Only In America: Son Of Undocumented Immigrant Brings Home The Gold
Only In America: Son Of Undocumented Immigrant Brings Home The Gold
Our guest blogger is Henry Fernandez, a Senior Fellow at the Center For American Progress Action Fund working on state and municipal issues.
Henry Cejudo’s uniquely American story started with a single mother who taught him what it meant to truly fight. His mother Nelly – an undocumented immigrant — moved him and his siblings several times chasing work and opportunity, scraping by, ensuring her kids got an education. And along the way, the family found a channel for both the tough resilience she modeled and the country they loved through the sport of freestyle wrestling.
With the brothers he shared a bed with growing up cheering from the stands (as well as his sister), Cejudo repeatedly got off the mat to come back and win in a tough match against Tomohiro Matsunaga of Japan. And now America has both an unexpected gold medal and a new hero.
Today in Beijing, our nation proudly called Cejudo one of our own:
“What Henry has accomplished is an American success story,” USOC spokesman Darryl Seibel said. “This is a story of perseverance and determination. We couldn’t be more proud of Henry, not only for what he has accomplished on the mat, but for how he has represented our country.”
It has become commonplace on the right to talk about how recent immigrants, and particularly undocumented immigrants and their children, do not want to assimilate, learn English or identify themselves as truly American.
Yet this family – all of them proud to be the cheering voice of the United States in a city on the other side of the planet – did our country proud:
They all wore or waved American flags, an entire family decked in the stars and stripes. A family that started with illegal immigrants and advanced to right here, this moment, their very own gold medalist resting in their lap.
“Only in America,” Cejudo said.
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I’m sure Michelle Malkin will do a whole column on “anchor babies” stealing gold medals from real Americans…
*eyeroll*
August 19th, 2008 at 4:54 pmGeez, Matt, be a little patient. They’re still attacking liberals for asking whether McSame cheated at Saddleback and palpitating over the prospect of a pro-life VP.
They’ve got a lot on their plates.
August 19th, 2008 at 4:56 pmThe right has always said “deport ‘em all” — that is, except those we need to be maids, nannies, gardeners, construction workers, gold medal winners, or soldiers in our military.
Olympic athletes aren’t the only ones getting medals. I wonder how many of our decorated troops come from an undocumented immigrant background?
August 19th, 2008 at 4:57 pmSorry to be a grinch, but “only in America” is the quintessential example of American exceptionalism that, blindly accepted, has led to so many stupid cruel and deadly actions by the US at home and abroad.
August 19th, 2008 at 5:02 pmYou can count of the ReichWinger Hate Radio to start calling for his “families” deportation anytime now.
August 19th, 2008 at 5:03 pmmisshusseinmolly Says:
Olympic athletes aren’t the only ones getting medals. I wonder how many of our decorated troops come from an undocumented immigrant background?
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When I was in Kuwait in 2000 (Operation Desert Spring) I had 8 guys in my squad – all from either Mexico or El Salvador. We had trouble with the paperwork on more than a couple of them. Many people join the military for this express purpose. In Iraq, we had an Iranian national on my squad. He had fled Iran at the age of 19 and been caught and imprisoned for a short time in Turkey. He wanted to move to Military Intelligence, but was waiting on citizenship problems and the problems with his security clearance – for being detained in Turkey. But he was one of the best American soldiers I’ve ever had the pleasure of serving with.
August 19th, 2008 at 5:04 pmLaura Ingraham tonight will call this an immigration sob story while sitting on her fat ass munching on Sara Lee.
August 19th, 2008 at 5:06 pmMcWars Says:
Laura Ingraham tonight will call this an immigration sob story while sitting on her fat ass munching on Sara Lee.
Or maybe she will be sitting on Sara Lee and munching her fat ass?
August 19th, 2008 at 5:08 pmIt’s the deadbeat keyboard commando chickenhawks that are a burden to this country and have forgot what America is SUPPOSED to mean. I believe we are better as a nation of immigrants than as a nation of spoiled brat who inherited their place from their parents and are now afraid that hard workers might get some of what they’ve gotten by being born into wealthy families. Those people, like John McCain and George Bush have risen to a level of gross incompetence because of the “affirmative action” afforded the well connected.
