thearmchairprof (imported) wrote: Sun Jun 27, 2010 10:49 am
In America, Latino culture tends to place more emphasis of its values on the family unit rather than the individual in comparison to Anglo culture. Often times Latinos have to make a choice between career opportunities and helping a family member or relatives, which in many cases family comes first. This is a value system which is not readily accepted by Anglo culture, but can easily be seen as a cornerstone to many Latinos.
This is one explanation, and I am quite surprised to see much of blame by others being placed upon the country in question's system of government rather than our own.
America has a long history in Latin America of staging coux de tas in order to set up puppet governments which cater to American interests. This has happened since we started moving toward imperialistic foreign policy during the post civil war era expansion.
If we really want to ask why Mexico is so poor, we only have to go so far as the grocery store, where a large portion of our produce is grown in Mexico and distributed by American companies. American investment banks such as JP Morgan have a long history of influence over American interests in latin america. Most of these investment banks, which subsequently have been of recent topic due to the bailouts, love poor and destitute countries and have so since after the civil war. They have continuously sought to use them as cheap producers of resources and labor, and their interests lie in keeping them that way.
Cheers!
If I may add, there was something called "Manifest Destiny" (
http://www.historyonthenet.com/American ... estiny.htm) that was responsible for the settlement of the Western States in America.
To paraphrase, people who came to America came to what justifiably could be called a 'belief' that it was the 'destiny' of Americans to settle on unoccupied land.
The American Indian belief was that nobody could 'own' land.Of course these contrasting belief systems let untold numbers of wars and skirmishes as flood after flood of European immigrants came to America and went west to acquire 160 acres of land free of charge courtesy of the U.S. government in the biggest 'give away' of real estate in the history of mankind.
Contrast this with most of the governments in Europe who would not allow an individual to own land unless they were of aristocratic stock. Some were still attempting to cling to the ideas of feudalism. Consequently, individuals with entrepreneurial spirit immigrated to America, caught a train and as soon as they got to a place that they could claim, they claimed their 160 acres. Remember, these were people who may have been considered mostly lower class in Europe.
Contrast this with the settlement of Mexico. First of all, the native peoples of Mexico were more numerous and from the beginning the purpose of the colonizing countries was to exploit the indigenous people and acquire their wealth (gold, silver, etc.) for their monarch at home.
Consequently, the immigrants to Mexico were more interested in taking something from somebody else than they were in establishing a working government and allowing people come and to populate it free-gratis.
Remember, the new world WAS claimed for governments in Europe in the name of royalty, kings, queens and the like. Not until a revolution occurred was private ownership allowed and then always at a cost. Meanwhile, the United States government still was giving away land to anybody who would come and live on it.
This is why the Mexican government and many other governments in the Latin and South America tend to be corrupt and their people tend to be poorer.
The United States of America was a land of promise where people were allowed to have things like royalty. (Like own land) There WAS no royalty in America and EVERYONE WAS (supposed to be) CONSIDERED EQUAL.
In many ways this is still true. Immigration tends to only let financially well established or the scholarly to immigrate these days. Poor people are not allowed. This is why Mexicans cannot immigrate. They are poor. Still, America is a 'promised land' to them and a job in America tends to have 'bosses' who treat them better than the ones at home do, in addition to pay them better.
So, it does not matter how many walls you build or laws that you pass Mexicans will still find a way to come here. They will come legally if they can afford it or illegally if they cannot.
If you want to keep a Mexican from taking your job you had better get a better education than them.
I can tell you right now that the immigrants form India are very well educated. In addition, their children are instilled with a respect for education that the average American does not have.
I could go on and on but unless the attitudes about America and immigration change America stands to spend a great deal of money, time and resources trying to stop a flood with sandbags made from rotten burlap.
We tried to subjugate a nationality once, in America. It was one from Africa, and we called the system "slavery". It did NOT prevail because of the principles that America was founded upon. (EQUALITY)
However, most of the men who fought for the Southern States Confederacy to preserve SLAVERY DID NOT OWN SLAVES. They were lower class, and they were MANIPULATED, much like the Republicans and the Tea Party organization is doing today to the lower class. No immigrant wants to take what you have. They want to BE JUST LIKE YOU and work for what they get.
IF people were better educated, they could see what is going on and how the upper class is manipulating them against the Middle Class. Socialism really has nothing to do with it.
Believe me, folks, the Mexican people coming to America to work are more like us than they are unlike us. This is true whether they are illegally here or here with a legitimate green card.