Understanding Personal Experiences - Essay Example

Understanding Personal Experiences I. Interview with an Immigrant I sat down to interview a neighbor of mine d Tia. I had always wanted to knowof Tia’s cooking because I was (or perceive myself to be) an amateur cook, and where else to learn authentic Puerto Rican cooking from a true Puerto Rican. Although the focus of our conversation was food and cooking, we naturally veered to the topic of her childhood and her experiences growing up. Tia was born in San Juan, and lived there for the first 13 years of her life. She is now a 52-year-old widow, her husband having died of lung cancer at the age of 58. The couple were unable to have children, and they could not afford to pay for treatment and/or a cure. For some reason, Tia and her husband never considered adoption. Beyond the basic necessities of life, Tia’s family had never been able to afford much, even less the luxuries we take for granted. Her family was poor growing up in Puerto Rico, so her father somehow came to the US, to try to find a better future for his family. He was able to find work, and thereafter sent for her and her family. Together, the family tried to build a new and hopefully more prosperous life in their new home. At her tender age, Tia said she fit right in and was able to make the adjustment smoothly. Still, she noticed that families in the United States were different than they were in Puerto Rico. She felt that in the US, children did not accord their parents and other adults the same respect by which children in Puerto Rico regarded them. Many kids in the US acted spoiled; they did not have to do chores or perform other tasks, or to work in order to earn some money or get what they wanted. In her own home, Tia says her family was very tightly knit, everybody looked after one another and helped each other with everything. Although she and her siblings wanted nicer things than what they had, they never complained to their parents. They held a greater appreciation for how hard their parents worked for their benefit, and were always thankful for the simplest things, that they had food to eat and a roof over their heads. When her husband was still living, Tia had the opportunity to visit other relatives in Puerto Rico four times. Each time she felt as if she were coming home, coming back to a familiar place of warmth and love. Whenever the time came for her to depart for the US, she felt that she didn’t want to leave. Tia waxes sentimental at this point, and as she talked about her beloved Puerto Rico a far-away look comes to her eyes and a wistful smile lights up her face, as if remembering the joys of her youth. At this point in our conversation, as if to change the mood of the interview, Tia changes the subject to main topic of our conversation. The somber look in her eyes fades as Tia talks of the dishes she learned from her mother, who apparently learned it from her mother, who in turn learned it from hers. She loves to cook. Tia lives by the motto "food is good for the soul," apparently also learned from her mother and the generations of Puerto Rican women before her. Her favorite dish is “Bistec Relleno en Leche de Coco” (stuffed beef in coconut milk). She emphatically said it was "very delicious," and that she just made some. She offered me a helping, and just as she said, it was indeed “very good!" The aroma that occasionally wafts from her kitchen as I pass by comes from adobo, concocted from cloves, vinegar, oregano, olive oil and parsley. While many of the dishes were inspired by their Spanish counterparts, there is a distinct combination of herbs and spices that give many of the native Puerto Rican foods their distinctive taste and color, Tia tells me. Sofrito is another favorite dish of hers, a thick sauce that is made from vegetables, spices and herbs sautéed together, then to which tomato sauce is added and simmered to perfection. From the sauce sofrito, a number rice and soup dishes and other variants may be created. “You should try my chicken paella,” Tia beams. Paella is a rice dish with a combination of ingredients that may be varied, sometimes seafoods or other meats. When she cooks chicken paella, Tia cooks from scratch, although she explains that a special Spanish rice mix is already available in case one is in a hurry (as most working mothers are), and while she understands that this is another aspect of living the more hectic life in the US, she said that such a thing would not be countenanced in the country of her birth. “In Puerto Rico, we take pride in the dishes we prepare for our family, all natural and real, no processed preparations that may contain artificial ingredients,” she said. In her culture, she explains, a meal is something the family gathers to at the end of the day, to “renew and be renewed in each other.” The mother prepares the dishes that renews her family, and it must be worthy of the blessings the father of the household calls down upon it, and to be partaken by each family member. This is probably the reason why, Tia muses, families are so much closer to each other in Puerto Rico, where parents display more concern towards their children, and children respect and love their parents and elders more. However, Tia sighs, living a more materially adequate life in the States requires changes to be made in the way families go about their daily lives. With different activities schedules, there are bound to be sacrifices to be made. Still, Tia is convinced that for American