A few days ago, I still had not made a decision on whether I’d be staying home from work and school on Monday, May 1st. The decision didn’t come easily despite years of activism around immigrants’ rights and an academic interest in immigrant students.
I realized that I wasn’t the only one feeling this way. Isa, my roommate and a teacher at a LAUSD high school hadn’t decided when we spoke about the topic on Thursday night. She was unsure about skipping out on the first day of classes when she returns for B track (she’s on a year-round schedule). I didn’t want to skip work after a short week at my new job. We also both knew that our jobs — positions that require advanced degrees — are not the types where most immigrants from Mexico are concentrated. It’s easy to go a day without spending, but not teaching or working with students didn’t come easy. I’ve read other Latina/o bloggers who are also conflicted (Jenn, Xoloitzquintle, and MsABCMom). They are all educators and feel that the education of their students will also contribute to the boycott and overall goal of empowering Latinas/os.
Although I respect decisions to go to work, I know that I had to change my mind. I thought of my grandparents who came here with several children in hopes of a better life. Although my parents and their families did not come as undocumented immigrants, I know well that I have a number of extended family members and good friends who do not have that privilege. I considered the day I walked along campus observing a display of crosses set up in remembrance of men and women how had died crossing the US-Mexico border. It all seemed rather abstract considering most of the people close to me are not immigrants and have not had to sneak across the border. Well, it was abstract until I read a cross with “____ Mosqueda, Guanajuato, Mexico.” I can’t remember the first name. I know it was a common name, probably José, Jesús or Juan. But the last name and state of origin struck me. This man (or boy?) who shared my name and home state in Mexico had died in the harsh territory separating the country my family came from and the country in which I live.
My privilege as the daughter of immigrants, graduate student, and US citizen became incredibly clear that afternoon. It’s something I know other young Chicanas/os and Latinas/os also identify with, including César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández (el not-so-dailyTexican’s hermanito) who wrote at alternet
I will join the boycott because my privilege demands it. I am a citizen of this country, a well-educated man with a love of justice. I must speak now because the people who clean my classrooms might not be able to, because the people who prepare the restaurant dinners I eat might not be able to, because the people about whose lives Congress is debating cannot talk back except through the power of protest.
I will stand with my immigrant sisters and brothers because I recognize and value their contribution to our country. I will join the nationwide boycott because their work makes my privilege possible. I will join because, as the book of Leviticus teaches: “The stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and you shall love him as thyself.” (Lev. 19:34).
Now… for how to figure out how to get to the marches in LA without having to drive (’cause I’ll surely be charged for parking) or getting some kind of pass for public transportation.
Notes:
In the photo, Mamá Toni holds her eldest daughter, Chilo, on her lap. Beside her stand her siblings Sabás and Josefa. When this photo was taken, my Papá Chepe had already left to work as a bracero in the US.
Chicana on the Edge has also written on the topic. Ktrion wrote about the concerns of potential little felons (if HR 4437 becomes law). Finally, I found a great piece ¿Qué onda Aztlán? by Oso Raro in response to the earlier protests and how the current activism around immigrants’ rights links to the Chicano Movement (thanks to Chicana on the Edge.
Wow Cindylu.
I don’t know what I would do if I were in your situation. I think you have many good points about yours not being the affected career..but I suppose the decision is really in how you feel..where you came from, and how you got here…etc. Good Luck!
Hey cindylu,
Maribel is also going through the internal conflict of whether to go teach and be with her students who will not be boycotting school or to not show up at all. Romer sent a very strict letter telling new teachers that if they missed, they would be put on record as teaching a full year when they begin next academic year.
My family and I have been talking about what they are going to do since they are conflicted to. My father will go to work, him and the rest of the workers will all wear white instead of their uniform and do a slowdown. (Their boss is a die hard republican, the wall of one building has a large Bush-Cheney banner and has made it difficult for them to unionize already—threats are amok). My mother will take my youngest brother to school since the elementary is organizing a teaching. She is connecting with other mothers from different schools and have a mini marcha and platica around the city. My high school brother has no choice but to attend school since the school and ETS has refused to reschedule their AP exams. He will most likely take his exam and go walk with other students while studying for his AP exam on Tuesday morning.
