Chisme was walking around the other day, feeling, I don’t know, sort of weak. It’s like when you know you’re coming down with something, pero in this case, I didn’t feel any body aches or sniffles like when you know a really bad gripa is coming.
No, somehow, it’s hard to explain, but Chisme felt less free than usual. Then I read a letter-to-the-editor in last Friday’s USA Today, and the diagnosis was right there in front of me. A guy named Bruce Gary wrote in from Rhinelander, Wis., about how la migra, or the homeland office, or whatever they’re calling it since 9/11, should deport an illegal immigrant woman and her baby who have taken sanctuary at a Episcopal church in southern California.
Bruce from a town named after Germans wants the feds to raid the church and send this woman, Liliana, on the next bus, plane, or subway south, or if necessary, heck, let `em walk.
“Her case highlights one of the primary reasons many Americans don’t want immigrants to come to the USA,” writes Bruce, who lives in a town named after Germans. “They ignore our laws. They enjoy freedom they never earned. It’s all about the taking.”
Right on, Bruce, the guy who lives in an American town named after Germans.
Then, as usual, Chisme got confused, which happens often given the limited intelligence at hand. Right in the same issue of USA Hoy, there’s an article about Wilfredo Montes, a 54-year-old immigrant from Nicaragua, (what they couldn’t find a Mexican?). Wilfredo left his country about 10 years ago to find work to support his family, going first to Costa Rica, and then to Dallas, (oh yea, did I forget to say he’s one of dem illegal aliens?).
Montes has lived in New Orleans the last two years, working with many other immigrant workers to help rebuild that city after Katrina hit. Wilfredo has done his share in rebuilding homes devastated by the floodwaters of Katrina. Remember after that storm when the New Orleans mayor, Ray Nagin, ese pelon, complained that his town was being `overrun’ by Mexicans?
In the USA Hoy article, a worker named Cameron Taylor, says he, too, once resented all of the immigrant workers, but his resentment lessened when he saw how hard they worked.
“New Orleans has a long way to go,” Taylor said. The city wouldn’t been where it is today, he said, “if it wasn’t for the (Hispanic day laborers). They should be allowed to stay.”
Whoa, pardner, don’t go mushy on us.
The article goes on to detail what Montes, the freedom-taking immigrant, is up to these days. He sleeps in a partioned corner of a Lutheran church, where a dozen other migrant workers live for free, (see what Bruce of Germantown, Wis., is talking about?) In return, Montes and the others have to attend Bible classes, English classes and Sunday services if they’re not working on that day.
Montes gets up before dawn, showers and dresses, and makes sure the place is clean and in order before leaving in search of work. He walks two miles to a site near a Home Depot, where he hopes contractors will come by and hire him to do work, any decent work that will pay. Montes feels bad when he can’t find work, and doesn’t complain about the hardships he faces.
“We knew when we came to the United States, we were going to suffer like this. This is life,” he said.
Ni modo, Wilfredo, you’re just another illegal alien who came here, worked to rebuild a city devastated by a hurricane, and now the gueritos want you to book. The harder you work here, Wilfredo, the less free Bruce in Wisconsin and Chisme in South Texas are because there’s only so much freedom to go around. It’s like water. Too many people drink from it, and pretty soon, there’s no more.
Chisme got a kick that one of the Louisiana politicians who has been most vocal about bashing the illegals, questioning their morality and character, is no other than U.S. Sen. David Vitter, Mr. Family Values, a mero-mero Republican, who recently admitted he has contacted ladies who charge money for certain services. Chisme is no Billy Graham, trust me, pero these Republicans who defend marriage como perros, need to do better than this. I mean, por favor, at least stick to having gambling problems like that GOP gordito of moral virtues, Bill Bennett, who has also bashed immigrants.
Yes, a poor soul like Wilfredo Montes is taking our freedoms by hanging out at Home Depots and looking for work. Pero, at least, he’s not blowing his hard-earned American greenbacks on prostitutes and gambling in Vegas. Chisme might be wrong, and if he is, I’m sure Bruce from the Wisconsin town named after Germans will straighten him out.
