Immigrants from Mexico
JACOBY, SUSAN
THE STRUGGLE TO BE LEGAL Immigrants from Mexico BY SUSAN JACOBY San Antonio St. Timothy's is one of the many Roman Catholic churches serving the barrios of a city almost evenly divided between...
...My wife is the same...
...I see all of the things that are wrong with the system here, in America...
...Although the total number of legal Mexican immigrants has increased since the passage of a liberalized 1965 immigration law, the waiting lists keep lengthening because so many Mexicans have close relatives in the United States...
...They are not the sort of "community spokesmen" who are quoted in Che newspapers and on television programs, but they are deeply involved in church and other neighborhood activities that affect ordinary people...
...Then a man from San Antonio who owned a dairy farm came down and talked to the owner of 'the ranch where I was working...
...Zapata is a man whose life illustrates the tenuous boundaries between "legal" and "illegal" immigration in an area of the United States with an intricate web of cultural and economic ties to 'another country...
...After he had obtained the necessary documents, Zapata made a brief visit to the Mexican border town of Matamoros to obtain his permit for legal entry into the United States...
...Zapata was able to change his status because he had American-born children...
...Once he became a legal resident, Zapata urged the other members of his family in Mexico against entering the United States illegally...
...Those people made me eat the leftovers from their dinner, even food that had already been chewed...
...I had to shave off my mustache and put on khaki pants so I would blend into the population better, so I wouldn't look like a wetback who just came over from Mexico...
...During that time, I would be loaned out to other ranchers at the will of my boss-I had a reputation as a good worker...
...Did I ever disappear without the family knowing where I was...
...Immigration and Naturalization Service...
...The same administrative rule applies to all illegal immigrants from Western Hemisphere nations, but illegal aliens from Europe and Asia may remain in the United States while they apply to legalize their status...
...He was finally picked up while he was waiting at a crossroads for a man to contact him about a possible new job...
...The process was easier when Zapata became a legal resident in 1959, however, than it is for a Mexican illegal today...
...The most humiliating experience of my life as an illegal was when I was loaned out to work for nine days on a ranch owned by a terrible couple...
...Timothy's Church, the community workers provide services ranging from translations in dealing with government agencies to hot meals for schoolchildren...
...Zapata is now a community worker in a small project funded by the U.S...
...For an illegal alien who is the father of American-born children, the average wait in Mexico is now 29 months...
...I asked him if he needed directions," Zapata says with a laugh, "and then he identified himself as an Immigration Service officer...
...Even after I became legal, I worked for many years at jobs below the minimum wage...
...Parents of American citizens receive preference for entry into the United States, and illegal aliens who are able to legalize their residence in this country frequently manage to do so because their children were born here...
...Zapata's six children range in age from 12 to 20...
...The main point is that I have only been working at a regular salary for seven years...
...And the prospect of a long wait in Mexico discourages many illegals eligible for preferential admission under American law...
...Was I a good husband, did I sleep at home every night...
...Susan Jacoby is an Alicia Patterson Fellow who is also supported by the Rockefeller Foundation...
...To go anywhere for help is difficult, because any stranger could be a (threat...
...They asked my wife many questions...
...A fellow mejicano, not only an Anglo, might be an informer...
...Then he reentered the country at Brownsville, Texas...
...You know, a boss will look at a person like I was and say, 'See how he sleeps on the bare floor, he doesn't care how he lives.' " During His 11 years as an illegal, Zapata eluded Immigration Service officers four times...
...When I arrived for an appointment at a nearby office that offers a variety of social services to neighborhood residents, my light blonde hair marked me as an Anglo stranger...
...After I became legal, my whole life changed...
...It just isn't true...
...Whether the person is 'legal' or 'illegal' in the eyes of the world-that person is a human being, trying to do better...
...I had been active in the parish even though I was an illegal...
...Did I support my family...
...The people who knew me before were very surprised at the change in me, because I had a reputation as a quiet, docile person...
...I didn't have much trouble with my application because I had good recommendations here," Zapata remembers...
...I was scratching, scratching like a madman all night...
...Due to an administrative ruling by the Immigration Service, Mexicans who entered the country illegally after April 1973 must return to Mexico as soon as they apply for legalization of their residence in the United States, and they must remain there while awaiting their entry permits...
...That's exactly what happened...
...After that, I worked at breaking in horses, shearing sheep, building a water tank-all of the jobs you do on a ranch...
...The Church, unlike most institutions, is not interested in an immigrant's documents...
...Department of Health, Education and Welfare...
...That is why people leave their own country...
...Moreover, the attitudes of Mexican-Americans toward illegal immigrants are extremely complex...
...I changed because I now felt free to express my opinions, my concepts...
...They paid me $20 a week for a 17-hour day...
...The wealth of the country does not reach working people...
...Two officers took me to my house, and they questioned my wife and me separately...
...To a man trying to support his family, such a wait is all but impossible...
...The enforced separation of families is one of the human consequences that aren't visible to people who don't live in the barrios...
...She has no formal education either, but we have both always had this desire to better ourselves, to do better for our children...
...The distinction between a legal immigrant and an illegal alien-like the border between Texas and Mexico-as clear under American law...
...I just picked up my English, I never had the opportunity to go to night school because I was working so hard...
...Was I an unwelcome visitor from the U.S...
...I was afraid to speak up, to do anything but go between my home and my work...
