Huffington Post
By Elise Foley
July 9, 2015
When
Rep. Tony Cárdenas (D-Calif.) was a child, he remembers walking through
the grocery store with his mother as judgmental whispers were directed
her way.
Both
his parents were Mexican-born and they had 11 children, which made them
the objects of derision in certain parts of the neighborhood. People
would make quips about
Mexicans having more kids than they could afford and say cruel things
to his father that Cárdenas, the youngest of the bunch, left out when he
translated for his dad.
"My
father worked with a first-grade education in this country and managed
every single day without a hiccup," Cárdenas said. "He managed every
single day to feed his
wife, himself and eventually his 11 children. ... They didn't deserve
those kinds of comments."
That was decades ago, and attitudes have changed since. But not completely.
Over
the past few weeks, the presidential campaign has been fixated on
comments made by GOP candidate Donald Trump that mirror the type of
vitriol that Cárdenas recalls
from his youth. In his announcement speech, the real estate mogul
accused Mexico of sending rapists, drug dealers and other criminals to
the United States. While the majority of the country has responded with
condemnation, Trump has still risen to the top
ranks of the Republican primary field.
Cárdenas
has watched in horror. For him and other children of Mexican
immigrants, Trump's statements were an affront to their parents. He
takes solace in the backlash.
"I
think the response shows that it's changing and I'm glad to see that,"
Cárdenas said, adding, "Everybody should be defended and people should
be willing to stand with
them to let them know that an attack on them is an attack on me."
Cárdenas'
parents moved to the U.S. from Mexico in 1946, shortly after they were
married. While his father was Mexican-born, his mother, Maria Cárdenas,
had been born
in the U.S. but lived in Mexico since she was a child. Neither spoke
English, but they chose to join his mother's father, a migrant farmer,
in California in search of a better life. In addition to gardening, his
father, who was a legal permanent resident,
worked on farms and in construction, and was later self-employed. They
made enough money to get by, bought a house, and never skipped a
payment.
That
their son ended up in the U.S. House of Representatives is a remarkable
generational advancement. But Cárdenas is not a complete anomaly. There
are many members of
Congress whose parents came to this country as immigrants. The
Huffington Post spoke to six members with Mexican-born parents about
their families, their heritage and their thoughts on the debate kicked
up by Trump.
Linda
Sanchez, who chairs the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and Loretta
Sanchez are the sole pair of sisters currently serving in Congress.
Their parents, Ignacio and
Maria Sanchez, immigrated separately from Mexico in the late 1950s and
met in Los Angeles while working at the same factory. They were married
and, in due course, had seven children.
Their
parents experienced some discrimination, Loretta Sanchez said. When the
couple bought their first house in Anaheim in the early 1960s, for
example, the houses on
either side quickly went up for sale.
Their
father always stressed that his children get an education so that no
one would call them "a dumb Mexican." They did -- all seven went to
college. And as both Sanchez
sisters pointed out, their parents achieved another rare feat.
"My
mom and dad are, of course, the only parents in the history of the
United States to send two daughters to the United States Congress,"
Loretta Sanchez said.
Linda
Sanchez said there was "no logic" to Trump's decision to tar an entire
population with its criminal element, which exists in every group.
"When
I hear people say that Mexican immigrants or the people that come from
Mexico are rapists and murderers, it's hard not to be offended," she
said. "They're talking
about my parents, essentially."
Rep. Grace Napolitano, Democrat from California
Napolitano's
mother was from Mexico, and her father was from just across the border
in Brownsville, Texas, where the congresswoman was born. They divorced
when she was
3 years old.
In
Mexico, her mother had worked as a teacher, but she didn't speak
English and couldn't get a similar job in the U.S. So she babysat and
worked at stores and taverns.
She took whatever job she could find to support her two children,
Napolitano said, and eventually was able to buy her own home. She died
in 1980.
Napolitano
has faced discrimination as well. When the congresswoman was young and
working in a law firm, she said one of the partners acted as if
Napolitano didn't understand
English and didn't speak to her.
"A
lot of people work very hard to have accomplishments in this country,
much like many other immigrants from throughout the world," Napolitano
said. "For [Trump] to not
pay respect to the one minority that's growing and will be a majority
is a bad mistake."
Rep. Ruben Gallego, Democrat from Arizona
Gallego
is the son of two immigrants: a father from Mexico and a mother from
Colombia. His father, who was a construction worker, left the family
when Gallego was young.
After that, his mother, who had moved to the U.S. in her late teens,
raised his sisters and him alone. She was a legal secretary.
Many
members of his extended family in Chicago worked in construction,
Gallego said. He labored in a meat-packing factory one summer where
almost all of the workers were
Mexican immigrants.
He
said he's heard plenty of derogatory statements about Latinos, but it
worries him more that people like Trump are in positions of power where
they may be holding back
others based on their personal prejudice.
"It's
an experience that obviously does hurt," Gallego said. "But what scares
a lot of us isn't the overt racists. It's the people who are quietly
keeping their racism
to themselves and stopping men and women from getting good jobs or men
and women from getting a contract or getting promoted."
Rep. Raul Ruiz, Democrat from California
Ruiz
was born in Mexico in 1972. When his biological mother died months
later, he was adopted by his biological father's sister, who was from
Mexico, and her husband,
who was born in the U.S. He and his parents moved to the U.S. when he
was an infant and settled in California's Coachella Valley. In those
early years, they lived in a trailer.
His
father, who is now deceased, worked as a farm mechanic. His mother
still works in the fields. Their son earned three graduate degrees from
Harvard University and worked
as a doctor before running for Congress.
Ruiz
said in a statement that Trump is "a circus sideshow" and that he
thinks the focus should be on those Republican candidates who have
failed to condemn Trump's statements.
"What
does it say about this field of candidates that most are unwilling to
take a stand against his hateful statements?" Ruiz said. "What does it
tell us about their
attitudes towards immigrants, working families, and the pursuit of the
American Dream? These candidates are showing us where their hearts lie,
and it’s not a pretty picture."
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