Ernest Calderon Mexican Ancestry Summary

There was, however, a third option that many Mexicans have and currently are taking upon themselves and their families and that is to immigrate to the U.S. for a chance of a better, safer life. Of course, a new start in the U.S. does not mean life would become easier. Because of their lack of formal education, the refugees and immigrants fleeing from Mexico – from the time of the Revolution to the third quarter of the century – mostly found work in the only thing they knew: farming. Ernest Calderon, of Mexican ancestry, describes his time as a migrant farmer in his youth where one would be “pretty lucky” if an independent Anglo farmer had lodgings for migrants farmers, often “sweeping out a chicken coop” for a “livable” place to sleep. According to Calderon, the harshness of these working conditions varied where at times “you’d really work for a Simon Legree that really wanted you to be bent over the crops 12 hours a day and more“, admitting …show more content…
Fernando Arroyo recalls that despite being “invisible homeless” when he, his mother, and little brother first came to Waco from Mexico, they would go “from house to house to house to house . . . from family to friends”, showcasing the desire to help one another. Robert Aguilar, when commenting on his inspiration for helping others, cites his mother who would put up “close people, relatives, distant relatives, or sometimes strangers”, who would stay “months on end” without paying rent – having “at least” ten different families living under their roof at any given time. Tenderly remembering her childhood Saturday afternoons, where the men get off a half-day, Blasa Rodriguez says that her and her family would “all sit, all the children, all the grownups, and we would just be passing these bowls of food around . . . there was a lot of discussion going on”: a reprise from the long, hard days of grueling