society to cure many of its ill, the core values we all treasure should remain alive: familial love and respect, mutual understanding and compassion, and a healthy regard for work and personal sacrifice. And occasionally, a generous helping of Bistec Relleno prepared from scratch. II. Three Stories about Immigrants I have chosen three stories that appear to have recurrent themes among the others, such that I believe they point to systemic problems in either our legislation or the administration of the immigration program. The first story is that of Lavern of Texas (My Immigration Story.com. 2010). She came to the US when she was 3 years old, but her mother abandoned her. When she was legally adopted, her new mother filed all possible applications to have her status changed, but nothing materialized. When Lavern was 26 years old, although the only child of her adoptive mother. In order to remedy her situation, she had no choice but to return to her country of birth in order to return to the USA with the proper status, but the obstacles are tremendous. She cannot understand why she has an alien number but no card, and a Texas birth certificate and ITIN number which she could not use for anything. Now at 28, she is stuck in a country which she knows nothing about and has no affinity for. She feels no lawyer can resolve her immigration problem. Rosary of New Bern writes about getting married in her 50s to a British immigrant whom she dearly loves. However, due to bureaucratic red tape her husband has been unable to secure an alien number in order to get a social security card. Unable to work in the US and his wife unwell, he had to return to England where he could at least find employment and support his wife from afar. In the meantime, the paper work dragged on for more than a year now because of suspicion that theirs was a marriage of convenience. Erica of Oregon is now married to a Mexican who has since then gone through all legalities of immigration. However, two years have passed since his return to Mexico for processing, and still his case is pending. In the meantime, Erica and her two children by her husband are suffering financial problems and will face property foreclosure on their home as a direct result of the government’s delay which they feel is unnecessary and unjust. From the stories and many other like these and in the interview I conducted, I have become more aware of the special problems and circumstances besetting people who, even going through the legal procedures, are subjected to prejudice, bureaucratic delays, unnecessary and repetitious paper wrangling, but these are still the “minor” problems. The more profound problems involve family separations, personal hardships and sacrifice, and the persistent threat to the stability of the basic unit of society, the family. Loved ones are separated from each other, their personal health and well-being affected, and the future of children, American citizens in every respect, jeopardized because their parents, though law-abiding, are forcibly separated. Children who have grown up in the US from a very tender age are labeled illegal immigrants although the only home they have known is the US, and wherein they could be productive. As a person who studies foreign languages, I have learned to appreciate how difficult it is to learn another language because it involves another way of thinking. But for instance, if I were in line in the post office and someone ahead of me held up the line because he could not speak English well, though peeved I still would understand him, because had I been in Germany or the Middle East (and I could speak neither German nor Arabic), I will find myself in the same situation. Not knowing another language is not solely because one is lazy or unwilling to learn, but because try as one might, they may be among those who could not learn quickly enough. Supposing I were in a Spanish country and my Spanish was not perfect, I would indeed feel like a fish out of water, and would be exceedingly grateful to find some people who could help me translate. I would naturally feel resentful if people derided me for not knowing Spanish, and would secretly think: “Wait till you come to my country, let’s see how you’ll manage!” III. On the Arizona Immigration Law The New York Times reports on the signing into law in Arizona of what it calls “the toughest bill on illegal immigration” (Archibold, 2010). It aims to identify, prosecute, and deport so-called illegal immigrants, thereby prompting a slew of protests and divisive debates concerning the national immigration reform directions. No less than US President Obama criticized, in very strong terms, the stipulations in this bill and called for a federal overhaul of immigration laws. Congressional leaders have signified their intentions to take up this directive by the President. What many have found offensive in the Arizona law is the requirement for foreigners to carry their immigration documents at all times and to produce it upon challenge by any police officer or other authority, and the failure to do so becomes reason for the legal authority to detain the person on suspicion of having entered the country illegally. In fine, the presumption is against the person immediately, that he is an illegal alien if he could not produce his papers on his person, anytime or anywhere it is asked to be produced. I agree wholly that the law is clearly an “invitation for harassment and discrimination” against people of color (it is difficult to imagine a white man being accosted in the open street to produce his papers), regardless of their citizenship status (Archibold, 2010). My opinion would be the same even if I did not do the earlier part of this assignment, although it is firmed up now, knowing more of the individual problems of people and families who have no intention to break the law, but who, because of circumstances and the quirks of bureaucracy, become labeled “illegal aliens”. In the face of Held’s definition of globalization, I believe the law is ridiculous, anachronistic (it belongs in the middle ages, or the time and place of Hitler’s Nazism), and a direct reflection of an ignorance of history. The proponents are obviously living at a time and place divorced from the realities of modern society, at a time when countries like China are liberalizing their policies, and the European Union is creating a borderless society within the European region. My reflections: Immigrants from Spanish-speaking countries who try to enter the United States legally should be offered the greatest possible support and consideration. The fact that the US and the South American countries occupy a single land mass is bound to create social ties that defy political boundaries. This is the very reason the European continent has banded together into a single, borderless region, despite differences in language, culture, history and politics. Like the EU, the United States should realize that it needs the labor provided by people from across the border; had this not been true, this problem would not have materialized. The problems of Spanish-speaking immigrants are many, ranging from the cultural to the economic. The difficulty in speaking the language is but a manifestation of the difficulty in blending into the new milieu. This activity did not really change my mind concerning the basic principles I believe in – such as the importance of people above all ideology – but it brought into sharper focus the details and specifics that have made me more convinced of my principles. If in the future I could, in my meager capacity, help the plight of immigrants, this assignment has sealed my conviction in taking positive action in extending whatever contribution I could make to put our immigration laws and their implementation into proper perspective. Understanding Personal Experiences I. Interview with an Immigrant I sat down to interview a neighbor of mine named Tia. I had always wanted to know of Tia’s cooking because I was (or perceive myself to be) an amateur cook, and where else to learn authentic Puerto Rican cooking from a true Puerto Rican. Although the focus of our conversation was food and cooking, we naturally veered to the topic of her childhood and her experiences growing up. Tia was born in San Juan, and lived there for the first 13 years of her life. She is now a 52-year-old widow, her husband having died of lung cancer at the age of 58. The couple were unable to have children, and they could not afford to pay for treatment and/or a cure. For some reason, Tia and her husband never considered adoption. Beyond the basic necessities of life, Tia’s family had never been able to afford much, even less the luxuries we take for granted. Her family was poor growing up in Puerto Rico, so her father somehow came to the US, to try to find a better future for his family. He was able to find work, and thereafter sent for her and her family. Together, the family tried to build a new and hopefully more prosperous life in their new home. At her tender age, Tia said she fit right in and was able to make the adjustment smoothly. Still, she noticed that families in the United States were different than they were in Puerto Rico. She felt that in the US, children did not accord their parents and other adults the same respect by which children in Puerto Rico regarded them. Many kids in the US acted spoiled; they did not have to do chores or perform other tasks, or to work in order to earn some money or get what they wanted. In her own home, Tia says her family was very tightly knit, everybody looked after one another and helped each other with everything. Although she and her siblings wanted nicer things than what they had, they never complained to their parents. They held a greater appreciation for how hard their parents worked for their benefit, and were always thankful for the simplest things, that they had food to eat and a roof over their heads. When her husband was still living, Tia had the opportunity to visit other relatives in Puerto Rico four times. Each time she felt as if she were coming home, coming back to a familiar place of warmth and love. Whenever the time came for her to depart for the US, she felt that she didn’t want to leave. Tia waxes sentimental at this point, and as she talked about her beloved Puerto Rico a far-away look comes to her eyes and a wistful smile lights up her face, as if remembering the joys of her youth. At this point in our conversation, as if to change the mood of the interview, Tia changes the subject to main topic of our conversation. The somber look in her eyes fades as Tia talks of the dishes she learned from her mother, who apparently learned it from her mother, who in turn learned it from hers. She loves to cook. Tia lives by the motto "food is good for the soul," apparently also learned from her mother and the generations of Puerto Rican women before her. Her favorite dish is “Bistec Relleno en Leche de Coco” (stuffed beef in coconut