4.28.2005
Those They Leave Behind
Some of the saddest stories I have read about the soldiers fighting and dying in Iraq are those of Hispanic immigrants who came to the US for greater economic opportunities who now find themselves on the front lines representing their new country. Carlos Lazo is a Cuban immigrant who came to the States in 1992, risking his life on a wooden raft and leaving his children on the island. A typical immigrant success story, Carlos joined the National Guard in order to give something back to his adopted land, and soon found himself being deployed to Iraq. While he has been one of the lucky ones, having escaped injury during the war, he has been victimized in another form: through the Bush Administration's draconian Cuban travel restrictions which prevent him from visiting his children in Cuba.
It is quite common for Latin American immigrants to leave their families behind when they come to the US. Recently, I met a 56 year old Chilean man who left his wife and two daughters in 1990 to come to New Brunswick, New Jersey. He has not seen his family in the 15 years since then, while working as a dishwasher, waiter, and truck driver as an illegal immigrant. "I've watched my two daughters grow up over the phone," he told me. He is proud to have been able to put his daughters through college in Chile and is grateful to the US for this. However, is it all worth it? He has the satisfaction of knowing that he has given his daughters a better future, but because of tighter restrictions after 9/11, he was no longer able to renew his NJ driver´s license, the only legal form of documentation he has held since arriving. He anticipates that he will soon be out of a job and have to return to South America. "There are no jobs for people like me in Chile," he lamented. I wonder if it is worth it for the hundreds of thousands of immigrants who leave loved ones behind.
