A ticket to America: 'sta bueno

[Agnapostate]

A ticket to America: 'sta bueno - Los Angeles Times

Samuel Perez never spent a single day on American soil as an illegal immigrant, thanks to Clarence Martin.

More than 50 years ago Perez entered this country as a teenager on a federal program that allowed him to work as a bracero, a field worker, at Martin's cotton farm in Texas.

In the narrative of the Perez family, Martin is a legend, in large part because of the opportunity the burly farmer with a Texas drawl gave the Mexican teen: In 1957 Martin told Perez he was going to get him a green card.

Just one month later, a lawyer Martin hired gave Perez the news: "You can go anywhere now," he said.

By 1959, Perez had used that opportunity to land a job at a General Motors plant in Van Nuys; he worked there 34 years, while doing gardening on the side. He put all 11 of his children through college. And he told them about Martin.

In the family lore, Martin "was like Santa Claus. 'Is he real or not?' " said Omar Perez, 30, a sales manager for a dental manufacturing company.

More than a half century after the farmer and the fieldworker parted ways, one of the Perez children found the Texan who had given his father a ticket to America.

And a few weeks ago, the two men and their families reunited in Pacoima with a hero's welcome for Martin.

(Continued...)

Interesting story. Makes you wonder how effectively the current policy of mass criminalization deals with immigrants, considering that unions like these would have never been possible if legalization programs hadn't existed. Oh, and:

But he barely understood English, he said.

He called Martin's wife Honey because that's what the farmer always called her. "No. 'Honey's' for me," Martin explained.

I LOL'd.