Never did like that Woody Guthrie song. REH
Featured Post previous <http://www.nationalmemo.com/the-next-big-obamacare-battle-the-low-wage-work ers-who-get-left-out/> | next <http://www.nationalmemo.com/14-states-that-have-decriminalized-marijuana/> A Guatemalan Tyrant, In Old Age, Faces Justice At Last April 1st, 2013 5:05 pm Mary Sanchez <http://www.nationalmemo.com/a-guatemalan-tyrant-in-old-age-faces-justice-at -last/?author_name=marysanchez> 17 <http://www.nationalmemo.com/a-guatemalan-tyrant-in-old-age-faces-justice-at -last/2/> http://nationalmemo.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/guate malan-flag.jpg Recall the massive 2008 immigration raid - the largest ever at the time - at a kosher meat processing plant in Postville, Iowa. The majority of those arrested were Guatemalans, rounded up like cattle and "processed" for deportation. The abuses were many, and the resulting backlash actually led to reforms in U.S. immigration policy. One little-known but revealing aspect of the raid was that the Spanish translators provided by the U.S. government were of little use. Many of the Guatemalans were indigenous and spoke different dialects. Spanish was their second language, and most could neither read nor write it. Some were members of the same families that suffered most during Guatemala's civil war. North Americans often miss these connections, the ways our lives intertwine with events and places far from our frame of reference. I became aware of one such connection about 10 years ago while wandering through ruins in the highlands of Guatemala. A Mayan woman was there selling intricately embroidered textiles. We struck up a conversation, Spanish being a second language for both of us. She was excited to find out I was from the Midwest. She pulled out a scrap of paper, a U.S. phone number was penciled on it: 816-761.. My heart skipped, the digits were so familiar. It turned out that her husband was living a few miles from my childhood home in south Kansas City. I later visited him, and he recounted stories of violence from the country's long civil war, telling how his family had been uprooted and how he eventually came north for work. On the outskirts of Kansas City, he was working under a fake Social Security number at a fast-food restaurant. Many Americans like to fancy our nation as the injured party when it comes to illegal immigration. They imagine that these immigrants are little more than a bunch of parasitic lawbreakers trying to take something from us. Some ask why the "failed states" to the south of us can't get their acts together and look after their own citizens. Why indeed? As the Mayan survivors in that Guatemalan courtroom tell their stories, we'd do well to remember that our nation has been more involved in their tragedy than many of us are willing to admit. Recall the massive 2008 immigration raid - the largest ever at the time - at a kosher meat processing plant in Postville, Iowa. The majority of those arrested were Guatemalans, rounded up like cattle and "processed" for deportation. The abuses were many, and the resulting backlash actually led to reforms in U.S. immigration policy. One little-known but revealing aspect of the raid was that the Spanish translators provided by the U.S. government were of little use. Many of the Guatemalans were indigenous and spoke different dialects. Spanish was their second language, and most could neither read nor write it. Some were members of the same families that suffered most during Guatemala's civil war. North Americans often miss these connections, the ways our lives intertwine with events and places far from our frame of reference. I became aware of one such connection about 10 years ago while wandering through ruins in the highlands of Guatemala. A Mayan woman was there selling intricately embroidered textiles. We struck up a conversation, Spanish being a second language for both of us. She was excited to find out I was from the Midwest. She pulled out a scrap of paper, a U.S. phone number was penciled on it: 816-761.. My heart skipped, the digits were so familiar. It turned out that her husband was living a few miles from my childhood home in south Kansas City. I later visited him, and he recounted stories of violence from the country's long civil war, telling how his family had been uprooted and how he eventually came north for work. On the outskirts of Kansas City, he was working under a fake Social Security number at a fast-food restaurant. Many Americans like to fancy our nation as the injured party when it comes to illegal immigration. They imagine that these immigrants are little more than a bunch of parasitic lawbreakers trying to take something from us. Some ask why the "failed states" to the south of us can't get their acts together and look after their own citizens. Why indeed? As the Mayan survivors in that Guatemalan courtroom tell their stories, we'd do well to remember that our nation has been more involved in their tragedy than many of us are willing to admit. (Mary Sanchez is an opinion-page columnist for The Kansas City Star. Readers may write to her at: Kansas City Star, 1729 Grand Blvd., Kansas City, Mo. 64108-1413, or via email at [email protected])
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