Immigration Impacts Mexican Marriages - 2/26/ 07

Tue Feb 27 18:28:07 EST 2007

Talk about a different perspective.  It prompts me to point out that we'll
have a keynote that will highlight the Hispanic Healthy Marriage Initiative.
I'll also list some of the workshops in Denver that will have a Latino
flavor for those of you working with this population.

> P-4 Friday, June 29,  Plenary, 4pm
> The Diaries of Adam and Eve as Translated by Mark Twain
> Ada Maris and Tony Plana
> Mark Twain understood that our common needs are what make our marriages work,
> but our differences that make them passionate; that a life lived alone - even
> in Eden - is unbearable; and that we, husbands and wives, need someone there,
> to witness how much we've loved - and what we have done - for others. Film,
> TV, and Broadway stars, husband and wife team, Ada Maris and Tony Plana (the
> father on Ugly Betty), present this enlightening perspective from the Broadway
> musical and bring Twain's Garden Diary to life.
> 
> The Hispanic Healthy Marriage Initiative
> Frank Fuentes
> Learn about exciting projects across the country focused on
> strengthening marriage in the Hispanic Community.

Mark Twain wasn't Latino and we're not claiming that Adam and Eve were
either, but husband/wife team, Ada Maris and Tony Plana, are Latino (he's
the father on Ugly Betty).  They work with their local healthy marriage
initiative and they'll give us a delightful musical entre to a discussion of
Latino marriage. Frank Fuentes, founding director of the Hispanic Healthy
Marriage Initiative, will update us on the state of Latino marriage.

Here's a link to the Latino Track:
http://www.smartmarriages.com/latino.track.html

If your workshop SHOULD be listed - has a Spanish language version available
- and isn't, let me know. - diane

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- MEXICAN WIVES SEEK OUSTER OF HUSBANDS FROM U.S.
By Stephen Dinan
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
February 26, 2007 
-----------------------------------------------------------
The women of Tecalpulco, Mexico, want the U.S. government to enforce its
immigration laws because they want to force their husbands to come back home
from working illegally in the United States.

They have created an English-language Web page where they identify
themselves as the "wetback wives" and broadcast their pleas, both to their
men and to the U.S. government.

"To the United States government -- close the border, send our men home to
us, even if you must deport them (only treat them in a humane manner --
please do not hurt them)," it reads.

In poignant public messages to their husbands, the women talk about their
children who feel abandoned, and worry that the men have forsaken their
families for other women and for the American lifestyle.

"You said you were only going to Arizona to get money for our house, but now
you have been away and did not come back when your sister got married," one
woman writes to a man named Pedro. "Oh how I worry that you have another
woman! Don't you love me? You told me you love me."

It's a stark reminder of an often forgotten voice in the U.S. immigration
debate -- the wives, children, parents and villages left behind as millions
of workers come to the U.S., many of them illegally. The plea also
underscores the dual effects of migration on Mexico: Its economy needs
American jobs as an outlet for workers, but determined, able-bodied workers
get siphoned out of Mexico.

More than 10 million Mexican-born people, or nearly one out of every 10, was
living in the United States in 2005. And as a percentage of the work force
it's even higher: One in seven, or 14 percent, were here, according to the
Migration Policy Institute. The institute said 77 percent of Mexican workers
in the U.S. were younger than 45, and 70 percent were men.

Villages devoid of men between 20 and 50 are common in many parts of the
country. The stories of single mothers struggling to raise their children
are just as frequent.

The women of Tecalpulco have come up with one way to cope. They run an
artists' cooperative to sell traditional-style jewelry, including through
the Internet. The page where they make their personal pleas,
www.artcamp.com.mx/venga/, is a part of their Web site.

One of the women writes to "Ruben" telling him their children haven't seen
him in three years and ask where he is.

"I know we agreed you should try your fortune in the United States, but I
didn't know that it would be so lonely and that you would be gone for such a
long time, please return to us," she writes.

Mexican officials are aware of the social and economic consequences to their
towns and villages. But businesses and government officials on both sides of
the border also acknowledge a sort of grand bargain -- the U.S. gets cheap
labor, while Mexico has an outlet for its unemployed, who in turn send cash
back home.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon in December, while visiting Nogales on the
U.S.-Mexico border, said his country needs more foreign investment to try to
keep jobs at home.

"The generation of well-paid jobs is the only long lasting solution to the
migration problem," he said, according to the Associated Press.

But for now, Mexico is also addicted to the influx of cash. In 2006, Mexican
workers in the United States sent $23 billion back to their families in
Mexico, an amount that rivals Mexico's foreign income from oil sales.

Steven Camarota, research director for the Center for Immigration Studies,
which backs less immigration and a crackdown on illegal aliens, said the
women's stories show that the huge migration flow is "very disruptive to the
lives of those other countries."

He said it also proves that the men aren't fleeing poverty.

"These women would not be asking their husbands to come back if they
themselves were starving," he said. "It's really more of people wanting
more, a better life. It's perfectly understandable. But that's different
than these people fleeing such desperation there's no way you could enforce
the law."

    (http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20070226-010345-3459r.htm)
For more great articles, visit us at http://www.washingtontimes.com

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