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Mexicans Quotes

Browse 14 quotes about Mexicans.

Mexicans Quotes

“Good people will always be crossing the border, and whether I'm in the Border Patrol or not, agents will be out there arresting them. At least if I'm the one apprehending them, I can offer them some small comfort by speaking with them in their own language, by talking to them with knowledge of their home. Fine, my mother said, fine. But you must understand you are stepping into a system, an institution with little regard for people. I looked away from her and a silence hung between us. I glanced down at my hands and weighed my mother’s words. Maybe you’re right, I replied, but stepping into a system doesn’t mean that the system becomes you. As I spoke, doubts flickered through my mind.”

PeopleImmigrantsSystemsBorderBorder PatrolMexicans
Book:The Line Becomes a River: Dispatches From the Border
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“One can seldom look at terrain and think of it, "This is France," for instance, but in looking at the landscape south of Nogales I had the feeling unmistakably. The land itself was Mexican. It was dry, sandy, rocky, hot, and heavy with many kinds of desert plants. It had repose, dignity, and a sense of the fierceness of survival--not just human survival, but all survival, animal, insect, bird, and plant. And then, when the people of Mexico appeared beyond the train windows, this isolation, struggle, and heroism was clearly marked in their faces.”

StruggleSurvivalDignityIsolationMexicoGeographyReposeTerrainFiercenessMexicans
Book:Places Where I've Done Time
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“Peter, naomba nitubu kosa. Mimi si mtoto wa Mwanasheria Mkuu wa Serikali. Ni mtoto wa Rais wa Meksiko. Lisa ni mtoto wa Naibu Mwanasheria Mkuu wa Serikali,” Debbie alisema akitabasamu. “Hata mimi nilijua ulikuwa ukinidanganya. Lakini mbona Rais wa Meksiko haitwi Patrocinio Abrego?” Murphy aliuliza. “Utamaduni wa Meksiko ni tofauti kidogo na tamaduni zingine,” Debbie alijibu baada ya kurusha nywele nyuma kuona vizuri. “Hapa, watu wengi hawatumii majina ya pili ya baba zao. Hutumia jina la kwanza la mama la pili la baba; ndiyo maana Wameksiko wengi wana majina matatu. Kwa upande wangu, Patrocinio ni jina la baba yake mama yangu na Abrego ni jina la babu yake mama yangu – kwa sababu za kiusalama.”

MotherCultureFatherPeterGrandfatherMamaBabaMurphyJohnJohn MurphyJohn Murphy AmbilikileMexicansDebbie Patrocinio AbregoDebbieMeksikoMtotoAttorney GeneralDebbie PatrocinioUtamaduniMexican PresidentMwanasheria Mkuu Wa SerikaliRais Wa MeksikoBabuWameksiko
Book:Kolonia Santita
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“En route to California I had a few drinks with an American executive for Falstaff Brewing Company who said he'd been a hobo from '37 to '39. He talked about a friend of his who had lost his legs beneath a freight train and died. He told me he knew something about farm labor contractors. "Killers," he called them. And said it again, "Killers.”

CaliforniaMexicoFarmingMigrantsHobosHoboMexicansMigrant Workers
Book:The Road to Yuba City: A Journey into the Juan Corona Murders
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“Of course, the illegals have always been called names other than human--wetback, taco-bender. (A Mexican worker said: "If I am a wetback because I crossed a river to get here, what are you, who crossed an entire ocean?') In politically correct times, "illegal alien" was deemed gauche, so "undocumented worker" came into favor. Now, however, the term preferred by the Arizona press is "undocumented entrant." As if the United States were a militarized beauty pageant. Maye it is.”

ImmigrantsIllegal ImmigrationUndocumented ImmigrantsBorderMexicans
Book:The Devil's Highway: A True Story
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“El problema con los criollos, y hasta en mayor grado con las criollas, es que están convencidos de que merecen una mejor vida de la que tienen. La mente criolla está convencida de que bajo la corteza del cráneo porta un diamante que alguien tendría que descubrir, pulir y poner en un cojín rojo, para que los demás se admiren, se pasmen, se den cuenta de lo que siempre se habían perdido.”

MexicoMexicansCriollos
Book:Los ingrávidos
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“If the North American continent was broad ("high, wide, and lonesome"), then Mexico was tall. High, narrow, and lonesome. Europeans conquering North America hustled west, where the open land lay. And the Europeans settling Mexico hustled north. Where the open land was. Immigration, the drive northward, is a white phenomenon. White Europeans conceived of and launched El Norte mania, just as white Europeans inhabiting the United States today bemoan it.”

United StatesImmigrationMexicoWhitesNorthEuropeansMexicansEuropean Settlers
Book:The Devil's Highway: A True Story
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“The collective memory of every Latino people includes direct or indirect (neo-)colonialism, primarily by Spain or Portugal and later by the United States. Among Latinos, Mexicans in what we now call the Southwest have experienced US colonialism the longest and most directly, with Puerto Ricans not far behind”

United StatesColonialismSpainLatinoPortugalPuerto RicoMexicansLatino HistorySouthwestern UsPuerto Rican History
Book:De Colores Means All of Us: Latina Views for a Multi-Colored Century
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