Guards at collection point
Photograph by Leonard Nadel, NMAH, History of Technology Collections.
The following links lead to other stories of Mexican immigrants legal, and illegal ones.
(1) Mexican Identity: Juana Gallegos's story
(2) Six Mexican immigrants killed by train
(3) The Waiting Game
If we look at these stories, we find that the fate of Cándido and América in The Tortilla Curtain by T.C.Boyle is only a small part of a bigger problem.
The Tortilla Curtain exemplifies the struggle of illegal Mexican immigrants perfectly well. It shows the difficulties of finding a job at the daily labor exchange just as Eutimio from San Francisco, an example taken from one of the above articles, describes it. Especially after 9/11, with the changes in immigration policy coming up, surviving has become harder. The US Border Patrol hunt illegal Mexican immigrants like animals, since officers are in fear of terrorists who may have one more chance of infiltrating the country – at least, that is their explanation for the “brutality and racism [...which is] well documented”. (cf. #3) This scares the people who want to emigrate to the United States, and ultimately it causes them to give up their hope for a better life in the USA. The result is a decreasing immigration rate.
The current situation makes staying in the US unbearable to many Mexican immigrants. Thus, many of them prefer to go back to their old hopeless lives in their home country. Furthermore, the job situation is very bad. Long days of loitering at labor exchanges without getting any work makes it impossible to provide food and a place to live for one's family or even for oneself, let alone sending money to those who stay back home in poverty.
Even legal Mexican immigrants are affected by the situation after 9/11. They lose their jobs, mostly in the hotel and restaurant business, and eventually are forced to go to the labor exchange, just as the illegal Mexican immigrants.
Altogether, one can only hope that the situation in the United States will improve soon and bring along some positive changes for everyone.
Written by KATHARINA KARCHER and
SYLWIA SOBIERSKA