So Mexicans Are Taking Jobs from Americans

“So Mexican Are Taking Jobs from Americans” is a poem written by Jimmy Santiago Baca. From the way the poem is written, we can infer that the author, himself, is the speaker, and the White, American population is his audience. We can gather this information because of his wording, for example, within the first few lines when he writes, “And do you, gringo, take off your ring, drop your wallet into a blanket spread over the ground, and walk away?” The words "you", "your", and "gringo" imlpy that he is speaking to White Americans.

                The tone of this particular poem seems, to me, to be very bitter in nature. Words and phrases that gave me this impression of bitterness can be found in lines 24-29 when he exclaims, “I see the poor marching for a little work, I see small white farmers selling out to clean-suited famers (referring to businessman) living in New York, who’ve never been on a farm, don’t know the look of a hoof of the smell of a woman’s body bending all day long in fields”. What I took from these lines is that he is of the opinion that the Mexican immigrants work just as hard as, if not harder than, White Americans, yet they reap little benefit from their efforts. This is different from the American mentality that we should be entitiled to a reward for our hard work.

 Other phrases that contribute to this association with bitterness are available in lines 20-23, which read, “The rifles I hear sound in the night are white farmers shooting blacks and browns whose ribs I see jutting out and starving children”. I think these lines reflect the bitterness he has toward Americans because of the violence that occurs with patrolling the border. What happens is that small farmers that live in that area will shoot people that trespass on their lands, so Mexicans trying to jump the border by that route are inevitably risking their lives (as with any route, really). The author also made reference to their ribs jutting out, and starving children. This could be intended to give the reader a mental picture of where a lot of immigrants are coming from, and give an understanding as to why they would choose to risk their lives coming to America.  

                Just because some people successfully sneak across the border, does not mean they will be successful once they get here. In the poem, Baca uses a metaphor to describe the situation of poverty that currently exists in our country: “Below that cool green sea of money, millions and millions of people fight to live”. This line spoke to me, and gave me the image that the sea of money represents our economy, and that the surface is the poverty line; meaning that many people underneath the poverty line are drowning, and/or struggling, to stay alive before they are crushed by the pressures of the economy.

                In the poem, Baca challenges Americans with the question “Are Mexicans really taking your jobs away?” He asks if “…they come on horses with rifles, and say “Ese, gringo, gimmee your job?””. The answer, in my mind, is “No”. In fact, for the most part, Mexican immigrants take jobs that Americans won’t. Most people that are jumping the border do so because they have a lower standard of living than we do. So, as a result, they will take labor intensive jobs and work for pennies, while the rest of the poor, White American population would rather choose to be on welfare. Should we be concerned with illegal immigration? Yes. But not for the reason of Mexican Immigrants taking our jobs away. That logic, to me, is absurd.