A Mexican Immigrant in Brooklyn
A Monologue
by Debbie L. Miller
A man is speaking to a newspaper reporter. English is not his first language.
Sure, listen, I will tell you about my life. What you want to know? Yes, I come across the border by walk. It was at night, a little scary. Many people make this trip.
I coming from Puebla, that’s in Mexico, you know? I live in Sunset Park, here in Brooklyn. My name is Benjamin Oveda.
In Mexico, I have six years of school. The reason is only six is because there is no secondaria school close to my village and we lived in rural area, el campo, so I had to work on the farm. No, not a big farm like in America. It was a farm for our family. Animals? Sure, we had chickens, some pigs, a burro. We had some fruit trees. And, we grew vegetables, beans, chili peppers. And, corn. It was good life at that time, but now is too hard to live that way. And, there are no jobs, so everybody come here.
I go two nights to the English class. In my class, we have the people from like Mexico, South America, China, and Yemen. They speak the languages Arabic, Chinese, and Spanish. Brooklyn is a melting pot. I learn this in the English class. Some Americans don’t like the immigrants, you know? But, America is a melting pot. This country it’s made by the immigrants.