milk). She emphatically said it was "very delicious," and that she just made some. She offered me a helping, and just as she said, it was indeed “very good!" The aroma that occasionally wafts from her kitchen as I pass by comes from adobo, concocted from cloves, vinegar, oregano, olive oil and parsley. While many of the dishes were inspired by their Spanish counterparts, there is a distinct combination of herbs and spices that give many of the native Puerto Rican foods their distinctive taste and color, Tia tells me. Sofrito is another favorite dish of hers, a thick sauce that is made from vegetables, spices and herbs sautéed together, then to which tomato sauce is added and simmered to perfection. From the sauce sofrito, a number rice and soup dishes and other variants may be created. “You should try my chicken paella,” Tia beams. Paella is a rice dish with a combination of ingredients that may be varied, sometimes seafoods or other meats. When she cooks chicken paella, Tia cooks from scratch, although she explains that a special Spanish rice mix is already available in case one is in a hurry (as most working mothers are), and while she understands that this is another aspect of living the more hectic life in the US, she said that such a thing would not be countenanced in the country of her birth. “In Puerto Rico, we take pride in the dishes we prepare for our family, all natural and real, no processed preparations that may contain artificial ingredients,” she said. In her culture, she explains, a meal is something the family gathers to at the end of the day, to “renew and be renewed in each other.” The mother prepares the dishes that renews her family, and it must be worthy of the blessings the father of the household calls down upon it, and to be partaken by each family member. This is probably the reason why, Tia muses, families are so much closer to each other in Puerto Rico, where parents display more concern towards their children, and children respect and love their parents and elders more. However, Tia sighs, living a more materially adequate life in the States requires changes to be made in the way families go about their daily lives. With different activities schedules, there are bound to be sacrifices to be made. Still, Tia is convinced that for American society to cure many of its ill, the core values we all treasure should remain alive: familial love and respect, mutual understanding and compassion, and a healthy regard for work and personal sacrifice. And occasionally, a generous helping of Bistec Relleno prepared from scratch. II. Three Stories about Immigrants I have chosen three stories that appear to have recurrent themes among the others, such that I believe they point to systemic problems in either our legislation or the administration of the immigration program. The first story is that of Lavern of Texas (My Immigration Story.com. 2010). She came to the US when she was 3 years old, but her mother abandoned her. When she was legally adopted, her new mother filed all possible applications to have her status changed, but nothing materialized. When Lavern was 26 years old, although the only child of her adoptive mother. In order to remedy her situation, she had no choice but to return to her country of birth in order to return to the USA with the proper status, but the obstacles are tremendous. She cannot understand why she has an alien number but no card, and a Texas birth certificate and ITIN number which she could not use for anything. Now at 28, she is stuck in a country which she knows nothing about and has no affinity for. She feels no lawyer can resolve her immigration problem. Rosary of New Bern writes about getting married in her 50s to a British immigrant whom she dearly loves. However, due to bureaucratic red tape her husband has been unable to secure an alien number in order to get a social security card. Unable to work in the US and his wife unwell, he had to return to England where he could at least find employment and support his wife from afar. In the meantime, the paper work dragged on for more than a year now because of suspicion that theirs was a marriage of convenience. Erica of Oregon is now married to a Mexican who has since then gone through all legalities of immigration. However, two years have passed since his return to Mexico for processing, and still his case is pending. In the meantime, Erica and her two children by her husband are suffering financial problems and will face property foreclosure on their home as a direct result of the government’s delay which they feel is unnecessary and unjust. From the stories and many other like these and in the interview I conducted, I have become more aware of the special problems and circumstances besetting people who, even going through the legal procedures, are subjected to prejudice, bureaucratic delays, unnecessary and repetitious paper wrangling, but these are still the “minor” problems. The more profound problems involve family separations, personal hardships and sacrifice, and the persistent threat to the stability of the basic unit of society, the family. Loved ones are separated from each other, their personal health and well-being affected, and the future of children, American citizens in every respect, jeopardized because their parents, though law-abiding, are forcibly separated. Children who have grown up in the US from a very tender age are labeled illegal immigrants although the only home they have known is the US, and wherein they could