Quote:
Originally Posted by Moses
Nice vignette. Wrong immigrants.
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Exactly.
I've grown up in mixed areas, with all sorts of races, but largely hispanic and asian, most of my life. Starting in the 60s.
I think Mexicans were in many ways like asians, starting out in the US. For example, both use gardening as a stepping stone to success. In the 60s, most gardeners on the west coast (maybe other places, I don't know) were Asian.
When I say "gardeners," I mean they'd come to this country, scrape some money together, buy an old pickup truck, lawnmower and rakes, and start knocking on doors for clients.
Then they'd save up their money and start other enterprises. Laundromats, liquor stores, etc. (This wasn't done by choice, completely. No one would hire Asians in the 60s. No asian immigrant was going to become an executive at IBM, etc.) They'd highly stress integration into the US culture, learning English, and becoming educated. These were very important values. Other impt values were being self sufficient, being grateful for the freedoms and opportunities in the US (instead of feeling like "victims," despite real discrimination in the 60s etc), and being self-reliant from the govt (asians for the most part don't take welfare, etc., at least didn't back then).
As Asians moved up the ladder from gardening, Mexicans started to take it over. Which was a good thing for them. They were following a very similar, time-proven path to success.
But, at some point, it seems like they fell off track. For the most part, they didn't take the next step, to saving up money, starting more lucrative businesses, taking full advantage of the US educational system, etc.
Why they have, to a large extent, failed to prosper like the asians is a good question. But that they have failed to do so isn't really at issue.
(I had an interested experience a few months ago, going to a state Labor Commissioner office. I was surprised, despite the area being maybe 30% hispanic, that pretty much every person in there was hispanic, making their various claims against their former employers, most of which claims appeared to be nothing but a shakedown for cash).
So, yeah, the Norman Rockwell success story certainly can be applied to many immigrant groups. Not sure Mexican is one of them, unfortunately.