I just spent 3 weeks in Tucson, AZ visiting a friend. The good liberal
that I am, I was hesitant to even think about a trip to Arizona now in
the middle of a national controversy and travel boycott about a racial
profiling law couched in anti-immigrant clothes (as if that makes it
okay) going into affect there in July.
We have our own problems in WI with new anti-immigrant laws being
proposed, so even the thought of leaving in the middle of this new
mess in the legislature had me personally nervous, but curiosity
killed the cat and I'm no pussy... cat, so the offer to go see for
myself What's the Matter with Arizona? proved too enticing and I took
my friend up on the invitation.
First of all, Tucson in summer is Hell. The Sonoran Desert in the
middle of the summer is heat that cannot be described to a human who
has never experienced it.
Most of my days were spent running from air conditioning to the
swimming pool to air conditioning to air conditioning and back to the
pool, etc with an occasional STUNningly beautiful trip up 10,000 feet
Mount Lemmon to enjoy the cool air (90) and light breeze (with more
intense sun...). I made the mistake one day of thinking to myself
"Walgreens is only a short walk (less than half a mile), think I'll go
get a soda". Only to find myself in scorching hot sun and 107 degree
heat gasping for air by the time I got there, skin burned and
exhausted... My friend had to pick me up to get me home. Lol!
I mention the pool because it was there that I began to notice
perfectly sweet rational and even liberal people I really liked turn
into raving irrational racist lunatics before my eyes whenever their
minds turned to any thoughts abouts immigrants.
Actually in AZ these normal nice people would call them "those damn
immigrants". Even a random statement like "My husband had to go to the
ER last week.". Would turn into a rant about it taking 3 hours to be
seen because "those damn immigrants swarm the place in groups and its
so busy WE can't be seen by a doctor."
On the plane down I met a lovely woman who was a doctor in Phoenix.
When I mentioned I needed a simple medical procedure that any doctor
could do, she cautiously said "Well whatever you do, DON'T go to an ER
anywhere in AZ, they're horrible and you'll never get seen for
something that simple.". The tone made me double take her with a
questioning look and clearly more aware of her inability to SAY what
she meant, she said "Well, you know with all the uninsured in AZ,
EVERYONE (said with almost a wink) on the planet ends up there.". At
the time I didn't understand, but my pool conversation gave me a new
clarity on the issue. At the pool my new friend whom I already really
liked went on... I was too stunned to speak... Especially in a
language that I was unfamiliar with (hate speech), and a place I
didn't know...
"Well, you know, THEY just come here with no money and sick and the
doctors don't have a choice... And they bring all these sick kids in
and it just clogs up the system...".
Still speechless, I said nothing (rare for me), but at this point I
think I was supposed to voice some agreement about what a "problem
those damn immigrants are...", but not having any and shocked by the
callousness of wanting to deny sick children medical attention, I
stayed silent.
Not hearing what must be some standard response in agreement by fellow
Arizonans, the East Coast raised woman stopped for a minute as if she
had for the first time actually listened to what she was saying and
said, "Well, of COURSE an ER is based on need first and sick children
should always have the right to be seen by a doctor, its just that
there's SO many of THEM, that US Americans can't even use our OWN
hospitals!"
This was a perfectly lovely, sweet, rational woman raised on the East
Coast who stated without prompting she'd voted for Obama, who'd lost
her mind over "those damn immigrants".
So next incident was a woman who lived next to my friend who was a
tiny, but tough old broad :), working in a local hotel in Tucson. Out
of the blue she's walking into her apartment and says hello to me.
Nice woman, kind and generous and friendly to all her neighbors
regardless of race. Next thing I know she goes on a rant about "those
damn immigrants" and how they can't speak English and yet somehow get
jobs at the hotel and she's giving them instructions they can't
understand and they act like they do and then get it wrong. She would
say things like "There's this one woman, Maria I think is her name,
she's actually a nice lady, but can't speak a word of English and I
can't for the life of me figure out how she got an AZ drivers license.
How does she read the street signs? What's wrong with these people...
Getting licenses like that and can't even speak English".
Then she went even farther, "Most people think its just the Mexicans
that are causing problems, but at the hotel, we have AFRICAN
immigrants and KOREAN immigrants and they don't speak English either!
All these Americans out of work and all they do is hire all these
immigrants! They have this Mexican woman at Walmart who doesn't speak
a word of English.". I interrupted her here saying "Well, considering
this is Tucson, that may not be a bad business decision". She nodded,
kind of, and went on and on about the Korean woman at the hotel ("Nice
lady, but why does she have a job and nice American kids don't").
It didn't stop there... Over and over I was either accosted with this
new language of hate or over heard it.
What's amazing to me is we were only one hour from an artificial
border drawn by the Spanish and English invaders on this land a
hundred years ago.
The people who lived on this land were neither Spanish nor English and
the only difference between them and us is which invading country
spent more time occupying what side of that artificial border. The
Mexicans are really Native Americans for the most part. Their land
invaded, their culture co-opted and even their language changed. They
had no border between these lands and they moved freely before
Europeans started drawing lines.
So here these INVADERS come in, speaking different languages and stop
on Native American lands and make it so no one understands anyone
anymore and draw artificial lines and build cities in endangered
deserts and then have the NERVE to tell them THEY are the "immigrants"
who are a nuisance like pests.
More than 50% of Tucson is latino by my visual estimate. Spanish is
the main language spoken by most residents (no kidding, the Spanish
settled there...). All signs are in Spanish and English no matter
where you go. The Mexican food is to die for... The Latino community
IS Tucson.
For Americans from all over the nation to have invaded Arizona
"because the dry heat is healthy" and then turn around and be
surprised that there are a lot of Mexicans an hour from Mexico is
ludicrious!!!
As my friend from Tucson says, "Welcome to Tucson, I warned you..."
--
Sent from my mobile device






