GIRARD, Kan. - "Maria. Maria! The floor. That floor is not clean." It was the most shrill and demeaning voice. Maria stood there, a look of confusion and shame on her face. Peter, fluent in Spanish, calmly directed Conception to sweep the floor. The shrill voice barked at Peter, "She understands what I said, they all understand English-they just pretend like they don't. They're lazy."
It was the same every morning, a recording repeating day after day. No matter how hard Conception worked, she was never granted the respect of being called by her name or thanked for her work.
There was also no shortage of people to take the job. The spring of 1974 was punctuated with rapid job loses on both side of the boarder. Conception held her post because she was willing to work for pennies. She also served as a reminder to the rest of us, that if we dared complain about our dismal wages, we could be replaced. It was a perfect incentive system.
We never knew how Conception crossed the boarder twice each day and we never asked. If for some reason she could not get to work a sister would arrive-her name was always Maria.
~
He had just the kind of accent you would hope for in a bartender pulling a room temperature Guinness Stout. He was a contact point for members of the Irish Republican Army going underground in the States.
~
They were English, German and Australian college students. They spoke perfect English. They were amusing, delightful. They were afraid to go home, for fear they would not be allowed to come back. Their visas had long expired, but nobody ever asked.
~
She is a building contract, he is an engineer. They are pillars of the business community. She is Canadian, he is Dutch. Their daughter was born in Africa. They are a fascinating couple.
~
They were from Thailand or Cambodian. They escaped famine and war. They did not come out of the three-story house during the day. The men contracted for their services at the teahouse. When all the beds in house were full, their services were delivered in the alley or the parking lot. They did not escape sexual slavery.
~
They escaped the great famine only to be quarantined on ships full of plague. Some choose to drown themselves in the river or be shot trying to reach the shore. Any fate was better than waiting for the slow lingering certain death on the ship.
~
He was a baker by trade. He and his brother escaped the Austro-Hungarian wars. They immigrated to Canada. One slipped over the boarder to Buffalo and Anglicized his name. It was not a good time to be known by his German sir name.
~
He was orphaned in Indian Territory and sent away to school. He was beaten by the missionaries until he forgot his native tongue. He was a Native American, though his father was white.
~
Recommended reading on a portion of US immigration history:
1. How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York
2. The Great Hunger: Ireland: 1845-1849
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