The United States of America has always welcomed immigrants. From the very beginning of its history in the Seventeenth Century, they have been pouring in. It started with those from Western Europe and then many were forcibly added as slaves from West Africa. Eventually, immigrants came from southern and eastern Europe.

My own grandparents left the Russian Empire for the American streets paved in gold near the beginning of the Twentieth Century. Since then, immigration has broadened to include the rest of the world: Asians, free Africans, and Latin Americans.

Immigration has been a continuous stream, more or less, because there has always been room to accommodate so many. However, there were tough times for some as racism kept some "undesirables" outside.

Like in the film Gangs of New York, the grandchildren of immigrants sometimes want to stop the floodgates to prevent new generations of foreigners from entering the Promised Land.

Today, there is a political issue in the United States related to illegal immigration. Since 9/11, many Americans are concerned about Muslim extremists entering the country to do their heinous deeds.

However, there is also concern in some quarters over poor Latinos sneaking across our borders, not to commit acts of terrorism, but to steal jobs from native-born Americans.

Believing that the Federal government is inept in enforcing the immigration laws, vigilante groups have appeared on the borders with Canada and Mexico to stop the illegals before they melt into the general population and disappear.

The current prime-time (9 PM) telenovela being broadcast on TV Globo, the largest television network in Brazil, is called America. Its major theme is of a young Brazilian woman, Sol, who is an illegal alien working in Miami.

Brazilian telenovelas are produced and shown in many countries around the world, but not in the United States, at least not in English. They are not the equivalent of American soap operas, either the daytime or prime-time versions.

In Brazil, a telenovela is shown for approximately one hour, six days a week, from Monday through Saturday. It has a continuous story with many interwoven themes and a multitude of characters, which lasts for many months, almost a year, until they arrive at a conclusion and are replaced by another telenovela.

Daytime soaps in the States go on forever with new story lines and characters that come and go. My favorite prime time equivalent was Dallas. It was on television for several years, for one hour, once a week, with the same cast and theme, but produced more in the form of an episode, than a continuing story.

Sol grew up lower middle-class in Rio de Janeiro and was obsessed by a souvenir that a friend brought from America, one of those with images enclosed in a container, which when you tip them over, snow falls.

The images of the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building led to Sol's obsession to enter the US. However, because of her young age and educational level, she was denied a visa. She then risked her life to illegally enter across the Rio Grande from Mexico.

She was caught, deported and continued to try again. Finally, she succeeded and found joy working three jobs: a waitress in a fast-food restaurant, a maid in a hotel, and a dancer in a bar at night. She even rejected her lover's pleas to return with him to Brazil.

Since Sol is presented as a beautiful, young woman, hard working and kind (she sent money to her family to pay for her step-father's surgery), struggling to make a life in the country of her dreams, she presents a positive image to the face of the illegal. Whenever I hear those Americans who complain about illegal aliens, I think of Sol and hope that she'll be okay.

Blair A. Lasky was born in Syracuse, New York and educated at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a retired accountant who has been living in São Paulo since September, 2003, giving English classes and writing novels. You can contact Blair at blairlasky@hotmail.com.

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