Dear Ms. Ontiveros, Puerto Ricans are not inmigrants
Dear Ms. Ontiveros, Puerto Ricans are not immigrants
by Carlos T Mock, MD
July 22, 2006
Born in San Juan Puerto Rico and a US citizen by virtue of my birthplace. A response to today's Sun Times article.
While I agree with most of what you say in today’s article, I must confess that you should do more research before publishing an article on immigration. Puerto Ricans are United States Citizens. Puerto Ricans migrating to the United States is no different that Hawaiians moving over to the mainland. We will have climate issues to adapt to, perhaps language, and discrimination; but the comparison stops there.
There will not be a problem of getting a green card (we as are Americans as you are). The INS will not be after us for trying to get inside the country. We will not have to leave our wives/family behind because we will be walking several hundred miles of treacherous dessert to get inside the United States—a simple airline ticket will do it.
The fact that you consider Puerto Ricans as immigrants is, in fact, an insult to all the thousands of Puerto Rican US Soldiers that have died for America in all your conflicts from World War I to the current war in Iraq. Your article also sends a message that we are second class citizens.
Ps: The official currency in Puerto Rico is the US dollar, just in case you did not know that.
Today's (Puerto Rican) immigrants much like early arrivals
BY SUE ONTIVEROS
Copyright by THe Chicago Sun Times
July 22, 2006
I think the thing that bothers me most about the current immigration debate is the mean-spiritedness. There's this underlying opinion of many of those who want to curtail new immigrants' entry into the United States that their immigrant ancestors were better than the current folks who want to call the United States home.
That's why I like the dialog that writer/publicist Elaine Soloway has started in Humboldt Park. Soloway is that rare individual who can see that there are more similarities than differences between people.
Soloway recently wrote a book called The Division Street Princess (Syren Book Company, $19.95) in which she describes her years growing up in a three-room apartment above a mom-and-pop grocery store that was her beloved father's American Dream.
One could look at her memoir as simply one of a daughter of Jewish immigrants living along that stretch of Division Street.
But Soloway recognized that her story is more than that. "I am convinced it is not just a Jewish story," Soloway said. "It is an immigrant's story."
So, with that in mind, Soloway sent her book to Paul Roldan, executive director of the Hispanic Housing Development Corp. This spring, while touring her old neighborhood, Soloway saw that now at that corner of her childhood -- 2501-11 W. Division -- is Paseo Boricua Apartments, which was built by Roldan's corporation.
And right then, Soloway decided she wanted to share her story with the residents of these apartments, which provide affordable housing for the near-elderly. Despite the fact that the five-story, tan and white building is modeled after architecture in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, and looks nothing like the grocery store and apartment of her youth, Soloway could feel more of a kinship than disparity with the residents.
When Roldan read Soloway's book, he shared her opinion.
"The transition of immigrants is so generic," Roldan said. "The experiences are so similar."
So on Thursday, Soloway met Roldan and other Latino leaders from Humboldt Park at Paseo Boricua Apartments to talk to the building's residents and donate copies of her book to the community room there.
"I wanted to share what the neighborhood was like in the '40s," said Soloway, to show how very much alike, rather than different, they all are.
No matter what the mean-spirited immigrants' opponents today may think, the Jewish immigrants to Humboldt Park, just like the Puerto Rican newcomers who settled in the neighborhood after them, pretty much held the same hopes and dreams. They all came to our country for a better life, more opportunities for their children, freedom.
And while many people may mourn the loss of their original buildings in the old neighborhood, Soloway is more open-minded. She can see that some things actually are better. She likes the economic, political and community groups who are banding together to keep the Puerto Ricans rooted in Humboldt Park. A chamber of commerce like the one that exists there today would have been helpful to her father, who struggled with his business.
"My parents would [have] loved to see what has blossomed on this site," Soloway said.
The Thursday gathering turned into an opportunity for some of the current neighborhood leaders, including Ald. Billy Ocasio (26th), to talk about neighborhood history with Soloway and see how things changed. Ironically, what put her family's little grocery store in jeopardy was the arrival of the large supermarket chains. Today, all those chains are long gone from the neighborhood and one of Ocasio's latest victories has been securing a new supermarket for his constituents.
And in the end, they all could see how much alike their experiences on the streets of Humboldt Park really were. Soloway remembers a Jewish community where life revolved around family nearby and children were the center of it all. That's not really all that different from the Latino families who live in the neighborhood today.
