realization

Today while on the metro. (I can proudly say that I take public transportation) I saw a hispanic man get off the train and walk down the platform with a bucket full of roses for sale. Being from Long Beach, the chances of him being of mexican descent was high. I thought to myself. Why? Why do we leave our homeland for another country that has raped us of our culture, tries to strip us of our language, pried our hands of territory that was once rightfully ours? And yet so faithfully, there we stand. As if nothing has happened to our people? As if these atrocities had never occured and are fables in the backs of peoples minds. "For a better future for me and my family". Is this what you call a better future? Is selling roses, grapes, cherries, oranges and other varieties of produce on the side of the 405, in any way better than the job previously held?

I find myself getting more and more into latino culture. And what spawned it all was a book called 'the tattooed soldier'. It made me begin to change my outlook on the meseros in hamburger joints, the guys who work at the carwashes, the day laborers that stand outside of home depots, the migrant workers in delano. Someone educated with a degree in engineering, wiping down tables at omega burgers. A university professor picking strawberries. Because we will do jobs that nobody else will do and still find integrity, honesty, and respect in what they do.
We are the children of the sun and we deserve our place.