Young father is proud to be American, but wants to pass on Mexican heritage
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Click here to read the transcript of our chat with reporter Anna Marie Lux about The Gazette's three-day series "Changing Face of America."
Changing Face of America
Hispanics are changing the face of local communities. Rock County's Hispanic population more than doubled from 2000 to 2010. Walworth County's Hispanic population jumped 72 percent. Who are some of the new neighbors and what issues do they face? The Gazette looks at those questions and other topics in a three-day series. View section
Sunday: Immigration stories offer insight into why Mexicans left their homes.
Monday: For new immigrants, life is not always what they expect: American Dream or American nightmare?
Today: A new generation of Americans talks about navigating the porous border between two cultures.
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Changing Face of America
Hispanics are changing the face of local communities. Who are some of the new neighbors and what issues do they face?
WHITEWATER — Antonio Cortez was born in Mexico but raised in Whitewater. His parents brought him to the United States when he was 4. Today, he feels like a tourist in Mexico. Still, he identifies himself first as Mexican, then as American.
"Just because I have pride in being Mexican does not mean that I do not want to be an American," he said. "I gave up my loyalty to Mexico when I took the oath of citizenship to the United States. I love this country. But I also love my country of origin."
He believes in hanging on to his cultural heritage so he can pass it on.
"If I lose my heritage," Cortez said, "then it will be lost forever to my daughter and my grandkids."
Cortez lives in Whitewater with his wife, Diana, and his 14-month-old daughter, Julianna. He is looking forward to taking her to school, to dance lessons and to catechism classes at St. Patrick's Catholic Church, where he and his wife are members. He is excited to fill the shoes of an all-American dad—with a few twists.
Young Julianna will understand both English and Spanish because her parents are raising her to be bilingual.
"It would be a misfortune for her not to know Spanish," Cortez said. "It will benefit her to know both languages."
When his daughter is old enough, Cortez will return to Mexico to teach her about her Mexican heritage. He will show her the headstones of her great-grandparents in San Jose de Otates, Guanajuato. He will explain how the family legacy stretches beyond borders.
"I will show her where her roots come from," Cortez said. "It is always important to know where your family comes from so you can learn to value the sacrifices that the previous generation made for you. I want her to know the sacrifice that my parents and my grandparents made."
Their lives were not easy.
"My mom has wanted to go back to Mexico since the first day she came here," Cortez said. "I remember hearing stories about how they were discriminated against at work because they looked different."
Cortez felt the sting of discrimination when he got to middle school.
"I got called names and was told to go back to Mexico," he said. "It took me off guard. I thought: 'It really is true what my parents said. They will discriminate against you because you are a Mexican.' There was quite a bit of it in high school, as well."
He attributes the name-calling to ignorance.
"As you get older, you learn to ignore it," he said.
"People tell me, 'Hey, Antonio, you are a cool guy, but I don't like Mexicans.' I say, 'Get to know people for who they are, not by how they look. There are a lot of great people out there you can meet. Don't focus on stereotypes.'"
He knows other immigrants who are working for "the dream of happiness."
"They did not leave their homes because they do not like where they came from," Cortez said. "They came to work for a better life."
He knows that education makes all the difference. Cortez graduated from Blackhawk Technical College with a degree in marketing and works for a collection agency.
"Education opportunities are so much better here," he said. "If my family had never come to the United States, it would have been 10 times harder to succeed."
He believes in giving back to his community. The 26-year-old helps care for children of immigrants learning English six hours a week.
"It reminds me of when I was a child, and I saw my parents learning English," Cortez said. "I want the adults to be part of their children's education so the children can succeed to their full potential."
He is rewarded when he sees how people improve over time.
In December, the Cortez family celebrated Christmas in all the ways that most U.S.-born citizens do: outdoor lights, family gatherings and gifts. There was a twist: They also celebrated the Feast of Guadalupe, a traditional Mexican holiday.
"We celebrate all the American holidays," Cortez said. "We have a Memorial Day cookout. We have a Thanksgiving Day dinner."
He owes a lot to his grandfather, who immigrated to the United States in the 1960s and became a citizen.
Cortez and his parents became legal permanent residents of the United States with the help of Cortez's grandfather. Legal permanent residents have the right to live and work permanently in the United States.
But Cortez wanted more. He studied to become a U.S. citizen. On the day he took his oath of citizenship, he thought fondly of his grandfather.
