Hate to say this their are people who have gone through alot worse than you to become a citizen. I do not feel sorry for you or your family. Their are people that live in my state that have waited for over ten years to become a citizen and they didnt break the law to do so.
Tavo,
My take on this is very simple. To hurl an insult at a complete stranger who has done you no harm is rude and inexcusable.
No doubt the woman made assumptions and viewed you as a symbol of out of control illegal immigration. Obviously her assumption was false, but even if it had been true, it was still inappropriate behavior, and I’m sorry to hear of it.
Tavo welcome to the Northeast.
Yes, you’re too sensitive.
Take a cue from your brother, he laughed, you cursed.
There’s a war on, Americans are dying overseas, and you get all worked up over a purported cranky comment that no one else heard but you?
Don’t they teach fancy salaried guys like you, who have big scary taxes every year, with job experience on three continents and lots of swanky foreign friends, how to handle real or not so real cranky comments on the streets of New York?
Or was this your first time out and one of the commoners didn’t display the proper obeisance?
You sound more like one of those braggart like characters in an Univision soap opera who will excuse their own behaviour but expect all the unwashed masses they meet to welcome them with open arms and short memories.
This woman that addressed you regarding your daughters was an ass in any language. One does not become familiar with strangers in this fashion.
However, this does not absolve your rudeness. You have been enjoying the hospitality of this country for ten years, and obviously write better than many native speakers.
Dual citizenship is not acceptable, or legal in this country. As it is a “proposition nation” not bonded by ethnicity, a common language and unqualified allegiance is required to create the kind of community that ensures a strong nation. This is a unique culture to be respected and cherished by all her citizens without qualification. Dual loyalties are not to be tolerated. You, or your daughters, are Americans, or they are not.
This is a community of like minded, committed souls. There is no room for ambiguity. As a legal resident alien Mexican, you are just that. A Mexican alien. If you choose to become a citizen, and we grant you that right by our grace, you are expected to become one. Heart and soul. If you cannot do that, you are just a Mexican in America, not an American. Just like I would be an American in Mexico. No difference.
I don’t give a flying damn about your culture. You are here, in my home, for ten years, you respect my culture first. Just as I would if I lived in Mexico City. How in hell do you expect some stranger to address your children, if they don’t know their names, but as him or her.
I don’t think “chauvinism” is a word that applies in any sense here. Xenophobia is. On you part. Look, you move to a country, become a permanent resident, have children here, and insist on retaining the culture, and more importantly, citizenship of your land (not the land of your daughters) and you have the gall to speak of others as xenophobes? Look in a mirror, man!
Your claims that this letter is not political is absolute tripe. It is entirely political as you spout off all of the tired rhetoric about prejudice and racism, how anchor babies are a myth, how much “hard working” illegal invaders contribute, etc. New Yorkers may eat up this crap, but America ain’t buying, pal.
Mexico is an armpit because of the efforts of it’s “cultured” citizens like you, who don’t give a whit about your countrymen, to line their own pockets. Mexico is exporting it’s poor to the United States for it’s own sick reasons. There is no reason for us to accept this, and trust me, ultimately we will not.
You, sir, are a disingenuous fool who thinks he can win the hearts of a nation by whining in public about a chance street encounter with an equally foolish woman expressing the frustration at how you and your countrymen can treat our great nation as a mere Disneyland of opportunity at their whim.
Good God man, can you not see how infuriating this is? Imagine for a moment if I snuck into Mexico and demanded rights, how this would be received. Politely? I think not.
Tone down the rhetoric? I think not. It needs to be cranked up a lot, and the invaders repelled. There are no “valid arguments on the other side”. Your illegal campesinos don’t belong here, are not welcome here, and like you, do not appreciate our civilization or our culture. Begone colonizers. Begone invaders!
You sir, are a wolf in sheep's clothing. Your sorry claims of a pure heart notwithstanding, your talking points and your conclusions point to only one conclusion.
You are a cheerleader for your Raza. So am I, and you are in my country. We, the heart of America, are not blinded by your pandering. We know where your heart lies. New York is not America. We are not liberal, multiculuralist fools.
