Surprise AARP Comments

I do a lot of advocacy work, basically ask me to speak, name the topic, and I am there for you. In our community I have spoke to youth groups, high school classes, done college lectures, church groups, and everything in between. Well this week I had a new adventure, I was asked to speak to an AARP group...

Honestly I was hesitate, I thought man, an older, mostly caucasian group... could be walking into a bees nest. It could get ugly, am I ready for some hard questions (yes of course) and could it get out of hand? I guess how out of hand can an AARP meeting get?

So I planned my general overview presentation. I define common immigration terms, Dreamers, Green Card, Legal Permanent Resident, talk about the ways people get visas, processes and what makes people American Citizens. I give a historical overview of immigration in terms of policies and short bit on how we got where we are today. I then do some local impact pieces; talk about percentage of Latinos in our community, the benefits, the impact, etc. I talk about myths, doing it "The Right Way", taxes,  taking jobs, desire to integrate and about the American Dream.

I end it with my story, which I have shared here in my blog a few times. I also still need to write a blog on that full story, it is what I share with Anderson Cooper when I was interviewed by him for the 60 Minutes Piece (full interview didn't air). Reminds me I should write a blog about that interview.

Well then we got to question time and my guard went up. A lady, who sat in the front row, raised her hand right away. Worried me more, cause I remember when I used to travel as an anti-hazing speaker the best hazers sat up front, mean mugged me during the whole program, and couldn't wait to ask me a dumb question... well here is a paraphrase of what she said...

I want to just make a comment. We had a Mexican family, they lived next door to us. They seemed to be nice people, kept to themselves. When my husband died 15 years ago, (she choked up) they came over and offered to help. They would help with the yard, with the snow, and didn't ask me for anything. They just gave, and I know they didn't have much. It meant so much to me, and it hurts me when people say bad things about those hard working people. 

I just choked up writing that out.

Then I had several other questions, all great comments like that one, and a few with some clarifying questions like do undocumented immigrants get social security. So I cleared up some rumors, and then the group asked me what can they do... I said tell your elected officials how you feel. Especially since I bet they, like I did, think AARP members would be anti-immigrant. They weren't, and I guess I forget, that some of them were also immigrants, and when asked nearly half had a parent that was an immigrant.

This was a busy week. La Casa is back open, news on El Salvador TPS and DACA legal challenge, and rehearsals each night for In The Heights has me busy... but that presentation on Monday gave me life.

Thank you Sue for inviting me to speak, thank you AARP for being so supportive, and I hope you do tell all your friends what we discussed.