August 19th, 2008 at 5:10 pmMcWars Says:
“Laura Ingraham tonight will call this an immigration sob story while sitting on her fat ass munching on Sara Lee.”
pssstttt, sorry to break it to you but, sara lee’s publicity agent called and told me the whole sarah lee/laura ingraham thing is off…no more eating. apparently laura is as bad at sex as most republican men.
August 19th, 2008 at 5:10 pmWill the prez call him?
August 19th, 2008 at 5:13 pmAnchor baby makes good – who will run that headline?
The young man was tearfully grateful and proud – it may be worth watching Lou Dobbs for just today.
Very interesting. This is certainly a slap in the face for the Tancredo talking heads in this country and the GOP that put immigration and undocumented worker issues in the forefront of this campaign race. A son of an undocumented immigrant wins the gold. And perfect timing. Wonder how Fox Clown Network will take this.
August 19th, 2008 at 5:15 pmI stopped watching the Olympics long ago. If and when they become a way of celebrating the top athletes in the world rather than celebrating the countries they come from, I’ll start watching again.
http://progressiveworldreview.com
August 19th, 2008 at 5:15 pmwatch: they deny him a return to the US on the flight home… after they send The Gestapo (ahem, Homeland Security) to round-up his parents…
August 19th, 2008 at 5:15 pmObviously Henry’s mom will be quickly placed on the no fly list and rendered asap.
Buttons for sale at GOP convention “Immigrants, don’t want to live near’em, can’t live without’em.”
August 19th, 2008 at 5:15 pmThe fact is that a path to citizenship for most undocumented immigrants will be required – no way of getting around it.
Some don’t intend to stay, other than to earn money to take home and start businesses – that’s fine. Some will have 3 felonies/1 misd. and can’t become a citizen (proposed under the other two failed overhaul attempts). I would make a specific list of offenses, but that’s fine, too.
Some will have simply went home because of the sour economy and misc. reasons. But the truth is that millions will stick around, and we will need to do more to make them feel welcome because it’s not good for our current and future and political institutions to have this issue hanging. Do we need in the future kids growing up with anger and running for congress based on revenge for ICE beating up and deporting their parents? Of course not — every kid deserves to grow up with a clear and stable mind.
I tend to be on the fence when it comes to immigration, but now is the time to relieve some pain within the immigrant community. And no fences either, because those infringe on property rights and serve no other purpose than to give the base a false sense of security.
August 19th, 2008 at 5:17 pmYou can count of the ReichWinger Hate Radio to start calling for his “families” deportation anytime now.
Spot on! Tomorrow, I wouldn’t be surprised to hear Limpballs call him a “fake Olympian” . . . not unlike his branding servicemen who oppose the Iraq war as “fake soldiers”.
August 19th, 2008 at 5:29 pmAnd his mom in deported in 3, 2, 1….
August 19th, 2008 at 5:29 pmSon Of Undocumented Immigrant Brings Home The Gold
– - Yeah, but in his case it’s only made of pyrite.
August 19th, 2008 at 5:30 pmWhen I was in Kuwait in 2000 (Operation Desert Spring) I had 8 guys in my squad – all from either Mexico or El Salvador.
I had the same experience in basic training in the 1960s. Several of my squad members were undocumented and many of them had lied about their age in order to sign up. And, without exception, they had all been “promised” special MOS and training. Of course, at the end of basic, they all shipped off the hill with an 11B MOS — grunt ground-pounders.
Some things never change. Cannon fodder then; cannon fodder now.
August 19th, 2008 at 5:34 pm….and Lou Dobb’s head explodes.
August 19th, 2008 at 5:36 pmDaryll Says:
..true American citizen.
August 19th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
That immediately disqualifies you.
August 19th, 2008 at 5:47 pmDaryll Says:
Take away to chance to win a gold from a true American citizen. This is completely wrong.
If the American citizen deserved the gold more than this guy, he would have beaten him in the Olympic trials.
Daryll, God must have wanted him to win, right? How else could he have won? Why are you defying the Word of God?
August 19th, 2008 at 5:51 pmTrollette’s Syndrome outbreak!
Clean-up on aisle 23.
Say, daryll, I never did see your answer to my question about plucking the bass, screwing the pooch and gutting the trout. Throw me a bone here, cupcake.
