About 15 years ago, my parents bought a plot of land way on the northwest part of Albuquerque. They were cheap plots & it was an undeveloped area. My dad has always believed in building wealth thru equity, so they invested in this plot.

Fast forward 8-10 years this area starts to get developed. It sits on a mesa, so it overlooks the valley in which ABQ sits, opposite of the Sandia Mts. The views are truly amazing. But in order to put in roads, sewers, utility services the city sent my parents a $20K bill.

They were able to pay it in payments & saved up enough to build a house. So this year they started construction. The home in the area are custom, large, & very nice. Certainly upper mid class. My dad, a contractor, knew how he wanted to customize the home he wanted to build.

My parents initially said they would build the home & live there. One day before the construction started, my mom went to the plot of land to pull weeds that were growing around the property. Immediately a neighbor came & asked who she was & what she was doing.

When construction started, as the general contractor & owner, my dad was there for the prep of the land, excavation for plumbing, foundation, etc. At times he would go alone to continue work with his company shirt (which clearly says the name of his construction company)

Frequently people, mostly white, would drive by, stop, & ask him questions: who was he, how long will the construction be, how big the house would be. He would say he was just another worker, he didn’t feel comfortable saying he was the owner.

One day I stopped by to being him water & he was alone. He kept looking around & told me that people keep coming by & asking questions. I must be clear that my dad is a brown man. But he always wears hia construction company shirt.

He told me the plumbers were on their way & was anxious for them to get there. “That way these people leave me alone. They don’t come by when there’s other workers here” he told me in Spanish.
By the time the foundation was laid, my parents said they didn’t want to live there.

They plan to finish the house & sell it, use the money to retire. They currently live in the South Valley, a area that is mostly Hispanic/Latino, farmland, & not desirable in terms of real estate. “We’re happy here, we live in peace here” they said.

So a house that they had excitedly drafted, had told the grandkids was going to have a swimming pool, is now a scratched plan, a way to gain some financial stability in their old age, but never a way for social mobility to live in a certain desirable suburb.

Then I think of the rhetoric of the right about “keeping the suburbs safe”- coded language for keeping people of color out, & my blood just boils. I’m sure my mom & dad haven’t told me all their experiences in that suburb, but for them to make the decision to sell tells me a lot.

& we feel it too in our suburb. My brown husband has continuously gotten looks when he goes out on a jog, cars slow down as they pass him by. Part of me kind wants to also retreat to the South Valley.

All this to say that efforts for racial segregation are alive and well. The current administration is not shy about their message to suburban women that they are protecting them from “invaders,” which is just a blatant dog whistle.

So people like my parents, who have invested nearly two decades to building their dream house, now see themselves deciding to turn away from that for the sake of safety & peace. The American dream is truly a sham.