Reading blogs (:

I like Nestor's blog. His blog is interesting to read; I actually feel that he is talking to me somehow. After reading it i found out that he was somewhat French which is really cool and interesting. He doesn't look French though xD.It had a cute part which was really sweet. It was a letter from an Italian immigrant in the U.S to his girlfriend at Italy.

Itze’s Blog is awesome. The journal seems almost as if was a movie. I couldn’t stop reading it. It’s really creative. In one part the German man describes that his country is being attacked and what he saw. A man with no face :O. That part I loved (:

Carol's blog made me realize that illegal immigrants have rights too. Its true they are going against the law but not all of them are a threat as they are seen. Not all Latinos are burglars or drug traffickers. Its totally racist to think that all illegal immigrants are bad people. There a lot of U.S. citizens that murder and rob. Many immigrants just cross the border to look for a better life because they are desperate.

Jenny's blog was really interesting. The part of the immigration issue at hospitals is shocking. I mean is true they are not legal citizens of the U.S. and obviously they don't get all the benefits but that should not mean they are denied the medical help!! GOD they would let someone die just because of some papers! That's insane, inhumane and unmoral. Its not fair, they are basically are being treated as nothing.

 

Destination: United States

          My uncle, Nasae, decided to move to the United States after he applied for an interview that he saw for an available job at his profession. This opportunity would improve his career and make him earn thrice his salary, which would bring him a better economic life. It was really hard to leave his family behind; he said goodbye many times in order to leave Puerto Rico, the country in which he was born and loved. Moving to the United States was difficult because he was not used to talk in English and to socialize with Americans. It was also tough because he lived in the city of Fort Myers in Florida State, a place where great racism was found. This caused that at work when he talked co-workers made fun of him because of his accent. To him it didn’t matter what they said, he was proud of coming of Puerto Rico and successfully working in the United States. However, everyday Nasae would feel sad and depressed, he was very home sick. He missed every single thing of Puerto Rico; his family, friends, food, climate etc. After a year one day when being nostalgic grew to the limit he decided to move back to Puerto Rico close to his family and happiness. Today he regrets going to live to the United States because he suffered a lot emotionally. Even though he had a bad time, he did get some benefits from this experience; Nasae was able to improve his pronunciation and gain more professional experience which helped him in the future.

            It is definitely not difficult leaving everything behind for a better life, even when is your decision to improve not because of the hardships of the home country. Starting a new life in a place where you are a minority can be pretty tough. I admire those many immigrants who didn’t have another option to move; they were strong and brave.  

Should the 14th amendment be changed because of illegal immigration?

Article by CNN: "Constitution 101: Babies born in U.S. are citizens"

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/02/15/honda.birthright.citizenship/index.html?iref=allsearch

     After the controversial political law SB1070 of Arizona, now there are at least 14 states and Republican congress men presenting the idea of changing or modifying the 14^th amendment because they claim is no longer useful as before. This amendment’s purpose is to grant citizenship to all people born in the U.S. It is the foundation of U.S. civil rights law and one basic right granted by the Constitution. Now it’s being proposed the idea that it should be modified to granting citizenship to babies that have at least one legal parent in the U.S. Republicans say that this way the number of illegal immigrants and archer babies will decrease. Their reason is that many illegal immigrants come to the U.S. so their children are born in the U.S making them legally citizens and giving their parents a reason to try to stay. The truth is that interpreting the 14^th amendment in other ways involving immigration has more cons than pros. It will be arduous due to the complicated process that was made in order to make any changes to the constitution. It would also cost money, cause unknown nationality for many people in the U.S. and drive away people from the nationalist party. I do not support breaking the law or having babies in U.S territory in order to find a way to stay. If you want to be treated fairly then you should play by the rules, meaning following the law. I think that instead of making the issue of immigration bigger, making racist laws or finding “solutions” that take rights away; what really should be done is find a humane way of helping those people who desperately come illegally to the U.S to find a better life due to the hardships of their home country.

