Dear Mexican: I know that most Hispanics in the United States are in favor of the DREAM Act, but what if this is a setup by the feds for a sting operation? It appears that our president will do anything to pander to the Hispanic vote. I'm wondering what could happen if he is re-elected and after the election, he changes his mind, after all these young people have paid a fee and given the government their names and addresses. What's to stop ICE from rounding them up ? DREAM a Little Dream
Dear Gabacho: The American government doesn't even need the pretense of repealing a law in order to deport Mexican-Americans. During the 1930s, both the Hoover and FDR administrations deported tens of thousands of brown American citizens (and forced out hundreds of thousands more) to Mexico, with the excuse being the Great Depression. To this day, you still get migra pulling Mexican-Americans to the side. The common thread in all these cases? The captured looked like "illegal immigrants," whatever the hell that means — wait, I know! They looked Mexican! As I wrote before, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that Obama administered isn't perfect by any means, but it's a start.
I'm a first-generation mexicana, an hija who goes to quinceañeras and gets together to make pozole on weekends. In my case, I married "the man," a white guy from an affluent family who is climbing the corporate ladder. Mi problema is this: Why do people who have known me for a long time, especially mi gente, feel uncomfortable around my husband and me because we're wealthy? I'm still the same chica who loves going to Tijuana for tacos. A Veronica Castro Novela Come to Life
Dear Señora: I'm inclined to chalk it up to celos y envidia (jealousy and envy). That happens in every culture, though, so there must be something else. The only reason I can think of is ustedes. So you go to the quinceañeras, but is it symbolic ethnicity, or are you fully committed to the pocha life? Do you buy your tortillas from your local tortillería? Is your husband a corporate tool, or does he make sure that the janitors at his company get a living wage and benefits? It very well can be that your family considers you vendidos because you are. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
