SOUTH BRONX, NEW YORK — When the owners of La Morada, an Oaxacan restaurant in the Bronx, heard that Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) was planning a visit to their neighborhood, they were ready with a strong message for him.
Natalia Mendez and Antonio Saavedra Torisa, the married couple who owns La Morada, took the opportunity to drape a large “Not One More Deportation” banner over their restaurant awning. They weren’t sure whether Cruz would actually see their sign — but they wanted to let other members of their community know that his anti-immigrant policy platform would tear families like theirs apart.
On the campaign trail, Cruz has called for the permanent mass deportation of the country’s undocumented population and stated that he would send federal agents to look for undocumented immigrants in their homes. His rival Donald Trump — who built his campaign platform by name-calling Mexican immigrants as rapists, drug dealers, and criminals — takes similar positions.
“We are not just talking about Mexicans who have the problem of being undocumented. We are talking about all countries and as a human being, it hurts,” Antonio told ThinkProgress through a Spanish-language interpreter. He and his wife said they won’t let xenophobic policy plans keep them from fighting for their family’s honor and dignity.
Natalia and Antonio have a good reason to be so passionate about immigration policy. Though they’ve lived and paid taxes in the United States for decades, neither of them have papers. Both came to this country after leaving behind desperate poverty in Mexico in search of a way to feed their families. It was painful to leave their loved ones, but they focused their attention on making money to send back to them. Twenty-five years later, they have a thriving business in the Bronx.
Aside from proudly displaying their new banner, their fight for immigrant rights is also evident to their restaurant in other ways. For instance, La Morada’s website proudly proclaims the family-owned restaurant is “comprised of undocumented workers.” Adding that line was an intentional decision by Natalia and Antonio’s son, who’s a passionate advocate for immigration reform.
And inside, the wall decor speaks volumes. The restaurant, which had a lending library near the restrooms in the back, has been adorned with photos of immigrant activists holding signs reading “undocumented and unafraid” and “no more deportations.” One photo shows the couple’s activist son with several other people smiling into the camera while holding onto brown, steel bars vertically laid out like 20-feet tall railroad tracks. Clear skies and a desert landscape peek through each slot — an unmistakable sign that the photo was taken at the U.S.- Mexico border wall.
Natalia and Antonia are hardly alone. The restaurant industry has deep ties to the immigrant community. A 2008 Pew Hispanic Center report found that about 20 percent of the United States’ nearly 2.6 million chefs, head cooks, and cooks are undocumented. The same report found that an even higher portion of the country’s estimated 360,000 dishwashers — 28 percent — don’t have papers. And those figures may actually be underestimations.
Understandably, Republican presidential candidates’ calls to deport the country’s 11.3 million undocumented population hasn’t gone over too well with the major players in this industry.
After Trump called Mexican immigrants “rapists” last year, restaurateur and newly naturalized U.S. citizen Jose Andrés pulled out of a deal to open a restaurant in Trump’s new hotel in Washington, D.C., citing the disparaging remarks as the reason his participation had become “impossible.” Celebrity chef Geoffrey Zakarian also pulled out of opening a restaurant at the Trump International Hotel in July, stating at the time that Trump’s statements “do not in any way align with my personal core values.” Another celebrity chef, Anthony Bourdain, warned that “every restaurant in America would shut down” without the undocumented immigrant population.
In fact, undocumented labor helps prop up some of Trump’s own ventures — like his posh SoHo restaurant in New York City and his hotel construction site in Washington, D.C.
Natalia and Antonio, like the vast majority of undocumented immigrants living in the United States, say they just want to contribute more to the U.S. economy now that they’re here.
“People talk about us being a burden as though the state is taking care of us,” Antonio said. “We’re not a burden. We come here to work.”
And the hard work of the pair and their family staff members shone on this particular midafternoon. Business picked up over the course of two hours with a steady turnover of hungry patrons in the nine-table restaurant.
Meat sizzled on the grill. Smells of traditional Oaxacan moles from the open kitchen made customers salivate with anticipation. Antonio alternated between chopping vegetables and flipping a quesadilla on the griddle. Another worker used a pestle to grind up avocado inside a granite mortar. Natalia ran between front-of-the-house duties, like answering the phone, and stirring the various moles she was preparing. And yet another young worker sifted through the various pitchers in the refrigerator to find the horchata, a sweetened rice drink.
I feel more than a citizen of this nation and the world because the earth belongs to the one who works it.
Between customers, Natalia explained that she was upset GOP politicians want to kick out hardworking people like her family. She wanted to know whether Cruz would still deport people like her knowing that “I have worked with the sweat of my brow, arduously, 25 years in this nation.”
“I want to say to the politicians that if you get rid of the immigrants, it’s like getting rid of yourselves, getting rid of the country,” Natalia said. “We all want dignity, we all want honor. Being so unsure about the way you’re living, is not the way I want to live.”Spanish-language translation provided by Alexis Vigo and Rafael Medina.