Mexicans: We are America!
What happened to the good ol' days when a Mexican immigrant and his family where held in high esteem by a community? I remember when we had seasonal workers who would come and pick the potatoes, onions and garlic. We could hardly wait for their yearly return. What a joy. Music, dancing, singing was the pastime after a long day's work.
Yes, they lived in row houses and they had a lot of children all sleeping together. I spent a great deal of my childhood playing in those cramped quarters but boy, did we have a good time. One of the families, even settled down in our town and sent their children to school. I was thrilled as they were the only kids that liked or even knew how to dance. Freddy (Ferdinando) was my dance partner in one of the yearly Christmas presentations. Thanks to his love of music and inborn rhythm, we won first prize.
One year, a little Mexican girl with the most beautiful long black hair got it caught in a picking machine and died. The whole town mourned for her. We did not see those good people as immigrants. No way, because we were all immigrants ourselves. Our town was made up of Italians, Portuguese, some Germans and the rest were Cowboys - whereever they came from. We did not consider ourselves Americans. If someone asked me my nationality I said I was Portuguese even though I was born in the USA. The same for the Italians. In fact, I didn't know I was an American National until I took a trip to England and the man at the immigration counter asked me why I said I was Portuguese when I had an American passport and was born in the USA. How embarrassed I was to find that I had spent all those years thinking my nationality was Portuguese.