Today the average worker in Mexico makes $7 per day. If you lived in Mexico and you knew that if you traveled only a few miles over the border into the United States you could find work and make $70 a day, would you come here to work even if you did not have the legal permission that is required to come into the country? Would you do it even though you know you could be arrested for breaking the law?
To many poor families in Mexico and other Latin American countries, the idea of making a decent wage in the United States, even illegally, seems worth the risk. And many United States businesses, farms, and individuals have been happy to pay these people to work for them, even though that is also illegal.
Latinos face many challenges in the United States, but by far the greatest challenge is the issue of undocumented immigration. It is believed that there are currently 12 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States, and more cross the border into the country every day. Latinos come to this country—legally or illegally—for the same reasons that other immigrants have and continue to come: to find jobs, freedom, and better opportunities for their families.
It is sometimes difficult for non-Latino U.S. citizens to understand the grinding poverty and scarcity of available jobs in Latin America. Many people have little knowledge of the persecution and violence that Latin Americans If aced in their countries before fleeing to the United States. Some non-Latino citizens forget that their ancestors, too, originally came to this country from other lands.
Several U.S. legislators have called for stronger border security to prevent people from entering the country illegally. Others have worked to create legislature that would allow undocumented immigrants to achieve legal status. At present, both issues are hotly debated among both legislators and U.S. citizens.
Some people think that undocumented immigrants are taking away jobs from U.S. citizens, but many of the jobs that Latinos take pay very little and offer working conditions that are harsher than most U.S. citizens are accustomed to. Many Latinos work as laborers on farms and construction sites; as factory workers; as dishwashers, maids, and busboys in hotels and restaurants; and as domestic servants in private homes. Few U.S. citizens want these types of jobs.
The U.S. government allows some immigrants to live and work in the United States for a certain period of time—days, weeks, or years—while maintaining their native citizenship. When that period of time ends, even though they are supposed to leave the United States and go back to their home country, many stay illegally. Others are not able to get permission to come to the United States at all, but they cross the border anyway. This is called illegal immigration.
To cross the border illegally, people wait until nightfall and then run through the dry desert or cross the Rio Grande to make it to U.S. soil. Sometimes they must climb over a fence or a wall, but that is not always the case. They must avoid the U.S. Border Patrol officers that guard the border using radar, spotlights, barbed wire, guns, and trained dogs. The people trying to cross the border must avoid rattlesnakes and other dangerous desert creatures, and they often face a long, hot journey with no water available. Many desperate immigrants pay a helper, called a coyote, to assist them in getting across the border. Coyotes routinely charge hundreds or even thousands of dollars for their assistance, and they are often not trustworthy. Thousands of people have died trying to make it into the United States illegally over the years, and thousands more have been stopped by Border Patrol officers and arrested or returned to their home countries.
Over the last century the U.S. government has made several attempts to better deal with the many issues involved in illegal immigration. The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 offered a fresh start to many illegal immigrants by giving them the opportunity to apply for permission to remain in the country legally, and approximately three million Mexicans were granted amnesty (a pardon, or forgiveness, for having been in the country illegally). Still, the issue continues to be a big problem for Latinos, the U.S. government, and many U.S. citizens.
In 2006 the government signed legislation (laws) that allows for a 700-mile-long security fence to be built between the United States and Mexico. More than 600 miles have been completed as of January 2009. It is believed that this fence will help to prevent non-U.S. citizens (Mexicans and others) from illegally coming into the United States from Mexico. Some sections of the fence would be made of metal or other material; other sections would not physically exist at all, but would instead be a “virtual” barrier—a section of land that is monitored by cameras and satellites.
Many U.S. citizens are in favor of the fence, but many others are not. The barrier is expected to cost billions of dollars, and in some places it will harm the environment and the wildlife that live there. In addition, many people do not like the idea of putting up a big fence to keep others out.
Just as there is disagreement about the fence, there is disagreement about whether or not illegal immigrants should be allowed to live and work in the United States. Many people believe that illegal immigrants take advantage of our health care system, low-income housing, schools, and other resources. They think that illegal immigrants take valuable tax dollars away from legal U.S. citizens.
Others side with the plight of the illegal immigrants. Some people even disagree with using the term “illegal immigrant” because they believe that it’s misleading and negative to refer to people as being illegal. As a result, many reporters and government agencies now use the terms “undocumented worker,” “undocumented immigrant,” or “undocumented person” instead of “illegal immigrant” or “illegal alien.”
