My Parents, My Brother And I Essay

As a first-generation Mexican American, I am the product of two cultures merged into one. Like many immigrants, my parents left behind their homeland and came with just the clothes on their back. They were fish out of water when they first arrived in America. They came here with hopes of pursuing the American Dream but soon realized that they weren't going to be the ones to achieve the American Dream. They worked hard so that my younger brother and I could have a shot at it. So they’ve educated us and passed the Dream along to us. The hardships experienced by my parents have inspired me to take on my own challenges. Because of the sacrifices my parents made, I am where I am today. It's an unspoken responsibility that one day I will give back to those who gave me so much.

Many Mexican Americans have been able to accomplish their own versions of the American dream by attending a 4-year college, owning businesses, and taking on political and public service careers. However, Mexican Americans and Mexican immigrants continue to face the hardships that their ancestors went through in the 20th century. The ethnic Mexican experience in the United States has been a difficult one for Mexican immigrants and Mexican Americans of the first generation. Two key factors that continue to shape the lives of Mexican Americans and Mexican immigrants are labor laws and the citizenship process. Focusing on the research, statistics, and information provided by Mai Ngai “The Architecture of Race in American Immigration”, Natalia Molina’s, “In a Race All Their Own": The Quest to Make Mexicans Ineligible for U.S. Citizenship”, and George J. Sanchez, “Becoming Mexican American” will provide the cause and effect of labor laws and citizenship laws that made an impact on the lives of Mexicans during the 20th century.

Immigrating to America is a process in which many people all across the world entrust as their one way ticket to a better life. Whether they do so legally or illegally, coming to the United States ensures better opportunities, economically, politically, and so on, to people who would have otherwise been worse off in their countries of origin. Even so, the common understanding of being “better off” can be considered a misconstrued concept when it comes to living in the states. Many families that choose to immigrate to the U.S. fail to realize the cultural hardships that newcomers tend to face once on American soil. Anything from racial discrimination or bias at work, in neighborhoods, at school, etc., can all be challenges that people encounter when making a move to the U.S. Such challenges are described by Richard Rodriquez in his autobiography Hunger of Memory. In this passage, he explains how cultural differences between Mexican and American ways of life have shaped him into the person that he is today. He also chooses to highlights the problems that he faces growing up in a predominately white neighborhood, while attending a predominantly white institution. Much of his writing consists of the cultural differences and pressures he feels to assimilate to Western culture and how this process, in turn, changes him into the person that some may find to be unethical, but nonetheless, someone he is proud of.

To say that immigrants in America have experienced discrimination would be an understatement. Ever since the country formed, they have been seen as inferior, such as African-Americans that were unwillingly brought to the 13 colonies in the 17th century with the intention to be used as slaves. However, post-1965, immigrants, mainly from Central and South America, came here by choice. Many came with their families, fleeing from their native land’s poverty; these immigrants were in search of new opportunities, and more importantly, a new life. They faced abuse and Cesar Chavez fought to help bring equality to minorities.

Freed from the constant fear of deportation, Alex moved his family to Los Angeles, where his family would better fit, given the large Hispanic population. In Los Angeles, Alex obtained a job with Pan-American Underwriting Company as a file clerk, making roughly $1000 per month. Alex worked there for twenty years, without receiving a promotion or raise, before finally being laid off without receiving any retirement benefits. My wife cries as she recounts how she helped her father to get a job as a delivery driver where she worked, after he had been laid of at Pan-American; she cries in a mix of emotions that include anger, embarrassment, shame, and deep anguish for her father’s wounded pride (Rock, 2011). Alex’s experience is like so many immigrants in the United States, where uncertain legal status combined with other factors, like language barriers serves to lock them into low-wage jobs that often lack benefits (Massey, Durand, & Malone, 2002). While living in poverty in the United States was an improvement over the situation in Guatemala, Alex’s status as illegal immigrant and poor command of the English language all but assured a life of poverty in the United States.

Jose’s father had always mainly worked construction jobs with other undocumented immigrants and Jose joined his father’s line of work because there were not many jobs available to him and he felt obligated to contribute to the family, “A second feature of the Hispanic American family is the emphasis on cooperativeness and on placing the needs of the family ahead of individual concerns” (Manning & Baruth, 2009, p.170). Jose dreamed of going to college and pursuing art or graphic design but even these simple goals were out of reach for him because of his undocumented status.

