The new issue of GQ has a great article by Jeanne Marie Laskas about the immigrants who pick blueberries in Maine, which is seemingly a million miles away from Tucson, but does raise some issues about the people caught up in our arguments about citizenship, immigration, and humanity in general:
Wash the apple before you bite into it, because that’s the way you were raised. Germs, pesticides, dirt, gunk, it doesn’t matter—just wash it. The fingerprints, too, go down the drain with the rest. It’s easy to forget that there are people who harvest our food. Sometimes, maybe, we are reminded of the seasons and the sun and the way of the apple tree, and if we multiply that by millions of apple trees, times millions of tomato plants, times all the other fruits and vegetables, we realize, holy potato chips, that’s a lot of picking. Without 1 million people on the ground, on ladders, in bushes—armies of pickers swooping in like bees—all the tilling, planting, and fertilizing of America’s $144 billion horticultural production is for naught. The fruit falls to the ground and rots.
Most of the people who pick our food come from Mexico. They blanket the entire country, and yet to most of us they’re strangers, so removed from our lives we hardly know they’re here, people hunched over baskets in the flat distance as we drive down vacation highways. If we imagine them having anything to do with our lives at all, the picture isn’t good: 50 percent of the migrant-farmworker population is in the United States illegally, the one piece of the story Americans hear quite a lot about and are increasingly bothered by, or urged to be. On TV and talk radio and especially during election years, we’re told we must work together to stop this national crisis. These people are robbing our homes and trafficking drugs and raping our children right there in our J.C. Penney dressing rooms. The bad guys make headlines, as bad guys will, and the rest, we’re told, are a more insidious blight: taking American jobs, giving birth to bastard “anchor babies” in what Pat Buchanan once called “the greatest invasion in human history.” Whether we buy into the rhetoric or not, one thing has been made clear: Illegal immigration is a problem reaching a breaking point, and something must be done.
Except there really is no invasion, no growing national crisis. In fact, recent statistics show that immigration from Mexico has actually gone down—and steeply so—over the past decade. (An estimated 80,000 unauthorized migrants crossed the Mexican border into the United States last year, down from 500,000 ten years ago.) More to the point: There is nothing new about this story. Importing foreign labor has always been the American way, beginning with 4 million slaves from Africa. Later came the Jews and Poles, the Hungarians, Italians, and Irish, the Chinese and Japanese—everything you learned in sixth-grade social studies about the great American melting pot. And with each group came a new wave of anti-immigrant, pro-Anglo rage.
Our current debate over how to control our borders is really just a rehashed version of a very old one cycling over the reach of history. It’s a lively conversation about fairness and purity, about who belongs and who does not, and as a result, the people who pick our food are shamed into the shadows, nameless, mostly afraid, and certainly inconvenient to the experience of the satisfying first crunch and explosion of sugar that happens when we discover that this, oh yes, this apple is awesome.
This article appears in Sep 29 – Oct 5, 2011.
I don’t know if this is the belife of the tucson weekly or not but it seems to be a very bleeding heart fictonal story. face facts this is america we speak english. ALL of these poor illeagle imigrants could in fact come here leagely and work but then they wouldn’t get hand out from our goverment and lord help us they may have to learn english. Not to mention all those gready corporations who own 90% of the agricultural industry may lose some of the multi million dollar profit if they don’t hire illeagles who they pay pennies on the dollar to. plain and simple you want to be in my country learn the language, pay your taxes, don’t take hand outs that others have and are paying for , and last but not least come tyo my country leaglely.
…and you’re lecturing others about learning English? You should go back to grammar school because your grammar and spelling suck.
Ah, Peach, no comment in response to what foff had to say? He has a point or two that you could have mentioned instead of just complaining about his grammar and spelling! Actually, his English is quite easy to understand!
The point that the Weekly seems to miss is that the “Jews and Poles, the Hungarians, Italians, and Irish, the Chinese and Japanese” that came to this country were routed through Ellis Island, where they had to go through a legal process to enter this country. They did not sneak in, didn’t expect free government handouts, and made serious efforts to learn the language. They considered this country great enough that they wanted to be a real part of it. Not just take the money and send it to their families “back home”. Do you have any idea how much money is sent out of this country, without taxes being paid on it, (or paid under a false identity), every year?
Maybe instead of just making rude remarks, you could make a more interesting comment next time!!
If your Not Native or Pacific Islander your Illegal. The Pilgrams were illegal, Columbus was illegal, we didn’t invite you, we didn’t ask you to stay and everyone one of you is illegal so what’s a few more million?
The pilgrams were not illegal because there was NO LAW at that time that would make them illegal, now we have laws. Was it illegal for native americans to scalp people 150 years ago? Today that would be illegal because of LAWS.
No Se Puede! I’m not crying for any, ANY person that enters this country illegaly! Legal Immigrants ALWAYS welcome! Illegal Immigrants, GO HOME!
“Our current debate over how to control our borders is really just a rehashed version of a very old one cycling over the reach of history. It’s a lively conversation about fairness and purity, about who belongs and who does not, and as a result, the people who pick our food are shamed into the shadows, nameless, mostly afraid, and certainly inconvenient to the experience of the satisfying first crunch and explosion of sugar that happens when we discover that this, oh yes, this apple is awesome.”……………………In the shadows my ass! Try going to Walmart on Valencia and listen to how many times you are called a “Pinche Gringo Puto”! Shadow THAT!
The Pew Hispanic Center found that only 24% of agricultural workers were illegal aliens. The rest were legal workers. And of course, most illegal aliens don’t work in agriculture at all, but alongside Americans, using stolen SS numbers, and doing jobs Americans most definitely will do. Then there’s the Dream Act. The whole purpose of the bill is to have US taxpayers subsidize the college educations of illegal aliens and to give them a pathway to the BETTER JOBS Americans really want, will do and are doing.
To respond to just three concerns raised by previous writers. 1. To enter legally, especially for unskilled workers, is a difficult and generally lengthy process, think years. People desperate for work to feed their families can’t wait years. 2. If they use false Social Security numbers it means they’re paying in without any hope of payout later. So, they’re helping keep the system solvent for the rest of us. 3. Young people, brought here by their parents when they were young, who now want to further their education in order to become productive members of the society, should be applauded not penalized. Their education is in all of our best interests if we want to keep our country strong.
All of you make good points. Let me start off by saying that if you came here illegally to work hard to feed your families legitimately, I can appreciate that. I’m not saying it’s right, but I get it, even though they are increasing the economic strain on our country. You roll the dice coming into this country. If you get to send your money home, fine. If you get caught, even better. My big problem is with the scum of the earth that wants to come to the U.S. to further their already established criminal resumes-The rapists, murderers, child molesters, drug-runners, gang-bangers and even the not-so-shady leeches on society that depreciate our quality of life through drunk-driving, driving without insurance, etc. These people are slipping in everyday. How are we to determine who is Joe Average and who is a menace? We can’t. Not really. So it’s in our best interests to make sure our border security is as tough as it could be. After all, they completely ignored our laws and policies to get here anyway.
Seems the “scum of the earth” can’t stay put…