Abuelo Juan

La gente lo conoce como el Abuelo Juan.

Cuando hablamos de el, decimos "Mi Abuelo".

Nosotros los Mexicanos hacemos eso, hablamos de nuestros padres y nuestros abuelos, diciendo "mi mama o mi abuela". No es nada en contra de nuestros queridos hermanos, para quien claramente, tambien es, pues "nuestra mama o nuestro papa". Solo, es una cosa cultural, es la manera que nosotros usamos nuestro idioma.

Yo me apuro de mi Abuelo. Me apuro de su salud, que si come bien, que si tiene y toma su medicina. Me apuro y pienso cuando lo volvere a ver. Mi temor es que si cuando regrese a verlo aun estara con nosotros.

Nuestros dias aparte de uno al otro se convierten en meses, meses se convierten en años y lo extraño. Otro año sin verlo. Tengo que oir su voz. Tomo el telefono y le llamo. Hola! Abuelito. Como esta? Me dice. "Bien Mijo..y tu...tu familia?" Bien. Bien. Todo bien.

Hablamos de "Los Estados Unidos" de "El Otro Lado". Le gusta contarme historias. Historias de sus jornadas a California, Arizona y Oregon. Jornadas a lugares que no puede pronuciar con nombres, de "Aidajo, Wiescon-son, Miichican" y de el trabajo duro y sucio de el campo.

Le cuento sobre los tiempos dificiles que estan pasando los Mexicanos en Estados Unidos. El me cuenta de sus tiempos como Bracero. Me cuenta de los empleadores que se desaparcian con sus semanas de pago. El recuerda los fondos que fueron deducidos de su cheque para "la pension", el 10% de sus ganancias durante el periodo de 1942 a 1945. Como estos fondos fueron deducidos por el Gobierno Estaunidense, los fondos puestos en una supesta "cuenta de ahorros" y como estos fondos desaparecieron. Estos fondos debian ser pagados a los Braceros cuando regresaran a Mexico. Recuerda que sus ahoros desaparecieron al igual que los de 300,000 otros Braceros y ni el Gobierno Estaunidense o el Gobierno Mexicanos dispuestos a tomar responsabilidad. Los Braceros sin recurso alguno, simplemente siguieron con sus vidas y lo dejaron, pero aun recuerdan.

Pero a pesar de todo, mi Abuelo insiste que su jornada y tiempo en Ameria fue bueno. El habla de el cariño de unos Americanos. De la generosidad de un Policia de Los Angeles blanco que lo paro cuando caminaba por la calle y le hizo preguntas en su poco Español y de un momento saca un billete de Viente Dollares y lo pone en la mano de mi Abuelo y dice "vaya con Dios, amigo". Mi abuelo tiene dulces memorias de un tal, "Mister Ford" que una vez le ayudo a conseguir un trabajo en un factoria con buena paga. El trabajo en la factoria quita de los campos y el calor del sol.

Mi Abuelo dice, "Fueron buenos tiempos, fue una aventura y lo haria otra vez, pero eso es cosa para los nuevos".

Finalmente mi Abuelo me dice Adios. Me dice "Ojala pronto los vea."

Antes de que le pueda responder, siento un nudo en la garganta y mis ojos se empiezan a llenanar de lagrimas, le solo puedo responderle, "Si.. Abuelito. Pronto. Muy pronto".

Technorati Tags: immigration cultural heritage migration mexico family

Abuelo Juan

He is known as el Abuelo Juan.

We refer to him as, "Mi Abuelo"

Mexicans do that, we refer to our parents, grandmothers, grandfathers as "my mother, my grandfather". We don't mean to be inconsiderate of our brothers or sisters. Its just a cultural thing, its a quirk in our use of language.

I worry about Mi Abuelo. I worry about his health, does he eat right, does have and take his medicine. I worry and wonder when I will see him again. I fear whether he will still be, with us, when I return.

Our days apart turn into months, months into years and we miss him each other. Another year goes by and I've yet to see him. How I yearn to hear his voice. I place the call. Hello. Abuelito. Si..! "Como esta"? Bien mijo...y tu? Fine my son, and you? Bien. Bien. Good. Good.