"It was because of him that we came here," Cortez said. "Becoming a citizen was one of my goals. But at the same time, I was fulfilling my grandfather's dream."
Cortez chose to become a naturalized citizen to have the same rights as U.S.-born citizens, including the right to vote.
His grandfather did not live to see the citizenship ceremony, which included Antonio's two brothers, but he was there in spirit.
"All I can remember hearing as a child is that my grandfather wanted us to be citizens," Cortez said.
"He told us it was the American dream."
May 27, 2012 at 7:47 a.m.
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Maybe I read to fast,but I missed the part where it says that he and his family came here illegally. It talks about his grandfather moving here and then becoming a citizen. Immigrants aren't granted citizenship at the border but they can be granted permission to enter as they work towards it. I think a lot of assumptions are being made without information.
Feb 20, 2012 at 10:32 a.m.
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For a great video explaining the math behind NumbersUSA...just google "immigration gumballs" and you'll find at least two versions...the original, which has to do with how many we allow into the U.S.A. and the unsustainability of that path...and the other, newer version, which focuses on how America, already the most generous immigration country in the whole world, could do even MORE and still not make the slightest dent in the poverty and ruination in so many areas of the world...point being that our generosity is already way above sustainability, but even becoming more unsustainable wouldn't make a whit of difference worldwide...so it's not selfish to want us to go back to manageable levels and true enforcement!
Feb 20, 2012 at 10:27 a.m.
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....And don't even get me started on what a joke our "legal" immigration system is...so absurd it even allows a visa lottery, where we just hand out 50,000 magic tickets to America to random applicants, many of whom apply under 3 or more variations of their name to increase their chances. Where we allow F-1 student visas for foreign students to take valuable college spots away from our own students, and find ourselves now at the HIGHEST level EVER of these F-1's invading our colleges, and all this during a recession? Where we extend F-1's from 12 months to 29 months and beyond now, so instead of doing two semesters and a summer and going back to their country, they now can put down roots, have "citizen" babies, and take valuable H-1B visas to work good jobs and thereby take valuable internships and good jobs right out of the hands of our own graduates? Where we let folks into the U.S.A. on tourist, cultural, student, work, and other visas, only to have no system in place to track whether they actually LEFT WHEN THEY WERE SUPPOSED TO or not? And, where our very own government watches 3 million jobs get lost in the first year of the recent downturn, but still hands out over ONE MILLION GREEN CARDS during the same period (!!!!), putting our jobless into direct competition with them, and putting our aid-seekers in direct competition with their own pleas for help and money?
Is our policy and enforcement serving our national interest?
I think not.
Please go to NumbersUSA.com for lots of education on these matters, both illegal and legal. They are the foremost organization that advocates for taking our immigration levels back down to sustainable levels, and closing the door to illegals until they go through the legalities. They do not advocate immigrant-bashing, just simple math: our current immigration policies and the lack of their enforcement assumes infinite resources in this country; basic math shows that is not the case. NumbersUSA.com allows free membership, and anytime votes come up in government that can help turn the tide, you are alerted to call and fax for FREE to your representatives, Senators, and various movers and shakers...all FREE to make your voice heard loud and clear! NumbersUSA members turned the tide in the last amnesty vote, during the summer of 2007, when the Bush administration and that old warhorse Teddy were trying again for amnesty for all the illegal invaders...NumbersUSA members actually MELTED DOWN the Senate phone system the morning of the vote, prompting many Senators who were going to vote for amnesty to reconsider and change their vote. Norm Coleman of Minnesota was one of these at the time...changing his final vote after having supported amnesty all along up to that morning. You can make a difference and we CAN take this country back to sustainability of government and resources!
Feb 20, 2012 at 10:17 a.m.
