LESSONS IN LATIN......AMERICAN
A Mother explains why the Constitution applies to all of us. Even in New York City.
Aida Rodriguez
Obviously many people from Latin America that get to come here operate from a second-class citizen mentality, specifically because that is what they are when they come here. Hiding from the law because their legal status is questionable they see the US of A as an amazing place where unalienable rights are granted and exercised. I am from Puerto Rico, that’s right, a natural born citizen and I understand that those Bill of Rights are sometimes only for “Bill”!
Now let’s add another component, I am Single Mother, hear me “ROAR, MOAN, CRY, SOAR and SCREECH.” In the midst of a history lesson with my daughter we discuss what it means to be an American: she were born here. “Why did grandpa come here?” and I have to put on that good ole smile and tap dance, like Man Tan in Bamboozled. Grandpa jumped on a raft and floated here from Cuba because he wanted political freedom and according to the Constitution here he can get that. “What else can he get?” As her eyes lit up. Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Religion so long as it doesn’t offend any one else. “Huh?”
My daughter and I had to have a talk about what America really is. I tell you it is a democracy with sprinkles of a dictatorship; it is a melting pot where some ingredients prefer to stay together, a direct voice with hints of hypocrisy and all that jazz. The Constitution grants you the right to win but not when people equate your religion with the crimes of some of the people that subscribe to it. What if Black People felt that Churches should not be built in Black neighborhoods after all of the effects of slavery, what if some said that those temples were a reminder of the religion which was used to enslave them?
Denying the group the opportunity of building the Islamic Cultural Center is denying them their American religious rights and how do we end up here. I will never teach my children that Islam equals terrorism because I believe that is downright ignorant! 911 affected us all, and I don’t believe that there was one good-hearted American that rejoiced that day. As a result the tolerance for Muslims in this country ran thin and ignorance prevailed and now being a follower of the Islamic Faith is synonymous with terrorist and that is downright “cruel and unusual” which is unconstitutional! That is what a Latin American Single Mother teaches her kid.
Now let’s add another component, I am Single Mother, hear me “ROAR, MOAN, CRY, SOAR and SCREECH.” In the midst of a history lesson with my daughter we discuss what it means to be an American: she were born here. “Why did grandpa come here?” and I have to put on that good ole smile and tap dance, like Man Tan in Bamboozled. Grandpa jumped on a raft and floated here from Cuba because he wanted political freedom and according to the Constitution here he can get that. “What else can he get?” As her eyes lit up. Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Religion so long as it doesn’t offend any one else. “Huh?”
My daughter and I had to have a talk about what America really is. I tell you it is a democracy with sprinkles of a dictatorship; it is a melting pot where some ingredients prefer to stay together, a direct voice with hints of hypocrisy and all that jazz. The Constitution grants you the right to win but not when people equate your religion with the crimes of some of the people that subscribe to it. What if Black People felt that Churches should not be built in Black neighborhoods after all of the effects of slavery, what if some said that those temples were a reminder of the religion which was used to enslave them?
Denying the group the opportunity of building the Islamic Cultural Center is denying them their American religious rights and how do we end up here. I will never teach my children that Islam equals terrorism because I believe that is downright ignorant! 911 affected us all, and I don’t believe that there was one good-hearted American that rejoiced that day. As a result the tolerance for Muslims in this country ran thin and ignorance prevailed and now being a follower of the Islamic Faith is synonymous with terrorist and that is downright “cruel and unusual” which is unconstitutional! That is what a Latin American Single Mother teaches her kid.
Aida Rodriguez is a Mother, Actress, Comedienne and darkroome Contributor
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