Sign on I-5 near San Diego
The more I look at this sign, the more it bothers me. Immigrants are not cattle. There must have been any number of better ways to signal to motorists that people might be running across the freeway than this sign, which to me, puts immigrants in the same category as deer crossing the road.
The next time you see some humble looking immigrants, realize they may speak three languages (indigenous, Spanish, English) and have been through absolutely hair raising experiences crossing over to the States.
Check Ruben Martinez’s masterful “Crossing Over: A Mexican Family on the Migrant Trail“, the true story of three brothers who were killed when the van they were in flipped while being pursued by the La Migra. He journeyed to their home town in Mexico, got to know the families and cousins, then traced them as some crossed over again.
This book has heart, and show how immigrants from Latin America are changing our culture as well taking our culture back – true multi-culturalists bringing, for example, banda music to the midwest and taking hip hop to rural Mexico. Which actually makes them post-modern, if you think about it…