We talk of "Los Estados Unidos", the United States, of "el otro lado" the otherside. He likes to retell stories, stories of his past journeys to California, Arizona and Oregon. Journeys to places he can't pronounce, "Aidajo, Weesconson, Meechican" and the tough and dirty work in the farm fields.

I tell him about the difficult times Mexicans are now facing in the U.S. He tells me of his time as a "Bracero", as a guest worker. He tells me of the unscrupulous employers who vanished with weeks of pay. He remembers the money taken from his paychecks, for "pension" a 10% withholding from his earnings during the period of 1942 to 1945. How these funds were withheld by the U.S. government, the money to be placed in a "savings fund". The funds were to be paid to the guest workers upon their return to Mexico. His "savings funds" disappeared like those of 300,000 other Braceros never to resurface and neither the U.S. nor the Mexican government willing to take any responsibility. The Braceros left with no recourse and no one to turn just went on and let it go and now can only remember.

But, for all that, my Abuelo insists his journey and time in America was good. He speaks of the kindness of many "Americanos". The kindness of the white Los Angeles policeman who stopped him on a residential street, questioned him in bits of broken Spanish and then just reached into his pocket pulled out a Twenty Dollar bill, placed the bill into my grandfathers hand and said, "vaya con Dios, amigo". He relishes the memory and generosity of a "Mister Ford" who he says once helped him land a good paying job in factory. The factory job took him out of the farm fields and out of the blazing sun.

My Abuelo says, "Fueron buenos tiempos, fue una aventura y lo haria otra vez, pero eso es cosa para los nuevos". They were good times, it was an adventure, I would do it again, but those are things for when you are young.

Abuelo says Goodbye to me. He tells me, "Ojala pronto los vea." Hopefully I'll see you soon. Before I can speak, I feel a lump in my throat and as tears well in my eyes I say, "Si.. Abuelito. Pronto. Muy pronto". Yes, Grandfather, Soon. Very soon.

Technorati Tags: immigration cultural heritage migration mexico family

California High School Walkouts Continue

Despite rain and an ordered lockdown by the Superintedent of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) groups of students continued to protest proposed immigration reforms. The lockdowns probably contributed to many students seizing the opportunity to continue their protests and skip another day of school. Although for the most part the marches have been peaceful a few incidents of violence and arrests have been reported.

Gardena High School students (pictured) walked a mostly peaceful demonstration down Redondo Beach Blvd. Students from Carson High enmassed near the Harbor 110 Freeway and walking onto several lanes of the freeway. In San Pedro students walked onto the Vincent Thomas Bridge, but police stopped them, detained a few and turned most of the students around.

Local leaders such as the Mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa have begun to urge students to return to school and be mindful of their behaviour. The students are reminded not lose sight of demonstrating peacfully and taint the intended message to Congressional leaders.

The walkouts are a financial impact on LAUSD. The 728,000-student Los Angeles Unified School District which on Monday saw about 26,000 students walk out of 56 local schools, will sustain a loss of more than $500,000 in lost state attendance funds. The LAUSD receives state money for every student in class and those funds are withheld whenever a student is reported absent.

500,000 Angelenos Protest Immigration Bill

An estimated 500,000 protesters took to the streets of Downtown Los Angeles, Saturday, March 25th, 2006 to protest of the provisions of the HR 4437. The immigration bill authored by Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner [R-WI] has caused much concern among immigrants because the new law effectively criminality illegal immigration. Any immigrant who illegally entered the country would be subject to a felony conviction and jail time. A felony conviction would essentially deny these immigrants legal residency and U.S. Citizenship.

The recently passed law has widened the rift between Democrats and Republicans. The bill passed the Senate floor with most Republicans voting in favor and Democrats voting against the measure. A detailed list of the votes is provided here. The bills author Rep. Sensenbrenner has drawn sharp criticism from Democrats such as Sen. Hillary Rodham who has called the new legislation "mean spirited".

