That is what a my friend Juan told me when I visited him at his house in East Chicago Indiana. We were waiting for the enchiladas my “comadre” was cooking for breakfast and talking about mil y una cosas when he said: “You know what Vicente, we (Latinos) must stop being factories of cheap labor if we want better representation and our contributions recognized in this country. As long as we continue to be the cleaning workers, the dishwashers, the landscapers, etc our community won’t advance. Asi esta cabron! We need more and better prepared doctors, lawyers and even educators. We need our kids to understand it and get educated. At least I started with my kids”. In a couple of lines, Juan taught me a very interesting lecture about philosophy, education and social issues. Juan did not even go to high school, he is a truck driver and has 3 sons and 2 daughters.

He went on to tell me that his kids are not allowed to work at fast food restaurants making the minimum wage. I told him: “I consider that rule a mistake. They can learn many things at those humble but educative jobs. They can learn values like discipline, hard work, team work…” And Juan interrupted me “Vicente, they can learn at home. People sometimes forget that parents are the first teachers for our kids. That is why I changed my work schedule around and I spend more time with my family. By the way, did I tell you that my oldest son registered for college?”

We ate enchiladas, we laugh and I came back to Chicago thinking about those words: “Latinos must stop being factories of cheap labor”.

I confirmed Juan’s claims on Saturday at the conference of “the foundation for Latino education of Chicago” at NEIU. Doctor Marcelo Suarez-Orozco was the keynote speaker. He is the co founder of the immigration program at Harvard University, an author from Argentina whose professional focused have been the Mexicanization of the united States and was awarded for his work “El Aguila Azteca”, the most important recognition given by the Mexican government.

He has identified many factors about why Latinos don’t make it to university and graduate. Some of the problems start earlier for Latinos students who are leaving high school in bigger rate than White and Asian students and doing only a little bit better than Black students. Doctor Suarez-Orozco mentioned something very important and should make us think about my friend Juan’s line: Since 1980 the Latino/Hispanic population has doubled in the United States but that is not the story at universities around the country. In the same period, the Latino student population in higher education institutions grew only 5%. Between White students the number is 14% and between Blacks around the 11%.

When I heard the numbers I fully understand what Juan meant by “Latinos must stop being factories of cheap labor”.

Why is it? Is lack of financial aid or lack of motivation at home? Is the teacher the problem or the student? Is lack of Latino teachers or lack of interest from higher education institutions?

Help me out here. What do you think? I would like to read you opinion here.

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