Immigration With A Human Face
April 23rd, 2008 at 11:15am B Jon Traylor 199
As I sit here in front of this laptop, there are four Mexican-American men outside my home, prepping the grounds for the Spring/Summer metamorphasis that is spiring, which inspires me still...
Sure, they are Mexican, well.... actually one is from El Salvador... so that actually constitutes him as Latin-American. Somehow, the four of them, with him, seem to be hitting it off very well, working very well together. I understand Spanish fairly well, as two years of it in high school and two semesters in college seem to help me. However, from Tijuana to Juarez to Matamores to Vi A'Cuna to El Salvadore to Mexico City.... they all have their own slang, and it makes me want to say... "Okay, slow down fellas, I'm trying to comprehend this..."
I have a young man who works for (with) me.... (I don't like the term 'working for me', instead I consider them working 'with' me).... his name is Jose'. He's a great kid. He's 23, young, good-looking, clean cut, decent, hard-working, smart, and very intelligent. In the last 1.5 years, he has taken and passed/completed two ESL courses at CMC,... why?... because he is trying to assimilate and be a part of our society, a society unlike any he ever knew back home.
I pay him well.
He came here to the United States, four years ago, with help from a "Coyote". The coyote charged him $3,000 to get him here safely. The rest was up to him. Jose lived in a large city in southwest Mexico. His mom and dad still live there, yet his brothers and sisters and cousins and nieces and nephews are all spread across Mexico, Latin America and the United States, searching for a living. He tells me stories often of gangs, crime, lawlessness... of trying to do the right thing, find a job, of which there are few, and if you are lucky enough to get one, you have to be lucky to even get paid a fraction.
On this particular day, I was fortunate enough to have Jose with we all day. As we played the 'Ricky Bobby' game on 82 into Aspen, we listened to "Con Games." Jose asked me, " Jon, who you gonna vote for?" I told him that Borak Obama had my vote. He said, "What?" .... "why you wanna vote for that guy?" .... "He's no good for America, for working Latinos like me..."
I asked him who HE was gonna vote for, and of course, he said, .... "well, I can't vote, but we all Mexicans and Latinos want Hillary Clinton to win."
A bit curious, a bit puzzled, I asked, "do you not like Obama because he is Black?" He said, "no, thats nadda." ... "I like the Clinton lady cuz her husband is Bill, and Bill helped us." Again, a bit puzzled, I asked, "what does her husband have to do with her running for el presidente?" He looked at me as though I was ignorant. He said, "you a smart seno'r.... you should comprehende.... Bill give us our papers, give us freedom..."
I wasn't quite sure what he meant, so I asked him, "Jose, what you mean by that, can you explain more...?" He thought about it a bit, probably trying to translate into English, and he said, "Bill give us Amnesty, give us the right to stay here, to work here, to live here...."
Jon here again.... "Wow."
So, a bit taken aback at his thoughtfullness, his intelligence, I thought about it a few minutes as he drove our truck into Aspen. Finally, I asked him, "okay Jose.... what does Bill's amnesty bill (mexican translation = papers) mean?"
He said, "it means that his wife will do the same thing.... we Mexicans watch CNN, we know what you know... we know that she has said that she will grant Amnesty to us."
I asked him.... "Jose, is that what you want, is that why you are here busting your ass for me?"
He said, "Yes.... Jon you been to my city, ... you know why I left.... you know why I wanna be here... and I wanna stay here, legally, and work and have a home and a family, and I want to bring my family here."
It should be Obama in a landslide at this point. Yet, Clinton is still in it because of what one of my workers, one of my good friends has helped me to understand.
This is as country of immigrants, of big money, of easy money, of farming out the remedial, cheap jobs to other countries for cheap returns leading to big profits.
I couldn't be in business today, paying $3.79 per gallon in my vans/trucks for the cheap stuff, honestly... if it were not for good people like Jose Rios. I try to add on a 9.79 "fuel surcharge", and I get met with resistance from my clientele. It is a revolving black hole.
We are getting priced right outta the economy we have come to liken to and accept. I don't invest in the American markets anymore... Our treasury is almost broke... European markets are kickin' our ass. The Chinese/Asian markets are flat out scary. That is why I now invest in them. ScottsTrade is a beautiful thing. Do the math.
Just more thoughts from the middle.
God Bless you all. I'm still happy, still sober, still real, yet still seeking....
-- B. Jon Traylor
Entry Filed under: Carbondale, Colorado, The West, United Post
19 Comments Add your own
1. Star Eagle | April 23rd, 2008 at 8:49 pm
Gone fishin... hook, line and SINKER baby!
2. Mitch Mulhall | April 23rd, 2008 at 10:52 pm
...
What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow
Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man,
You cannot say, or guess, for you know only
A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,
And the dry stone no sound of water. Only
There is shadow under this red rock,
(Come in under the shadow of this red rock),
And I will show you something different from either
Your shadow at morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.
Frisch weht der Wind
Der Heimat zu.