The contentious debate on illegal immigration and HR4437 goes back to December 2005 when Congressman Raul M. Grijalva, Democrat from Arizona, made the following statement on the bill when, the bill was introduced on the House floor:

Though Americans continue to ask that Congress create orderly, legal venues for new immigrants and for safe and legal ways in which immigrants already here can declare their presence, H.R. 4437 does not even come close to fulfilling these requests. In fact, it promotes a shadow culture in which immigrants need and want to hide, which then puts our country at a greater security risk.

With one hasty line, this bill makes all immigrants criminals. It turns an immigration-law violation into an aggravated felony. Thus, legal permanent residents, who initially may have had an unlawful entry but were able to pursue a legal venue thereafter, would be categorized as felons and prevented from becoming U.S. citizens as the current law allows.

H.R. 4437 also endangers checks and balances and progress that our Nation has made towards equality. With its expansion of expedited removal programs, H.R. 4437 removes important checks that currently protect against erroneous arrests and deportations. In the realm of civil rights, immigrants that are victim to domestic violence would be discouraged from seeking protection in fear of being charged with an aggravated felony. Furthermore, immigrants dealing with Federal agencies or the judicial system would nolonger have the opportunity to appeal, thereby weakening even more checks and balances in our government.

I am ashamed of the Republican leadership for bringing this bill to the floor, for ignoring the American people, and for supporting a bill that will expand the immigration crisis. Worse than all the harm that this bill would cause is the fact that it fails to include any of the immigration reforms that Americans have asked for. It includes penalties for employers, but no provisions allowing them to attain needed employees. It criminalizes immigrants, but provides no solutions for a legal venue for entry.

As lawmakers, we can do better. We can bring to the floor a comprehensive and realistic approach to immigration that addresses border security, changes to current immigration law--including earned legalization--and upholds labor rights for all U.S. employees, be they citizens or foreign born. H.R. 4437 is not this bill. It ignores the need to address societal, economic and national security shortfalls and I encourage my colleagues to denounce this insulting response to the American people and vote ``no'' on H.R. 4437 .

Pres. Bush has urged that both sides maintain a civil tone as they attempt to find workable solutions on the issue of illegal immigration. The call for civility from Pres. Bush also goes to his own party who has become increasingly divided amongs itself on how to resolve the issue of illegal immigration.

This Saturday, March 25, 2006, the immigrant community was galvanized and produced a march which depending on which organizations figures you find more credible resulted in an estimated 200,000 (mainstream medias figures) or 500,000 (march organizers figures) took to the streets of Los Angeles in what was categorized as a peaceful and well organized protest. The Los Angeles Independent Media Center website provides the following video footage of the march.

In 1994 California passed Proposition 187 by a 60% margin which was the beginning of an anti-immigrant backlash. The controversial provisions were later struck down by the courts as unconstitutional but before that 70,000 people protested the state initiative in downtown Los Angeles. It is not suprsing the the protests against HR 4437 like the protests of Prop. 187 which both sought to punish and deny benefits to undocumented migrants both failed to consider the potential backlash from a group now estimated at over 10 million.

"U.S. to Illegal Immigrants: Drop Dead."

As Spring arrives and the days become warmer my mind begins to focus on Summer. I think of Summer and the promise of scorching 100+ degree days in our deserts of Arizona. While the heat begins to rise in our deserts our Congress is involved in its own intense and heated debate over illegal immigration. No matter what position one might take on the issue of illegal immigration the fact remains that this year over 300 men, women and children will die as they make a desperate attempt to illegally enter our country.

During the period of 1998-2004 over 3000 deaths were recorded in the surrounding desert areas of Tucson, Arizona. The deaths are a result of a shift in migration patterns by illegal immigrants as they sought alternative routes due to an increased border patrol presence and fences built on the border between San Diego and Tijuana. The beefed up Border Patrol presence and fencing resulted in the smugglers and immigrants moving further inland to desolate areas in their effort to reach the U.S. undetected.

