Immigrants are Not our Enemies

Tonight, I sat with a stranger and used Google translate to have a conversation, and it was wonderful.

As you may know if you’ve been following my FB posts, I had to have emergency surgery 3.5 weeks ago, and my partner had a planned surgery 2.5 weeks ago. He can’t walk at all, and I could barely walk until this week. I’ve been at his house a lot taking care of him, doing his grocery pickups, and taking him to appointments.

Because of the pain I’ve been in and the struggle to walk, I have been going to the small laundromat in the next town over, because it is easier than traversing his steep basement stairs multiple times in one day. And at the laundromat you can do 4 loads at the same time and just be done with it.

I’ve been to the laundromat 4 times in 2.5 weeks, and each time, the same exact people have been there with me. There is a group of several Hispanic men that come in together. Since I’m fairly friendly, I smiled, said hello, and asked a question about the dryers the first time we met. They said “No Inglesa!”. So I dusted off my rusty Spanish from 25 years ago, and said, “Hola! Como esta usted?” They looked amazed. One of them said “Bien, y tu?” and I said “Bien, Gracias!”. They asked if I speak Spanish? (Hablas Espanol?) and I replied “Un poquito. Yo tengo Quatro Anos en escuela”. But I struggled to remember how to say “but that was 25 years ago and I’m very rusty!”.

Every time I’ve seen them since that first day, we said Hola! and smiled at each other.

Tonight, they walked in and one of them smiled and said Hi to me! I said Hi, Hola! A different gentleman than I usually speak with, said Hola! to me. I said Como Esta Usted? and we exchanged pleasantries. He asked if I could speak Spanish? I gave my Un Poquito line. And then I used Google Translate to look up how to tell him “I took Spanish in high school 25 years ago but I haven’t used it enough so I have lost most of the language”. My pronunciation must have been on point though! Because he used his google translate to tell me, “The way you spoke, I thought you might be a native Spanish speaker, you did a good job!”.

He asked if he could sit in the chair that was attached to my chair and I said, “Si, por favor” (Yes, Please). We used Google translate to have a 25 minute conversation. I learned that he is from Ecuador, and that he has traveled all over the world to work in the past 20 years. France, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, UK, Mexico, and all over South America. But now, he is doing the paperwork to become an American citizen because he wants to live here full time. He has found work in this small rural town and has been here for 5 months. He just got approved for citizenship.

I was fascinated and asked him questions about his travels. I told him that have only been to Mexico as a child with mi familia, because we lived in Arizona for a few years, and that I have been to several states as an adult, but that I really want to travel more when I can. He told me how beautiful the world is and encouraged me to travel whenever possible. I told him that I am writing a travel book with some friends, and have taken thousands of pictures of the states I have been to. I told him about our road trip to New Mexico this past spring, and how much I loved Santa Fe and Albuquerque.

He thought it was so cool that we are writing a travel book. I thought it was so cool that he had traveled so much of the world. We were both grinning ear to ear as we exchanged stories.

When my laundry was done drying, we thanked each other for the good conversation, shook hands, and said Adios.

I drove back to Gene’s house feeling giddy with joy and excitement.

It doesn’t matter if you speak the same language as the other humans on this planet. If you really want to, you can befriend absolutely anyone. And why shouldn’t you? Life is too short to be afraid of people just because you don’t understand them. Anyone can be a friend, even if it’s only for half an hour.

I really hope they are there next time I go to the laundromat. I could probably handle the stairs soon, but I’d rather practicar mi espanol con mis nuevos amigos.

Don’t ever be afraid to say Hola to someone. Even if you can’t really speak Spanish. Just hearing someone being friendly and trying to speak their language made them all so happy. It made me happy too.

Immigrants are not our enemies. I’m glad they’re here.