Some people just don't want to acknowledge that today's immigrant really isn't all that different from people who came here before them. But on that little stretch of Division Street, Soloway is trying to show that hopes and dreams haven't changed all that much since the days when she played outside her family's grocery store.
by Carlos T Mock, MD
July 22, 2006
Born in San Juan Puerto Rico and a US citizen by virtue of my birthplace. A response to today's Sun Times article.
While I agree with most of what you say in today’s article, I must confess that you should do more research before publishing an article on immigration. Puerto Ricans are United States Citizens. Puerto Ricans migrating to the United States is no different that Hawaiians moving over to the mainland. We will have climate issues to adapt to, perhaps language, and discrimination; but the comparison stops there.
There will not be a problem of getting a green card (we as are Americans as you are). The INS will not be after us for trying to get inside the country. We will not have to leave our wives/family behind because we will be walking several hundred miles of treacherous dessert to get inside the United States—a simple airline ticket will do it.
The fact that you consider Puerto Ricans as immigrants is, in fact, an insult to all the thousands of Puerto Rican US Soldiers that have died for America in all your conflicts from World War I to the current war in Iraq. Your article also sends a message that we are second class citizens.
Ps: The official currency in Puerto Rico is the US dollar, just in case you did not know that.
Today's (Puerto Rican) immigrants much like early arrivals
BY SUE ONTIVEROS
Copyright by THe Chicago Sun Times
July 22, 2006
I think the thing that bothers me most about the current immigration debate is the mean-spiritedness. There's this underlying opinion of many of those who want to curtail new immigrants' entry into the United States that their immigrant ancestors were better than the current folks who want to call the United States home.
That's why I like the dialog that writer/publicist Elaine Soloway has started in Humboldt Park. Soloway is that rare individual who can see that there are more similarities than differences between people.
Soloway recently wrote a book called The Division Street Princess (Syren Book Company, $19.95) in which she describes her years growing up in a three-room apartment above a mom-and-pop grocery store that was her beloved father's American Dream.
One could look at her memoir as simply one of a daughter of Jewish immigrants living along that stretch of Division Street.
But Soloway recognized that her story is more than that. "I am convinced it is not just a Jewish story," Soloway said. "It is an immigrant's story."
So, with that in mind, Soloway sent her book to Paul Roldan, executive director of the Hispanic Housing Development Corp. This spring, while touring her old neighborhood, Soloway saw that now at that corner of her childhood -- 2501-11 W. Division -- is Paseo Boricua Apartments, which was built by Roldan's corporation.
And right then, Soloway decided she wanted to share her story with the residents of these apartments, which provide affordable housing for the near-elderly. Despite the fact that the five-story, tan and white building is modeled after architecture in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, and looks nothing like the grocery store and apartment of her youth, Soloway could feel more of a kinship than disparity with the residents.
When Roldan read Soloway's book, he shared her opinion.
"The transition of immigrants is so generic," Roldan said. "The experiences are so similar."
So on Thursday, Soloway met Roldan and other Latino leaders from Humboldt Park at Paseo Boricua Apartments to talk to the building's residents and donate copies of her book to the community room there.
"I wanted to share what the neighborhood was like in the '40s," said Soloway, to show how very much alike, rather than different, they all are.
No matter what the mean-spirited immigrants' opponents today may think, the Jewish immigrants to Humboldt Park, just like the Puerto Rican newcomers who settled in the neighborhood after them, pretty much held the same hopes and dreams. They all came to our country for a better life, more opportunities for their children, freedom.
And while many people may mourn the loss of their original buildings in the old neighborhood, Soloway is more open-minded. She can see that some things actually are better. She likes the economic, political and community groups who are banding together to keep the Puerto Ricans rooted in Humboldt Park. A chamber of commerce like the one that exists there today would have been helpful to her father, who struggled with his business.
"My parents would [have] loved to see what has blossomed on this site," Soloway said.
The Thursday gathering turned into an opportunity for some of the current neighborhood leaders, including Ald. Billy Ocasio (26th), to talk about neighborhood history with Soloway and see how things changed. Ironically, what put her family's little grocery store in jeopardy was the arrival of the large supermarket chains. Today, all those chains are long gone from the neighborhood and one of Ocasio's latest victories has been securing a new supermarket for his constituents.
And in the end, they all could see how much alike their experiences on the streets of Humboldt Park really were. Soloway remembers a Jewish community where life revolved around family nearby and children were the center of it all. That's not really all that different from the Latino families who live in the neighborhood today.
Some people just don't want to acknowledge that today's immigrant really isn't all that different from people who came here before them. But on that little stretch of Division Street, Soloway is trying to show that hopes and dreams haven't changed all that much since the days when she played outside her family's grocery store.
posted by Carlos T Mock at 9:36 AM
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