Thank you Alisa. This is a fantastic analysis of the migration/immigration issues that most in the U.S. fail to understand. Or rather, were never taught. This letter should be required reading in every history class in the U.S. Stay safe.
I'm one of those expats who moved to San Miguel de Allende but like you a Mexi-Gringa who understands everything you eloquently said in this article. A hundred claps for this Alisa. I'm sending it to all my friends back home - well... the last home. Congrats on your days here. What city did you come to I forget?
“And here is the part your history teacher skipped: a very large number of Mexican Americans never crossed the border at all. The border crossed them. Until 1848, the states of California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, along with parts of Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas, and Oklahoma — roughly half of Mexico’s territory — were Mexico, seized in a war that Ulysses S. Grant, who fought in it, called one of the most unjust ever waged by a stronger nation against a weaker one.”
This Right here - great breakdown but it’s too difficult for racists white supremacists to comprehend.
Yes. Forced migration is very painful. People don’t know or understand another phenomenon: migration and human traficking. Human beings risking their lives crossing the border with “no papers” (what we called “illegal” or “undocumented”) because they are displaced by drug cartels in very violent towns, among other tragic reasons. Those cartels and governments (of all parties: Morena, PRI, PAN, PT, Verde, you name it) are making business together, and one of their branches are now the coyotes, who used to work alienated but and are now part of a complex network colluded with government officials and transportation companies. Migrants from Latinoamérica pay thousands of dollars for their services and even so they are systematically robbed, abused, abandoned, abducted or violated. Some NGO provide “rape kits” to women because they know they will be raped, they include the next day pill in order to prevent pregnancy. People migrating are not criminals, they are victims of a system that have never cared for them and keeps extracting their labor, dignity and identity. I don’t say this as an occurrence, I’ve worked in the borderlands and studied the phenomenon. Buena suerte, Alisa allá donde quiera que vayas. Te seguiré leyendo con admiración y cariño.
Thanks for all the great photos of Mexico City. It looks amazing. I haven't been there. I went to visit people I know in Oaxaca City over year ago. Loved it immediately. There are large communities of skilled craftsman there. There are a lot of ex-pats there, too - enough to have an American library. Several museums. The Zapotec pyramids. Huge garden built on the site of a colonial monastery. There's a water shortage (every house has rooftop rainwater catchment), but it has gorgeous buildings and mountains all around.
What is “self-laudatory” about the term “ex-patriot”? Does anyone in the U.S. revere people who leave? Do the ones who leave think they’re superior, or are they just making a practical choice? Are you saying the term only applies to white people? The Mexicans don’t want gringos there because they’re being priced out of their own neighborhoods. I don’t blame them. Anyway, that’s what people I know down there call themselves. What would you call them?
Thanks for your, as always, in-depth, articulate and personal analysis. I left the US for NZ in 1992 (my then husband was offered a teaching position) and no matter why you immigrate, it is not easy. Times were similar to those in the US now. We were artists living in Houston, a place where murder and violent crime rates were mind boggling- friends had been shot, stabbed, abducted and murdered, a 13 year old was held-up by 2 guys with sawed-off shotguns outside our nursery. I was having nightmares of swimming across the Rio Grande river to Mexico, my infant child held above the polluted water, to escape from the moral majority, Rush Limbaugh, George Bush and Evangelicals. Jerry Falwell was preaching about the coming rapture and “holocaust on the highway” that those left behind, the unchosen, would face.
It seems like "white" Spanish-appearing Mexicans use natives as servants. Is that true? We renounced slavery and discrimination (although still working on that) - will Mexico? Will they help those brown-skinned poor escape the poverty that sent them over the border? Or is racism acceptable in Mexico?
Thank you Alisa. This is a fantastic analysis of the migration/immigration issues that most in the U.S. fail to understand. Or rather, were never taught. This letter should be required reading in every history class in the U.S. Stay safe.
I'm one of those expats who moved to San Miguel de Allende but like you a Mexi-Gringa who understands everything you eloquently said in this article. A hundred claps for this Alisa. I'm sending it to all my friends back home - well... the last home. Congrats on your days here. What city did you come to I forget?