What will I do? I don’t know yet. We are trying to get the administration to reschedule our finals on Monday like Boalt has done with their students—no luck so far. Definitely not spending a dime, but still undecided on what to do.
In terms of how to get to the marcha, driving seems to be difficult especially with the high prices of parking (which essentially defeat the point of an economic boycott). So what to do? In speaking to an organizer, he said that if you have to choose how to get there spending 3.00 for an all day pass on the metro is the “lesser evil” that is unless you can bike it which I don’t think I am physically in shape to do (hehe). Conflicted…
Cindy,
I am glad you are participating tomorrow. I have been bothered that many think the only people participating are undocumented people and/or Mexicans. I think people in my world often don’t know that immigrant supporters aren’t just in the kitchen but in board rooms as well.
I have the privilage of skin tone, education and language, and am going to put them to use/not to use tomorrow.
Take pictures!
i was debating on the issue at first. i’m applying to a community college job, both at where I work and at another college, and I was afraid that i will get a bad recommendation. but i made up my mind, and i’m cancelling my class that day. some of the students wheren’t coming anywyas, and i hope that its cuz of my class. one of my students made the front page of salinas local newspaper. she told me that she felt she needed to participate on the student marches after i ask them, “what are you going to do about it”. and so she walked out of college and joined the high schoolers.
I’ll be participating tomorrow. Let’s do this together.
Pingback: Global Voices Online » Blog Archive » The Boycott from Both Sides of the Border
Pingback: El Oso, El Moreno, and El Abogado » Blog Archive » The Boycott from Both Sides of the Border
I think you made the right decision… and I agree with what fabian said ” spending 3.00 for an all day pass on the metro is the lesser evil”
Hola Cindylu,
Muchas gracias para sus comentarios considerados. Unas de mis amiga/os y parientes estan discutiendo la misma pregunta. I am glad to hear that you have decided to participate.
What really burns me up about this anti-immigrant, anti-Chicano, anti-undocumented vitriol welling up in much of the US, is the arrogance and ignorance of many of the Anglos. My Chicano ancestors freely crossed the so-called “border” on a regular basis before the bloody Mexican War in 1846. It was commonplace– to till the fields and keep the flocks healthy, not to mention stocking up for the winter months, Chicanos would regularly trek north and south, between what’s now the California-Arizona-New Mexico triad and the Baja/Sonora region. Nobody ever thought of proclaiming some stupid “frontier” between the regions because of the geography and the seasonal migration patterns, people naturally crossed north and south freely.
Now, to move along that very same path, many Chicanos and other Latinos today, many of them probably my own blood cousins, have to risk their lives to evade the Border Patrol and vigilante nuts like the Minutemen, many not making it and succumbing to the thirst, heat, and exhaustion, or being shot by some bigot in the north. Perhaps thousands killed every year. Me enoja tanto!!! I can’t think about this lunacy without getting very angry. These arrogant Anglo jerks have the audacity to put a fence right in the path of the natural and necessary historical movements of our people, to ruin the culture that grew up around these migrations, to cause the death of thousands, exploit the labor of those who do make it and *then* to spit in our faces???? Grrrr.
Fortunately I’ve also met and befriended some Anglos who actually have some awareness of this and are sympathetic. I just wish there were more of them. Seems like to a lot of Anglos today, Chicanos and Latinos aren’t people worth caring about and respecting, they’re just pawns to use for their own enrichment, and obstacles to their own greed. Just like 1846 all over again.
Yo no planeo en aguanter estos insultos mas recientes. Mientras mas de nosotros que participamos en las manifestaciones, de muchas maneras, mientras mas fuerte sera nuestra mensaje!
Pingback: Elenamary - de aquí y de allá » Blog Archive » Across the nation peeople discuss the May 1st mobilization
Please let us know if you and/or someone you know sets up a fund for wages lost during the protests. I’m glad you decided to go, work is everyday, the rest of your life, days like today, once in a lifetime.