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Location: The world, where will fate take me this time?
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Quote:
Originally Posted by malamute
That's much of the problem. It's the kind of people who represent Mexico to most Americans. Most Americans aren't going to see the proud patriotic Mexicans who work and live in Mexico, who are trying hard to make their country a great place. They see the ones who left Mexico, who traded patria for American dollars.
It's also these people who paint the worst image of Mexico. They make excuses for leaving the country they claim to love because everyone in Mexico is starving to death, they're the ones telling people it's terrible in Mexico they can never be sent back home or they'll die of hunger. They don't come here because they want to be American but they never again want to live in Mexico and be a true part of that country. It's just too bad there's so much money here for them because that's all it's about.
Exactly, most people leave, not because they are starving to death, or seeking freedom, or wanting to be a part of the American dream, they leave because they pay is higher in the United States, even for ilegals.
But on the other hand the living costs are higher too, and if you go ilegally without knowing the language or trying to show some gratitude or respect for the culture, people won't respect you, I don't now how they endure that honestly.
I guess that's why some Mexicans don't like people with a Mexican background who come to this country and brag about their lifestyles, etc, people from any place in the world will find offensive to meet a foreigner that keeps braging about how great his country is and how lucky he is to live there compared to you (but yet he is visiting ) the strangest thing is that most of this people while in America will reject to learn english properly, or assimilate into the culture, so they face rejection there too.
But if you are an American (from any ethnicity) that has a genuine interest and curiosity for Mexico and come here people will be very welcoming, the same in America I lived and worked (legally) in Mc Allen for 6 months and people always gave me a hearty welcome to America! when they met me.
It was a nice experience, and the pay was very good but for some strange reason Mexico is always calling me back, I also lived in Brazil for 2 years and it was an amazing experience, but after some time I start missing my country, with all her good and bad things
I think recent emigrants could be harder to "love" because I know some really do like to go back and show off how they've "made it". I knew one guy who would say that he liked to go over to Juarez and pull out a big wad of dollars and watch their eyes pop out -- but his parents came directly from Mexico but he was born here.
Jelousy also plays a big part. Mexicans that have stayed in the country and are stuck in the same place with no progress can really feel resentful and jelous of those that have survived those hard times.
Mexicans that come back with a nice car, truck or are able to build their own home are resented.
Agreed. We were called phochos all the time, especially when people would see the license plates on our car, from Texas. We (kids) were first generation US citizens, and we were looked at and spoken to in a derogatory manner without even opening our mouths. Interestingly, these were the people in the small towns we used to pass through. Even more funny, these are not small towns anymore... Jimenez, Delicias, etc.
I know exactly what you mean. If it wasnt for those Mexicans that left the country to help their families, those cities would have progressed but not at that rate. Yet they look at us like we are foreigners. I have to say that in my case, they cant tell I was born in the states because I dont have an accent. It is not until they ask how long I have been gone from the country, is when they start making unfair judgements.
In my home town, most of the homes were made of adobe. The road to the ranch had big holes and had big rocks. The river would overflow during rainy season and no one could pass through to go to town. Now, the road has been fixed, the river does not overflow and in those times it would take 40 minutes to get to the ranch while now it takes 10 minutes.
I think many "Mexican Americans" or whatever they want to be called resent being identified with a foreign country they've never stepped foot in, maybe never will. I used to find it funny because so many "Mexican Americans" were almost horrified that I would travel into Mexico because they wouldn't and that was when things were not bad at all over there.
I'm just the opposite. I resent not being identified with Mexico even when I was born in the U.S. I feel I belong to two countries Mexico is just a part of me as the U.S. It is possible to love and be loyal to two countries. I know many Mexican Americans that feel the same way I do and some have never stepped foot in Mexico.
It is weird huh? I don't know why people expect things from others LOL, If you have ancestors who came from Mexico that doesn't automatically makes you learn the language or the culture, it is unfair that people expects you to do.
On the other hand some times while in Los Angeles, I went to the downtown to the stores, everybody was speaking spanish there, so I spoke to the clerk in spanish and he gave me a strange look and told me, why are you speaking to me in spanish, and I said because I'm from Mexico, and he was like oh really?? you don't look that mexican LOL
I guess that Mexico or mexicans are so stereotyped that people get surprised when you don't fit in the stereotype
TF, even when you do know the language and the culture, people are prejudice of the fact that one is born "en el otro lado"-on the other side.
The fact that people stereotype Mexicans as being brown should also tell you that you were very much accepted because of your color.
Exactly, most people leave, not because they are starving to death, or seeking freedom, or wanting to be a part of the American dream, they leave because they pay is higher in the United States, even for ilegals.
But on the other hand the living costs are higher too, and if you go ilegally without knowing the language or trying to show some gratitude or respect for the culture, people won't respect you, I don't now how they endure that honestly.
I guess that's why some Mexicans don't like people with a Mexican background who come to this country and brag about their lifestyles, etc, people from any place in the world will find offensive to meet a foreigner that keeps braging about how great his country is and how lucky he is to live there compared to you (but yet he is visiting ) the strangest thing is that most of this people while in America will reject to learn english properly, or assimilate into the culture, so they face rejection there too.
But if you are an American (from any ethnicity) that has a genuine interest and curiosity for Mexico and come here people will be very welcoming, the same in America I lived and worked (legally) in Mc Allen for 6 months and people always gave me a hearty welcome to America! when they met me.
