They arrived and marched to the front door, wielding a yellow piece of paper. I opened the door and invited them in, one with the paper; one with the tool box and one came with a broom and dust pan. None of the gentlemen were over 5’2” and none could speak English very well except for the leader.
There was a military precision in the way they conducted themselves: and went to the den without my directing them. They seemed to have their ducks all in a row!
There was Paisley, Rt431 and Jesus. Paisley wore a maroon t-shirt, Rt431, the most interesting of the group of three wore a shirt that had Rt431 Puerto Rico and Jesus had on a t-shirt with … Jesus on it.
Watching these guys go to work was impressive, first thing they did was take my furniture and toss it out the back sliding door. Well ‘toss’ is strong they placed it out there along the poolside. While two did that Paisley started to cut the old rug apart and when Rte431 was done with the furniture started to roll up the old pieces, tie them and leave them at the curb.
It was fun to watch, and frankly, I thought back to my old uncles who came here to do the jobs in construction when this country was still being built by hand. Poor immigrants who could barely speak English, working to the best of their ability and leaving their mark, and good one. Hard work and pride in the details was what it was all about.
I have had a lot of work done on this house, and most of it was done and is still being done by immigrants. I think that is good, because it is the initiation rite of passage into this nation. My relatives from Italy did it, and now these people are doing it. What it means is that the claim to being an American is theirs, and I will help them define and defend it. Soon they will be in the boardrooms and business establishments with the rest of America, doing business and making money. Their children will be in colleges and their wives and lovers making the economy grow with jobs and purchases. Soon none of them will go to bed hungry, all of them will speak English and we can get on with the next group of immigrants to come here.
God bless America!
2 comments:
The only difference with the immigrants from yesteryear and today is that our parents came in legally, learned to somewhat speak our language, become citizens and register to vote.
Really nice post. A lot of people forget that some of our relatives came over illegally, too -- and didn't speak the language very well. The only difference was that they were speaking Italian instead of Spanish. It was the children of these immigrants that learned the language and continued the American dream. A lot of the complaints about today's immigrants were also levied at our grandparents. My great grandmother never spoke very good English but she did an amazing job of assimilating and building a future for the generations that followed. Those subsequent generations learned the language. Illegal immigration is definitely a problem, but let's not forget about our own past histories. And let's remember that our grandparents had to fight against the same racism and prejudice that today's Spanish immigrants face. They were called "WOPS" and "DAGOS" and other offensive things. Why would we then turn around and do the same thing towards the latinos, many of whom are just trying to pave the way for their children and grandchildren? The guy who mows our lawns probably has a daughter who is going to school and learning to speak English and will someday become a doctor or whatever she wants to become -- but that can only happen if we afford them the opportunity and don't discriminate just because her parents come from Mexico instead of Italy. It's a cycle and we're all apart of it. It's just being spoken with a different language now. Many parts of the city of New York were built thanks to the help of Italian immigrants... and yes, some of them were illegal, too.
#1 Son
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