“No one
leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark.” This quote is by Warsan
Shire and this speaks about no one really does leave their homeland unless
there is a reason to, if there is violence occurring or a horrible dictatorship
happening that you need to escape from it. Do you ever question yourself and wonder
what hardships does your parents or friends has endured from leaving their
homeland and entering into a different country. Many people start to speculate
that immigrants come here to create violence or bring gangs here or to come
here to not work and receive government pay checks just to live comfortably here
and to “take jobs” from people who has been in the country for more than 40
years. Because of so many immigrants coming in by a huge number each year, the
taxes gets raised in order to accept the immigrants that are coming in and the
tax money gets used for housing for the immigrants.
My dad is
Cuban, born in Holquin, parte de oriente en Cuba, and his lifetime in Cuba was hard.
He absolutely loves his country but with the dictatorship and how it’s being
controlled, it was difficult to live comfortably but he was able to manage. My
father joined the Cuban military because it was something that was going to
help him, at least get any type of money for his parents if he was to join the military. Money was promised to him if he joined and money was not easy to get by. Just trying to even buy meat or chicken there goes a month’s worth of money and
so you’re not able to even buy anything else until next month with whatever you
can even get. Because of the struggles in Cuba and being in the military wasn’t
easy, or not even better cause any money that my father received was practically nothing. He
ended up deciding to flee to Jamaica and stay there for a few years until he was
able to get a visa and then go directly to the United States.
When he
first arrived in the US he noticed so many immigrants that look just like him
and not some “gringos” (what my father calls people who are fully American). My
father is a hard worker so he decided to go apply for jobs.
I asked
him:
“porque
buscate trabajo si el gobierno estaba dando dinero gratis a los inmigrantes (SPANISH)
“why did
you look for a job if the government was giving free money to any immigrants or
illegals.” (ENGLISH)
My father
responded:
“Busque trabajo
porque queria ser independiente y productiva. Si, no consegui el mejor trabajo
pero me ayudara asociarme con como funciona realmente este pais. (SPANISH)
“I looked for a job because I was to be independent and productive. Yes, I wont be getting the best job since I was an immigrant, but it will help me associate myself with how in this country really works.” (ENGLISH)
My father told me that being in a new country he did have to deal with the hardships. Him having trouble looking for a job or anything that would give him the oppourtinity was difficult because of the language barrier. He was able to take classes to learn English and then he managed to find a job working with putting satellites/attenas on houses. After working in that company for many years and not receiving good money because him not being American and his English is broken he ended up looking for something better. He ended up getting a CDL license to drive trucks. It's been more than 25 years working for the trucking company that he got into and he's in a happy place and feels more accepted working with people that were illegals and that also dealt with the hardships from leaving their countries to come to the United States.
Just like Kimberly's Story where she reflects the struggles that she endures. When she says that she was able to graduate from school she still owed money and when she recieved her diploma packet it was empty. So all her hardships that she endured at school it was for nothing, thats what an empty dimploma packet meant. She later on accepted a paid fellowship at Creative Time in New York even though she "hated the idea of moving to New York. I wanted to travel far beyond the comforts of the East Coast, but could not say no to a paying gig (even if it paid poorly)." PG.29
Knowing that she is struggling with money she couldnt pass up a job that she needed than what she wanted.
Just like my father he was struggling to get by with the little bit of money that he had on him coming to the US and he could not pass up any opportunity, no matter what jobs that was available or if it was offered, he was not going to decline it even though what he wanted was not available and what he needed was available.
https://youtu.be/VxQ0EzSL31M?si=7gu4sV76b4-fjvoD - a little Q and A
SOURCES:
The
Cost of Illegal Immigration to American Taxpayers 2023 (fairus.org)
Millions
in federal funds given to cities to house migrants (newsnationnow.com)
6
Women Immigrant Artists Reflect On Belonging And Home (forbes.com)
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