be productive. As a person who studies foreign languages, I have learned to appreciate how difficult it is to learn another language because it involves another way of thinking. But for instance, if I were in line in the post office and someone ahead of me held up the line because he could not speak English well, though peeved I still would understand him, because had I been in Germany or the Middle East (and I could speak neither German nor Arabic), I will find myself in the same situation. Not knowing another language is not solely because one is lazy or unwilling to learn, but because try as one might, they may be among those who could not learn quickly enough. Supposing I were in a Spanish country and my Spanish was not perfect, I would indeed feel like a fish out of water, and would be exceedingly grateful to find some people who could help me translate. I would naturally feel resentful if people derided me for not knowing Spanish, and would secretly think: “Wait till you come to my country, let’s see how you’ll manage!” III. On the Arizona Immigration Law The New York Times reports on the signing into law in Arizona of what it calls “the toughest bill on illegal immigration” (Archibold, 2010). It aims to identify, prosecute, and deport so-called illegal immigrants, thereby prompting a slew of protests and divisive debates concerning the national immigration reform directions. No less than US President Obama criticized, in very strong terms, the stipulations in this bill and called for a federal overhaul of immigration laws. Congressional leaders have signified their intentions to take up this directive by the President. What many have found offensive in the Arizona law is the requirement for foreigners to carry their immigration documents at all times and to produce it upon challenge by any police officer or other authority, and the failure to do so becomes reason for the legal authority to detain the person on suspicion of having entered the country illegally. In fine, the presumption is against the person immediately, that he is an illegal alien if he could not produce his papers on his person, anytime or anywhere it is asked to be produced. I agree wholly that the law is clearly an “invitation for harassment and discrimination” against people of color (it is difficult to imagine a white man being accosted in the open street to produce his papers), regardless of their citizenship status (Archibold, 2010). My opinion would be the same even if I did not do the earlier part of this assignment, although it is firmed up now, knowing more of the individual problems of people and families who have no intention to break the law, but who, because of circumstances and the quirks of bureaucracy, become labeled “illegal aliens”. In the face of Held’s definition of globalization, I believe the law is ridiculous, anachronistic (it belongs in the middle ages, or the time and place of Hitler’s Nazism), and a direct reflection of an ignorance of history. The proponents are obviously living at a time and place divorced from the realities of modern society, at a time when countries like China are liberalizing their policies, and the European Union is creating a borderless society within the European region. My reflections: Immigrants from Spanish-speaking countries who try to enter the United States legally should be offered the greatest possible support and consideration. The fact that the US and the South American countries occupy a single land mass is bound to create social ties that defy political boundaries. This is the very reason the European continent has banded together into a single, borderless region, despite differences in language, culture, history and politics. Like the EU, the United States should realize that it needs the labor provided by people from across the border; had this not been true, this problem would not have materialized. The problems of Spanish-speaking immigrants are many, ranging from the cultural to the economic. The difficulty in speaking the language is but a manifestation of the difficulty in blending into the new milieu. This activity did not really change my mind concerning the basic principles I believe in – such as the importance of people above all ideology – but it brought into sharper focus the details and specifics that have made me more convinced of my principles. If in the future I could, in my meager capacity, help the plight of immigrants, this assignment has sealed my conviction in taking positive action in extending whatever contribution I could make to put our immigration laws and their implementation into proper perspective. References Archibold, R C 2010 “Arizona Enacts Stringent Law on Immigration”, The New York Times, 23 April 2010. Accessed 18 June 2010 Condon, S 2010 “Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer Rejects Schumer’s Plea to Delay Immigration Law,” CBS News. Accessed 18 June 2010 Dulles, J F 1997 Federal Immigration Law Enforcement in the Southwest. United States Commission on Civil Rights: Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas Advisory Committees My Immigration Story.com 2010 “The Stories of U.S. Immigrants in Their Own Words”. Accessed 18 June 2010 Legal Statutes: Executive Order 2010-09, Establishing Law Enforcement Training for Immigration Laws House Bill 2162 of the State of Arizona House of Representatives (Providing for Conditional Enactment) Senate Bill 1070 of the State of Arizona Senate (Relating to Unlawfully Present Alients) Read More