good piece by Richard Rodriguez (yes, THAT Richard Rodriguez)"

Source: Jorge Mariscal

Nota: Jorge's subject heading: "Fwd: good piece by Richard Rodriguez (yes, THAT Richard Rodriguez)."--RRC.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

¡Gracias!

New America Media
Commentary

Richard Rodriguez
April 6, 2006

Editor's Note: As Congress debates what to do with millions of
undocumented immigrants, has anyone thanked them for what they do for
us? Essayist and commentator Richard Rodriguez is author of, most
recently, "Brown: The Last Discovery of America" (Viking, 2002). This
commentary was aired Thursday, April 6, on NPR's "All Thing's
Considered." Click here to listen.

SAN FRANCISCO--In the noisy argument over what to do with illegal
immigrants, the common assumption is that America has done a great deal
for them already. The question now is: What more should we give them?
Should we give them a green card? Grant them amnesty? Or stop all this
generosity and send them packing?

No one speaks of what illegal immigrants have done for us.

It occurs to me I have not heard two relevant words spoken. If you will
allow me, I will speak them: "Thank you."

Thank you for turning on the sprinklers. Thank you for cleaning the
swimming pool. And scrambling the eggs and doing the dishes.

Thank you for making the bed. Thank you for getting the children up and
ready for school. Thank you for picking them up after school.

Thank you for caring for our dying parents.

Thank you for plucking dead chickens.

Thank you for bending your bodies over our fields.

Thank you for breathing chemicals and absorbing chemicals into your
bodies.

Thank you for the lettuce and the spinach and the artichokes and
asparagus and the cauliflower, the broccoli, the beans, and the
tomatoes and the garlic. Thank you for the apricots and the peaches and
the apples and the plums and the melons and the almonds. And the grapes.

Thank you for the willow trees and the roses and the winter lawn.

Thank you for scraping and painting and roofing, and cleaning out the
asbestos and the mold.

Thank you for your stoicism and your eager hands.

Thank you for all the young men on rooftops in the sun.

Thank you for your humor and the singing.

Thank you for cleaning the toilets and the showers and the restaurant
kitchens and the schools and the office buildings and the airports and
the malls.

Thank you for washing the car. Thank you for washing all the cars.

Thank you for your parents, who died young and had nothing to bequeath
to their children but the memory of work.

Thank you for giving us your youth.

Thank you for the commemorative altars.

Thank you for the food, the beer, the tragic polka.

¡Gracias!

New America Media is a project of Pacific News Service
Copyright © Pacific News Service
Engine Powered by DW Alliance