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adjective: 1 having an ample distance from side to side; wide | 2 covering a large number and wide scope of subjects or areas: a broad range of experience | 3 having or incorporating a wide range of meanings | 4 including or coming from many people of many kinds | 5 general without detail | 6 (of a regional accent) very noticeable and strong | 7 full, complete, clear, bright; she was attacked in broad daylight noun: (informal) woman. slang: a promiscuous woman phrases: broad in the beam: with wide hips or large buttocks | in broad daylight: during the day, when it is light, and surprising for this reason | have broad shoulders: ability to cope with unpleasant responsibilities or to accept criticism | City of broad shoulders: Chicago synonyms: see: wide, extensive, ample, vast, liberal, open, all-embracing antonyms: see: narrow, constricted, limited, subtle, slight, closed see also: broadside (n.) historical: a common form of printed material, especially for poetry
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“O the places you’ll go” quotes:
“Though we tremble before uncertain futures may we meet illness, death and adversity with strength may we dance in the face of our fears.”
~Gloria E. Anzaldúa
“America has a rap sheet. You can’t police the world and tell the world how to act when you’re just as bad yourself.” ~Paul Mooney
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a Levigne
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(im)migration:
MISSION:
Mario Mason
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WSGS:
Welcome to the first ever BROAD issue on (im)migration. What took us so long? Ethnocentrism? Xenophobia? The slew of related yet other social injustices in which BROAD folks feel overwhelmed? How often folks in education are not worred about citizenship and nationality? Nonetheless, we hope you find home and power in these pages. Broad’s mission is to connect the WSGS program with communities of students, faculty, and staff at Loyola and beyond, continuing and extending the program’s mission. We provide space and support for a variety of voices while bridging communities of scholars, artists, and activists. Our editorial mission is to provoke thought and debate in an open forum characterized by respect and civility. Founded in 1979, Loyola’s Women’s Studies Program is the first women’s studies program at a Jesuit institution and has served as a model for women’s studies programs at other Jesuit and Catholic universities. Our mission is to introduce students to feminist scholarship across the disciplines and the professional schools; to provide innovative, challenging, and thoughtful approaches to learning; and to promote social justice.
Gaby Ortiz Flores Consulting Editor
Maggie Sullivan Publicity & Social Media Coordinator
Elishah Virani
Diversity & Assessment Editor
media/art bookmark here
we’ve got mail
Underground America
Issue 79: Body Talk
words are useless
search this
Culture of Hospitality
Boundaires, a photo essay
Inside
(im)migration
Padraic Stanley & Brandon Mooney Jeaneane Quinn
Spirit of Mercy
Deborah McCollough
TravelsDaniela Montecinos No Where 2
Daniela Montecinos
PatrieDaniela Montecinos Historias Minimas Daniela Montecinos Le DepartDaniela Montecinos Sleepwalker
Daniela Montecinos
broadside For Each Maria GuerreroGarret Gunlach Free Trade, Free Hands
Garret Gunlach
Operation StreamlineGarret Gundlach The Desert NorthGarret Gunlach Migration from Chiapas, Mexico
Dawn Sherwood
UntitledCory Grapenthien We Are HumanAnahi Tapia The Motherland Elishah Virani
message me First Thought: Immigration Stereotyed with Race
quote corner Jorge Ramos Jose Antonio Vargas
(not) buying it Migration Cartoons Immigration Political Ads
tell-a-vision Las Patronas Undocumented & Awkward African Immigrant Poem
screen/play The DREAM is Now
(In Labor) Issue Ad BROAD 2015-16 Team App Annual Theme Schedule Theme, Mission, & Team Letter from BROAD: Gaby Navigating BROAD’s Design Visiting Editor: Padraic Stanley Visiting Editor: Hector Garcia Contributor Guidelines
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Open Your Bo
artic Dear Laura Laura Maria Bohorquez Garcia In the Blur Jacob Batycki Anxieties of Citizenship: Homonationalism and Undocuqueer Activists Edward Chong How a father explains Our Lady of Guadalupe to his daughter Ray Salazar
CONTENTS The Pink Paperbacks Traveling Through Porous Borders in Literature Ellie Diaz
Angry Atheist
R Out?
