Immigrants unite to keep dreams alive--and in Mexico

These Mexican-Americans are helping teens in their Mexican hometown get an education so they do not have to head north to work. They wish they could have done that when they were younger and are helping the next generation now. If our government could help build the Mexican economy, more people would stay home to raise their families. DP

By Oscar Avila, Tribune staff reporter

Chicago Tribune: Fernando Fernandez was 17 when he learned that, in Mexico, dreams are too often cast aside. His dream was to become a veterinarian, but reality forced him to migrate to the United States to help support his nine siblings.

Two decades later, he and other Chicago-area immigrants from the central Mexican town of Indaparapeo want to help the next generation hold on to its aspirations.

In an unusual initiative, the group has bankrolled 40 college scholarships designed to let youths stay in Mexico, get an education and avoid a lifetime in a strange land.

"We lived this disappointment, in the flesh," Fernandez said. "Why not create another path?"

The Indaparapeo project runs counter to the usual focus of immigrant associations, which typically pool their money to build bridges, sewer systems and other public works projects back home.

The scholarship initiative is so unusual, Mexican federal officials and development experts said, that they are using it as a national model, one more strategy to slow the devastating exodus of Mexico's brightest young citizens to the U.S.

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