How to become an American

Angel Santa Anna has a straight face.

The round face of the young officer of the Saint-West Border Patrol suddenly turned purple.

"I'm American," he replied. "First of all, I am an American. I am doing my duty as an American. "

Then, his expression returned to normal: "Indeed, ending this fence can only encourage people to continue to cross the border and fall into danger."

He pointed to a metal sign on the wall behind him, which looked like a road sign on the highway. On it, a snake, a drowning man, a sun and a steep mountain were simply drawn, and several big black letters were written in Spanish to warn: "Attention! This is a restricted area! Don't risk your life! Not worth it! "

"Indeed," he continued, "a part of me makes me understand these people. I have some respect for them, or at least sympathy. This is what I said to my colleagues when one of them was arrested. I ask them to listen and talk to them, especially to show sympathy, because we can learn a lot from these parents who ventured to this country. But in the meantime, what do you want me to do? You must obey the law. I'm here to uphold the law. Come on, come on, I'll take you to the scene. "

I saw him driving a tourist bus and winding along the fence on a dry road. He frowned and looked nervous, serious and alert, just like a policeman turned into a hunter in the process of arrest.

I heard him tell me a thousand and one stories about these people that he knew very well-no one in the world knows better than him. Angell Santa Ana's home is here. She hinted that a generation ago, maybe two generations ago, they crossed the same border, pursued the same dream and took the same terrible risks to come to the United States. This may be the reason why he has respect and sympathy for these people. I heard him tell me all the tricks he used to hunt down the poor with the knowledge he gained from family memory and the US Border Patrol. Maybe his own family has been hunted before. A child was chained under the car chassis, and an acrobatic woman managed to squeeze herself under the hood. A tunnel that started under the billiard room in Mexico led to the stairs of a house in Arizona-it took years! These people have incredible imagination! But we know all the tricks they came up with, which is why we finally won.

What finally won? Show off sympathy or enforce the law? He is very sensitive. He has been through all this. When he catches an illegal immigrant who reminds him of his parents, he keeps a gentle tendency? Or another classic conditioned reflex, that is, close the door after him, because he is already in the door, and he does it even harder because he knows all the tricks of these people? It's hard to say. I think both possibilities are true. I also assume that there is a 1000 crisis of conscience here. When the police are shaken and torn, they no longer know whether they should serve the family or the country. But I am sure: if you put these problems aside; If you ignore psychological factors for a while; Most importantly, if you try not to think about those terrible conflicts, they are the real price behind these beautiful words, and just think about the structural impact of all these, two factors will appear.

By recruiting agents who speak Spanish or are willing to learn Spanish-by choosing a positive discrimination that is unimaginable in a country like France-you show that Hispanics can arrest other Hispanics, you emphasize that "race" is neither a unit nor a tribe, and you paradoxically cut a wedge in American communitarianism.

Moreover, by allowing people like Santa Anna to exist, it is not enough to suggest that Tijuana people just want to be Americans; Through them, it is clear that the United States needs to earn, and American citizenship is not a gift, but a conquest; Arrange them to guard these terrible outposts. Their own compatriots have walked through with blood and tears, and they still have to go through every level. Paradoxically, perhaps they still maintain their ancient expectations for the United States, which is the same age as this country.

Because I saw two immigration patterns in California-I believe this pattern also exists in the United States today.

Koreans, Armenians, Iranians and China immigrants put new immigrants in economic and cultural cocoons, and they seldom communicate with cocoons of other nationalities. On the other hand, Hispanics put participants in an environment that is structurally similar to that of immigrants a long time ago. Once they pass the screening in Alice Island, once they get rid of lice and have a physical examination to prove that they are not syphilis patients, they have to endure the hard work and sweat of a generation before they "deserve" to become real Americans.

At that time, "look at the documents first, then look at the sweat." Now "sweat first, and then, if everything goes well, it's a document." But the structure remains the same. "Being an American" is a constant theme, which is complex, painful, lonely, patient, violent and uncertain for a long time. In Europe, new immigrants come to Europe with a sense of rights. In America, new immigrants take everything for granted. For them, America is a place that must be fought for.