Hate Crime Victims and Child Laborers – Latino in America #4
I spent the entire weekend putting off writing this post. Chapter 4 was about the horrible beating death of Luiz Ramirez in Shenandoah, PA. He was a Mexican citizen, and had illegally lived and worked in the United States for several years. He had fathered two children with his girlfriend, worked two jobs to care for them, and was going through the process of obtaining legal U.S. status so he could get married and make a better life for his family. Six drunk teenagers brutally beat him to death, kicking him and hurling ethnic slurs at him, then they all gathered at the home of a local police officer to “get their story straight” so they would not get in trouble and get kicked off of the high school football team. Though there were two eye witnesses to the crime, his young killers ended up being convicted of small charges, such as simple assault, and served almost no prison time. His grieving girlfriend told the documentary interviewers that, afterward, someone had told her that no crime had been committed because Ramirez was not legally supposed to be in the U.S. Those boys would have been more severely punished if they had tortured an animal to death – because their victim was an illegal immigrant from Mexico, they were actually painted as heroes by some of their supporters.
After I read this chapter, I spent a good hour or so looking up what happened next, since, obviously, justice was not served. I am happy to report that the case is not over yet. Federal charges have been brought up against not only the two main defendants, but also several police officers involved in the case. While reading about the case online, I was disgusted to read statements from other readers voicing sympathy for the murderers, and expressing their hatred for undocumented Mexicans. If a person doesn’t have the proper “papers,” it does not mean they are no longer people, and it doesn’t make their lives any less valuable than any other life.
Then I went looking for information about hate crime legislation and found multiple conservative pundits complaining that such laws are unconstitutional because they violate free speech. Kicking someone in the head until they are brain dead is NOT speech.
Anyway, the next chapter was about some famous Latinas, including Eva Longoria, who is working on a documentary called The Harvest. This film is about Mexican children who (illegally) work in the agricultural industry upwards of 12 hours a day, trying (and often failing) to go to school at the same time, and constantly worrying about getting separated from their families and sent away. And to think that we consider the undocumented workers the criminals.
Other posts about Latino in America:
Post 1: On Speaking Spanish
Post 2: No One is Illegal
Post 3: Puerto Ricans are U.S. Citizens
Post 4: Hate Crime Victims and Child Laborers
Current Affairs, Immigration, Race/Ethnicity
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children, farm workers, hate crimes, Immigration, Latino in America, Mexicans, Soledad O'Brien, undocumented workers
[...] Other posts about Latino in America: Post 1: On Speaking Spanish Post 2: No One is Illegal Post 3: Puerto Ricans are U.S. Citizens Post 4: Hate Crime Victims and Child Laborers [...]
[...] Other posts about Latino in America: Post 1: On Speaking Spanish Post 2: No One is Illegal Post 3: Puerto Ricans are U.S. Citizens Post 4: Hate Crime Victims and Child Laborers [...]