This idea of having a certain image in the work field sounded more than familiar to me, not just because i have observed it while eating at restaurants, but I have also experienced it personally through the experience of two of my latina friends. I was helping over the summer at my father’s friends new store as a sales person, and my dad had recommended his friend to hire two of his other friend’s daughters whom I had basically grown up with for half my life. My dad knew that they work very hard, are very skilled, and are great with people/customers, which is why he recommended them in the first place. I was deeply disturbed when one day, while I wa working, I overheard the manager of the store saying that they need to replace my two friends. I interrupted, which may have not been my place, but I had anticipated the reasoning behind it. I asked why that would be necessary since they are spectacular sellers and know the material and customers very well. He contested that there is nothing wrong with how they’re working, claiming that they are great at their jobs, but that they need “white women” to be at the front of the store to appear more “welcoming” to customers. I did not return after that day. The fact that they are Mexican women degrades their skill and work ethic. Just because they don’t look “white,” they don’t seem deserving of this job. This is the type of treatment they constantly have to deal with, that constantly prevents them from climbing of the “social hierarchy,” that constantly keeps them in the “back” of the restaurant or of the business/establishment. It baffles me how people can claim that they don’t discriminate when they do in every aspect. These migrants or american-born people who don’t look white and are automatically categorized as migrants are exploited for their skills and their hard work and are placed in inferior positions, being looked down upon when they’re highly needed at the same time.

I wish I could see another social movement that resembles one in the past where there was a strike for latino workers, especially in the restaurant business. Many, but not all (due to the fact that it would be too risky in losing their jobs and having difficulty finding work), decided not to go to work to make a statement. Can you imagine every single latin American not going to work for one day? Everything and I mean everything, would shut down. They are depended on for the success of our economy and businesses, yet at the same time they are looked down upon and treated as less than human beings and as “illegals” or “aliens.” It’s seen as a crime to cross into this country to make a new life for themselves.

There are too many juxtapositions surrounding migrants in this world, including those stated in Vacchiano’s article about wanting to help those who have died in their migrant journeys and lashing back by criminalizing their actions in migrating and coming into their lands, trying to ban them from coming while also sympathizing with their cause.