Richard Rodriguez’s Opinion on Migration and the American Dream Essay

Introduction

In the modern world, people’s movement across the countries has been marked by political and economical diatribes. Richard Rodriguez portrays the way people fit themselves in the larger scheme of nations. Everyone is affiliated to the Nation-State and their affiliation has been marked by the changing political equations. However, the myth of nation-states is often broken by the interest of individual well-being. Rodriguez is a portrayal of the victory of the individual over the nation-states. Secondly, his arguments seem to reinforce the age-old belief that there is nothing like a closed gate. The human mind finds a new direction for every block it faces over a period of time. Possibly, better and superior to the earlier one!

The American Dream

As Richard says, ‘By the 1970s California was full of immigrants’. The Mexicans, the Chinese, and everyone else who migrated into the state of California had a long but standing dream. They had all come to ‘America’. The United States was America for them and that was the place to get work and grow business. The dreams of these people were slowly resolved and made in the golden lands of California, though in the initial days the migrants never really occupied the important locations of California.

There were restrictions on the movement of the people to the US. The country’s federal leadership opened to the happenings after noticing the large-scale settlements of non-white people. Particularly, when the state did not have the majority of people from New York and Oklahoma, it was getting concerned! The federal government had brought in all the regulations that it could on the settlement of immigrants. But still, people continued to move in with their American Dreams. ‘We are only looking for work’ slowly transformed itself into a settlement. However, there was a pseudo cultural milieu that was created by them in trying to retain their identity.

The Central Valley was manned by the working peasants from the Mexican territory. Though they express an interest to only go over there for the picking, the work seems to end up swallowing them. The freedom that it promises, the money that it provides really break up into much more when the person does return him; all add up to the charm of the new place and the person transforms himself from being a Mexican to an American. The author also plays with the fact that the national boundaries in the American continents seem to be laid differently. American seems to refer only to the citizen of the United States and does not include the rest of the people in the continent!

The American dream that is carried by the individual in his heart drives them to the new world wherever it may be. Whether it be west or the North, he moves to the new world and amalgamates himself or herself into this America of his dreams. More often than not, possibly enters into the country with the idea of getting back to their homeland after some time, only to find them drawn into its spiraling growth and becomes a citizen of the country, even before it recognizes him as one. This is possibly the reason why, as Richard says, back in Mexico ‘it would be time to head ‘home’ to the US’. The person just wants to be back in the US at the earliest possible opportunity. The American Dream is at work.

This proves the first hypothesis that the nation-states and their boundaries are immaterial to the individual in his hunt for his own dreams. The rules and laws that were made to constrain the settling of the people whether it is in the education front where the Chinese seem to have blocked all the seats in the biochemistry programs of the universities or the Mexicans in the Central Valley picking peaches, they could not restrict the settlements of these migrant people.

Now the other side of the migration, the author, therefore, suggests also seems to have no national barriers. This settlement of immigrants has made California crowded and forced the earlier generation to move away from it; away from the crowded world. Further north to Colorado and across the border may be to Canada.

Whither Opportunities?

It is only common to find men queue up to places that have opportunities. It is also important for their survival and growth. Richard Rodriguez is stressing just this point when he says, ‘go north, young man. It is important the growth of the human race is kept alive by the creative thoughts of human beings. As Tennyson said, ‘One good custom would corrupt the world’. It is only true that there is always a languid performance from people who are comfortable. It is the people who aspire for growth and who are in need of growth, that really cause it. And in this case, it is so for the Mexicans.

The author has portrayed the case of the Mexicans with no or fewer opportunities in their own part of the country move over to the neighboring country for more opportunities. With the annexure of the southwestern part of the country into the nation, these people who were considered out of the country suddenly found themselves American. This opened a large gate of opportunities for them. It is the opportunity that drives these people.

When they move out of their homes, it is not with happiness that they go. Almost every one of the immigrants moves out of their homes with the sadness of separation behind them; and a longing that will possibly take them back one bright day. They leave behind loving mothers and caring sisters only to find themselves in a country that is full of competition and a place where they might have to struggle to outshine others. But the trouble that they go through becomes worthy when the results do show up. The land of opportunities integrates with their American Dream. The freedom that they enjoy in the new land just seems to be something that they have not experienced earlier in their own country.

The Mexicans moved north

The current scenario in California is one of the crowded streets and an atmosphere that is hard to inhale. Fresh air is difficult to come by what with the growing pollution levels in the cities of California. Naturally, these are the results possibly of the ‘southern invasion’ that the author reflects upon. When the opportunities dry up, it is only customary for people to look for new places and new opportunities. ‘Westward ho’ has possibly lost its charm with the land ending at the ocean. It is, therefore, important for Californians to look at moving further up North for new opportunities and life. Whither Opportunities, there we should be!

Conclusion

The author has brought to the fore very many important arguments. However, this essay has considered two of them. One, the melting away of the national boundaries! The author indicates that NAFTA was the modern-day realization of the same which was earlier done by the farmers of Mexico without any specific legal attachment to it. It was the opportunity that the new America promised which made them move from their home to the new work. And then, move on make the new place their home subsequently. The movement of the people is not something that could be easily controlled by the law. The opportunities will and continue to attract people to move over.

The movement of people in other parts of the world from Africa to Europe or from Asia to Europe continues to exist even within the strict legal codes of these European countries. There will not be an end to the movement until the equality of the people across all countries is realized by the human community. Until new opportunities exist for every human in the world and there is a comfortable spread of the human population across the world, the movement of people would continue to occur. From the high pressure to the low pressure; from the more populated to less populated; from the land of poor to the land of riches. This has been held true by the author.