Carlos Cabrera This is Me

Education

 Web References

1. 1. The Steamboat Pilot: Thin line

   www.steamboatpilot.com/section - [Cached]

   Published on: 1/25/2004   Last Visited: 1/25/2004

   When Craig resident Carlos Cabrera first read Bush's proposed "guest worker" policy, he was furious.
   
   If anyone has been able to achieve the American Dream, it is Cabrera. Under Bush's proposal, life as he now knows it never would have been possible.
   
   Cabrera works for Yampa Valley Psychotherapists as a counselor for Latinos arrested on domestic violence charges or for driving under the influence. He teaches anger management and alcohol treatment classes in Steamboat Springs and Craig.
   
   He wears a tie to work, owns a home in Craig and is sending three of his four children to college. His oldest daughter is getting her master's degree in counseling and his son, Brian, is studying to be a social worker -- both following in their father's footsteps.
   
   But it wasn't always like this for Cabrera.
   
   In 1976, he was working as the circulation director at a newspaper in Guatemala City when an earthquake shook the country.
   
   "There were no jobs then. So I came to America," he said.
   
   Cabrera was smuggled into America by a "coyote," a person paid to sneak immigrants across the border. He was hidden in the back of a van in a custom-made compartment designed to hold four or five people. On the other side of the border, his cousin was waiting.
   
   Cabrera was 25 years old and didn't speak a word of English.
   
   He took a job in the oil fields outside Riverton, Wyo., and worked the occasional restaurant job. He listened to English-language cassette tapes for four to five hours a day. In two years, he was speaking English.
   
   "I tried so hard because of my desire to communicate with the American people. I wanted to express my feelings and my opinions," he said.
   
   In 1988, he became a U.S. citizen.
   
   Cabrera met and married an American woman and worked another three years in Wyoming's uranium mines. When the uranium market went down and Cabrera lost his job, he was recruited by Empire Energy to work in the coalmines outside Craig.
   
   Then, a knee injury made him reconsider the path of his life.
   
   "The doctor told me that I had two choices. I could go back to the mines and destroy my knee or I could go back to college," Cabrera said.
   
   Cabrera sat down with Gary Gurney, director of Yampa Valley Psychotherapists, for advice.
   ...
   Cabrera enrolled in Colorado Northwestern Community College for his associate's degree, all the while volunteering at Yampa Valley Psychotherapists. After graduation, he transferred to Regis University in Denver. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in 2000 and began the certification process to become a counselor.
   
   Cabrera doubts he would have gotten this far under Bush's guest worker program.
   
   Instead of allowing someone like Cabrera to work his way up over time, the proposal creates a revolving, legal underclass of residents who can never work their way toward the "American Dream," Cabrera said.
   
   The proposal also undercuts those workers' long-term ability to support families in their home countries. A recent study of five Latin American countries indicated workers from those countries living in the United States and other countries send $5.4 billion home annually.
   
   "This policy may be good for employers, but it is not good for the Latino people," Cabrera said.
   ...
   For Cabrera, the motivation is obvious.
   
   "Bush needs to win California. He needs the Hispanic vote," Cabrera said.