Word: abell
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Their father regards Nintendo as a symbol of the struggle that Hispanics have with the Anglo world. "I still believe we are Mexican-American people," Abel says. "When John David and Chris and some of the other kids play the Nintendo games, it is to be competitors with the Anglo people by having what they have...
When the elder Abel was growing up, he and his eight siblings picked cotton until the harvest ended each autumn. The elementary schools they went to were segregated. John David has always attended integrated schools and plays on integrated teams with blacks, Anglos and other Hispanics. "I have friends from different races -- blacks, whites, Mexicans," says John David...
...grandparents were poor and powerless, but they were rich in the hope that life in America would be better for their children. "My daddy believed in us helping in the cotton fields, but he didn't want us to be what he was," says the elder Abel. "He wanted something more for us." That wish came true. Abel and Mary Louise provide four sons with the comforts and opportunities of a middle-class upbringing. But they worry about the hurdles their third son must now clear, barriers that seem even higher than when Abel and Xavi were in school...
Commodes and cotton fields were powerful motivators. But there was more. When John David's parents were growing up, society passed along the message that there was reward for striving. And many people, like Abel and Mary Louise Gutierrez, did succeed. These days the message needed to motivate kids seems more confused and tougher to deliver...
Some economists believe most service companies, including fast-food chains and hotels, will be forced to raise wages over the next few years. Says Abel Feinstein, an economist at the Michigan Employment Security Commission: "There is no shortage of people to fill these service-sector jobs. If you increase wages and improve the working conditions, you won't have a shortage anymore...