Advanced Essay #3: You and Me

To the world, we are just Aliens with a serial number and a criminal record, but a Hushppi said: “We is who the earth is for.” Migration is not new to the world. It has been happening for a long time. Animals do it and we do it, the world is divided into seven continents. Seven continents with color, culture, and struggles. Struggles that affect more to some individuals than others. Imagine being at the top, just very close to making it to the other side, and looking down at the men looking at the intruder, the men looking at the criminal, the men looking at the alien, the men are looking at you and your difference. Indifferent because they do not like you, and you’ll be sent back, like a package all the way from across the world, that took over a month to get to you but it’s broken, you forget about it. Who owns the world? Why some have more than others?

I can’t help but laugh when people say “get in line.” Yeah, I take it personally, but the line was too long and my days were counted. The line that most people talk about is been long since the 1990s and it’s getting longer. Every day, immigrants migrate to visit, for work, for school. Every day, immigrants escape violence, looking for food and shelter, escape for medicine, we escape from our government too. It’s similar to love, we crave and need it because it’s part of being human, and when love is gone so does hope. In Enrique’s Journey, Rosa Amalia says “How can I be worth anything if my mom left me?” It’s about that feeling of losing what you loved most and having to grow without it. Some children make the trip and go look for their moms without knowing what is going to happen. Is it rape? Is it death? Will it be both? Am I next? Questions that will never be answered, until you tell the story. “How can I be worth anything if my mom left me?” When in third World countries, once there was a little girl like Hushpuppy that was recording her life for the scientists in the future. That little girl has dreams, she doesn’t know she’ll be in a boat for months and it’s not a deluxe cruise, she will not eat, she’ll be weak, and she might become a new number left out in the sea. The state officials failed their people, making many to leave and leaving others dead.

Not just American people, but people from higher developed countries, do not understand what it’s like to live in situations where if you are starving there is not a food bank available, where instead of getting real pills, you get flour pills. Sometimes we take for granted what is given to us, there is room for improvement, but no one’s human needs should be denied. In class, we watched a video of Refugees in Greece talking with tourists. A man mentioned how the trip wasn’t hard, he had escaped death three times already. This brings me back to conversations with my mom, both immigrants that live by “I’d rather die while trying, rather than dying with my arms crossed.”

“Illegal”… “speak American”… “Show me your papers”…… “I’ll call ICE… you’ll go back.” Those are a few of the many statements an immigrant gets called, well at least that’s what I’ve heard. The role that people play in the immigrant society affects the way immigrants socialize within the community. It is normal to live in fear for many immigrants, it affects us psychologically, many commit suicide. It’s like being rejected by someone, but you know you won’t and don’t want to harm them. Getting detained by the authorities at the Southern U.S. border is like actually being treated and believing you are a criminal. Seeking for asylum should not be a crime, never knew that wanting to be alive could be a crime. A very well punished one, separated from the families, seeing the sunlight once a week if you are lucky, period leaks all over your pants, and no shoelaces; these facilities can’t run on such suicide drama. Handcuffed, from ankles to wrists, being reminded that you are a criminal because you didn’t “want to get in line”, there wasn’t time.

Not everything is sad. Along the way, the worst and best of the world is seen. Lawyers, unions, and people have made our lives easier. Employers, willing to give us jobs knowing that they get in trouble with the law. Americans looking after the safety of our children, looking after me by voting and protesting for me and creating laws to keep me here. I’ve made it to 17 years of my life, that is six more then what was intended. I love Honduras, I like to dance to the rhythm of los tambores and eat my baleadas but if I had kept my arms crossed, this story would be unknown and there is so much more to tell, but I still stick my head out of the door and triple check. Throughout this journey, many things have happened and will happen. As I heal from the past, I learn how to cope with the present, and understand that tomorrow is different and anything could happen. Tomorrow could be the day I go to school, but it could also be the day I am separated from you and my dreams.

Sources:

Beasts of the Southern Wilds

Enrique’s Journey

https://gpinvestigations.pri.org/the-crossing-eb527318eb76