One of the things that often happens when you live outside your home country is that you see the world differently. And I'm wondering if you live as an expat for an extended period of time, that maybe your home country begins to seem foreign.
Yesterday there was an article in the Houston Chronicle about agribusinesses moving to Mexico because they could not find workers in the USA. It seems that the Mexicans are moving back to Mexico rather than get picked up by Immigration and possibly put in jail for five years before they are deported. Okay, fine. Interesting article especially of interest to me because the Mexican State that the article highlighted was Guanajuato, the State where we live. I had noticed not only the drip irrigation systems in the fields but also I noticed that there seemed to be more modern equipment in the fields. So it all tied together.
But what left me flabbergasted were the comments attached to the article. Is this really the way American citizens are feeling? Good riddance! And that companies that move their agribusiness across the border are traitors.
So do these people want to pay higher prices for fruits and vegetables on top of paying astronomical prices for gasoline and facing rising unemployment. Are the people who are unemployed ready to do the hard work of cultivating and picking fruits and vegetables? At what salary? WOW! The longer we live here the more out of step I seem to be in the USA.
About Me
- Billie Mercer
- San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
- A widow, after 56 years of marriage, I'm starting a new phase in my life and the old Billieblog just didn't seem to fit. I'll be writing about finding my way.
2011 Books I Have Read
6 comments:
Billie -- I am daily shocked at some of the comments I hear from my colleagues. All are well-educated and most are of a political liberal bent. The lack of compassion for people in general is distubing, but there appears to be a special fear involved when we discuss Latin Americans. It is sad.
Billie - I've stopped reading the comments after the articles in the Chronicle. It's too disturbing to know there are so many people who have no compassion....especially when the subject is Mexico. I don't understand it and it so saddens me.
your last paragraph is so right on.
i agree also. it is scary and disconcerting to see how our "fellow" Americans feel about Mexicans sometimes.
You know, people have kids at the drop of a hat and no one complains about all the new citizens. Yet in my lifetime, the USA has gone from 200 million people to 300 mm people, most of them progeny of citizens. How much cheaper would gasoline be if there were only 200 mm people in the country? How much cheaper would houses be? How much less traffic would there be? Answer: a lot.
For a country whose culture is taking over the world--Madonna, MacDonalds, TV Sitcoms, ETC-- we seem to be remarkably terrified of some Mexicans coming across the boarder, picking lettuce, and then changing our culture.
Overpopulation of America and the world are the problem, not whether some Mexicans move across the border and start working immediately rather than waiting 25-odd years first.
Regards,
Kim G
Boston, MA
We just returned from a trip to Ft Worth to visit relatives. We were amazed and turned off by their prejudice and hateful comments about Mexicans.
The state of Arizona this past year enacted a very restrictive law pertaining to the employ of Mexican Nationals. A recent article in the Tucson paper talked about the same issues you mention the Houston paper having. We are thinking in a year or so when many needs in various industries and and private sector are feeling the pinch of unfulfilled jobs that were held by the Mexicans, that state will be crying for a guest worker program. I think many states will rue the day they cried, "Mexican go home".
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