Although many Latinos may enter the United States illegally by crossing desert borders in the middle of the night instead of sailing into New York Harbor with hundreds of other immigrants on a ship, their feelings and beliefs about the United States are the same as those that were held by immigrants from Ireland, Germany, Asia, and other countries in years past. Latinos believe that the United States is a country in which anything is possible and all are welcome. They believe it is a place of hope.
Immigration is a difficult issue in the United States. Now, as in the past, Americans have greeted immigrants with mixed feelings. Although they are needed for their labor, many native born Americans, most the descendents of immigrants themselves, worry that new immigrants will take away jobs and change the country for the worse. Many citizens believe that additional laws should be passed to limit immigrants’ rights. In response, Latinos have adopted the “American way” of using protests as tools for change. They are using marches, rallies, and boycotts to draw attention to their concerns.
On October 12, 1996—Columbus Day—thousands of Latinos and other immigrants gathered together to conduct the first-ever immigrant march on Washington, DC. Latinos from all countries joined the march to protest recent legislation that restricted the rights of immigrants who were not yet citizens and to voice other concerns. The crowd displayed a united group while proudly proclaiming the flags of their native countries.
The march was symbolic of the potential power of Latinos from different countries joining together to solve the mutual concerns of their communities.
In 2003, advocates of immigrants’ rights organized a nationwide trip to draw attention to the problems and needs of undocumented immigrants. Beginning on September 20, several buses carrying about 1,000 people in total left from 10 different cities: Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Minneapolis, Chicago, Houston, Miami, and Boston. They followed routes across the United States, stopping to meet with legislators in Washington, DC, and visiting hundreds of cities and towns until coming together in New York City for a massive rally on October 4.
The cross-country tour and the rally were meant to bring attention to what participants described as basic rights: the right to live and work in the United States, the right to follow a path to eventual citizenship, the right to bring their families to the United States to live, and the right to basic protections in the workplace.
Raids against companies that hire undocumented immigrants strike fear into all immigrant families. One early morning in March 2007, 300 immigration agents raided a leather company in New Bedford, Massachusetts, Michael Bianco, Inc. The agents took 361 of the company’s employees into police custody on suspicion that they were in the country illegally. As it turned out, many of them were.
Most of the workers who were rounded up by the agents were from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. They had found work at the company making products that were sold to the U.S. military. The chaos of the raid terrified many of them. Helicopters flew overhead, and many employees ran from the building in fear. (Later, immigration agents would note that the working conditions inside the factory were deplorable.)
The Department of Homeland Security launched an investigation into the way the raid was handled. It was determined by federal officials that the Bureau of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E.) conducted the raid properly. Advocates for illegal immigrants and their families disagree.
The owners of the company were arrested on charges that they knowingly hired workers who were in the country illegally and that they were exploiting them by making them work under poor conditions for little pay. The workers who were identified as being undocumented were sent to a detention camp in Texas to await deportation to their native countries. As of November 2008, U.S. Immigration had deported 168 of the workers to Central America, 116 cases were waiting to go to court, 26 have orders to deport, and 16 have been allowed to stay in the United States. Many of these people had families in the United States, and their children had never been outside the country. In some families, only one parent was deported, splitting families apart. The remaining parent had to choose between living in the United States alone as a single parent or moving the whole family to what might be a foreign and strange country to the couple’s Americanized children.
In November of 2008, the president/owner of the company and two managers pled guilty to charges related to hiring illegal immigrants. The president, Francesco Insolia, was sentenced to 12 to 18 months in jail and fined $30,000.
The company will pay $2 million in fines and $850,000 in overtime money owed to employees.
The company illegally avoided paying overtime to employees. (Overtime is money paid for working over 8 hours on the same day.) Employees were forced to “clock out” (click on a card that stamps the time you leave work) at 5:00 and “clock in” at 5:30. The employee would then receive two checks, but no additional money for overtime. Some employees worked 14 hours a day for 6 days a week.
“Back in Xicalcal [Guatemala], hardly a day passes without a villager returning. Some headed north again. But most are staying. Victor Garcia, 34, wonders how he will feed his children. At Michael Bianco, he sent home up to $500 a month. Now he is lucky to earn $6 a day. ‘I just wanted to work,’ he said.”
Boston Globe, Tuesday, December 9, 2008, by Traci Carl, Associated Press “Deported Find Little Back Home.”
