Cecilia Aldana Offends all Immigrants

It usually bothers me when business owners follow the bite sound of “we built that” because I believe nobody born in this country can really assert that they did anything ALL by themselves. 

If they were born in a public hospital or attended an American public school, or even went to a public library to do their homework; if they have ever went to college and got financial aid; if they started their business and used the Internet or the post office; they drove on roads and bridges;–and I could keep going–, then “someone else helped them” on their way.

Unless, of course, you paid everything privately, your healthcare, your education, and you own a private jet to transport yourself.  

But it really bothers me when an immigrant, who should be grateful to this country and its blessings like no one else, would come out and say that they built a business on their own. 

This week, the ad in which Cecilia Aldana, an immigrant from Peru who came to this country in 1981, came out supporting the Romney ticket. Nothing wrong with choosing a side if that is what you feel represents best your interests. 

However, saying that she built a business solely with the help of her family and employees is, just to say the least, an offense to all of us, immigrants. 

First, she should be humble and grateful that the government of this country allowed her to become a citizen. From her story, it seems she came with her parents as a child or teenager at that time. 

Every year, thousands of immigrants are deported and rejected by the system. Just by receiving some sort of permit to stay and flourish, she already did not make it on her own. She “was given” the opportunity to stay and start a business, not in Peru but in the United States, where she found stability, and respect, and her life was valued. 

Because in 1980, in Peru, things were ugly. 

Although they had a constitutional president, the Communist Party of Peru more commonly known as the Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso), a Maoist organization, deployed violence against peasants, trade union organizers, popularly elected officials and the general civilian population. 

So the Aldanas, like any other family that would try to live a dignified life, decided to emigrate to the United States. Do you realize how much suffering, deprivation and pain it means for a family to make that decision, leaving all your friends, extended family, your home, your identity?

And they came to a country that opened its arms to them. I’m not going to ask how they got here because it is not my place, and I don’t betray my own.

On the other hand, I feel betrayed by Cecilia, who is an immigrant just like me, who built a business just like me, and who cannot look back and picture her life in Peru if the United States government would have not given her the opportunity to stay.