Mexican Immigration

People from Mexico during the years 1900-today influenced life in the USA in a positive manner. These people emigrated because of economic opportunity and brought their culture with them. The community into which they moved responded with both positive and negative opinions. Short term influences include Mexican food, Mexican events like Cinco de Mayo, Mexican music, and many other things from their culture. 2nd generation immigrants influence the amount of cheap labor filled up in the country, and Mexican culture being accepted into the mainstream such as entertainment. Long term impact of these immigrants may result in general acceptance of Mexican immigration, a backlash against the Mexican immigration, or possibly easier ways to move to

This essay will show an analogy of the human body to be compared with Mexican immigration. The head being the thoughts and feelings of people in America based on Mexican immigration, the arms being the Mexicans contributions to arts and entertainment, the hands being the immigrants work ethic and their effect on the American economy, the heart being Mexican immigration's effect on religion, holidays, and traditions, the gut being Mexican immigration's contribution to culinary influences, the legs being how the borders have been crossed in terms of transportation and such, and the feet being the foundation of Mexican immigrants in the country.

With relation to the head, in the United States, the arrival of Mexican immigrants has mostly harbored negative feelings. Of course, the cry of U.S citizens has been "They're taking our jobs!" which is somewhat true, but that will be discussed later on in this paper. Americans haven't exactly reacted well to the movement of Mexicans into the country legally or illegally, but it seems that there is a new wave of acceptance of Mexicans in the country, with Mexican culture, entertainment, food, and humor in much of the mainstream. Of course, many of the second generation Mexican American citizens in the US provide an acceptance of the Mexican immigration, with many people trying to spread awareness of the good that Mexican immigration does and how their ancestors came in the past and gave them a better life than what they would have had in Mexico. In the future, I predict that the US population will accept Mexican immigration as acceptable and will not be so biased against Mexican immigrants.

In relation to the arms, one of Mexican immigration's most positive aspects is the bringing of Mexican culture and entertainment into the US. Ever since Mexicans started moving into our country, their art, entertainment, and other aspects of their culture have seeped their way into the American lexicon. Mexican art is of course a big influencer in the South in states like Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and California. Many houses in these regions are adorned with Mexican art or carry on a Mexican style. Of course this most likely wouldn't be possible without people coming from Mexico into America. There is also a huge rush of Mexican culture all over media. Lately, there have been many television shows starring Mexican actors where the theme of being Mexican in America and doing well has prospered. Shows like George Lopez where he constantly mentions the fact that he's Mexican and makes many jokes based on his heritage. Many shows like this, along with Mexican music's influence on different types of music have shown that Mexican immigration has been very positive based on its cultural impact.

With relation to the hands, Mexican immigrants have had a long record of outstanding work ethic when it comes to arriving in the country and finding work. Mexican immigrants have been able fill up an incredible amount of so-called "cheap labor" and have had a positive effect on the US economy. It has been shown that Mexicans arriving from Mexico usually acquire jobs upon their arrival, and the amount of Mexicans receiving welfare is very low. Of course, there's always the American cry of "They're taking our jobs!" but actually, Mexican immigrants have created more jobs than they've taken. The immigrants mostly take lower level jobs that have trouble being filled, which create many more managerial positions and supervisor positions, and those are mostly the jobs that Americans have been known to want. So Mexican immigrants may take jobs, but they also create more for the country, and that's very positive.

In relating to the heart, Mexicans have been a large influencing factor in traditions and holidays. Of course, the immigrants from Mexico practice the traditions and holidays they did in their native country. In doing this, many people around them caught on to some of the things they were practicing such as Cinco de Mayo and fiestas.