The majority of the immigrant smuggling trade is now transacted in the Naco, Arizona and Naco, Sonora, Mexico region. It is no small secret that the Mexican town of Naco functions mostly as launching point from which Mexican and Central American immigrants attempt their perilous journey into the United States. The deaths have continued for the past 10 years and they have attracted the attention of various groups such as No More Deaths an organization that has openly provided humanitarian aide despite the risk of arrest and fines for their actions. A list of some of the dead is provided here.

As the Senate prepares to tackle the most sweeping immigration reforms in years, a top Democrat has vowed to do everything in his power, including filibuster, to thwart Republican Majority Leader Bill Frist's proposed overhaul. Minority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, has stated that he would "use every procedural means at my disposal" to prevent Frist from bypassing the Judiciary Committee. Majority Leader Frist has made clear the Senate will take up his proposal next week in the event the 18-member committee fails to complete a broader bill.

Whether or not Congress can agree on a comprehensive immigration bill remains to be seen. In the meantime a bill approving a new 700 mile long fence on the Mexican border with Arizona has been passed. The bill will force employers to check the Social Security numbers of new hires against a national database. The bill also contains all sorts of punitive measures - such as making it a felony for illegal immigrants to be here and making it a felony for anyone who knowingly helps an illegal immigrant.

Twenty years after passing the most sweeping immigration reform our leadership in Congress now fails to reach common ground on immigration reform and has enacted potentially dangerous and regressive immigration policies.

In California issue of illegal immigration has been a hotly contested debate especially since then Gov. Davis granting Illegal Immigrants Drivers Licenses. The much touted accomplishment of Sen. Gil Cedillo were short lived as Gov. Schwarznegger citing Homeland Security issues forced the Assembly to cave and grant a repeal of the same law.

As we continue this contentious debate angry voices will rise from both sides, as surely as the heat in the Arizona desert. Indeed protest and demonstrations are already being scheduled in major cities including Los Angeles, San Diego, Chicago, Denver, Milwaukee, New York, Philadelphia, San Antonio, Las Cruces, New Mexico, and Tucson, Arizona.

The images to come will likely be seized upon by our mainstream media and used to boost ratings but will fail to provide any real contribution towards healthy dialogue that could contribute towards resolving the issue of illegal immigration. The images that our mainstream media is likely to provide will be those of groups engaged in heated exchange of words - such as inviduals from the Minuteman Project and Immigration Watchdog locked in angry shouting matches with pro immigration groups the likes of NCLR and MALDEF.

As insults get traded and angry voices rise during our Nations debate on illegal immigration, the death toll will also rise in the sorching heat of the Arizona desert.

Deconstructing The OBRA School Fair

This past Thursday evening I decided to attend the OBRA School Fair. The event was held at Stevens Steak House in the City of Commerce, CA. I should mention that I only attend the school fair out of....well...."morbid curiosity"...I wanted to see which schools would actually feel that it was important that they exhibit given the state of the Vocational Rehabilitation industry.

I figured since I was going more on more leisure than business purposes, because I was interested in picking up some freebies...such as the school brochures, the free coffee cups and candy especially the chocolates. You see chocolate is the addiction that my precious 4 year old son Joseph has stumbled upon and like any good parent I felt obligated to bring him along and well..."enable him".

Approximately 12 schools officially exihibited at the school fair. OBRA has also produced a Shool Catalog which they currently sell for $10.00. If you are interested in purchasing the catalog you can contact OBRA at "877 ORG-OBRA".

Needless to say it was encouraging to see that some of the vocational schools had received state accreditation and have begun to receive students from sources beyond Vocational Rehabilitation Counselors. A few schools have found some success with Welfare Return to Work programs and State Rehabilitation Counselors. A few indicated that they had begun to see a "trickle" of Voucher enrollments but these enrollments fail to make up for the loss of students with pre 2004 dates of inury.

The current President of OBRA Marion Richardson provided an encouraging keynote speech in which he encouraged Rehab Counselors and Vocational Schools to look at each other and engage in collaborative projects. Marion spoke of markets in which California based Rehab Counselors and Vocational Schools could tap into and new markets that could benefit from their products and services. His message has already been implemented by various Counselors, such as Claudia Leal & Associates, Herrera & Associates, Disability Management Partners all who have begun to offer a host of services such as Diminished Earnings Capacity Evaluations, Ergonomic Evaluations, Early Return to Work programs, as well as standard services like Interpreting/Translations, Copy Service and Transportation.

