than they’re sixteen. Once they depart, their households maintain their breath till they obtain the information that their youngsters have efficiently made it to a job eradicating asbestos in Dallas or a job washing dishes in Durango, Co. Mexican households wrestle to regulate to the realities of the long run or everlasting separations demanded by a world which is split into nations.

U.S. immigration insurance policies have little or no impact on the variety of Mexicans who enter this nation illegally. These insurance policies rely virtually solely on police, weapons and jails. They enrich smugglers and trigger a whole lot of Mexicans to die annually within the deserts and mountains as they attempt to keep away from border patrols. They trigger individuals to remain right here longer than they would need as a result of the journey is so harmful and costly. Most immigrants I discuss to now plan to remain 3-5 years so as to make sufficient cash to return to Mexico.

There’s a higher manner. I’ve seen either side of Mexican “immigration” — their houses and villages in Mexico and their wrestle to outlive right here. I feel “displacement” could be a greater phrase. Most Mexicans don’t wish to depart their nation and most of those that are right here hope to return. They line as much as ship cash orders again house. They dream about making sufficient cash in order that they will depart a land the place they’re typically lonely, remoted and with out an official id.

It’s essential to grasp the sense of attachment Mexicans need to their land as a result of it presents the hope for an answer to what’s often a major problem for them and us.

Commerce and immigration insurance policies which strengthened rural farms and villages and which legalized the labor of short-term immigrants could be much more profitable at lowering the displacement of Mexicans, than we obtain now by pointing weapons at them.

THE MEXICANS – JUAN, ENRIQUE AND LUIS

In August 2001 the Durango Herald (Durango, Colorado) reported on Mexican immigrants to this space in a week-long collection. One among these immigrants was J. Perez who crossed the border illegally in March of 2001. Mr. Perez is a small farmer from simply outdoors of the city of Madera within the northern state of Chihuahua. In Mexico he was capable of earn $315 a month coaching horses at a close-by ranch. In Durango he makes that in every week. He works 65 hours every week washing dishes. He makes $7 an hour for his eight-hour day shift and $6.50 an hour for his 5 hour night time shift. “The toughest half is I hardly sleep,” he informed the reporter in Spanish. The Herald commented “Work consumes life for a whole lot of authorized and unlawful immigrants in Durango.” Perez desires to return to Mexico. He sends $250 a month to his household and saves the remaining so he can construct a home when he returns.

Luis Garcia is a authorized resident of the USA who has lived right here since 1979. He comes from a small farm close to the city of Santo Tomas, additionally within the state of Chihuahua. He lives in Farmington, New Mexico and works in a small slaughter facility and on the adjoining ranch close to Ignacio, Colorado.

“I began crossing the border earlier than I used to be 16. I needed to stroll for 2 days within the hills round Juarez to sneak throughout the border. I’d go to Anthony (a small city in Texas) to a ranch to care for his or her horses. Generally the ‘migra’ (immigration police) would catch me and ship me again; however I’d come proper again.”

After a painful divorce in Mexico, Luis acquired a authorized work allow and went to work on a pipeline and afterward a ranch in Evanston, Wyoming. Ultimately he labored with a pipeline firm close to Farmington. He has been working as a butcher and a ranch hand close to Ignacio for a number of years . He’s married and has 4 youngsters ranging in age from 13 to 21. Luis has lived right here for 25 years however Mexico continues to be the house of his coronary heart. He’s proud that his youngsters are capable of communicate Spanish in addition to English. Each summer season Luis returns to Mexico and leaves his youngsters to stick with his dad and mom. His youngsters love Mexico as a result of “alli la policia los deja libre.” (The police depart them alone.) He says that he needs to be a lot stricter with them in Farmington however in Santo Tomas they will run free with out moving into bother.

Luis loves the life in Mexico. “En Mexico vivo a gusto. Si traigo dinero o no lo traigo da lo mismo.” (In Mexico I reside fortunately. It’s all the identical if I’ve cash or don’t have it.)

Luis says that if he went to reside in Mexico he wouldn’t miss the life right here. “As quickly as my youngsters don’t want me anymore, I’ll return to Mexico.

Luis’ buddy Enrique, nonetheless, likes residing in the USA. He has been right here since 1989. He works for a rancher and owns ¾ of an acre close to Aztec, New Mexico. Enrique is from a small village named Carabajal Abajo and he says the life there “esta muy dura. Me gusta para aca.” (Life there’s very laborious. I prefer it right here.)