Originally Posted By Darkbeer This is a MUST read, here are a few selected parts... <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-quadruplets28jul28" target="_blank">http://www.latimes.com/news/lo cal/la-me-quadruplets28jul28</a>,0,931508.story?coll=la-home-headlines >>Neither Magdaleno nor her husband speaks English, though she has been in the United States 22 years and he 28. Even her teenage daughters speak mostly Spanish; their English vocabulary is limited. Yet all of Magdaleno's 10 children are U.S. citizens. The triplets receive subsidized school lunches. All the youngsters have had their healthcare bills covered by Medi-Cal, the state and federal healthcare program for the poor. Alfredo Jr. had been hospitalized all his life until recently. He's had three state-funded brain operations and will require several more, the family said. The couple receive $700 in monthly Social Security payments to help with his medical needs. "I thank this country that they gave me Medi-Cal," Magdaleno said. "There's nothing like that in Mexico." Magdaleno's existence contrasts sharply with that of her younger siblings, who followed her to Los Angeles but then left. They have settled in Lexington, Ky., had no more than two children each and built better lives than they had known before. Four bought houses. Their children speak English fluently. Magdaleno's sisters struggle in vain to understand her. "She still thinks like people in Mexico — that's what I think," said her 38-year-old sister, Justina. "You have to think first of your living children instead of thinking of having more."<< >>Eight years ago, she and her family moved to Kentucky, where a friend said there was more work and were fewer Mexican immigrants bidding down the wages for unskilled jobs. In Kentucky, Alejandra picked tobacco. The work was hard and she didn't know the language. But soon, life improved. Over the years, she invited her siblings to join her. One sister married a man who managed a Golden Corral, a chain of all-you-can-eat buffets. Soon several Magdaleno siblings were working in Golden Corrals. Their husbands found work installing windows and as farm-labor contractors. They went to night school to learn English because few people in Lexington speak Spanish. Today, the Magdalenos in Lexington earn more than they did in Los Angeles, in a city where the cost of living is lower. Kentucky is now their promised land, and they talk about California the way they used to talk about Mexico. "What we weren't able to do in many years in California," Alejandra said, "we've done quickly here. "We're in a state where there's nothing but Americans. The police control the streets. It's clean, no gangs. California now resembles Mexico — everyone thinks like in Mexico. California's broken." << Go read the full story, heck, there is even a Disneyland connection......
Originally Posted By Moderation An interesting story dave. I think a lot of people are going to take a lot of different messages away from it though.
Originally Posted By Beaumandy The message is that if you are going to live in America, you speak English and you act like an American. You don't let a group of Mexicans or any other race set up a country inside a country. I know liberals find that to be insensive but if we want to keep America strong we need to reject multi-culturism. France being the dim ones they are are now reaping a reward of Muslims owning their country because they didn't want to take a stand and protect their culture and language.
Originally Posted By jonvn Yes. You come here, and learn English. If you don't, you get nowhere. You do, you're accepted, and no one really cares where you're from. Act like a foreigner, get treated like one, and doors are shut to you.
Originally Posted By DAR <<The message is that if you are going to live in America, you speak English and you act like an American.>> I live by the motto of if you're going to live in any country you should learn the language of that country: Germany=German Japan=Japanese Australia=Australian Heck if I moved to some remote village where the people speaking by clicking their tongues, I'd learn that too.
Originally Posted By cmpaley America = American? No, wait...we're not "America," we're the United States of America. Would that be "United Statesian?
Originally Posted By fkurucz >>"Would that be "United Statesian?"<< That word actually is used in Mexico: "Estadounidense"
Originally Posted By fkurucz >>Act like a foreigner, get treated like one, and doors are shut to you.<< If this is so, then why can one apply for a mortgage in Spanish in places like SoCal. There must be middle class demographic there that doesn't speak English. "We're in a state where there's nothing but Americans. The police control the streets. It's clean, no gangs. California now resembles Mexico — everyone thinks like in Mexico. California's broken." As I have said elsewhere, California's transformation into a 3rd world state is well under way (apparently the middle class is shrinking, percentage wise, in SoCal). Illegals have caught on to this fact and are seeking greener pastures elsewhere.
Originally Posted By jonvn "f this is so, then why can one apply for a mortgage in Spanish in places like SoCal." Oh, they'll take your money. You just are not going to be able to advance in this country. By speaking only Spanish, you're never going to be the CEO of GM. For that, you'll have to speak Japanese. "Illegals have caught on to this fact and are seeking greener pastures elsewhere." I have, myself. We're thinking of moving to Oregon. Only problem is the lack of jobs up there.
Originally Posted By fkurucz >>Oh, they'll take your money. You just are not going to be able to advance in this country. By speaking only Spanish, you're never going to be the CEO of GM. For that, you'll have to speak Japanese.<< I am biligual and have advanced degrees, but I doubt that that I will ever be CEO of GM. Anyway, my point was that there are apparently enough non english speakers out there who have sufficiently high incomes to qualify for a mortgage in SoCal. >>I have, myself. We're thinking of moving to Oregon. Only problem is the lack of jobs up there.<< I am sure that there are plenty of menial jobs in Oregon that illegals will be glad to take. The bust we suffered here in Colorado didn't have much of an effect in deterring them from coming here either. Anyway, it is my understanding that there has been a "white flight" from California for the past decade.
