Being a Hispanic Immigrant at Boston University

FIRST DRAFT

“Completely love it. Completely fit in,” said Bernardo Vargas, 20, and SMG Rising Junior about being an international student and an immigrant for at least four years at Boston University. Still, having been born in Monterrey Mexico, he told me the following story: “When the swine flu epidemic broke out, my boss called me to ask if I was feeling well, if maybe I had a cold or was coughing.” I asked Bernardo if he thought his boss only called because he was Mexican. Vargas didn’t hesitate for a second and answered: “Yes…. that is precisely the expression of America’s long time fear of the unknown….”

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FINAL DRAFT

By Pedro Pizano June 7, 2009

“Completely love it. Completely fit in,” said Bernardo Vargas, 20, and SMG Rising Junior about his time as an international student at BU. Having been born in Monterrey, he expected to experience a certain amount of prejudice. “When the swine flu epidemic broke out, my boss [at BU] called me to ask if I was feeling well, if maybe I had a cold or was coughing.” I asked Bernardo if he thought his boss only called because Bernardo was Mexican. Bernardo didn’t hesitate for a second and answered: “Yes, that is precisely the expression of America’s long time fear of the ‘unknown’.” By unknown he is referring to the prejudices Americans have about immigrants. Recently, if you’re Mexican you’re supposed to have had contact with people who have swine flu and if you’re Colombian you will always have cocaine to sell. Right?

For BU students Melody Feo, 20, and Hector Oseguera, 21, daughter and son of former illegal immigrants and now naturalized American citizens, the ‘prejudice of the unknown’ has created other difficulties. They both grew up in neighborhoods that were primarily Hispanic, and like Bernardo, they have no problem fitting in although it has troubled them in certain episodes of their life. “I have never felt any pressure from anyone or anything about being an immigrant,” said Melody. She remembers, though, that when she was 8, she realized that she couldn’t participate in any of the extra-curricular activities at her elementary school because her parents were not legal residents of Parsippany, NJ. “It felt like a cold sadness that swept through the house. I was too young to understand why I couldn’t play with the other kids.” She now knows that this sadness was caused by her parent’s melancholy for a forsaken land and their silent acceptance of the trials they were enduring.

From these student’s experiences it seems that once they arrived to BU their trials were over. Boston University has, in the end, “one of the highest numbers of international students among American colleges and universities,” according to the Mission Statement for the Global Future written by the President’s council. And as such, it is a place where prejudices are confronted, differences are resolved and respect is learned towards other’s cultures.

The incoming freshman class for 2007, for example, was 68% white, 15% Asian, 7% international students, 7% Hispanic, and 2% black. And that is only the freshman class. In 2007, including graduate students and non-degree students, 12.8 % of the university-wide student population at BU was Hispanic. That means that were about 4,000 students that declared themselves as Hispanics. And that means Hector, Melody and Hector are part of a critical mass that everyday changes everybody’s prejudices about Latin American Immigrants.

Melody, Hector and Bernardo have always declared themselves as Hispanic though they are to all eyes and ears, American. They’ve never denied their culture, speak their mother tongue with perfect fluidity and the three of them want to go back to their country when they have finished their studies. Yet, Hector knows that many Americans are still not comfortable with the idea that the U.S has no official language though English is by default the “norm”. Some Americans feel the same discomfort when they feel that a part of somebody else’s culture is becoming part of what Americans consider absolutely American. For example Hector says that when he worked in a supermarket he never understood why Americans complained about the existence of a Spanish Aisle at supermarkets. Maybe those people need to come to Boston University, or maybe the U.S needs to become more like Boston University.