It was a nice experience, and the pay was very good but for some strange reason Mexico is always calling me back, I also lived in Brazil for 2 years and it was an amazing experience, but after some time I start missing my country, with all her good and bad things
You know I have meet some Mexicans that were not starving in Mexico but the majority of the Mexicans that come to the U.S. do come because they live in poverty. I dont know how you came to that conclusion. Back some years ago, the majority of the immigrants were from Michoacan, Jalisco, Zacatecas and Guanajuato. The towns in these states have now grown, thanks to the immigrants who have sent their "remitentes". The new wave of immigrants are from Oaxaca. There is a very large population of immigrants (mostly indigenous) that live in poverty in Oaxaca with no light and hardly anything to eat. My father came to this country because there was a need to feed his 11 siblings. I realize that big families are not the norm anymore but that does not mean that people are not living in poverty.
First, you know you dont get a visa unless you can prove that you are financially stable at home. Those that come with a visa, stay a few months, work and go back dont really get the feeling of having to stay because they need to in order to survive. They can come as they please and leave. There is no border holding them back as money is not the problem. The same calling you had to return back home is the same calling all undocumented people get. The difference is you can actually do it and you know the consequences are at a minimum.
I know exactly what you mean. If it wasnt for those Mexicans that left the country to help their families, those cities would have progressed but not at that rate.
What cities are u talking about? All the money that mexicans in US send to mexico is bad wasted imo...nothing of this will be investment for the cities ..
Location: The world, where will fate take me this time?
3,162 posts, read 11,436,372 times
Reputation: 1463
Zacatecana
I came to that conclusion because I know a lot of people who have family in the USA or have gone to el norte for work and returned, and trust me, most of them aren't dirt poor like some of the poorest people that live here, usually the poorest don't emigrate because they don't have the resources to do it.
Regarding the visas it is true, and they are very hard to get nowadays, even if you have a stable job and a good income, I was lucky because I got one when I was a kid and it was waaaay easier, I have friends who have good jobs, college education and speak english well and they are denied the visa, now getting a work visa is a completely different thing, in my case in order to get it first the company where I worked (which was american) had to file a request, then they interviewed the president and asked him why did he want to bring a mexican to work to the USA, he had to said that it was because I was a trusted employee who handled a lot of sensible information for the company (passwords, etc) after that I had to do some medical checkups and I was interviewed too, the process was lengthy and difficult, but finally I got it.
Besides that, you can escape poverty in Mexico if you really want to, there is a person I know who own the biggest and most important aquarium of the entire country.
he comes from an small town from Oaxaca, in order to go to school, he had to get up at 4 am, take a 2 hours donkey ride and then go back home to help with the family farm.
This life of hard work made him a discipline man, who became a succesful business owner when he came to Mexico city.
Getting an education is hard for people who live in rural isolated areas, but for people living in the cities or near them, it isn't that hard, you have public schools and free education up to college level, my father for example became a Doctor in the UNAM without paying a single penny.
It is harder to be succesful in Mexico than the USA that's true, but it isn't impossible, and in many cases I believe that is better if you come from an small and poor rural community, to migrate to a city within the country and work hard, that to go illegally to the USA, because you'll have to endure discrimination, hostility and live constantly in fear of getting deported.
What cities are u talking about? All the money that mexicans in US send to mexico is bad wasted imo...nothing of this will be investment for the cities ..
I agree because very little of it actually goes toward infrastructure and job creation.
This video shows what I think remittances really accomplish. People leave to go after money, maybe send money back to their families for a while, maybe for a long time -- but money isn't everything.
This is El Salvador but it still shows the devastation created when children have "remittance" parents instead of parents home raising and guiding and caring for them.
At 4:20, they show these kids whose parents left them -- maybe they send money back -- but these kids needed a whole lot more than American dollars being sent back. Travieso talking to his mom at 5:20 -- and you see the life he's leading, abandoned since he was only 11 years old to that kind of life. You see it in Travieso's eyes. Nice enough American-style clothes, but something far more valuable is gone from their lives. I know not all remittance children have it as hard -- some have it worse but some are raised by loving grandparents or aunts and uncles.
I'm just the opposite. I resent not being identified with Mexico even when I was born in the U.S. I feel I belong to two countries Mexico is just a part of me as the U.S. It is possible to love and be loyal to two countries. I know many Mexican Americans that feel the same way I do and some have never stepped foot in Mexico.
A friend of mine was born and raised in Michigan, grew up speaking English and considered himself a Mexican, his parents were also born in the USA, spoke English and some Spanish, he had one Mexican grandparent. He studied at the university I did, and was in the group of us who went to take classes in Mexico. He tried his best to learn Spanish but it was kind of funny to watch this Mexican looking guy (black hair and eyes, dark skin) open his mouth and hear this most atrocious "gringo" accent -- "yoh key arrow cam parrh una cer rap pee" and see the faces of the people in the mercado.
In the end it was kind of sad though because all his life he felt like he was loyal to Mexico, he had the Mexican flag displayed proudly but he really couldn't fit there. He was a Midwestern American - in reality he was a gringo -- Mexicans saw him as that and he began to realize that too, Mexico didn't turn out to be what he imagined it would be for him. He went home with a different appreciation of what he is.
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) the strangest thing is that most of this people while in America will reject to learn english properly, or assimilate into the culture, so they face rejection there too.
