Vicissitudes and Victories

Thanking Immigrants for the Myriad Jobs They Do

I really like this essay read on National Public Radio by Richard Rodriguez on April 5, 2006. The essay was Rodriguez's reaction to the many Latino demonstrations all over the country in the last few weeks. My politics are probably not nearly as liberal as his, but I found myself very much sympathizing with the point he was trying to make. I believe he was trying to say that our country today, as it always has been, is built on the backs of the working poor of which immigrants make up a large part. All of our families were immigrants at some point to the United States. They all came to find a better life. The conception of illegality among immigrants is a fairly new construction--within the last hundred years. Most of our ancestors came to the United States as untouchables. England didn't want the Puritans or the Pilgrims. The Irish left Ireland because of famine to find a better life among people that treated them very badly in the United States. Most blacks came over on slave ships against their will. Asians came as workers and endured much prejudice and imprisonment. The only thing I'm trying to say is that illegal aliens are people too. All people of other races and ethnicities are as human as we are, and we can't forget that just because they look, sound, smell, and act differently. If you really want a treat follow the link and hear the author read the essay for yourself.

Richard Rodriguez

In the noisy argument over what to do with illegal immigrants, the common assumption is that Americans have done a great deal for them already. The question now is: What more should we give them? Should we give them a green card? Grant them amnesty? Or stop all this generosity and send them packing. No one speaks about what illegal immigrants have done for us. It occurs to me I've not heard two relevant words spoken. If you will allow me, I will speak them: Thank you!

Thank you for turning on the sprinklers. Thank you for cleaning the swimming pool and scrambling the eggs and doing the dishes. Thank you for making the bed. Thank you for getting the children up and ready for school. Thank you for picking them up after school. Thank you for caring for our dying parents. Thank you for plucking dead chickens. Thank you for bending your bodies over our fields. Thank you for breathing chemicals and absorbing chemicals into your bodies. Thank you for the lettuce and the spinach, and the artichokes and the asparagus and the cauliflower, the broccoli, the beans, the tomatoes, and the garlic. Thank you for the apricots and the peaches and the apples and the melons and the plums and the almonds and the grapes. Thank you for the willow trees and the roses and the winter lawn. Thank you for scraping and painting and roofing and cleaning out the asbestos and the mold. Thank you for your stoicism and your eager hands. Thank you for all the young men on roof tops in the sun. Thank you for cleaning the toilets and the showers and the restaurant kitchens and the schools and the office buildings and the airports and the malls. Thank you for washing the car. Thank you for washing all the cars. Thank you for your parents who died young and had nothing to bequeath to their children but the memory of work. Thank you for giving us your youth. Thank you for the commemorative altars. Thank you for the food, the beer, the tragic polka. Gracias.

posted by Joel @ 6:00 PM