Tonia or Latina?

After reading about Stephen Colbert speaking infront of congress a few days ago surrounding the issue of immigration reminded me of a story told to me by my mom. My mom came to this country in the early 1980s. She told me at that time, seeing another hispanic was so rare especially in the suburban areas. She says that by seeing someone who spoke spanish was the thing that made their day. My mom also told me that even if you saw them on the other side of the street, you had to walk up to them and say hi. When she started working, her pay was the medium wage at the time which was $5.25/ hour. Compared to what it is now, that's abismal. Well my mom told me a story about a lady that she knew by the name of Tonia. This lady came to the United States around the same time as my mom and she quickly wanted to take part in the American culture. Tonia would then dye her hair so that it would be blonde and tried the fashion as well (mind you this is 80s fashion). This however impeded the fact that she still did not know english at all. This lead to confusion. People would ask her on the streets for directions but she had no idea what they were saying to her. "¡No especke inglish!" she would respond.

For a lot of immigrants, this time was maybe worst than how it is nowadays. In the 1980s, La migra (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement) would actually stop the buses to find illegal immigrants so that they would deport them. Mind you this was in Washington, DC, not Texas.

As the story goes, Tonia was coming home from work on the bus. The bus was one the place to meet other hispanics. I'm assuming that customs knew that too, which is why they came to the bus that day. Customs actually stopped the bus and made their way in to find illegal immigrants. The bus itself acted as a holding cell, trapping any immigrant that try to escape. Talk about racial stereotyping, they questioned everyone that "looked hispanic." Tonia was in the back not even noticing what was going on. When the customs agent came to her and asked her, "Are you Latina?" Tonia, thinking that they were looking for a lady whose name is "La Tina" responded, "No, Soy La Tonia (No, I'm the Tonia)." The Customs agent looked at her and thought she was white and left. Noticing that the bus became more spacious, she asked her friend what had happened. She was oblivious to what had happened. Customs actually took close to 10 people that day.