A very interesting story about Mexico City college students who don't know anything about their own poor citizens and what is forcing them to risk going to the U.S. They are learning their own peoples' stories as cultural exchange students in New York. DP
By CANDICE FERRETTE, THE JOURNAL NEWS
thejournalnews..com: Before this year, Karla Villasenor did not speak to day laborers - she had no reason to.
The 21-year-old Mexican college student had nothing in common with the workers on the streets of Mexico City and knew very little about how or why they left for the United States.
Then she studied abroad in Westchester.
"I was shocked to hear about the risks they took to get here. They leave behind so much, and they are so vulnerable here," Villasenor said after translating a newspaper article to a room full of day laborers on a recent morning at Neighbors Link in Mount Kisco. "When I go back to Mexico, I know there's a lot of work to be done so they don't have to leave."
Villasenor, a student at Universidad Iberoamericana, one of Mexico's most elite universities, was among the first to participate in a new cultural and social exchange program with Purchase College. This semester, the four students - all young women - interned at four Westchester Hispanic advocacy organizations. They coordinated jobs for day laborers, helped teach English classes and educated new immigrants on their constitutional rights.
In the process, the students, members of Mexico's upper class, found that they had to cross an international border before breaching their country's social divide.
"The people we're helping here are the people that work for us back there. I never thought that I could be useful to them," said Emilia Galvez, 22, who interned at the Don Bosco hiring site in Port Chester.
Be sure to read the rest of this story! This is only a small part of it.
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