Sometimes I forget what kind of experiences some of our brothers and sisters from Latin America bring with them. It’s easy to get caught up in community life thinking that merely transferring a sense of entitlement to our people will suffice (e.g. getting them together to pass a bill for more resources or to fight for a stop sign in their neighborhood). Often, our gente don’t find themselves to be the downtrodden or the wretched of the earth–back home they might even be considered rich. I remember one family I used to work with in Cicero, IL that was active in church and in the community but never viewed themselves in the way some us of us Chicanos do (i.e. as the have-nots). That’s probably because they left a town in Mexico that had no running water or electricity. In Cicero, they have a basic infrastructure, two cars and own a 3-bedroom home. Maybe, to someone in Oakbrook or Winnetka, IL they are certainly the have-nots–but to them they had finally “made it.” Their motivation for a sense of community was not out of mere self-interest to better themselves–it was about some part of their soul or psyche that led them to believe they had to help others acheive success as they had defined it. My point is that those of us who work in the community can’t take for granted that the civil rights history we have had (the Black Power and Civil Rights Movement, the Chicano Movement, the Women’s Movement, Gay Rights Movement,etc.) has enough explanatory power for what immigrants are dealing with here in the states (whether or not our parents were immigrants). Further, we have to tailor our work (especially community organizing) to take into account the latino immigrant version of the nouveau riche syndrome that is causing our people to work 6-7 days a week for 10+ hours so their kids can have the XBOX 360 they never had–y luego nos sorprendemos cuando los hijos se meten a las pandillas…This video is from the so-called “trash dump community” of Managua in Nicaragua.
Day of Light from Love Light & Melody on Vimeo.
Cockroach People 