Oh, it’s vanity. And it sounds like you are on a fishing expedition.
added ny and nj to the topics list.
Well, no Pedro; not at all, not in the slightest do I see it as "perfectly normal"; Perhaps among the ignrant, and those blissfully unaware of even the fundamentals of cultural etiquette. Unless, of course, you and your family are incapable of speaking the language of your adopted country, albeit even temporarily.
When in France, my family and I speak French. When in Spain or Mexico or Costa Rica, my family and I speak Spanish. when in the United States of America, we speak English.
I reject your introductory self-serving assumption in total, because you display a cultural ignorance and arrogance which can only be fully grasped by another immigrant from Latin America -- myself.
But, by all means, knock yourself out.
Keep talking and reveal yourself for the idiot that you seem to be.
Dual citizenship? I am gobsmacked. Your sense of gratitude just oozes from your personality.
And I must remind you that sophistry does not play well among informed and aware citizens of the United States and frequenters of FR.
The fact that you are a permanent resident is a privilege, and in no way makes you a citizen. No matter how much taxes you may have paid of how fancy a car you drive.
Should you ever achieve real citizenship, please remember it is more a state of how you think and act, not how you talk.
You just don’t get it. YOU LIVE IN AMERICA. If you so in love with your home county MOVE BACK. You came to America to become an American, which means OUR Language, Culture, and Borders. Its your attitude that is the problem.
My foreign born Grandparents NEVER spoke their native language in America, it was ENGLISH ONLY, they would never dream of dual citizenship or two cultures, it was America all the way. They even sent there sons to fight against their native county when there was a battle.
I really don’t know where you get off, not accepting the Language and Culture your children were born in. A man cannot serve two masters.
This post is made of win. Thanks!
I AM very sorry that the anger that results from this has fallen on people such as yourself who HAVE been follwoing the law...but I think it would help all involved if you could fnd a way to turn that anger on the people who deserve it and thats those people who have knowingly and blatantly been breaking the law. Thats the real shame about teh illegal immigrant - their shame gets spewed on to everyone, whether or not they deserve it. I believe enforcing the immigration laws (and making it easier for those who ARE obeying the laws) will keep the shame where it belongs, and not have the crap fly out onto people who dont deserve it.
My best regards,
In New York? You really are a foreigner!
Kidding. Seriously, gringos no tenemos una problema con inmigrantes (o nacionales) legales; extranjeros limpios, industriosos y observante de la ley somos los gracias bienvenidas a los estados unidos norteamericanos. Pero, una pais sin fronters no hay pais; por eso, hay que asegurar las fronteras de los EE.UU.
Por favor, dispense ud. mi español podrido. Soy tejano!
The only downside is that popcorn prices are exploding due to guvmint Ethanol policy.
BUMP
That's the problem right there -- dual citizenship. A child can't have two mothers. Why should they have dual citizenship? They were born in America and are Americans are they not? Or aren't they?
My question to you is: What is your opinion of those Mexican’s who jump our border. Do you respect them and support them, or do you reject them for cutting in line?
1) How loudly were they speaking?
2) For several months, I had to work an evening shift. At dinner time, I'd join the nearly-all-Cuban cleaning crew. The crew was teaching the lone Haitian immigrant how to speak Spanish.
"He" feels better?
Good Lord, what about "us?"
The sense of entitlement these foreigners have is barely disguised by this guy's self-absorbed "rant." It's all about "him, him, him."
Forget US taxpayers footing the bills for him and his 35 cousins here illegally............and THEIR anchor babies.
Wadda you wanna bet behind closed doors the jerk compliments himself for "putting another one over on the Anglo."
This, I suspect, is the crux of your rant. You claim your "culture" should be respected and understood by people not of your culture. That's a pretty endemic belief held by many immigrants of your "culture" hence the demand for documents and communication in spanish.
Regardless of your perceived rudeness displayed by woman you insist that your "culture" is inherently more civilized than the one you find yourself currently living in.
Also, based on your job description, you are clearly an anomaly of your culture. I suspect you come from the privileged class in mexico and, like most of them, either ignore the horrors of your home country or leave them so that you may not be faced with them on a daily basis.