Resiliency is what makes people
endure to the end. My grandmother owned a business to support her family of
seven children. My father was blind in one eye. His father passed away when he
was a small boy, so he had to work to help his mother and brothers turning him
into a well-respected businessman. I have been told so many stories of many
other family members who have left a great legacy for their posterity.13
Generosity
is another important dimension of life for Latinos. Generosity is characterized
by giving the best they have to offer, and not just when it is convenient. When
Latinos say, “Mi casa es su casa” (my home is your home), they truly
mean it. At Thanksgiving 2004 our nuclear family was involved in a project to
help people who lived near, and worked inside, a dumpsite. Every time we went
to visit, they brought us drinks that were expensive for them to buy
(considering that they only made a dollar a day), but they wanted to treat us
with the best they had to offer.
Growing up, my home became a
refuge for women, a reception center, and a hotel with visitors coming and
going. Because my father was the
Honorary Consul of Korea, my parents invited a woman from Korea to stay with us
for two weeks while she got settled in a new country. Her stay got extended to
two years. Kim became a family member. Privacy is not an issue when it comes to
family or close friends; if you stay long enough, you become family. My mother witnessed many happy celebrations as
well as sad situations of women who needed a place to go when getting out of a
bad relationship. She also helped people asking for seed money for a business
venture. Without exaggeration, I can’t think of a business idea she didn’t help
fund. Never expecting anything in return, she helped ventures ranging from
retail to manufacturing to service industries.
Resourcefulness characterizes the
Hispanic people. Anyone learning a new language in a new country needs to be
resourceful. Currently I live in the Philippines and meet people all the time
who are managing a new language. Just imagine if you had to follow these
instructions: Bawal tumawid may namatay na dito! Unless you spoke
Tagalog, you wouldn’t have a clue that it means “No Crossing; somebody has
already died here!” This is a warning so people use the overpass bridge rather
than crossing the street. For Spanish speakers, writing in English is difficult
because in Spanish words are written phonetically. Nevertheless, people like my
mother learn to communicate even with broken English.
Civility is what Latinos know as “Ser Bien educados,”14 or having good manners. Civility for Latinos
is an extension of good character. It means we value human relationships. We
value being courteous and nice as much as we value knowledge about the world at
large. We value education and reputation equally. I am not trying to suggest
that every immigrant who comes to this country is nice, honest, and
trustworthy. There are some crooks too!
Case in point: A man by the name of Jose Reynaldo Flores opened a phony
money exchange business in El Salvador by the name of Flores Express
Corporation DBA Casa de Cambio. He gave my father two checks worth $40,000 that
bounced. At the time, $40,000 was enough
to buy a house. Those checks from Bank of America could never be cashed. When I
asked him to write my father new checks, he said he had filed for bankruptcy
but promised to pay him back when he could. My father never received a dime. My
father was a victim of a scam! Unfortunately, unscrupulous people like Reynaldo
Flores give Latinos a bad name. But most Latinos I know are honest.
To be continued...
Con amor,
Vero
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