Happy Independence Day Walter

I have as they say "been around the block" a few times. 

I've traveled the world. I've driven through the slums of Tijuana more than once, and daily past the miles of tin shacks of Cartagena. I've traveled roads in Cuba, Honduras and Guatemala that I would not have otherwise done so without local friends. I've ridden buses in Costa Rica that slow to a crawl to navigate washed out roads every other mile. I know why people leave Latin America.

I've crossed the border at Nogales and Del Rio, places where even blue passport carrying Americans can be made to feel like illegal immigrants.   

I speak enough Spanish to get around with "hablo un poco espanol" and "habla mas lenta por favor" as my go to phrases. (I speak a little Spanish and please speak slower). My son, his mother's maiden name is Cortez de Lopez. 

Yet I'm not an expert on Latin American culture, and do not know how it feels to be a Cuban or Mexican in the United States during our Independence Day celebrations. 

But I do have an idea.

Our yard guy is from Mexico, he came to the United States when he was 5 years old.

His name is Walter, though I suspect that is not his real name, still he insists that it is, and so I honor his request and call him Walter. 

Walter works hard, he is super friendly and his prices are always fair. I tip his crew and thank him often for doing harder work than I care to undertake.  

If I ask him about the migration surge and illegal immigrants he tenses up. "My parents applied again and again to come here": he tells me. "They came here to be with my uncle and my cousins" and came legally.

He is not shy about politics.

Walter is a proud legal emigrant who does not like being “cubby hole’d” or grouped as a part of what democrats routinely to call marginalized “Black and Brown” Americans. 

I  jokingly ask, "So Walter what are you Latinx? He shakes his head no. Well how about Latino? Hispanic? Mexican? Or are you a Brown person?" 

He similes and he laughs and then adds I'm an American just like you! 

Yes you are Walter yes you are. 

Happy Independence Day Walter.