Mein Irisch Kind,
Wo weilest du?
...
Cheers,
3. Star Eagle | April 28th, 2008 at 9:44 am
Being a son of Tejas B.Jon and now having a bit of experience in the Big Bend country you will have an appreciation of this tale.
As I was leaving the border country I had a little run in with what I had come to call the 'green meanies', or commonly called... Border Patrol.
They decided they needed to see what was in my pockets at a little spot in the road called the 'peyote flats' checkpoint dropping out of the Chinati Mts just north of the Rio del Camino and Presidio.
As you can imagine this is a long story but I will limit it to one short moment in the saga.
I was taken across the street from the county jail to the county courthouse for one of my court appearances, for the crime I'd done committed, by an older sheriff deputy who was part bailiff, part gofer. He had also been the deputy dispatched to drive the 45 minutes or so south from Marfa so the two 'green meanies' didn't have to leave their mobile checkpoint just to transport me to jail.
Anyway I knew him to be a personable, but no nonsense, old boy in the classic southern lawman mold.
Now as we were waiting for attorneys from both sides to arrive I was in the company of both this old gent and also another old gent who was my judge.
Here we go.
I was privy to these old timers talking about days gone by among other things. The story that sticks to this day was when they were talking about the 'immigration' problem of the day (1979) and how their 'grandaddies' took care of the problem when they were both in the Texas Rangers back in the Teens and Twenties of the last Century.
Seems a machine gun did the job, and did it well, according to these old boys.
So Mitch, I could follow your poetry till you went German on me, but your last line, "I will show you fear in a handful of dust," somehow triggered this memory from a old kid.
4. Mitch Mulhall | April 28th, 2008 at 8:19 pm
[I could follow your poetry till you went German on me...]
My poetry? If only it were so. No, that verse belongs to a St. Louis-born poet named Thom. I would have thought it more recognizable than it apparently is. BTW--the German translates thus:
Cheers,
5. Mitch Mulhall | April 28th, 2008 at 10:31 pm
Useful... Like the sound of one arm drumming...
Cheers,
6. Mitch Mulhall | April 28th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
Montefeltro answers from the bowels of hades Dante's questions and imagines the fires of hell pissing on its own heat:
Is there life after political discourse?
Cheers,
7. alpha6 | April 29th, 2008 at 8:51 am
Wait, let me understand you Jon....first, you hire illegals and know they are illegal, which is also illegal because either you are paying them under the table or you are using a fake social security card for payroll purposes. Nice why to do business. That being the case I would assume that you also don't run any kind of background or criminal check on your employees. I don't know what kind of business you do but hopefully you don't enter into anyones home or business. If you do, then you would need to be bonded, and that wouldn't be possible unless you are lying to the company that is bonding you and that is another crime. See the pattern here???
Additionally, you talk of these guys coming here seeking a better life because it is screwed up just about everywhere else and then you whine about the US and the economy and that you don't invest in the US anymore? Nice, real nice...just the kind of people we need around? Talk about self serving....you take the cake Jon. Nice that you, in justifying yourself say you would with these guys and they don't work for you....can you be anymore pompous?
8. Star Eagle | April 29th, 2008 at 9:39 am
Hook, line and SINKER baby... Double-time!!
The solution lies somewhere between machine guns and B. Jons.
Just because they are here now doesn't mean they can't go back, one way or another.
In '79', in Marfa, with the suck-wad economy of the late Carter years blowing through our ears, it was by the busload.
In '08', with this economy sucking major wind most places in the country once again, we still have busses.
They need to go home and fix what they have back there from within just as we have to fix what we have here... from within!
Our problems demand our solutions. Anything less... sucks.
9. Star Eagle | April 29th, 2008 at 11:12 am
Yea Mitch,
I almost forgot. Thanks for the translation. It fits perfectly, "fresh blows the breeze from the homeland my Irish
(United States of American-Honduran- Costa Rican-Mexican-etc-eran) child, why do you wait?
As for life after political discourse, of course there is. But what kind of life? Life after this political round and round is not looking good if we expect one of these candidates to fix it and therefore save us.
There lies the key. Will we see? Is it broke(n)? Can we fix it?
If you really think the systematic elective process in place right now will deliver us salvation in even the slightest degree, I only see your will offered for sacrifice on the altar of division.
Divide... and Conquer.. is the name of the game as played today. Tomorrow?
So can we fix it? That is the question. Of course we can.
"Knowledge is Power" we can use it, or we will lose it.
The foundation is built. The template in hand. The architects are gathering. The crafts(wo)men are cleaning and sharpening their tools as I write. The process has begun.
The key is a truly New World Order. Where most get lost is in their fear that the so called NWO is new. What they are really afraid of is a continuation of this world order, and who can blame anyone for that.
Stay tuned...
10. B Jon Traylor | April 29th, 2008 at 11:46 am
The men working at my home last week were all legal. I actually reviewed their papers. Their foreman was actually a man on my payroll., a man that my numerous clients of mine ask for when bookng the job.