All in all, I was happy that I attended the event. It was smaller and felt somewhat more intimate than the school fairs of the few past years. It was good to see familiar faces engaged in a common goal of surviving the many changes our industry is currently experiencing.

I should mention that Joseph got lots of chocolate and a toy crane which was a gift from the kind folks over at the College of Instrument Technology. Thanks and it was good to see you all.

Gotta Get This Faucet

If you dig the electric blue color of your favorite mouthwash, then ThinkGeek has an amazing product for you. For just $14.99 you can get a Blue LED Faucet Light attachment that will give plain old water a revitalized look. Who knows you may experience an additional soothing effect while making that midnight run to the bathroom as you experience the gleaming liquid blue pouring from your bathoom faucet. It may become the second "Aaahhh" you utter!

Fencing in Illegal Immigration

While Congress nears its deadline of March 27 to complete its debates on several bills that seek to resolve the illegal immigration crisis in the U.S., the Pew Hispanic Center released an update to their report of March 2005. The Pew’s recent report extrapolates previous estimates on the number of illegal immigrants believed to be living in the U.S.

The Pew report concluded that approximately 10 Million illegal immigrants currently live in the U.S. The report goes on to state that an overwhelming majority of illegal immigrants are Latino and that most are from Mexico.

The Pew’s report also examines the States that these undocumented immigrants make home as well as the types of work they perform. It provides a breakdown on the number of illegal immigrants living in each State of the union.

From the Pew Hispanic Center Report:

“-- Most illegal immigrants live in families where the adults are undocumented, but the children are U.S.-born. An estimated 13.9 million people -- including 4.7 million children -- live in families in which the head of household or the spouse is an unauthorized immigrant.

-- Illegal immigrants continue to outpace the number of legal immigrants -- a trend that's held steady since the 1990s. While the undocumented continue to concentrate in places with existing large communities of Hispanics, they are also increasingly settling throughout the rest of the country.

-- Among the U.S. states experiencing the greatest growth in illegal immigrant population are Arizona, North Carolina, Utah, Colorado and Idaho -- places not traditionally considered centers of illegal immigrant communities.

-- Illegal immigrants arriving in recent years tend to have more education than those who've been in the country a decade or more. A quarter has at least some college education. Nonetheless, undocumented immigrants as a group are less educated than other sections of the U.S. population: 49 percent haven't completed high school, compared with 9 percent of native-born Americans and 25 percent of legal immigrants.

-- Illegal immigrants can be found working in many sectors of the U.S. economy. About 3 percent work in agriculture; 33 percent have jobs in service industries; and substantial numbers can be found in construction and related occupations (16 percent) and in production, installation and repair (17 percent).

-- Illegal immigrants have lower incomes than both legal immigrants and native-born Americans, but earnings do increase somewhat the longer an individual is in the country.”

Whether or not Congress meets the deadline and reaches bi-partisan agreement on illegal immigration remains to be seen. Mexican undocumented immigrants are closing watching the congressional debates on Spanish media outlets for signs on their negative impact. While most undocumented immigrants quietly yearn for good news few expect an easy path towards a guest-worker or legal residency status.

As 10 Million undocumented immigrants wait their fate they are reminded that over 300 immigrants died last year while attempting to illegally enter the U.S. The deaths included women and children which is evidence to a troubling fact that some immigrants are just trying to reunite with a family member on this side of the border.

As Border States increasingly focus on passing measures designed to prevent illegal entry at the border, such as Arizona’s just approved proposal to erect a double- and triple-layered fence, undocumented immigrants face an uncertain future.

