Two Different Worlds

Two Different Worlds

As always we discuss interesting topics in our class. In today’s blog I will connect experiences and stories to our readings. As I have mentioned in my first blog I was born in Chicago but was raised in Guadalajara, Jalisco. The economic inequality that exists out there is very big. The living conditions from the poor and the rich are very different. The story that I will mention is about me and my friend and how our opportunities paved our ways of success in life.

            In the book there are no children here, it focuses on the challenges of a mother raising her kids at a lower class neighborhood. My friend had similar but different experiences growing up. The biggest difference here is about worrying about gangs. We grew up together, but as I was a kid I soon realize the different lifestyle and opportunities that we both had. The structure of his house was poor. It was a wooden house. It only had a small kitchen and a room where him and his family lived. They didn’t have a proper bathroom or shower. The little small things that we take for granted, him and his family didn’t have access too.  His lifestyle is obviously different. He had to be up by four and five in the morning to help his dad with work. His dad would work with livestock and take care of them. By seven in the morning he would have to be back to go to class. For him there wasn’t much option of him to have fun and enjoy his childhood as he pleased. He spent most of his time working. His dad told him as long as knew how to read and count that’s all that matter and he left school after fourth grade. He was a helping hand economically and it was lest stressful for him.

            Now that I realize our different paths in the world it saddens me the advantages that I have had over him. We aren’t rich but we weren’t living under the same circumstances. It helped out that my dad was living in United States and he was sending money back to us. I helped out my grandfather in his ranch, but not to the extreme that I had to leave school to support our family.  I didn’t have to wake up at five in the morning or got to work after school. The fact that we had electricity in our house was an advantage towards him. I had all the luxurious that he wasn’t able to have in his household. Money is what runs this world. There is popular Mexican saying, “Si eres pobre te humilla la gente, si eres rico te trata muy bien.” It translates into; if you are poor you get humiliated, if you’re rich you get treated well. I found this to be very true. Different opportunities exist when it comes down to your income. In Mexico your last name holds power and prestige if you have certain last name it can differentiate you from the elite to the poor. My lifestyle was different than my friends despite living in the same town. He had more things to worry about as a kid. I’m thankful with my mom how big hearted she is. She would donate anything that she could that would help from clothes to food. In the United States there is this dream, that if you work hard every day you can amount to being someone in life. My friend didn’t believe in that. He said living an honest life will never amount to anything. We were barely 10- 11 years old and he was already accepting his reality and place in the world. The fact that he will never amount to anything if lived his life honestly. This makes you realize why people in bad neighborhood decide to sell drugs. Since opportunities do not exist might as well progress yourself in something that will bring easy and fast money.

            Despite being tempted many times he never chose that path. But it is sad to see how our society pushes people to those limits. He had hard lifestyle and was discriminated many times because of his class. First impressions matter, and how he was dressed they would judge him and mistreat him. Their was times were we being mischievous and we would get caught they would assume it was him. They would tell my mom that he was a bad influence. When at times it was me who came up with the intention to being mischievous. But because both sides of my family were well known in town I wasn’t blame for anything. Poverty takes away many opportunities away from you. The sad part is we don’t control if we are born rich or poor. It is the first thing we inherent from our parents. The sad story is at times there is very limited opportunity to break away from your social class.