My mother is not an American citizen. Crossing the border at age 28, my mother drove in the back of a van on a hot summer's day through the slopes and ditches of Guadalajara, Jalisco to San Antonio.
Finding love and marrying a strong, Mexican man, my mother raised three children with a pot of beans and an American flag. Yes, that was me. I am the first in my family to be called an American, a citizen, a privileged child.
However, that means nothing if I do not take advantage of it.
With this coming election, my mother has paid more attention to the news, media and polls than any other woman I have ever met. She can't vote.
My mother knows what the latest polls read and who won the state vote and by how much. She can't vote.
My mother knows what Donald Trump said to Ted Cruz and how that has affected their further elections. And she can't vote.
Yet, I sit here writing this column listening to Drake's latest album and have no idea what Sanders is doing or what Clinton's next move is going to be. I sit here and wait for my phone to beep a Facebook notification from the New York Times briefly telling me who won the state primary. I sit here waiting for the six o'clock news on CNN to explain to me governmental issues that should matter to me.
All I do is sit and wait. Never raising a question, concern or action to find the answers to these presidential questions myself. CNN and the New York Times, though valid resources for presidential information, should not be spoon fed to me like a child. As a growing American, I should seek the answer and seek the issues of our country instead of waiting for someone else to tell me the news.
Is it that I don't know how to care? Or, is it that I choose not to care?
There are immigrating women in the nation who are paying more attention to our nation and its issues than their own American children. Some immigrants are willing to risk money, family and life for the pursuit of justice, freedom and independence that our country lies upon. How can an outsider care more than the privileged already fed these impossible rights?
According to the Pew Research Center, Latino millennials make more than half of the American voters for the 2016 election as apposed to the 27 percent white and 35 percent black millennials in the United States. Within this research, seven percent of hispanic immigrants are silent due to their illegal immigration or fear of deportation during the election process as opposed to 15 percent white and nine percent black voters. This concludes that there are more Latinos paying attention to the polls and primaries than other ethnicities and races.
My mother cannot vote and will not be able to for a very long time. However, she does not let her green-card displace her from the American dream and way of life. She wants to see a president who will not threaten to deport her, threaten her future grandchildren or force unnecessary rules upon the American people.
People, like my mother, are doing the job of the average American without the benefits.
As Americans, we are privileged. And if we don't start taking advantage of our privilege, we will lose it.
