It is always easier to scapegoat a minority group that can not defend itself. When it comes to illegal immigrants, they are all labeled as criminals or people that come to the U.S. in order to drain our society of its resources. The media plays along and highlights sensational stories that feed the fire and the cycle resumes. It is always comforting to know that there are stories out there that if shown to the masses, would change the way they thought about the issue.
Enter the Reader's Digest story about an illegal migrant worker turn brain surgeon for a prestigious institute:
"Shortly after, he decided to leave Mexico in search of better options. So on his arrival, Quiñones headed with his cousin for the San Joaquin Valley to work in the fields. "I picked tomatoes, cauliflower, broccoli, corn, grapes."
After a year, he had saved $8,000 -- almost all of his pay. "I ate what I was picking," he says. "I wore the same pair of jeans the whole year."
When Quiñones looked up from the dirt, the best job he could see was driving the big tractors. The drivers were skilled, and they supervised crews. He was told it took ten years of fieldwork to land such a promotion, but Quiñones was soon behind the wheel of sophisticated plows and ditchdiggers. He learned how to service the engines and qualified for a temporary work permit. "I had that hunger in my gut," he says.
He moved to Stockton and took a job in a rail yard so he could attend night school at San Joaquin Delta College, learning English. With his English improving, Quiñones switched to the night shift and began full-time studies in science and math. To make ends meet, he also tutored other students.
After graduating with an associate's degree in 1991, Quiñones was accepted to the University of California, Berkeley. He moved to a low-rent district in Oakland, getting by on a combination of scholarships, loans, a small grant and, as always, work. He became a teacher's assistant in three departments and also took a job at a men's clothing store.
Quiñones excelled in the competitive environment of Berkeley, getting straight A's in advanced classes, writing his honors thesis on the role of drug receptors in the brain and teaching calculus on the side -- not that he paid much attention to his standing. In the spring of 1993, his mentor, Hugo Mora, looked over his transcripts and told him he stood a good chance of getting into Harvard Medical School.
Harvard accepted him, and Quiñones moved East in the fall of 1994. "I'm sitting there, ten years after hopping the fence, and it hits me how fast I came up."
Quiñones says he understands why people might resent him for entering the country illegally. His only excuse is that he was a brash and desperate teenager. "The last thing I was thinking was that I was going to break the law," he says. Once he arrived, Quiñones says, the United States "opened its doors to me" -- a welcome, he adds, that would be unlikely today given the heated immigration debate. He offers no solution but suggests it will not come from higher walls. "As long as there is poverty in our neighboring countries, there will continue to be this influx."
This is a heartwarming story that reminds us that anything is possible here in the United States. Barack Obama touched on this point in a speech once and I agree with him. Dr. Quiñones adds his personal insight on his approach of entering this country. What most folks do not understand is that a lot of these individuals do not have the luxury of waiting to be accepted legally in order to enter this country. As long as the U.S. continues to promote despotic government in Latin America, the issue of poverty and illegal imiggration will continue to plague the Americans.
Note: Watch a video of Dr. Quiñones on Big Think.