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While heartwarming, this story points to a big problem with our immigration policies...as soon as grandpa was here, he could help open the floodgates for the rest of the crew to come here; and thanks to Teddy Kennedy's mid-60's meddling, our government assumes it's for the best to let family storm over the border to join the first one. I'll repost from my other comment:
The combination of Johnson's Great Society and Teddy Kennedy's overhaul of immigration law in 1965 will forever be viewed by historians as the beginning of the end for the American self-sufficiency and freedom ideals. The generations of dependency and permanent underclass created by too many goodies from the government, and too many incentives for poor choices, along with too many penalties for good choices (paying for all the poor choosers), all sprang from Johnson's reworking of the New Deal into the Great Society, with the underlying idea that government should take responsibility for OUTCOMES, over and above just insuring equal OPPORTUNITY. We see where a half-century of that has brought us. Kennedy's reworking of immigration law in '65 really opened the floodgates to making America's melting pot ideal lose the heat it needed to melt all together, as it had before. It upset the idea of immigrants proving they could support themselves before coming here, it started the chain migration assumption where as soon as one person gets a foothold here, they could start waiving in family members right and left, and it put the burden on America to have to have a reason to say "No" to an immigrant rather then make the immigrant give us a reason to say "Yes."
These two forces have taken America to where it is now, fractured and suffering from loss of unity in our most basic principles, with a half-century of momentum built up for the misguided idea that America and its previously principled hegemony can absorb all who arrive, can wave the magic wand of citizenship over anyone who happened to pop out of their mom on our land, water, or airspace, and can provide all baseline requirements of life to all who need them, ask for them, or cheat to get them.
The results are clear in what has become of our country at this point.
Throw in the illegal alien amnesty of 1986 (again at the urging of Teddy Kennedy), the rise of "political correctness" and identity politics as bankable entities that provided a comfortable living to the entire "diversity" apparatus, the rise of the courts as a "first resort," and the rise of the culture of "taking offense," and we have a slide into the absurdity of today's American society and culture.
Barbara Jordan, the eminent black stateswoman who sat on the Clinton administration's immigration task force, said it best:
“It is both a right and a responsibility of a democratic society to manage immigration so that it serves the national interest.”
Has our policy and enforcement of that policy done so?
I think not.
Feb 19, 2012 at 5:07 p.m.
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blah blah blah, Its growing pains people, few of us are not descendents of immigrants, they all went through it, the nonacceptance, the feeling of not belonging, the culture shock. nothing new to see here. lets all just get along and stop making things harder for others because you know what? Karma goes both ways
Feb 16, 2012 at 12:51 p.m.
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"becuase your skin color is the perfect shade of white."
so if you are of Black Irish descent, you can still safely celebrate St Paddy's day without charges of racism....
Feb 15, 2012 at 5:42 p.m.
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No kidding, the story title is a bit confusing. I immediately took it to mean he wanted to pass on it, as in, "No thanks, I'm good". Not pass it on, as in celebrate or embrace his heritage. LOL. Then when I started reading the article, I thought the title must be in error. Kinda funny.
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Well, nice article. It could be about any number of ethnic groups of a different name who have come here over the centuries. But, Hispanics are the hot topic of this era. So, welcome, Antonio and family, to a country (your country now as an American citizen) where a big chunk used to be Mexico and also the native home to many indigenous tribes before it became "The United States of America", home of the free, land of the brave and melting pot to the world.
:-)
Feb 15, 2012 at 2:59 p.m.
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Great point, SuperDave.
Feb 15, 2012 at 2:42 p.m.
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I just realized that the story title illustrates a common stylistic error. When two things are compatible, avoid the word "but".
"Young father is proud to be American, but wants to pass on Mexican heritage" should read:
"Young father is proud to be American, and wants to pass on Mexican heritage".
Or better yet:
"Young father is proud to be American, wants to pass on Mexican heritage".
Feb 15, 2012 at 2:27 p.m.
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I can't believe the comments I am reading on here. Unbelievable...I hope I don't see any of you out celebrating St. Patricks day because you are proud of being Irish. I am pretty sure most of you are proud of your heritage but it is okay for you to be becuase your skin color is the perfect shade of white.
Feb 15, 2012 at 12:58 p.m.
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"Amazing how many ignorant people can operate a computer."
just check out any random article from the AP to see that in action.
Feb 15, 2012 at 11:50 a.m.
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Amazing how many ignorant people can operate a computer.
Feb 15, 2012 at 9:22 a.m.
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These stories are great. The nasty, negative reactions are disgusting.
Feb 15, 2012 at 9:01 a.m.
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He needs to understand that in most cases, it wasnt discrimination. When people immigrate to a country illegaly, there is a lack of respect as respect is earned. So if he looks at the other perspective, when you do not follow the laws and then expect acceptance, guess what? There are people that hold those values high. Granted -- I am certain there was some percentage of people that were discrimanatory, but there were also many that were not discriminating, but were displaying their displeasure with how many mexican people immigrate to the US illegally.
