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Introduction In the last chapter I mentioned that, due to the pervasive presence of the “all poverty is Mexican” discourse in El Paso, the constitution of a valued social identity is relatively straightforward for some middle-class Anglos and relatively difficult for many people of Mexican descent. We have seen how using an ethnic classification system, many Anglos (and those from other ethnicities—including Mexican Americans—who share with them this particular way of understanding identity) tend to conflate Mexicans and Mexican Americans because both belong to the same “ethnic” category. On the other hand, we had the opportunity to see how some Mexican Americans use nationality to detach themselves from Mexican nationals and race and/ or ethnicity to differentiate themselves from Anglos. Mexican immigrants , on the other hand, have to confront the fact that they “are” Mexicans in terms of both nationality and ethnicity. In this chapter I will discuss the problematic situation of some Mexican immigrants in El Paso. If they are poor, they have to follow a quite distinct path in the constitution of a valued social identity. They confront an ethnic and racial classification system that denigrates them without the escape hatch of economic success used, for instance, by Albert and Alfredo and his family. As a result, they have to deal with the fact that, at first glance, the hegemonic discourse seems to be confirmed. For poor Mexican Americans who, for a variety of reasons, do not consider the Chicano discourse theirs, the process of constructing a valued social identity is far more tortuous. Without the possibility of relying on a structured, social, and collectively developed discourse that blames poverty on discrimination, these interviewees nevertheless have to make sense of their situation. At the same time, if these interviewees still maintain family ties with Mexico, they have to make sense of contemporary Mexican poverty without portraying Mexican nationals as the “others,” like Joel and his friends did, or inventing a Mexico of the past in the way Alfredo and his family did. To complicate matters further, many of my Mexican immigrant interviewees still use Mexican and/or Fronterizo categories, metaphors , and narratives to construct the “other,” mixing frames of refMEXICAN IMMIGRANTS AND THE “ALL POVERTY IS MEXICAN” NARRATIVE PLOT Chapter 4 erence (sometimes in a single portrayal of the “other”) to make sense of their identities. Here is where they have to rely on a very complex discourse to construct a valued identity as Mexicans living in the United States. The Mexicans of the “all poverty is Mexican” Narrative Plot Are the Mexican Americans Who Live on Welfare In one interview I conducted with a group of female immigrants in El Paso,1 one of the interviewees told us the following story: Norma: A girl who lives here in the alley once got in a fight with a guy. She has a little boy and the guy has another little boy. They were there on the park slides. So, the guy goes over and gets the girl’s little boy so that his kid can get on and he tells him, “Get out of here, scoot aside so my kid can get on.” And she asked him, “Why are you taking him off?” He said, “You know what? This park belongs to those of us from here. You’re from Juárez; you don’t have anything to do here in the park.” She said, “You know what? If I live here, all what I eat I pay for it . . . it’s at a dear price, but not for you. The government supports you and your brat. I pay taxes, I pay everything and you pay for nothing.” And it’s true because everyone here has this many kids and food stamps for all of them! Look, they’ve never been able to give me any because I have this pittance of a house. My husband works. My husband’s sixty-seven years old and he still works and I work and that’s why they don’t give us any. And I tell him, “You should quit working now. You are elderly, and can no longer work.” I say to him, “There are many young people and they are resting in the park,” and I say to him, “They are the ones that the government is helping and maintaining , people who are strong, and people like us who give more and more to the government are the ones who...

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