...Both Zapata and his wife are well known in the barrios of San Antonio...
...We think of the injustice, the economic despair, that drove us out of our own country...
...Then my wife got sick and had to have four operations in five years...
...But the girl got tired of waiting in only two-and-a-half months, so I had no reason to stay there [in Mexico...
...At home, we sit around our dinner table and have discussions about almost everything-economics, religion, social issues...
...In spite of their poverty, only 5 per cent are on welfare...
...The oldest is married, working days and attending evening classes at San Antonio College, a local junior college...
...Welfare is considered a shame...
...In their economic desperation, they resemble turn-of-the-century immigrants from Southern Europe...
...He picked me because I was the youngest, and I guess the strongest...
...It makes me sad to know that some Anglos say Mexicans come here only for welfare...
...they range from complete sympathy for fellow mejicanos to fear that uncontrolled illegal immigration will threaten the shaky position of blue-collar workers who have struggled one rung up from poverty in the American economy...
...There was no such thing as a high school where we lived," he says, "but at least I learned to read and write...
...So I preferred to sleep on the bare floor...
...Once when I was being taken away to another ranch in a truck, I opened my mouth and asked, 'Where are we going, where are you taking me this time?' They told me I had no right to ask any questions about anything because I was a wetback and lucky to have the chance to work in America at all...
...Like many other Mexican-Americans in .the Southwest, Zapata worked in this country as an illegal alien for years before he was able to legalize his status...
...Devout Catholics, they were the first Spanish-speaking presidents of the Christian Family Movement in San Antonio...
...He was finally able to become a legal resident because he and his wife Maria had American-born children...
...But the immigrant does not think only of that-we also think of the terrible injustices in Mexico...
...I wanted to get married, but I didn't have the money...
...The image of the immigrant as someone who wants welfare is completely wrong in my experience,'' Zapata says...
...I worked for three years milking cows...
...When you are an illegal, you are a prisoner of anything that happens...
...The other kids want to go to college," Zapata says, "and that's a satisfaction to my wife and me...
...He crossed the border illegally for the first time in 1948...
...We have dreams of improving ourselves in Mexico but we do not have the means," Zapata says...
...Many of the Mexican people who come here are illiterate...
...Although Zapata came from an extremely poor family, he was fortunate enough to have received five years of schooling...
...Who knew what I wanted...
...I wanted very much to help poor people...
...There were 13 of us illegals there...
...Zapata noticed someone wandering around outside a nearby cafe and looking as though he were lost...
...When he was 18, his parents sent him to work as a baker in a small town near the Rio Bravo...
...He points out that more than 95 per cent of Mexicans immigrating to the United States, both legally and illegally, come from the poorest sector of Mexican society...
...I saved, and exchanged every dollar for 12.5 pesos...
...After I became legal, I felt I had been reborn...
...Unless you have lived here illegally yourself, you don't know how desperate you have to be to accept this...
...Organizations concerned with the stability of immigrant families-notably the U.S...
...Operating out of a small office near St...
...Some of the parishioners are second-, third- and fourth-generation Mexican-American citizens, while others are more recent immigrants who have arrived in the United States by both legal and illegal routes...
...Out of that money, I had to pay $7 a week for room and board...
...A young woman standing at the building entrance quickly averted her head, gathered up a child in her arms and walked away...
...After the questions were over, after my wife said yes, I was a very good husband and supported my family, the officers told me they would take me away for two or three hours and tell me what documents I would need to become a legal resident...
...The disintegration of families is one of the things that concerns me most about the situation with illegal immigrants right now," Zapata says...
...I had no right to ask questions...
...Somehow, this simple human truth gets lost...
...But many, many illegals are known to no one outside their own families...
...The boss taught us how to say a few words of English like 'how are you?' and 'I'm fine.' I couldn't speak any English at that time...
...My priest knew me very well...
...You have no rights as a man...
...Half of the people who come to the office for help have family incomes of less than $1,500 a year and less than two years of education...
...He asked for my papers and, of course, I had none...
...I had six children of my own and I couldn't afford all of the expense involved in bringing in my brothers and sisters...
...Sometimes in Spanish, sometimes in English...
...The mattress they gave me to sleep on was filled with fleas and lice...
...Timothy's is one of the many Roman Catholic churches serving the barrios of a city almost evenly divided between Anglos and residents of Mexican descent...
...The boss must have managed it...
...Jesus Zapata was the oldest of 13 children, born in a rural area far from the border between Texas and Mexico...
...Many Mexican-Americans feel both (the sympathy and the fear...
...It's nearly impossible to help anyone when you are illegal yourself...
...You are frightened to make a friend, because you don't know who can be trusted...
...When I came over the first time, my only intention was to make enough money to get married...
...The Mexican comes here in search of work, any work...
...It is a terribly sad thing to be considered an illegal person," said Jesus Zapata, a community worker who noticed the woman's reaction...
...Those distinctions are mot so clear for many Mexican-Americans who have relatives on the other side of the border, for those who (like Zapata) were once illegals themselves, or for those who have close friends and relatives living in the United States without documents...
...We were stopped twice by the Immigration Service, but both times they let us go...
...Catholic Conference-are pushing for an end to immigration policies that differentiate between different countries and areas of the world...
...Helpful Zapata...
Vol. 58 • April 1975 • No. 9