Many Latinos from Central America, South America, and Mexico have sacrificed their lives to immigrate to the United States to have a better life. Many have immigrated legally and many more have immigrated illegally. They all have a hope for what is called the American Dream. The ideal life that every United States citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success through hard work and education, determination and initiative. Latino Immigrants come to America for this hope, to have a good life, to have great education, to have rights, opportunities and so much more. Legal Latino immigrants have these opportunities and they don’t have to go through struggles and obstacles as much as illegal immigrants. Undocumented immigrants have always been the target for American government. They have always struggled with finding jobs, keeping a job, not getting paid enough, their educations, health services and so much more. The main purpose of this paper is the struggles and obstacles of undocumented Latino immigrants who have migrated to United States through education.

I am a daughter of Mexican immigrants and was raised in California’s rural and underserved Central Valley. As a child, I was exposed to the daily challenges immigrant communities face in California exemplified by the experiences of my own family. Residents of Arvin, CA, my hometown, are primarily Latino immigrants, low-income, employed in agricultural labor, and lack access to educational opportunities. In my community, access to fair housing, healthcare, employment, and living wages are limited and social service resources are scarce. When I moved to Berkeley, CA to pursue my bachelor’s degree, I was motivated to serve Latino communities in the Bay Area facing similar social and political obstacles as my hometown as I recognized the need for social and policy improvements.

Growing up as an immigrant I view the world in a much more different light than most people do. Whenever an opportunity presents itself to me I am willing to put in the effort if I know it will better my life. This trait of resourcefulness originates from my family who, over the years have created a life for themselves out of virtually nothing. I moved to America at the young age of two years old with my father. Though he didn’t have much to begin with, my father decided to move to this country in hopes to lead a better life and follow on the path of the American dream. I vividly recall being in the backseat of our car while my father trained me on the importance of remaining perceptive and hardworking in school and abroad, I remember he would

My grandparents struggled on a day-to-day basis because my grandfather’s salary was only enough to eat rice and beans. My grandfather realized that it was not possible to be able to feed four children and improve their lifestyle under this low-income job. He began to seek for a new job in which he would gain a decent amount of money to improve his family’s lifestyle. He was not able to obtain a good paying job in Mexico. As a result, he found that the only solution would be for him to immigrate to the United States. The author Carol Cleaveland, from the George Mason University, finds that many immigrants “faced the choice of subsisting at home, or realizing the hope of earning a better living job in El Norte” this was the case for my grandfather (576).

Immigration has always been a topic of conversation in politics, especially in the last election. People’s views towards whether immigration is a bad or good thing for the economy is up for debate. Many people find that immigrants destroy the economy, and have no right coming into the United States. Whereas some people view immigrants as a vital part of the United States’ social class, and they view immigrants as strong, willful people who made the difficult decision in coming over to the United States. In the two articles, “In Trek North, First Lure Is Mexico’s Other Line” written by Randal archibold, and “The Heartache of an Immigrant Family,” written by Sonia Nazario, it gives people an insight into the struggles and hardships families endure

When most people think about immigration to the United States, they think of the U.S. as being the “land of opportunity,” where they will be able to make all of their dreams come true. For some people, immigration made their lives richer and more fulfilled. This however, was not always the case. A place that is supposed to be a “Golden Land” (Marcus 116) did not always welcome people with open arms. Even after people became legal citizens of the United States, often times the natural born Americans did not treat the immigrants as equals but rather as outsiders who were beneath them in some way. In some situations, people’s lives were made worse by coming to the “land of opportunity.” Often times people were living no better than they

As the child of Mexican immigrants, I am always encouraged to work to the best of my ability because of the sacrifices and struggles my family went through to get where we are today. Too young to remember, I am constantly reminded of the difficulties my family experienced as they attempted to rebuild their lives in a new country with nothing but their clothes on their backs and the few cash they had in their pockets. The place we called home was a shabby, old apartment in a neighborhood where the crime rate seemed as if it doubled in a matter of seconds. At a point in our lives my family begged for pennies to afford medicine from gas stations, and even the dollar store when we fell ill. It was never that we were out of money, but we were just financially unstable. We had a roof over our heads, food on our table, clothes, and even a family car, but my father’s income was not always enough to support the life of a growing family and on top of that, enough to invest in my family’s future.

As the descendant of an immigrant father and his father before him, I’ve witnessed firsthand the means and consequences of trying to enter this country and become a citizen. The

No one can’t meet a family like mine’s. My family is well diversified. Every family member plays an important role in all my family’s lives. In my family, there are four people: my father, my mother, my little brother and me. My father is one who brings money home and is also responsible for organizing and planning family trips. My mother is the one who is in charge for making meals and makes sure everyone eats at the appropriate times. My little brother is the pet of the family. He actually doesn’t have any responsibilities, for he’s the pet. I am the rock of support in my family. I always go beyond my parents’ expectations. I also support my younger cousins and little brother, by being a role model that they can look up to. Another