Unit 1

Maxx McDonald
English 101
9-14-06
Unit one
Martinez

When I have a bad day it seems as though everything terrible, nothing goes as I planned, and all I wish is to do is win the lottery and retire at age 18 with my girlfriend on some exotic island drinking beers all day. Well as bad everything seems, things could be a lot worse. Living in a poverty-stricken country, for example, with low paying jobs and no welfare or sympathy for people who cannot make it on their own. Mexicans immigrate illegally everyday in search of higher paying jobs and a new future. To many of them, coming to the United States is like winning the lottery. There are many Americans that want to put a permanent stop to any Mexicans trying to gain citizenship in our great country, legally or illegally. I for one think that if they can make it here and establish a job then why not welcome new cultures into our country. There are many good arguments on the issue, such as illegal “aliens” take up taxpayer’s money. Others say that the immigrants take up American jobs because they accept lower pay. The bottom line is that these people are getting here one-way or another, and they will keep coming. There are so many people coming in our country for the same freedoms and lifestyles that we take for granted almost everyday. Many come by themselves in hope to find higher paying jobs to send money home to Mexico to provide for their family. There are so many jobs that Americans look down on. A fact is there is probably no fast food restaurant in Arizona that does not have at least one Mexican employee. Mexicans on a whole are very hard working people. Mexican people value money differently than Americans because a majority of the ones coming here are not used to a lot of money, or even a substantial amount to provide for their family. It is said that they take away jobs from Americans, but last time I checked there are not a lot of people that want to work in fast food, or want to go out and work hard labor in the sun for regular amount of pay. I think they balance our economy very well. There is a need for people to work these jobs and sad it may be but Mexicans will take the unwanted ones.
Being Mexican-American myself, I sympathize with these people. I would not be here if it was not for my great-grandparents immigrated to this country. There is a strong bias against these people from many Americans, totally based upon the fact that they are not American, and should stay where they came from. With political and economical issues aside, there is no reason why these people should not be able to come here in order to live a better life a free citizen of the United States. Now of course if we let anyone and everyone in, we would have a highly overpopulated country. So who decides who gets invited and who does not? The waiting list to get a green card and citizenship to our country is so long that if one were to sign it now, they would most likely be dead by the time it is their turn. The alternative to waiting on the list is to come here illegally. Hopping the border or being guided by smugglers called “coyotes” are common ways of people getting across. In the desert there is no fence separating the boundary of Mexico and the United States, and there are simply not enough border patrol to effectively stop the flow coming in. I believe that this is one issue that does not have an answer, and whatever results from it will have lasting effects on how we live our lives.
When my great-grandparents decided to migrate north from Mexico in the late 1800’s they received enormous persecution from the people in the new world they were integrating into, as well as most others that made the same journey. They had relatively no money, and my great-grandfather came looking for whatever work he could get in the United States. They settled down in a Town called Globe, Arizona. There he found work in the copper mines. It was a dangerous and grueling job but it paid better than most. He worked hard, as well as other Mexican workers, and received minimum pay for a hard labor job. He worked for about 13 until he was killed in an accident in the mine. They continued to pay my family for the loss, but there were so many children and it just was not enough. They lived in a two-bedroom house with 10 children surviving off of two tortillas per meal, per day. Soon my great-grandmother found work as well as most of the older siblings in the family, one of them being my grandmother. They overcame this hardship and most of the kids ended up living long and prosperous lives, with my great-grandmother living to the ripe old age of 96. My grandmother is still alive and in great health, only 82 years old. She has many great accomplishments and raised three children, one of them being my mother. I would not be here today if it was not for my great-grandparents leaving their home country, trying to find a better place. I would like to think that the majority of America would not be here if it were not for their ancestors, however near or distant, coming to this country looking for a better place. The United States of America has its problems, but it is and always will be the land of opportunity where people can live “free” and choose their own destiny.
People fear the unknown. A dark room can contain a number of things, good or bad. Whether you steer clear, reject, or accept it is what is most important. With 11 million illegal immigrants residing in the United States and more coming, it is wise to take a new approach in accepting Hispanic culture and people (Will 1). Some people have racial issues against people they hardly know. They let stereotypes and other forms of grouping to make up their mind on the whole population. Mexicans are made up of the same atoms and materials that any other human being is (Maxx 1). The same people who discriminate against these people are the ones paying them to landscape their yard. These are also the people that are in favor of putting up a wall across the 2,000-mile border between the United States and Mexico. Talk about stealing taxpayer’s money. Ideas like these are ones from people who are afraid of the unknown. They do not want to know what is in the dark room and want to seal it off in the form of a wall forever. Shutting them out is an expensive quick fix that will eventually fix nothing. The point is no matter what we do to try and keep them out, they will eventually find an alternative route to come here and do the things that they should be entitled to.
The people that have learned to accept this immigration and new culture arising in our country are the smart ones. So much rejection will cause nothing but a headache and a frown. America is a melting pot of cultures where people of different races come together in harmony. There are pros and cons to every situation and in most cases finding the best in everything will get you ahead. There is no stopping immigration as well there should not be. Years from now there will be no talk about where someone is from and what race they are. Mexicans are seen as threats to society, when all they want to do is live in peace and do the things that any person would want to do. Sure there are bad people in their race, as there is in every race in the world. The sooner people realize the good in every situation and conflict, is the sooner where our world will be a better place.