By Lee Grumman,

Councilmember, City of Carnation

Last Tuesday we had a packed house at the Carnation City Council meeting. The Welcoming City initiative was on our agenda. Cities across the country have been putting policies in place to support immigrant populations in their jurisdictions.

I had planned to vote against the resolution. I am 60 and have been in and out of activist politics since the late 70’s.

I am now far more concerned about the divide between us, between Democrats and Republicans. It seems the development of policy is now a competition with all the animosity this kind of competition generates. It is a very unfortunate quirk of human congregation to polarize whether by religion, ideology, ethnicity or politics. It’s part of the reason I had planned to vote against the initiative.

I want to figure out how to jackhammer ourselves out of the hard-cured philosophies that sum up and demonize the people to the left or right of us. I was worried that a Welcoming City policy would likely be fuel on the fire. I still think that’s probable, but…

Last Tuesday night, those in favor of the Welcoming City resolution began to speak. I listened. I was surprised at the depth of values and personal passion they expressed. There were well-prepared comments, personal stories in support of their conclusions. Then, Daniel Enciso spoke. He is the best-known, very friendly Mexican-American in Carnation and has an accent I struggle to understand. He painted my house and the big windows fronting Miller’s.

I have always been a bit in awe of Daniel, of his courage to be so singular in the society of so many white, native English-speaking Americans. I have had the experience of being part of a very small minority in a huge homogeneous culture, China. It was exhausting, speaking another language, not eating the food you grew up with, the customs, holidays, songs, always working to bridge the gap by honoring what they value and careful not to overstep with your own beliefs. I wasn’t slandered or dismissed. In fact, they treated me as they do each other, like family. But the chasm was there and I wished I could take them all to the United States so they might understand a bit more about me.

Daniel is the only Mexican-American I have seen “go public.” In fact, he’s the only person easily identified as Mexican, Asian or African that has stepped out right into the middle of our community. He attends community meetings and events. I see him at Tolt-MacDonald park with his kids. He cooked steaks at the Senior Center for their monthly steak dinners; he performed and sang Mexican songs with Latino rhythms on his guitar at Sliders. He was uncertain that people would want to hear his music, songs in a language we didn’t speak. It wasn’t a part of our cultural foundation, not Willie Nelson nor the Beatles. In the end he played. I heard his guitar and his voice, I heard Mexico.

So often cultural differences are closeted by the minority. They keep to themselves making it possible for us to live in our communities without the hardship of bridging those differences, the language, food, and holidays. Maybe it needs to be that way. For me, I would rather see a fully confident presentation of one’s culture with the knowledge that as we watch we are not looking through a window that will close up quickly after the July 4 parade.

Daniel came to the podium at our council meeting this week and spoke of the things we don’t see, the things that put his relationship with us in jeopardy, the silent immigrants, legal and illegal.

After listening to Daniel, I decided to vote in favor of a welcoming city resolution.

Lee Grumman is a Carnation City Councilwoman and the owner of Miller’s on Tolt Avenue.