A little rant from me about the whole “illegals stereotypes” problem

There’s something I want to start blogging about, and I’m hoping it will create awareness, or hopefully even contribute to a discussion that will help destroy stereotypes people have of Mexicans & “illegals”.  Naturally, anytime someone doesn’t know a culture’s history, they are instantly prone to whatever misinformation & stereotypes they are given.

My family had some very close friends that had come from Mexico.  Everything they represented defied the stereotypes people suffer with even today.  They were extremely well educated, benefiting from a free education system.  They were all bumped up a year ahead of everyone else in their age groups.  They had even already had classes in chemistry (!!) in their elementary years.  I was stunned by this.

I had a pen pal in England who had also already completed chemistry.  I wasn’t even in junior high school yet and everyone foreign around me was a year ahead (!).  I found out later that most kids in foreign schools – ones we consider “third world nations” – study English early on, take math and chemistry seriously, and know far more about our own country’s history than we do before we’re even required to study it in junior high school or later on.

People who are coming here from Mexico and other countries “illegally” are not people who have benefited from their country’s system because they come from rural areas of Mexico – where farming & agriculture is – or rather *was* the main staple of life.  The central and northern regions of Mexico are dry, arid and consist largely of ranchers.
Imagine if the roles were reversed — the midwest lost all of its government support of farming and agriculture (no more farm subsidies, etc) and their best bet was to move down south, where wages were a little more guaranteed than an annual crop could provide.  (Corporate farming isn’t just hurting the U.S. ya know.) What if “white farmers” started moving down south because they found out that Mexican farmers were subsidised for their work in a better way than they are in the U.S.  They aren’t now – but what if roles changed and the average American farmer could find a better life somewhere else?

These rural Mexican families who came here have had to swallow their pride and simply move to a place where they could get an hourly wage instead of an annual one with crop production.  They already have a skillset – farming.  Now they just need some way of providing a better life for their families.  They’re just trying to survive.

Imagine what it would – or could be like – and if people knew how great an education their kids could get for free (and benefit with two languages!), health care, etc, is available in another country.  What if they found that oh-so-scary *socialist* country of Mexico could give them a better life – especially they were open to learning a new language and customs? They’d up and leave the U.S. in a flash.  But people are so pre-occupied with hating brown people, they’d sooner starve here than leave.

Just my two cents….