On May 1, 2006, thousands of immigrants—most of them Latino—took the day off from work or school in a national boycott. They were expressing their frustration that the U.S. government had not yet passed a national immigration bill. Their hope was that the bill would address their concerns and provide a legal way for them to stay in the country. The boycott was also used as a way to draw attention to the importance of the work that undocumented immigrants perform for U.S. businesses.
More than one million immigrants and their supporters marched in “A Day Without Immigrants” rallies that were held in cities across the country from California to Miami. Participants wore the color white to symbolize solidarity. Businesses that rely heavily on immigrant workers were affected most by the boycott, and many were forced to close down for the day.
Imagine if you were to suddenly find yourself in a country where everyone spoke a different language than you and your family. Now try to picture learning how to read, do math problems, and learn science, history, writing, and grammar in that language. How much do you think you would be able to learn?
This is the dilemma that Latino students have faced for years in the United States. In 1968 concerned Latinos worked to pass the Bilingual Education Act. This allowed children whose first language was not English to learn other subjects in their native language until they mastered English. The act was reinforced in 1974 by the U.S. Supreme Court.
In the 1990s bilingual education became a hotly contested issue among U.S. citizens. A California resident named Ron Unz started a movement among parents for “English immersion” programs in the schools, citing studies that said children in bilingual programs did poorly in school. The philosophy behind English immersion is that students will pick up the language more rapidly if they hear it and are forced to speak it daily. English immersion advocates believe that bilingual education delays mastery of English.
Voters in California agreed with the advocates, and in June 1998 they passed into law Proposition 227, which called for English immersion in public schools. (Similar initiatives were passed in Arizona in 2000 and in Massachusetts in 2002.) This didn’t completely end bilingual education in California, however. A limited number of schools still offer bilingual programs, but only if they are requested by a parent and approved by the school itself.
It is difficult to say whether English immersion has worked because follow-up studies have been mixed. Backers of English immersion say that students have achieved better test results since English immersion was instituted, but advocates for bilingual education say that recent testing changes make it impossible to determine the specific effect that English immersion has had on test scores.
Latinos have fought alongside non-Latino U.S. citizens in every war in which the United States has participated, from the Revolutionary War in the 18th century to the Iraq War that continues today.
In World War II alone, 12 Latinos received the Congressional Medal of Honor for bravery, the highest honor that the United States military bestows. A total of 39 Latinos have received the Medal of Honor since it was created in 1861.
Puerto Rico’s 65th Infantry Regiment, which was made up of almost all Latinos, served in World War I, World War II, and the Korean War. Eighty thousand Latino Americans served in the Vietnam War—among them U.S. Navy Lieutenant Everett Alvarez, the first U.S. citizen to be taken as a POW (prisoner of war) in North Vietnam. He was held as a prisoner of war for eight years—longer than anyone else in U.S. history.
As of 2006, more than 67,000 Latinos were serving in the U.S. military.
Many Latinos currently represent the citizens of the United States in government positions. Among them is New Mexico’s Governor Bill Richardson, 25 Latino members of the United States House of Representatives, and 2 Latino senators: Robert Menendez and Mel Martinez. Other Latinos who hold prominent positions in government include Hilda Solis, Secretary of Labor, and Ken Salazar, Secretary of the Interior, under President Barack Obama; Antonio Villaraigosa, mayor of Los Angeles; and Manny Diaz, mayor of Miami.
Although Latinos come from many different ethnic backgrounds, religions, and races, they share many common values and beliefs, especially the importance of family and religion.
In Latino families, everyone feels a responsibility to each other. This sense of responsibility extends not just to parents, children, and siblings, but also to grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, and godparents. Latino heritage includes a long-held tradition of living with extended family. Many children live at home until they are married; grandparents often live with their children and grandchildren; and aunts, uncles, and cousins are frequent visitors.
Children are at the center of Latino families, and everyone in the family contributes to raising them. Latinos bring their children everywhere with them. They don’t have to worry about babysitters because children are always welcome at parties and get-togethers. Often the children say they feel as though they have 10 mothers and 10 fathers because they get 10 times the attention, whether it’s good or bad.
Godparents, who are called compadres (kohm-PAH-drays), have a unique relationship with the family. Godparents are chosen very carefully and are expected to be good role models for their godchildren. They are treated with the utmost respect by the family. Godparents share in the raising of the children and contribute emotionally and financially to the godchild’s upbringing. They often help pay for important celebrations such as the child’s baptism, first communion, quinceañera, wedding, and more.