We can make a mountain outta a mole-hill, or we can come togeher and make more...... -- J
11. Mitch Mulhall | April 29th, 2008 at 10:28 pm
Star Eagle,
[I only see your will [sic: "you will" || "yours will be"] offered for sacrifice on the altar of division.]
Ah, the nut of the matter. Pacifism. Something worth fighting for.
You once wrote: "Mitch and alpha6, all the intellect in the world won't help you now because the tide has turned and 'the times... they are a changing'... again, and now, you (two) too are going to be very angry, for awhile at least, no, perhaps forever, because you seem unable to 'get it'."
Well, OK then...
Cheers,
12. rfblogger | April 30th, 2008 at 12:16 am
I firmly agree with Alpha 6, and frankly after reading post after post I'm sick and tired of B. Jon's literary "pearls". I am done with this being the main focus of the Carbondale category. B. Jon does not represent the community of Carbondale, but back to the point.
B. Jon you said that "I actually reviewed their papers." Did you run them through the proper databases and verify that indeed they are legal?
What is the point of your post? You bounce back and forth from issue to issue. Alpha 6 called it right. You are either part of the solution or baby you're part of the problem.
Once again, when B. Jon is questioned he's quick to sweep it under the rug just like he did when he was questioned on his plagiarized post earlier this year. Are you for real?
Isn't it time that Aspen Post blogger put an end to this bs and get down to worthwhile issues. Try telling the truth, if you know it...
13. Mitch Mulhall | April 30th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
rfblogger,
[Try telling the truth, if you know it...]
Wow, that was harsh. Did you really need to tie that plagiarism reminder around Jon's neck before you threw him under the bus?
Cheers,
14. rfblogger | April 30th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
Mitch,
You are correct in that it was too harsh, but I come to Aspen Post for thoughtful, intelligent, and frank discussion of issues. B. Jon barely acknowledged the plagiarism, and now we're supposed to jump on his immigration stance? It's so contradictory, just tell it like it is...isn't that the way it should be. In the future, I will try to not be so harsh. After all it's a new day, and with that a chance for all to be redeemed. 'til next time....
15. Mitch Mulhall | April 30th, 2008 at 8:01 pm
rfblogger,
The embarrassing truth is not that Jon molded the lyrics of that Don Williams song to fit the circumstances of his life, but that he had audacity of foolishness to post it on his blog. If Jon hasn't heard from Don Williams' lawyers, maybe we could cut him some slack. I don't think he'd be half so careless again.
Cheers,
16. Mitch Mulhall | April 30th, 2008 at 9:43 pm
Where Don Williams' lyrics resonate in Jon's deepest memories, Marty Robbins' echo in my own:
Cheers,
17. B Jon Traylor | May 1st, 2008 at 1:08 pm
Jose wouldn't be working for me if he wasn't completely legal. Yes, I have verified his papers. He is real, and he is legal, and he is someone that my clients actually request to to the job. HE IS AN ASSET TO Me AND MY COMPANY.
Perhaps you should take that energy and do something constructive with it, instead of attempting to knock an honest man off his horse.
Actually, (and thank you Mitch...) I've never heard from
Don William's lawyers. I didn't knowingly or willfully plageurize his tune. I've often been told that I have a photographic memory. My father was a drunk, a big fan of Don Williams, and also a world class tie down calf roper.
That post is one I wish Conniff would remove. Going back, downloading the lyrics,. I see now how incredibly similar the words were. I never, ever knowiingly plagerized his words. Yet, looking back on my life, I NOW know how powerful those words were to me, and are to me to this day. Its almost as though those lyrics were written for me.
Tahoe happened, and yes I walked away from 8 grand at a poker table.
I'm a piece of shit, but real. -- Are you? -- J
18. Star Eagle | May 2nd, 2008 at 12:47 pm
If your not spinning or flying your a folger fisherman and that pretty much means opening up a can of fat worms. As long as its all street legal B. Jon you got no problems with me or the green meanies. As far as shit goes, like we'd say down on the border, "eets reealy goood schiit maan".
And Mitch, digging up old New Orders True Faith.. ahh going back to those wonderful wacky 80's, were those the days or what. Madonna, Michael, wait, wait get a grip man.
Sorry. Kinda lost it for a second or two there.
And when I wrote this "I only see your will offered for sacrifice on the altar of division." I kinda figured it wasn't like, you know, really good english, but I liked it anyway so I just kinda, you know, let it be... cause I liked it.
As far as the rest of the post I am a bit lost I guess except to say I thought at one time I detected a bit of passion but it seems to have subsided.
Gotta go ponder my thought for the day: Munitions vs. Religion
Heavy man!
19. reckless G | May 3rd, 2008 at 10:49 am
Hey Star Eagle; "Munitions vs. Religion" ought to be a blog! That's one I'd like to get into as I've been giving it a lot of thought lately. Give it a whirl would you?
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