Immigration injustices towards Latinos, Latinas, and Latinx that keep getting recycled repeatedly.
Some things that time has yet to rectify after all this time keeps getting regurgitated instead.
As a journalist of color with Mexican heritage growing up with Mexican immigrant parents. Immigration was brought up frequently within my household.
There was never a day where it wasn’t talked about. Everything about this topic was mentioned. From the political currents that affected our people, the blatant racial attacks, and the every day struggles that our people have to go through on a daily basis just to live in a country that is actively against them in every way possible.
This unfairness that keeps getting repeated again and again isn’t anything new. In fact, this discrimination has been around as early as 1849, when the United States won over Mexico in the Mexican-American War.
This statistic really goes as far as about two hundred years. That is equivalent to two centuries of mistreatment towards people of Latin descent.
Let that sink in right now. Think about how these same injustices keep getting played over and over. You would think there would be some type of improvement towards Latinos, Latinas, and Latinx.
The reality says otherwise. Especially right now in the 21st century, where there is a dilemma with the incoming flux of Latin migrants primarily coming from Central America in countries like Honduras, Nicaragua, and El Salvador.
A lot of this stems from the “American Dream” in where people migrating from any country to the United States believe they are going to succeed in getting richer regardless of their standing through hard work.
These dreams are sadly broken when they realize that is not the case when there are an abundant amount of practices that are working against them.
This isn’t to say that the American Dream is a sham, but the chance of it actually succeeding is minimal at best.
Going back a few centuries there was an influx of Mexicans migrating with the opportunity to work at the Southern Pacific Railroad to help build this countries railroads at the time.
While this immigration was flourishing due to the opportunities that were given in exchange for labor. Anti-Latino sentiment grew worldwide establishing stereotypes amongst Latinos that they were lazy, stupid, dirty, and so forth.
This anti sentiment climaxed into full blown mobs during California’s Gold Rush in 1851. Lynchings to Latinos happened in the early 20th century.
In the 20th century, particularly in the 1960s was the Chicano Movement, also dubbed as El Movimiento grew to combat the ongoing injustices towards Mexican-Americans. This was the civil rights movement that helped Latinos and Latinas to band together to help fight for the rights for farm workers, education reform, restoration of land, and to end the lingering racism.
Fast foward to the 21st century in 2021, a lot of these same discriminations are still persisting thus giving a lasting impression that even after all this time we are not welcomed to this country.
Workers are exploited, they are not paid the minimum wage. Some immigrants are getting detained in detention centers or even going to local and state jails as if they are criminals. Women are undergoing intrusive operations without their consent. Children are being detained in detention centers as well.
These obtrusive surgeries parallel the treatment that Latina women from the late 60s and the early 70s received.
We see these exact patterns cycling again withstanding the tests of time. But, as “These patterns keep getting repeated…We have to think beyond 1924 thinking of its okay for them to be laborers, but not citizens,” said Natalia Molina, Professor of American Studies and Ethnicity at University of Southern California.
This is the crux of the dilemma. Latinos, Latinas, and Latinx are still not fully seen as complete citizens to this day. They are still thought of as second class citizens or even sometimes as third class citizens.
No matter how much our people contribute towards this society, we are somehow still seen as below. At the end of the day we are seen as sacrificial and disposable to this society.
There are some things that history can never erase from what was done to our ancestors. But, there are things that can be done to rectify these ongoing injustices in present day 2021 for the people that are currently suffering.
Here is the link for the live tweeting event I have done for this story that is about being essential but illegal that features Natalia Molina, who spoke about the reliance on undocumented labor and the racism on Latinos, Latinas, and Latinx and migration.