I had heard parts of this, but your perspective makes it much more understandable. Your writing is both entertaining and informative. Thank you!
Ok, got the message. Thank you.
I love how you communicate.
Fascinating! There’s a lot here I was not aware of. Thank you.
Woody lives on:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=I4TUwq3XRzE&ra=m
Brilliant and thought-provoking article as usual. Even if this nation doesn't agree, you AREa national treasure, Alisa!
Facts are so refreshing.
“And here is the part your history teacher skipped: a very large number of Mexican Americans never crossed the border at all. The border crossed them. Until 1848, the states of California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, along with parts of Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas, and Oklahoma — roughly half of Mexico’s territory — were Mexico, seized in a war that Ulysses S. Grant, who fought in it, called one of the most unjust ever waged by a stronger nation against a weaker one.”
This Right here - great breakdown but it’s too difficult for racists white supremacists to comprehend.
Lee fought in it too…
Yes. Forced migration is very painful. People don’t know or understand another phenomenon: migration and human traficking. Human beings risking their lives crossing the border with “no papers” (what we called “illegal” or “undocumented”) because they are displaced by drug cartels in very violent towns, among other tragic reasons. Those cartels and governments (of all parties: Morena, PRI, PAN, PT, Verde, you name it) are making business together, and one of their branches are now the coyotes, who used to work alienated but and are now part of a complex network colluded with government officials and transportation companies. Migrants from Latinoamérica pay thousands of dollars for their services and even so they are systematically robbed, abused, abandoned, abducted or violated. Some NGO provide “rape kits” to women because they know they will be raped, they include the next day pill in order to prevent pregnancy. People migrating are not criminals, they are victims of a system that have never cared for them and keeps extracting their labor, dignity and identity. I don’t say this as an occurrence, I’ve worked in the borderlands and studied the phenomenon. Buena suerte, Alisa allá donde quiera que vayas. Te seguiré leyendo con admiración y cariño.
Thanks for all the great photos of Mexico City. It looks amazing. I haven't been there. I went to visit people I know in Oaxaca City over year ago. Loved it immediately. There are large communities of skilled craftsman there. There are a lot of ex-pats there, too - enough to have an American library. Several museums. The Zapotec pyramids. Huge garden built on the site of a colonial monastery. There's a water shortage (every house has rooftop rainwater catchment), but it has gorgeous buildings and mountains all around.
You should retire the self-laudatory term “ex-pat”, which basically means “immigrant with plane-fare and options”. (IWPF&O). And white.
What is “self-laudatory” about the term “ex-patriot”? Does anyone in the U.S. revere people who leave? Do the ones who leave think they’re superior, or are they just making a practical choice? Are you saying the term only applies to white people? The Mexicans don’t want gringos there because they’re being priced out of their own neighborhoods. I don’t blame them. Anyway, that’s what people I know down there call themselves. What would you call them?
I love this. I’m an immigrant and wish so often I could have been this eloquent in explaining how it feels.
Alisa, your Tip & Upgrade buttons aren’t working
Thanks for your, as always, in-depth, articulate and personal analysis. I left the US for NZ in 1992 (my then husband was offered a teaching position) and no matter why you immigrate, it is not easy. Times were similar to those in the US now. We were artists living in Houston, a place where murder and violent crime rates were mind boggling- friends had been shot, stabbed, abducted and murdered, a 13 year old was held-up by 2 guys with sawed-off shotguns outside our nursery. I was having nightmares of swimming across the Rio Grande river to Mexico, my infant child held above the polluted water, to escape from the moral majority, Rush Limbaugh, George Bush and Evangelicals. Jerry Falwell was preaching about the coming rapture and “holocaust on the highway” that those left behind, the unchosen, would face.
It seems like "white" Spanish-appearing Mexicans use natives as servants. Is that true? We renounced slavery and discrimination (although still working on that) - will Mexico? Will they help those brown-skinned poor escape the poverty that sent them over the border? Or is racism acceptable in Mexico?