Fri May 18, 2012
Grace Weber
Immigration Identity Issues
By Grace Weber, Wisconsin September 2006
The debate over illegal immigration has created deep divisions among the American public. Some politicians play upon fear and prejudice, while others remind us of the many benefits immigrants bring to the United States. Immigration supporters march in the streets of our cities, while opponents man makeshift guard towers along our southern border.
This frenzy over immigration threatens a new round of irrational fear and hatred towards people of Latino heritage – a fear and hatred that author and media commentator Michele Cerros understands all too well. As a fourth generation Latino girl growing up in California, about three miles north of the Mexican border, Cerros speaks to the immigration issue from memories of strong pressures to hide her heritage.
“My parents really emphasized that my sister and I didn’t speak Spanish,” she said. “They wanted us to be accepted as fully as we could be. And even though we were fourth generation, we still had the hyphen ‘Mexican-American’ because we definitely looked like the ‘other.’ I feel that people [have always been] very scared of the ‘other,’ the change, and the traditions.”
Wanting to be as-white American as possible was important to Cerros’s family. It sometimes meant shunning other children from migrant families. “We hated these students because they embarrassed us and made our differences more prevalent to the other white students,” Cerros said. The do-or-die need to assimilate meant dressing like surfers, not packing burritos for lunch at school and Cerros remembers she considered changing her name just to be accepted. “No one is going to want to hear what a girl, especially a Mexican girl, has to say,” her parents said – advising her to change her name to Michael Hill if she were ever to become a published author.
But fear of ‘being discovered’ came home to roost one day when she was riding her bike with her blonde girlfriends. A man standing in a doorway yelled out to her, “I hope you get hit by a car, wetback.” “It was not the fear that someone wanted me to get hit, but that he had pointed out my differences to me in front of my girlfriends,” Cerros said. “I was so afraid they would realize I wasn’t like them and they would leave me.”
Since 9/11, fear of immigrants has dug deeper roots in American’s hearts and minds. Cerros believes that this fear stems from mistrust and racism not only towards Hispanic immigrants, but also towards other immigrants of color. “I was in New York during 9/11, and at the time I was dating a Palestinian. ‘Boy,” he said, “this is going to be easier for you now because we’re the new brown. Racism has become broader.”
Stopping racism and mistrust of all immigrants must be done through peaceful protest and dialogue. While she tries to use humor in her speeches so she doesn’t come across as threatening, Cerros admitted that immigrants have not always helped create better understanding and respect for themselves. “[Some of the] hatred and animosity towards my culture could be our fault, when we waive the Mexican flag during protests.”
Besides humor, Cerros’ novels help to chip away at Latino stereotypes. Her novel, Honey Blonde Chica, is about middle class Mexican American girls who are typical American teenagers. “I feel that it’s always [been] about the three B’s – borders, bodegas, or barrios,” Cerros said. “Young people are getting tired of that description. They understand the issue, they acknowledge it, but they just want to hear different stories sometimes. The girls I write about didn’t swim here or come across a river on a boat. They primarily came here on Mexican airlines, first class. It’s the immigrant we rarely read about.”
Cerros feels that in time, the gap between different cultures in American will close and there will be unity. She waits for the day where she does not need to say, “I am a Latin American woman”, but instead, “I am an American.”
world headlines
U.S. headlines
editorial headlines