When Latinos immigrate to the United States, many send money home to family members who are still living in Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean. The amount of money that is sent to families in these countries is so great that some of the smaller countries actually depend on it as a source of income for their people.
Most Latinos are Catholics, and many Latino Catholic homes feature altars, figures of saints, and other such items. In recent years there has been a growing interest in the Protestant religion within the Latino community. A small percentage of Latinos practice Judaism or Islam. Many Latinos practice the African religion of Santería or follow the Taino spiritual beliefs of Espiritismo or other indigenous religions.
These holidays are uniquely Latino and are only celebrated in the “New World.”
These days many people living in the United States—Latinos and others—commemorate Columbus Day with mixed feelings. After all, Columbus and the other conquistadors plundered land owned by native people, forced them into slave labor, and imported and enslaved African people against their will. Taking all of that into consideration, many people have come to believe that Columbus Day is not really a day to be celebrated. A more optimistic way to think about the holiday is as a celebration of the mix of people who were brought together by Columbus, from the Native Americans and Africans to the Spanish and other immigrants who contributed to the creation of the Latino population.
In most Latino countries and in many Latino American communities in the United States, Columbus Day is celebrated as a day that honors Latinos and the converging of their ancestors’ cultures. The holiday is called El Día de la Raza, which means “the Day of Race.” Some Latino communities hold festivals and other celebrations that celebrate their particular heritage during that time as well. In New York City, for instance, the Hispanic Day Parade is held on the Sunday of Columbus Day weekend each year.
In 1996 the Latino community established a new holiday to celebrate children, families, and bilingual literacy. Founded by award-winning author Pat Mora, El Día de los Niños/El Día de los Libros (“Day of Children/Day of Books”)—which is commonly referred to as “Día”—is celebrated in libraries and schools across the country. Día activities promote not only bilingual literacy, but also the sharing of cultures. In 2008 the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) and REFORMA (the National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish Speaking) celebrated Día with Dora the Explorer bookmarks and posters that encourage children and adults alike to “Celebrate Books!” and “¡Celebremos los libros!”
You can create your own Día celebration to promote reading and writing and to honor Latino culture. Invite people of all ages to participate in the event, and showcase Spanish-and English-language books that feature Latino characters in the United States. Here are some books you might want to have at your DÍa party.
I Love Saturdays y Domingos by Alma Flor Ada
Pelitos by Sandra Cisneros
Abuela by Arthur Dorros
Family Pictures by Carmen Lomas Garza
Tomás and the Library Lady by Pat Mora
Chato’s Kitchen by Gary Soto
Too Many Tamales by Gary Soto
At your Día celebration, you can also enjoy Latino foods such as tortillas and salsa, tropical drinks, plantain chips, and chicharrones (pork rinds); listen to Latino music; and participate in activities to celebrate the day. Here are some ideas for fun activities.
Many bilingual people hold conversations in a mixture of the English and Spanish languages. This mixture is referred to as Spanglish. For example, a person might say to his or her friend, “My dog es muy gordo porque he eats too much!” (“My dog is very fat because he eats too much!”) People sometimes speak in Spanglish because they are thinking in both Spanish and English as they are talking. Some people use Spanglish when they want to say something that they don’t want eavesdroppers to understand. Sometimes people combine the two languages to come up with brand new words that are part English and part Spanish!
Hispanic Heritage Month is a celebration of the history and contributions of Hispanic Americans in the United States. It begins each year on September 15, the day that Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua won independence from Spain. (Mexico won its independence just a day later, on September 16.) The holiday is celebrated in schools, libraries, museums, government agencies, and communities across the country. Parades are held in many cities, and TV and radio programs, newspapers, and magazines offer special shows and stories to celebrate the month.
Each year a particular theme is chosen as a way to highlight specific achievements in the Latino community, and a special poster is created to showcase that theme. Here are a few Hispanic Heritage Month themes from past years.
Poster board
Markers
Scissors
Materials for a collage, such as felt and yarn
Glue
It’s impossible to look at the history of the United States without seeing its Latino beginnings. Latinos have formed a strong and diverse mix of culture that is the foundation of this country.
The many contributions and accomplishments of Latinos in this country have shaped the ways in which we all live, and Latinos continue to make up a workforce that allows U.S. businesses such as farms and manufacturing industries to prosper. Today, almost every aspect of Latino culture—from music to foods to art and literature—is woven into the fabric of everyday life in the United States.
Latinos have a distinguished past and a bright future in the United States, and the United States continues to be enriched by their contributions to, and presence in, this country.