The other day at the pool, while watching our daughters practice for a swim meet, Polimom talked with another mother — a mom I met last year when our kids became friends.
Our daughters swim the same heats in the same events, and so this other mom and I spend a lot of time together.. just like last summer.
We speak with one another in both her native language and my own. We each need the practice, though her English has improved significantly since last year, while my command of her language is still as it was. I don’t need to know hers, but she must know mine — and she’s worked very hard at it.
Just like last summer, our daughters laugh and splash and swim and race with one another; her daughter doesn’t need to practice her English, because it’s flawless — accent-free. Adorable Child (AC)’s Spanish is years away from fluency.
AC and her friend talk about the same things they did: school, summer vacation plans, friends in common… but this other mom and I aren’t smiling and laughing this year. When she’s out and about in Houston these days, her accent marks her and her children, now, as “them”. Even though they are here legally and own their home — even though her husband is highly educated and working in a professional job, none of those things are obvious when she speaks to strangers.
She senses the growing suspicion and hostility.
She asks me why people seem to think immigrants — illegal or not — are not learning English, or assimilating. She has three children, all of whom speak English better than their mother.
I have to tell her that I don’t know.
Polilmom wonders at the profound changes that have come about in just a year. All I can do is apologize on behalf of my country, and try to explain “wedge issues”…. but how can I possibly justify the rising fear and bigotry that has been provoked — deliberately — by this pathetic political system?
I hope she’s still at the pool next summer, but I doubt that I would be. I think my friend is afraid, and there’s nothing I can do to help or protect her.
Lo siento, amiga.
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