Becoming American: Why Immigration Is Good for Our Nation's Future by Fariborz Ghadar Page A

politics.
    The Brzezinski family is one of many Polish families who have helped shape America. Today, the Census Bureau estimates that there are less than half a million Polish foreign-born immigrants in America. These immigrants work in a diverse range of sectors, ranging from manufacturing to health care to construction. 9 They all have their own story. Their story may not be as grand as Brzezinski’s, but all of their stories will share at least one common plot point. Each and every single Polish immigrant had the bravery to uproot himself or herself and move to an unfamiliar land in hope of a greater future.
    NOTES
    1. “Polish/Russian Immigration: The Nation of Polonia,” Library of Congress , http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presen tations/immigration/polish4.html (accessed July 8, 2013).
    2. Al Jazeera English, “One on One: Zbigniew Brzezinski,” YouTube . com , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03ApSE6mgHE (accessed July 8, 2013).
    3. Krystyna Iglicka and Magdalena Ziolek-Skrzypczak, “EU Membership Highlights Poland’s Migration Challenges,” Migration Information Source , September 2010, http://www.migrationinformation.org/feature/display.cfm?ID=800 (accessed July 8, 2013).
    4. Aleksandra Ziólkowska-Boehm, “Conversation with Zbigniew Brzezinski, from ‘The Roots Are Polish’ by Aleksandra Ziolkowska-Boehm,” RootsWeb: Freepages , http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~atpc/heritage/articles/alek sandra/roots-brzezinski.html (accessed July 8, 2013).
    5. The Trilateral Commission, “About the Trilateral Commission,” http://www .trilateral.org/go.cfm?do=Page.View&pid=5 (accessed August 27, 2013).
    6. Aleksandra Ziólkowska-Boehm, “Conversation with Zbigniew Brzezinski.”
    7. Ziólkowska-Boehm, “Conversation with Zbigniew Brzezinski.”
    8. Ziólkowska-Boehm, “Conversation with Zbigniew Brzezinski.”
    9. Iglicka and Ziolek-Skrzypczak, “EU Membership Highlights Poland’s Migration Challenges.”

9
    How Did He Get Here: Salomon Garay
    I n 1981, Hector Salomon Garay was twenty-five when he crossed the Rio Bravo from Mexico into an unknown small town in southern Texas. Although the United States and Mexico share water from the same river, the different perspectives on life in America is exemplified by the two names of this river. South of the border it is called the Rio Bravo, which means “furious” or “agitator,” while in the United States it is called the Rio Grande or “big.” Depending upon where you were born, your experience with the same river is entirely different.
    Salomon was born in El Salvador, and with the idea that he could find steady work in the United States, he saved up the $1,200 needed to pay the “coyote” to take him in a group of thirty-four across the border in the middle of the night. His ultimate destination was the Washington, D.C., area, where his older sister already lived. From beginning to end, his journey took him nineteen days to complete.
    He and his group had to walk and swim through the river and hide in bushes and behind trees until a prearranged Toyota pickup truck took all thirty-four of them piled up like sardines on an hour-long ride to Corpus Christi, where they were again unceremoniously dumped in the bushes in the middle of the night. Trash of empty gallons of water and bread bags littered the area, making it obvious that they were not the first to come this way.
    By 9 a.m., another vehicle pulled up to take the ten women in the group to Houston, but it took another eight hours for someone to come check on the men. This person left only some yellow cheese and bread for the remaining men. After dividing the provisions up among themselves, they waited out the night in the pouring rain until 2 a.m., when they decided to try to find some kind of temporary shelter. By daylight, they had come across a building in an oil field, and the man inside greeted them with a “Cómo estás?” They asked if