Everywhere, USA

I recently went to the movies with my daughter (I’m trying to get in as much daddy-daughter time as possible before the impending wilderness of the teenage years begins) and saw “McFarland, USA.”  

I enjoyed the film on a number of levels. As with most things Disney, it was entertaining.  It was also very refreshing to see a major studio actually make a movie that was centered on a group that makes up more than 16% of the population of the United States, and climbing.

More than anything, though, I was very pleased by the dignity and humanity that the film lent to the Mexican-American men, women, and children that it portrayed. It is incredibly disheartening to me when I hear or read about the “illegals,” the “aliens” or the much worse labels that are attached to many Hispanics in our country. We can and will continue to have debates about how immigration laws should be shaped and enforced.  But these epithets aren’t about policy; their only purpose is to ostracize and dehumanize.

“McFarland, USA” showed how the children of immigrants rose before dawn every day to do back-breaking agricultural work, then went to school, then practiced several hours for the cross country team of their high school (in the end winning the California state tournament). They demonstrated incredible grit, tenacity, desire to succeed, and a refusal to succumb to obstacles that looked insurmountable.

That sounds to me like the very definition of the qualities we ascribe to Americans.  And it describes the immigrant story that continues to this day.  We ask for the poor and the huddled masses because we know those are the people who will work until their fingers bleed and strive until they succeed - if not for themselves, then for their children - making whatever sacrifices are necessary.  Whether it be a woman who goes from selling funnel cakes to derivatives at Goldman Sachs or a guy who picked lettuce and became a brain surgeon, these are the people who are indispensable for a country that aspires to greatness.

It was great to see this inspiring story from McFarland. But similar stories take place everyday, everywhere in the USA. We just have to be willing to look - and to celebrate that such stories continue to unfold in America.