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Apr. 17--UNC-Chapel Hill anthropologist Hannah Gill and artist Todd Drake collaborated on a recently published book, "Going to Carolina del Norte: Narrating Mexican Migrant Experiences," which presents the stories of immigrants living in Orange County and their families in Celaya, Mexico, from where most of them came to North Carolina.
The firsthand accounts express why and how they settled in the United States. The book can be purchased online for $12, including shipping and handling, by going to www.ucis.unc.edu and downloading an order form.
Staff writer Janell Ross talked with Gill in Chapel Hill.
Q: What in the book will surprise North Carolina readers?
A: Well, the cost of living in Mexico. It's more than you think it is ... Just the cost of a pair of New Balance tennis shoes is two weeks' wages in Mexico. I think a lot of people will be surprised by the necessity of getting out of these situations, the desperation that families face that would cause them to risk their lives [to cross the border illegally]. ...
I think one of the most powerful quotes in [the book] is the [man] who said, "Have you ever heard of the legend of the American dollar? In God we trust. Well, we put ourselves in God's hands and we believe in that legend."
Q: Who told you about the legend of the American dollar?
A: The son-in-law of a woman who is here working to support the whole family in Mexico.
Q: What about some of the comments about life here in United States once migrants arrive? I'm thinking particularly of a woman whose husband and son were living in a dangerous and predominantly black section of Chicago.
A: Well, this particular woman had never been to the United States. ... I think her son had been mugged several times, and she was using the word "nigritos" which means, it's a diminutive or derogatory term meaning "black person." But the term hasn't been problematized [in Mexico]. It's a term people use without thinking critically about that.
I think it just points to larger misunderstandings about African-Americans that come through stories, movies, a lot of the media that comes to Mexico that people watch. They don't ever really meet anybody [who is not Mexican] except maybe white tourists. There is a lot of misunderstanding that can translate into prejudice when people move here.
Q: Something else raised in the book are relationships between recent immigrants and Latinos born in this country. How did this come up?
A: I was curious why, in North Carolina, we have a lot of people who didn't come directly from Mexico but have moved here from the West Coast. I think it was a woman who said ... one of the major reasons they move to North Carolina is that they felt it might give their children ... a place where they were not discriminated against by other members of the Latino community. And I was like, whoa, what? She explained that in places like in the Southwest ... people who have been here a long time don't like to be lumped together with the new and undocumented immigrants. ... But in a place like North Carolina, there is this sense that everyone is new and pretty much in the same boat. However, the discrimination is coming from the native North Carolinians.
Q: What stands to be gained from reading these stories?
A: Many of the immigrants living here in North Carolina don't speak English or don't speak in public ways, so there is a lot of silence surrounding their experience. ... I think that by reading their voices, translated, this is going to help people recognize their humanity.
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