While you’re at it, is daryll really short for diarrheal? You do seem to be running off at the mouth and draining from the ears.
Oops — another clean-up on aisle 23! Be careful there, sweetpea. You’re making a big mess.
August 19th, 2008 at 5:51 pmDaryll Says
August 19th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
Take away to chance to win a gold from a true American citizen. This is completely wrong.
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Um…I believe that if Cejudo had not won the gold for the US, the gold would have gone to Japan — the country of the guy Cejudo defeated.
Either that, or Cejudo could have used his parents’ nationality to compete for Mexico, and Mexico would have gotten the medal.
“True” American citizens (whatever that means) still have the right to compete. And they still win when they are the best. Regardless of where they came from.
August 19th, 2008 at 6:05 pmIs there some organized athlectic event going on right now?
August 19th, 2008 at 6:50 pmWow. I didn’t realize Cejudo got his spot on the Olympic team due to affirmative action. Daryll doesn’t have a real firm grasp of the concept of “competition”, does he? Odd for a guy who bases so much of his worldview on the concept.
Jeez, Daryll, if you’re so wrong about this, and about “President-elect Huckabee”, what else can you be wrong about?
August 19th, 2008 at 7:25 pmI would like to see the right plug this into their argument that actions by individual undocumented immigrants are the result of illegal immigration. For instance, Bill O’Reilly likes to point out crimes committed by undocumented immigrants and then follows with the non sequitur that the crime was a direct result of illegal immigration in general and not the acts of the individual. Therefore, they should also come to the conclusion that gold medals are the result of illegal immigration if this logic holds…which, of course, it doesn’t.
August 19th, 2008 at 8:26 pm“Only in America,” Cejudo said.
Only in America would we claim the gold medal as one of ours while intensifying the anti-immigration folk.
August 19th, 2008 at 8:47 pmVery moving story.
Thank you, Mr Fernandez.
August 19th, 2008 at 9:02 pmI just checked Malignency Malkin’s site. Not a mention of what this kid did.
August 19th, 2008 at 9:20 pmI did catch highlites of Cejudo’s match. As a former HS wrestler i can tell you, what he did was great! It was a tight contest and he pulled it out with a couple of great moves.
I hope you guys know hes an American born citizen..
August 19th, 2008 at 10:58 pmI too saw the wrestling match…awesome stuff!
Once he returns to the US, they’ll take his medal and deport both him and his mother…
August 19th, 2008 at 11:37 pmOnly in America, or perhaps Canada or France or Britain or Australia…
Sometimes it’s frightening how much Americans believe their own bullshit.
August 20th, 2008 at 12:18 amAnd the Norway delegation during the opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympics was led not by a Scandanavian blonde but by an immigrant from Rwanda.
pastormaker Says:
Only in America, or perhaps Canada or France or Britain or Australia…
Sometimes it’s frightening how much Americans believe their own bullshit.
August 20th, 2008 at 1:02 amLoraS,
What’s your point? Do you really think there aren’t immigrants in other Olympic teams?
August 20th, 2008 at 2:04 amIt makes me a little uncomfortable to see “illegal” replaced with the euphemism “undocumented.” Let’s not forget that a crime is still a crime, folks?
If I steal car to drive orphans to Disneyland, have I executed an “undocumented transfer of ownership?”
If I rob a bank to feed the poor, am I taking out an “undocumented loan?”
I can’t stand that sort of slippery language used to obfuscate the fact that no matter how nice the person, no matter the result of their crime, they are committing one.
August 20th, 2008 at 7:02 ampastormaker,
You really missed my point. By noting that the Norwegian delegation was led by a Rwandan ex-refugee during the opening ceremony, I was pointing out that not only in the US, Canada, Australia, etc. can an immigrant become a member of the Olympic team. I thought my point was pretty clear but obviously not to you.
pastormaker Says about my comment “And the Norway delegation during the opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympics was led not by a Scandanavian blonde but by an immigrant from Rwanda.”
August 20th, 2008 at 9:46 amLoraS,
What’s your point? Do you really think there aren’t immigrants in other Olympic teams?
good_golly4 Says:
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Henry Cejudo was born in the United States and is a United States Citizen.
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August 20th, 2008 at 11:05 amAh but was he an undifferentiated cellular mass in the US?