I went to college and grad school in the states but nothing in the world could make me live there again. Very few South Americans now would even consider it. The anti-Latino bias is just too weird. And there are more opportunities here. This whole “immigration problem” framing is offensive beyond imagination. No matter who’s elected president they’re putting up that ridiculous wall and some very punitive laws are going into effect as well.

It’s crazy. Because of the strength of the Mexican Peso versus the dollar it’s getting to the point that no Mexican would have any reason to come to the states. Forget South Americans. We’re like Europe now with Mercosur and the private banking laws and for the most part neutrality on the USA and the “war on terror.”

So, you’ll see the US Army probably going into Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and certainly Costa Rica and bringing back slaves or something like that.

I checked out Valdes-Rodriguez’s blog — thanks for the link. Clearly those of us that want progressive change must work doubly hard to point out the reasons why voting Republican is not in the best interest of low income, politically marginalized, and historically discriminated against peoples.

I feel that many Latin@s try to advance themselves through the process of “blanquiemiento” (whitening up) — but just cuz someone wants to be white doesn’t mean that society will see us as white.