WHILE IMMIGRANTS CONTINUE TO DO THE WORK OF THIS COUNTRY, SUPERMARKET CHAINS AND SMALLER STORES CARRY THE FOOD ITEMS THEY PREFER

 

Ana at the checkout counter of Asian store

Whatever your level of alarm on the need to "secure" our borders, visit any construction site in the United States and listen to Spanish as the language workers use to communicate.

Mexican Nationals, those who entered this country legally and illegally, are building the homes, offices, bridges, highways and skyscrapers of the United States and our country NEEDS every damn one of them.

Notice we haven't even mentioned our country's glaring need for agricultural workers.

Asians, as they have for a century or more, despite the recent surge in anti-Asian violence, have proven vital, necessary, indispensable to our country's workforce.

Spam, identical to the food rations American soldiers ate and shared with filipinos in WWII, is featured in every Asian store.  In the Philippines, there are 7 or 8 Spam flavors and a Spam display usually takes up half of a supermarket aisle

In every facility my wife Ana has worked in the last four years, she's been greeted by doctors and nurses from the Philippines, some who attended the same university in Cagayan de Oro.

Asians, like Mexicans, are very particular about their rice

Since all of these immigrants have to eat, the supermarkets of this country including that huge corporation from Arkansas, Walmart, have tried to outdo each other in carrying the food items needed by these immigrants.

Yesterday, shopping at the Walmart in Ottumwa, Iowa, I saw the largest section of Mexican cheeses I've ever seen in a supermarket, an entire wall, including the 32 oz bag of Chihuaha Quesadilla Cheese pictured above for $13.99 per bag.

In most towns of any size in the U.S. there is an "Asian Store," featuring food items from the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and, of course, China and Japan.

Every week or so, Ana visits one of these stores, pushing the little shopping cart from aisle to aisle to get items that remind her of her country of birth and help dissipate her temporary periods of homesickness.