FROM THE FIELD
Occasional Paper #2
In the wake of a very strenuous year of political insurgency, the current climate of Oaxaca is one of studiedreflection. Both the organized social movement and the population at large are actively engaged in assessing thestrengths, weaknesses, and causes of the unrest we have all experienced.
One example we have chosen to share with you comes from Rebecca Santiago Clemente, age 12, who writes on the subject of discrimination. Both the Spanish original and the English translation are hers.
May the consciousness of her generation prevail.
Michele D.Gibbs
Editor
*****
DISCRIMINATION AGAINST INDIGENOUS PEOPLE
by
Rebecca Santiago Clemente
Sadly, many Mexicans have the habit of discriminating against indigenous people and the reasons for this are various. I ask myself: Why do we discriminate against them if in fact they were the ones that originally inhabited this country before the Spaniards arrived? There are two reasons for this:
- Because TV shows use scenes where rich people refer to the poor and the indigenous as “nacos”. Youngsters copy these attitudes because they want to be “nice”, “cool”, “en onda”, “in fashion”; that is to behave like the people on TV, the way they look, the way they talk, the way they think.
- Because our parents raise us up, saying: “Do not hang around with those people, poor people. They are not equal to you”
- Because indigenous people look different from the rest of us. They are poor, do not have money to buy fashion clothes, cell phones and they don’t have brand new cars.
Also, these ignorant people discriminate against indigenous people without realizing that many indigenous people suffer everyday to find ways to eat. Some get it by:
- begging for money,
- singing and playing instruments in markets or in the street,
- selling candies in the street,
- selling clothes and other products that belong to their own cultures.
But even with these efforts, many have their things thrown away or they are put in jail. This is because we simply ignore them, treat them as if they do not exist.
To get over their problems, some of these people make the decision to go “al otro lado”, that is to say, to the States, where they can get a job and earn some money. However, to get a job is very difficult for them if they do not speak even Spanish, only their indigenous language. Many of these folks do not know how to read and write because, due to lack of money, their parents never sent them to school. So the jobs that they get are not paid well.
Moreover, to go to the States they need a passport and a visa, to get all that, they need money. The result is that they cross the border illegally, leaving their families. To cross the border they need to cross a river, a desert, avoid the border petrol, climb the wall that divides the two countries.
If they manage to cross, they sleep in the streets and when they get a job they have to endure the mistreatment by the people from the States because they think that Mexicans go to the States to take jobs away from them.
But the truth is that Americans give them the jobs that they don’t want, in the fields, or sweeping streets, or cleaning houses.
In spite of the fact that they do not earn enough money, they send money to their families in Mexico. Some, when they saved enough money they come back to Mexico but many are caught by the police and sent to jail. And their relatives know nothing about them and get worried and finally lose their hopes.
But some manage to get back and their families get very happy and they realize that everything has changed and their children have grown up.
And all this happens because of the government that does not do anything for the economy to improve, to create more jobs. In this country there is poverty everywhere. And everywhere there are also corrupted presidents, governors, deputies, senators, and so on. And they have good salaries but still they do not do anything to get rid of poverty and all the other problems of this country.
POVERTY AND DISCRIMINATION ARE ONLY TWO OF THE MANY PROBLEMS OF MEXICO AND POLITICIANS WHO DO NOT DO ANYTHING TO SOLVE THEM!!!!!
Rebecca Santiago Clemente
