What Americans should know about Mexicans
Since the beginning of Donald Trump’s campaign, a trending topic has been “The Mexican Problem”. Some truths had been said but also a big amount of lies, but, do you really know Mexico and the Mexicans?.
Let me give you a little tour from inside the country. To begin, Mexico despite being one of the strongest economies of Latin America is a country of big inequality. More than 50 million people are poor, that’s almost half the population. Most of the other half also struggles to feed their families.
The minimum wage in Tijuana (The city in which I live) is 4 dollars per day. A professional obtains an average income of 20–50 dollars per day. Obviously only the more experienced receive 50 or more dollars per day, but that’s a very small percentage of people.
So maybe you’d ask, is 20 dollars a lot in Mexico?
No, it’s true that services are much cheaper than in the U.S. but products are more expensive: gasoline, food, cars, electronics,medicines, etc. are cheaper in the U.S. That’s why if you’re from San Diego you’ll see a lot of Mexicans buying in the stores. Every day thousands of Mexicans cross the border only to get this products.
The unemployment rate in Mexico is high, there are cities where you can’t find a job. Thousands of people have emigrated to “Industrial cities” like Tijuana which have a big amount of factories.
So, this solves the problem, right?
Not even close. Although there are Federal Laws about employment, not all companies follow them. Some don’t give medical insurance to their employees other ones force them to stay extra hours without payment to mention the most common situations. The most disadvantaged ones are construction workers. Bearing this kind of things every day.
Tijuana is a place where you can find companies from all around the world: Americans, Europeans, Mexicans, Japanese, Koreans, etc. American companies offer better conditions than the other ones but the salaries are of course way smaller than in the United States. On the contrary, Japanese Companies create bad work environments: no security, no training and no breaks are common features of this ones.
But they aren’t the worst, Korean companies exceed them by far. Nobody wants to work there, their employees are there only for necessity and try to get out as fast as possible. Dangerous environments, no payment for extra hours and exploitation are some of the conditions people face every day in those places.
Dangerous environments, no payment for extra hours and exploitation are some of the conditions people face every day in those places.
One of the worst places to work in Tijuana is Hyundai (yes, the company that makes cars). Every week there are “accidents” some people loose a hand, others loose an arm and sometimes they loose their lives. And Mexican government doesn’t make anything to stop these situation.
And Mexican government doesn’t make anything to stop these situations
Now, when we talk about justice Mexico doesn’t have it. It’s a country with jails full of innocent people and streets full of criminals. In Mexico you can’t walk safely in the night, you have to lock your house even when you are in it, you put all kind of security to your car because you’re always scared of getting robbed.I hope that know you understand better the reason why all Mexicans dream of living in the U.S.
I hope that know you understand better the reason why all Mexicans dream of living in the U.S.
Even so, the Mexican doesn’t surrender. He wakes up every morning and works all day to give himself and his family the pleasure of eating a couple of tacos.
But the Mexican also has heroes, we love soccer and a goal from Chicharito can sometimes give us strength to keep going on.
In Television the Mexicans loved Chespirito.
And in movies the one and only was Cantinflas.
They were so popular because their characters reflected the fight that the common Mexican has every day.
Piñatas in birthdays, Tamales in Christmas, the Mexican uses the little money he has to bring some joy to his family.
the Mexican uses the little money he has to give some joy to his family
The churches, another aspect of Mexican culture are always full of people, people who wish to see Mexico as a great and secure place to live.
Wild and kind, rough and sentimental Mexicans keep going on and when they see an opportunity they take it.
We don’t need any walls, we need help. Help from you who have better education, better economies, better justice system, help from people who want to change the world.
We don’t need any walls, we need help
I hope that reading this helps you to improve the image you have from us, because although we consider ourselves as unique human beings we want to have a life like yours.
