Why don't you go back?

Why don't you go back to your country to make it prosperous? That's what someone yelled at a person that took the microphone in a protest against the SB 1070 in Washington Square. The person in the microphone hesitated and then answer that maybe some of us need to go back and make our countries prosperous. Maybe that is a question we (Latinos living in the US) have to ask ourselves but it's a question Americans have no right to ask.
How an American asks an undocumented worker to go back to a country impoverished as a consequence of following policies imposed by the US? Why Hispanics have to go back and the Europeans that came before us get to stay? Why none of them went back and make their countries prosperous? Why Latinos have no right to enjoy the fruits of our labor? Undocumented workers work sometimes harder than Americans. It's their hard work and low wages that made this country prosperous. What's Americans merit besides being born here?
Some Americans think that because undocumented workers came to the US breaking the immigration laws they don't have any rights. It's surprising that Americans and Latinos alike never mention that undocumented workers break this laws because they have no other choice. They have no other choice because their countries are poor because they follow the policies that America imposes on them. Nobody mentions that many farmers, fisherman and truck drivers lost their jobs in Mexico because after NAFTA they had to face unfair competition and fight against unfair laws from the US. Nobody mentions that if they don't want us here they have to stop making our lives miserable back in our countries or at least let us to make our own mistakes.

There are no priorities when it's about people.

In the last months several states in the USA have openly shown their discontent with the presence of undocumented workers in their states. The discontent and some time anger is not only with undocumented workers. Many times these feelings are against specific racial groups, specially Latinos and Muslims. It's sad that a New York Times poll finds that 51% of Americans think the Arizona immigration law is about right. Racism exist in the US, denying it it's closing your eyes to the truth. Thinking it only exists in the US is closing them even more.
There have been many different reactions from the Mexicans in Mexico. Some are indifferent, “Americans can do whatever they want with their laws. It's their country”, someone told me. Some criticize the Mexican government for encouraging Mexicans not no travel to or make business in Arizona. “They first need to create better working and living conditions in the country and then they can criticize American's reaction to migration” I read in a Mexican newspaper.
These reactions are even sadder. How can someone think that because the USA is a free country it should be allowed to treat human beings that are only looking for a better future like criminals? Leave aside the fact that many of them are Mexicans and think for a moment that they are human beings that lived with violence, discrimination and extreme poverty in their country of origin. They had to do that dangerous, horrible trip to cross the border and get to a country that is not their country, where they don't speak the language, where they are exploited and above all are being chased as criminals just because they are trying to exercise a right that even the US declaration of independence says it's evident all men have: The right to the pursuit of happiness. It's sad that someone thinks that a free country is free to enslave a group of people.
It's sad also that some think that the Mexican government should create better living and working conditions before they defend the rights of Mexicans outside Mexico. Mexicans living in the US with documents or without them are people, they are Mexicans and deserve protection from the Mexican government before, while and after the Mexican government creates better living conditions in Mexico for them to return. The government should defend and respect all Mexicans, those living in Mexico and those living outside. If the Mexican government is not capable of creating better living and working conditions at the same time it defends the rights of Mexicans outside Mexico it's our duty as Mexican citizens to demand them to do so or oust them from power.

Gay parents

There has been a debate going on in Mexico for several weeks. The debate of whether or not gay couples should be able to adopt kids. Some say allowing gay couples to adopt is to take away from a child the right to have a father and a mother. It could be true that to grow up it is preferable to have a father and a mother. However those who are against gay adoption are not thinking about the wellbeing of the children but just following their own prejudices. The catholic church claims that the best way to start a family is trough an married heterosexual couple. The truth is that many married heterosexual couples that are even biological parents abuse their children. No catholic group (to my knowledge) has ever debated over the right of procreation of some heterosexual couples. Doing that would be out of the question. However they debate over the right of homosexual couples to raise children even though some homosexual couples are more stable and loving than some of their heterosexual counterparts.
The reality is that thinking of the wellbeing of the children and letting aside prejudices children are better off with a loving couple or person. The sexual preferences of the couple of person do not matter at the end. What matters is how much love the child will receive and how well the person or couple will take care of him or her. At the end of the day a parent is the one that raises the child.

Drug legalization

Months ago the Mexican congress passed a bill that legalizes the traffic of small quantities of drugs just for individual use. Many were against this bill.
It is common knowledge that most of the drug related crimes are perpetrated by addicts desperate by another dosage. The truth is that at least in Mexico executions among rival drug cartels seem to be much more common than crimes perpetrated by addicts. It is also common knowledge that availability of drugs is what creates addicts. The truth is that not every person that has drank alcohol is an alcoholic and that most of the time an addiction happens because of an emotional problem and lack of information about the effects of the drug and not because of availability of the drug. Drug addiction is usually a consequence and not a cause of problems.
The truth is that this bill could improve the situation of many addicts. They no longer have to deal with corrupt cops and have to go to jail just because they don't have the money to pay the bribe. This bill could help us stop thinking of the addicts as criminals and start thinking of them as ill people that need help.
Changing our attitude toward addicts could help them and their families to find the actual root of their problems and therefore find the solution