             

Diary of Rachele Romano

August 18, 1879

            Things were tough back in Italy. My husband barely found food to sustain our children. We were very poor. There was a point in which my two kids, Veronica and Bruto had to work too so we could live. Many people were getting sick. We were afraid of what was happening and what would happen in the future with the natural disasters. We got desperate; we could no longer live like this. After a long talk my husband, Aldo, we decided to leave to America, the land of freedom; hoping to follow the “American Dream”.   

September 20, 1879

            We were excited to go to the U.S. unfortunately, things turned out different than what we thought would be an exciting adventure; the voyage was pretty though. The cabins were crowded. It was obvious that many people had a hard time in their home country, some people even tried to desperately sneak in the boat because they had no money to pay the ticket. This caused the crew to violently kick these passengers. However the attitude of the crew would be bad almost every single day during the trip, sometimes I would even see how crew members abused of their authority, mistreating female passengers. This got me worried of my safety, but I knew Aldo would be there to protect me if anything bad happened. In the boat the food quality was horrible and the water had a particular appearance and smell that could turn anyone’s stomach. Since we needed to survive, it comforted me to know that anything was better than Italy. After a while, some people got contagious diseases and died. We had to be really careful because if we got some type of illness reaching the U.S we would be sent back, and this would be really shameful. This would crush our dream for a better future.

October 11, 1879    

            Reaching the United States gave us a sense of hope. At first we had to stop at Ellis Island, New York. There we would be interviewed and checked for illnesses. We were asked questions such as where did we live before, what were our job occupations, how long had we been married, how many children we had, and other stuff related to our life. My husband and I would prepare our children for this at any spare time we had. I got really nervous when they called us, but luckily we passed the test.

October 21, 1879    

          When we got approved to go to the United States I felt a great relief. As if we could start all over again, but from the bottom. At first Aldo worked all that he could. He did things that others didn’t want to do. Some things he did were shoe shinning, rag picking and sewer cleaning. My children and I contributed saving money the most that we could; I would sometimes skip meals for this reason. As time passed by, Aldo got a construction job and we could improve our living conditions. I don’t regret the hard work we had to do to have a better life, it was worth it.

Italian Immigration

   Italians moved to the U.S for a better life. Back in their home country they had poverty, overpopulation, diseases and many natural disasters. Birthrates rose and death rates fell in the 1870s. In 1900, the illiteracy rate in southern Italy was 70 percent. Northerner Italians placed high taxes on southerners who had a hard time trying to find fertile soil because of erosion and deforestation. If that wasn’t hard enough volcanoes erupted and earthquakes shook.

   Like every other immigration journey at that time traveling to America was dangerous. Sailing ships took from about six to fourteen weeks, depending on the weather, to cross the Atlantic Ocean. In these journeys passengers endangered their lives. They suffered from mistreatment of the crew, bad food or from the excess of people aboard. Also, passengers could die because of shortage of food supplies, illness, fires or shipwrecks.   

   Many immigrants did not plan to stay in America. They didn’t want to plant and there was no cheap land left either, so many moved to cities were work was needed. Italians would often form groups relating to their place of origin. In these, they lived in poor, filthy conditions that most Americans considered intolerable. Italians wanted to save money the most they could; they would even skip meals to do this. Common jobs Italians got in the beginning were shoe shinning, rag picking, sewer cleaning, and whatever hard, dirty, dangerous occupations others didn’t wanted. Then they started to become fishermen, shoemakers, waiters, fruit sellers, and tradesmen. However, most got heavy construction jobs; they dug tunnels, laid railroad tracks, constructed bridges and roads, and built the first skyscrapers.

   Researching about Italian immigration has changed my perspective about it. Now I see how many people worked immensely for a better life. It has made me admire what they did. I can’t imagine myself as an Italian going through all of what they went through in their home country and in America as an immigrant just to seek a better future.

Italian Immigrant family

For more information visit:
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/historyonline/italian_immigration.cfm
http://library.thinkquest.org/20619/Italian.html