american dreams
...working and fruitful society. Truly, today America is proud of its slogan “Working for a living”, which is a popular slogan of most modern day Americans with the most educated and highly skilled work force In order to keep themselves motivated in the U.S., to fight and to succeed, many poets did express themselves in their poems like, “To be of Use”, a poem by a modern day poet,” Marge Piercy”, has explained in her poetry, as to why work is so desirable. Working people need to be inspired and motivated which act as guides in our work. Reading Piercy’s poetry, the working class society feels a sense of being admired and seeks to work hard, as they are determined to succeed. As Piercy has quoted, “The work of the world is as common as mud”. (To be of Use, Marge Piercy, 19) which means that work is as common a routine as we see mud around us. The poet has also expressed why the hardworking people are admirable for she says that the world is full of temptations. She wished that she were always in the company of the hardworking people. But, unfortunately the new immigrant population do not seem to understand English at all, to either read or to nurture such texts, which makes the American majority to be less receptive to them. Being an Asian-Indian, also known for its hardworking community background, it is easy for me to realize and to understand as to why the American majority is not so receptive to new immigrants? Also, sometimes some of the immigrants from the neighboring country of Mexico are not welcome with open arms. Truly the Americans base this on certain assumption, which is the fear of losing their own jobs to these new immigrants, which is in turn the cause of oppression. Jimmy Santiago Baca has placed his trust in these Mexicans and trying to make the American majority believe in these new Immigrants. In the past, most new immigrants were welcomed with open arms, but most of the Mexicans who could not speak good English were not so welcome, so they were the discriminated lot, which made them wonder about the oppression in society. For instance, there was a sign put up in Yakima, WA a long time ago, which read something to the effect that, ” If you don’t speak English, then Adios Amigo”, meaning goodbye, was discussed in a news item. Even the white majority sometimes feels oppression when they lose jobs to immigrants, especially when the non-English speaking Mexicans get it, which was traditionally only theirs. The non-English speaking Mexican immigrants take up most of the farming jobs, as they are willing to work for a less wages. Also, the farm owners want to cut costs and they pay low wages, which is exploitation of labor. But, if any white American would have wanted any of these jobs, they would have got hired, as they have been in the past and also in the present but, as the pay scale is lowered the American is not willing to take it any more. This oppression has continued, since these new immigrants are not able to speak English and have no other skills making farming their only possible livelihood. Since jobs are scarce and pay is less the white workers have to suffer the oppression alongside with that of the Mexican co-workers. As time has gone by many immigrant Mexicans settled in the U.S. overcoming these oppressive blows, and were called Mexican-Americans. On the contrary the Mexican’s jobs in the U.S. have been under a lot of stress and the fear of being taken away by other foreign workers outside of the U.S. “The performers who have worked on the Simpson’s for 15 years, fear losing their jobs because the dubbing company is seeking cheaper actors”. (BBC NEWS: http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk). The BBC News of 12th Feb 2005 stated, “Union fights for Mexican Simpson’s”. For instance, “The Simpson’s”, which is a popular T.V. show with Mexican performers working in it for over 15 years were feeling oppressed because the company was trying to cut costs and trying to get the jobs done in Venezuela and Argentina. Their roles were being dubbed by the newly skilled actors abroad, which meant a job loss to as many as 15000. workers. The only way they could protect their jobs was to seek Union help. The Union did fight and was absolutely right to fight and to protect the rights of the original Mexican actors, as these roles were truly theirs. The Mexican actress in this T.V. show by name “Marge Simpson” felt that she had loved her role in the T.V. show, for she deeply cared for the cartoon character and was not working for the money, but worked for love of her work. The Mexican actor “Homer Simpson” felt anger that he was worried as to how he was to care for his family and kids. This trend of external oppression has been seen very recently. Mexican immigrants have also suffered from losing out jobs to the Anglo’s. In the past, which is the early 1950’s, in the movie, ”The Salt of the Earth”, it depicts all about the Anglo’s, Chicanos who fight for their jobs, as they were traditionally belonging to the Mexican immigrants, but since jobs were rare, there was a lot of hostility in keeping the jobs, although they rightfully belonged to the Mexicans. The story’s plot is about Mexican miners, who fight against injustices done to them, such as oppression by the Anglos. “Throughout the Great Depression, official attitudes about Chicanos were changing” (Salt of the Earth”(1953) http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/salt.html) because the Anglos fought more, they were considered the most hostile group. These lands were a part of Mexico before it became a part of the U.S continent. So this movie became a very controversial film, because the Anglos were oppressing the Mexicans over a part of their ancient land. This movie has much irony and depicts the absurdity, which the Anglo’s commit on the Mexican miners, just as much as Jimmy Santiago Baca has mentioned in his poem.Jimmy Santiago Baca has more to accompany him in stating the absurdity of the thought that any Mexican would take American jobs. This sheer absurdity is portrayed in the most recent short film” A day without a Mexican” The film focuses on the American job issues and how dependent the Americans are of using cheap labor in all areas of their life. In this movie “ One morning California wakes up to find 1/3rd of its population has disappeared “ (Movie--A day without a Mexican, http://ww...