thanks you, rafael, for hitting the nail squarely on the head. every time i hear a Dominican telling me that he or she wants to go to Nueba Yol, i tell them to stay put right where they are, and fight the fight right here.
whenever i go back to visit my old homeland, it strikes me that all the guys who went to school with me, and stayed put back home, are living far better lives than i could ever hope to live in the USA. if i had stayed home and put in the same amount of effort, i would have been far better off, both materially and emotionally. i will not even begin to talk about the satisfaction i would have felt. i had good jobs with a few major corporations, and was fairly comfortable from an economic standpoint, but i cannot understand how a guy who drives a carrito, has a 5th grade education, and does not speak a word of english, believes he will be better off in the USA.
My wife just had some major revelations on our trip to the US. She had started studying english down here 7 years ago. She speaks very little because the schools are less than great and since my spanish is pretty good we never speak english.I have been hard on her at times to learn english.
She now sees how limited options are by not speaking english. Even in Miami. She wants to work in a salon and eventually maybe open one. We stayed in downtown miami, midtown manhattan, long island, orlando and new orleans. She now realizes none of the salons in nicer areas would likely hire her if she only spoke spanish. If she spoke both languages it would be a big advantage, but now is a disadvantage.
We would go to salons in the dominican neighborhoods, and for the most part they are pretty run down, with no idea on how to treat customers etc.
In washington heights the salon owner said in an agressive tone of voice "que tu quieres"? No how can I help you, no niceties at all.
In a bar in Miami she commented on how she could work as a waitress while getting her cosmetology license in FL. This after seeing the tips they make.
I asked her how many of our waitresses don't speak english? The russian, the cuban, the jamaican all spoke english. In fact only the cuban spoke spanish. I explained that she could maybe work in kitchen or wash dishes. No a big smile on her face.
She met an uber driver that had a job that paid 30 bucks per hour but lost it for lack of english. Lots of examples.
I explained that if I take the position that people that live in US need to learn the language I get called a racist. I then explained that if a dominican in NY speaks no english after being there 20 years, has zero impact on my life. I speak spanish and can communicate fine if someone lacks english. However it has s severe negative impact on the people refusing to learn the language.
As for jamaica. . .even I don't understand the "english" down there. Couldn't care less as long as the beer is cold and the jerk is hot.
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