Feb 15, 2012 at 8:44 a.m.
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Kudos to this gentleman and his family. I see nothing wrong in embracing both the US and one's "country of origin", in fact that should be encouraged. And bilingual individuals have a huge advantage in today's world!
This family proves that it is indeed possible to legally enter the US. This country continues to welcome legal immigrants with open arms.
Feb 14, 2012 at 11:42 p.m.
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Why aren't there any comments being published? I would bet the majority of the people that read your news paper have a different opinion about the news stories you have been publishing the last few days. You don't want those opinions to be seen.
Feb 14, 2012 at 9:19 p.m.
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A mexican is an american... mexico is in the americas. NOthing wrong with heritage... whats up with all the mexican articles lately? Also, everyone gets called a name in school.. whether it be heritage related, race, size, weight, hair color, clothing... nothing out of the ordinary.
Feb 14, 2012 at 8:25 p.m.
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DeGryse aka Robot_Lord said, "It won't work because we will start a revolution that will squash all opposition. We will kill any who oppose us, just as our brothers and sisters have done sucessfully in Korea, Cambodia, Rhodesia, Indonesia, Cuba, and anywhere else where a free people have tried to wrench themselves from the dregs of what they deserve. We need to remind them WHY THEY NEED US!!! We will do so with our bayonets, and our bombs, and our rifles and pistols. We will teach people that we know better, if they like it or not."
Those are really violent words. Maybe that's what happens when the military sends a person through combat training and then gives them a desk job ordering office supplies.
Feb 14, 2012 at 7:33 p.m.
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Maximo Arriaga is the gentleman pictured to the left of this article. Pablo Carranza and his family are pictured in the link to this article. I am not sure why Antonio Cortez is not pictured in an article that features his story. I thought that should be noted.
Feb 14, 2012 at 6:59 p.m.
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When anyone starts by saying, "Without trying to sound disrespectful..." or "I'm not a racist, but..." you know exactly what is going to follow.
Feb 14, 2012 at 6:36 p.m.
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Thank you to the Gazette for bringing these stories to us. Very interesting.
Feb 14, 2012 at 6:10 p.m.
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When Mr. Cortez said he wanted to hang onto his heritage, I started to wonder what heritage he meant?
Without trying to sound disrespectful...
He wants his children to learn Spanish, yet that is the language of the people who conquered Mexico. If he's religious, his religion is probably "inherited" from the Conquistadors, too.
I tried to put it in a different perspective by imagining an American Indian moving to Canada seeking a better life. Would it sound odd that an American Indian would want to preserve his heritage by teaching his children English, sending them to Western style churches, and eating hotdogs and apple pie?
I'm just questionin'...
Feb 14, 2012 at 5:01 p.m.
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Who cares, sheesh.
Welcome Antonio, kick your shoes off and stay a while and enjoy the "sideshows."
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With that said, I don't care what nationality you are as long as you pay your taxes, contribute to society and place our flag above yours;)
Feb 12, 2012 at 7:56 p.m.
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sorry ms_sassy...you missed donnaw's point on this one...big time.
Feb 12, 2012 at 5:04 p.m.
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yeah, it does...so, it's ok for people to discriminate against AMERICANS who are from Mexico originally. That's not "teasing", donnaw. That's discrimination and bullying...and you downplayed it to be "no big deal", since it happens to every kid?
Feb 12, 2012 at 4:55 p.m.
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Hey sassy pants, the article included comments about being teased for being Mexican and I pointed out that kids are cruel and most kids are teased about something. What's your problem? Comment on the article and curb your anger.
Feb 12, 2012 at 4:48 p.m.
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so, donnaw, by your account, you missed the point of the ENTIRE article. I always suspected that you didn't get the point of articles in the past, but this sealed it for me, and others, I'm sure. thanks for being so blatantly closed-minded....
Feb 12, 2012 at 4:17 p.m.
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You know, kids tease other kids for everything. I was teased all through school because I had lots of freckles and red hair. I was called Howdy Doody, and Leppy (leopard). Chubby kids get teased, short kids, tall kids, whatever. That's growing up. You need to get over it. When it becomes physical, then adults need to get involved. Bullying should not be tolerated. But I bet there's not too many kids who weren't teased about something.
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