COLUMNA de AZTLAN

Sen. Barack Obama might get a lot of votes if he included "El Negro" Vicente's story in a speech or two, especially in the So. West.

(hint, hint!)

The First Black (Afro-Mexican) President of The Americas.
Mexican President Vicente Guerrero.
Vicente Ramón Guerrero Saldaña

El Negro Vicente

The Mexican State of Guerrero is named after him. Vicente Guerrero ended slavery in Mexico in 1829.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicente_Guerrero

300,000 kids toil in fields illegally, U.N. says
by Chris Hawley - May. 9, 2008 AZCentral.com

MEXICO CITY - Ten-year-old Adriana Salgado spends her days in a field in northwestern Mexico, picking the spinach, cabbage and other vegetables that fill American salad bowls. Adriana doesn't know how to read. She attends school for only one hour a day.

Her 15-year-old sister, who works with her, can't read, either. Adriana had an 8-year-old brother, too, until he was crushed to death by a tractor while working in a tomato field last year.

About 300,000 youngsters such as Adriana work illegally in Mexico's fields, the U.N. Children's Fund says, making child labor a major link in the chain that increasingly supplies American dinner tables.

The U.S. consumes 300 BILLION dollars in illegal drugs every year. The U.S. refuses to address the demand, the demand that its drug users create. Mexico and the Mexican people are left to suffer the consequences.

Fox heaped praise upon the migrants who come from Mexico to the U.S. in search of a better life. He said that the American economy would collapse without the more than 350,000 people who cross the border each year.

“Politicians have to think long term,” said the 65-year-old Fox. “They have to make sure they’re working for the next generation, not for the polls or the next election.”

Fox used the term “migrant” repeatedly to describe those crossing the border. Many conservatives, especially in border states, have criticized the Mexican leader for supporting what they see as “amnesty for illegal aliens.” One leading critic of Fox has been CNN’s Lou Dobbs, who often talks about the negatives of illegal immigration on his television show.

Fox chided Dobbs and also implicated Fox News host Bill O’Reilly for what he said were xenophobic statements.

“I am not calling for open borders,” Fox said. “Don’t leave this issue in the hands of xenophobes.”

Hungry people, mostly economic refugees, resort to violent means in order to cross the U.S. - Mexico border. Most of these people are fleeing the disastrous capitalistic, neo-con policies imposed on Mexico by the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the North American Free Trade Agreement - NAFTA. Racist views from the bigoted nativist American population has made responsible immigration reform all but impossible.

Yet, low wage, low skilled workers actually attract businesses to economically depressed areas and often provide a good reason for companies not to pack up and relocate somewhere else.