The recent bi-partisan support and approval of the Senate Judiciary Committee for the Arizona fence and measures for increasing the number of agents patrolling the border will ultimately prove more costly and less effective than enforcing work permits at the workplace. Congress failure to enact a reasonable guest-worker program denies the fact that agriculture and industry heavily rely on immigrant labor. As Congress locks itself into a contentious debate over proposed guest-worker programs, because ultra-conservative Republicans see it as another Amnesty, it considers more draconian measures that would make living in the U.S. a criminal offense and propose that such laws be applied retroactively. Spanish media outlets have begun to provide extensive coverage on the proposed measures as well as drawing attention to the many marches and public protests by groups who strongly oppose illegal immigration.

Perhaps the bigger and more interesting story is being written as Mexico readies itself on how to deal with its citizens who no longer emigrate to the U.S. It has been argued that the net migration from Mexico in fact lessens the economic and social burdens of such country. The illegal immigrants from Mexico quickly become assets to Mexico as they begin to send regular remittances to their families back home. The level of remittances has continued to increase and last year resulted in an estimated 20 Billion US Dollars.

Sources:

Nicole Gaouette, Los Angeles Times
Pew Hispanic Center Report

Workplace Watchdog Group Protests Day Labor Centers

The debate on Illegal Immigration will deepen as Congress considers several bills that seek to reform our broken immigration policy. The views and opinions have begun to surface in the blogosphere and there is no shortage of commentary and videos on both sides of the issue. I came accross a group that caught my attention because the posted a few videos on YouTube on what they bill as, " We encourage employers to hire from legal temporary agencies." I posted the following commentary on their blog. If you are interested in reading more on this group click here. This is the commentary I posted on the WorkPlaceWatchdog.org website:

"The tactics and disrespect you demonstrate in your interviews along with the videos you post which includ sound effects of animals and labels such as "alien alert", depict you as xenophobic.

The videos posted showcase a group bent on harassing anyone who disagrees with you on the issue of illegal immigration, which is really the issue you focus on, the Day Labor Center just an easy target. It is interesting that you make no mention on whether WorkPlaceWatchdog.org made an effort to verify whether the day laborers at the Home Depot DLC are in fact are "illegal immigrants", as you allege. The fact is that major corporations such as Disney and WalMart have hired illegal aliens. They routinely side step the responsibility of verifying "legal status" by hiring workers through employment and temporary agencies.

Having worked in the Workers' Compensation Industry for over 18 years. I've seen injury claims from Labor Ready, Remedy Temp, Select Personnel and similar type of agencies which involve illegal aliens. The fact is that the hiring of illegal aliens is done accross all sectors of our economy.

This problem stems from the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, which then sought to impose a $10,000.00 fine on employers who, "knowingly hired an illegal worker". The fact is that such fines were rarely imposed.

Although I understand your point of view and your desire publicly speak your mind it was difficult to take you seriously when you continually mention and promote Labor Ready in your videos. The continous mention of Labor Ready leads the viewer to question whether WorkPlaceWatchdog is funded in any manner by such corporation.

If the goal of your organization is to bring focus on problems illegal immigration create, then groups efforts would be better served by addressing state and federal legislators on ways to craft meaningful and workable immigration reform."

Unfortunately the debate on illegal immigration has become a highly fractured and divisive topic in which good natured people have such differing opinions. Hopefully Congress can create meaningful reform before this matter creates further divisions within our Country.

technorati tags: illegal, immigration, laborer, racism, politics

Yo Quiero Mis 500 Canales!

Ya llegaron tus 500+ canales de Television, pero no han llegado a tu televisor. No, estos 500+ canales vienen por medio de tu conexcion al el Internet hecho gracias a Democracy. No estamos hablando sobre Democracy en el sentido politico. El intento de Democracy es lanzar una revolucion y esta revolucion sera entregada por medio de banda ancha y atraves de Bit Torrent.

Ahora, mas que nunca, puedes participar en esta revolucion, literalmente desde tu silla, sillon, cama, bueno desde la comodidad de tu hogar o trabajo. Democracy en un magnifico complemento a servicios como Vimeo. El servicio Vimeo tambien es un buen complemento a el nuevo browser Flock.

Por mientras disfruta de este clip:

View this clip on Vimeo

technorati tags: Comedia, Democracy, Vimeo, Flock, Web20, OpenSource, Spanish, InternetTV