orders
America: A Home to Immigrants Mario Mason
J. Curtis Main
World of Women
One Word, A Million Stories
cles Big Blue Barrels Umu Hawa Kamara We All Live in the Border: A White Woman Negotiates Cultural Identity Bethany Collins
Elishah Virani
&
On Our Lady of Guadalupe and manhood for my 9-year-old son Ray Salazar
microaggresSHUNS citizenship status
Liberation Leaders Julio Salgado
Letter from BROAD State of the Magazine, May 2015 Gaby Ortiz, Consulting Editor
O the Places You’ll Go My parents are two of the bravest people I know. I was almost three years old when I was brought to this country by my mother. My parents had been in the U.S. for about year. They left me behind thinking that they would be gone only for a little while. They left Mexico believing that they would return after they had made enough money to start their own pharmacy business. They never planned to stay. They had the misconception that so many folks abroad have--that the U.S. is the land of dreams and that everyone around here is rich. The American dream is sold worldwide through American films and other media and while you can argue that Americans are wealthier in comparison to other folks from other nations, no one ever mentions that the cost of living here is also pretty high both monetarily and culturally. I can’t speak for all immigrants in the U.S.--there are too many of us and we each have a very unique story but many of us come here with dreams and with a simultaneous longing for our home countries that we cannot return to for a multitude of reasons. When my parents got here, they quickly realized that making money would not be as easy as they thought. They worked in factories despite their college education. My mother worked as a maid at a hotel and then at a factory building Ataris. My dad worked for a food company. They went to school to learn English so that they could hopefully get better jobs. They lived very meagerly and saved what little money they had. They had no immediate family here only distant rel-
atives that were not too keen on helping them. They were alone and though they had each other, they had left behind their parents, brothers, sisters, cousins, nephews, nieces, and me. Here they were in a foreign land with no social support system, struggling to form words in a language they did not know, facing prejudices either because of the color of their skin or because of their accents, and with very little money. At one point they wanted to give up. They were beginning to lose hope and to believe that their efforts had been in vain. They had not made enough money to start a pharmacy. They were barely surviving and they missed their loved ones and their non-American unprocessed food, and their home. Then miracles started happening slowly. Miracles hidden in challenges. They found people who helped them find safe housing because they had been living in unsafe conditions. Seeing that their dream was taking longer, my mother returned to Mexico to retrieve me. The presence of their child motivated them to work harder, to learn English faster, to try and be better. They had supervisors or acquaintances open opportunities for them. Then miracle of all miracles, Reagan passed an amnesty bill and my parents’ new social network, helped them work through the various hoops and red tape until they received residency status and then later citizenship. My parents did not walk across a desert or journey here on a boat. They came here on a bus with two suitcases and less than fifty dollars in their wallets. They were lucky in many respects including that their
I cannot speak for all immigrants but something in me says that we are brave. hard work and luck paid off with two daughters who are college-educated and independent. These “successes”, however, are not without a downside. My parents have had their intelligence questioned because of how they speak. There are people who have tried (and sometimes succeeded) in taking advantage of them because they are immigrants. They have missed nearly every major moment in the lives of our family members back in Mexico. I have been witness to the heartaches and helplessness that my parents feel whenever they call home and their loved ones are hurting or struggling or have passed away. There is often a cultural gap between them and their daughters that at times has caused them to break down in tears. Even now my parents do not consider themselves Americans. They have passed all the tests that indicate that they are “model immigrants” but despite being American citizens and living in this country for more than half their lives, they still do not feel welcomed. Still they dream and hope and keep moving forward taking on whatever life throws at them.
My parents are two of the bravest and most resilient people I know. It takes immense courage to leave behind all that you know. You don’t know what the dangers will be ahead. You don’t know if others will be kind or if they will be hurtful. You do not know if you will ever see your loved ones or if you will be too late to say goodbye. Though it’s true that one’s trajectory in life in general is uncertain, it takes courage to purposefully move towards the unknown. I cannot speak for all immigrants but something in me says that we are brave. In this issue you will find stories of brave people, of dreamers, of immigrants. There are similar struggles, to be sure, but we are all different. You will not find illegals here. You will not find anyone in need of your pity. You will not find people who are successes or failures. You will find people who are facing challenges. You will find people who are working and fighting and thriving and living in a country that is not their original place of birth but which they now may call home. You will also discover people who want to go home. You will find stories of how the system has failed the people. You will see cruelty and compassion. You will find stories of people who stand in solidarity with immigrants and support and fight alongside us. Here you will find a range of voices that are all different and all brave.
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Visiting Editor Join BROAD’s team for Your Issue Padraic Stanley
Padraic Stanley is a current Master of Social Work student at Loyola University Chicago, preparing to graduate in May 2015. Before beginning his graduate degree at Loyola, Padriac was a community organizer with undocumented youth through DreamActivist Ohio, as well as a field organizer for numerous political campaigns through Equality Ohio, The Ohio Democratic Party, and Mainers United for Marriage. Since starting at Loyola, Padraic has completed two internships with immigrant populations-working with unaccompanied immigrant minors through the Heartland Alliance, as well as working to build the organizational capacity of ethnic community-based organizations through the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR). Padraic also facilitates the Share the DREAM trainings through the LUC Office of Student Diversity and Multicultural Affairs (SDMA), training students, faculty, and staff how to be better, more informed, and more active safe spaces for undocumented students. Padraic also is a current
Schweitzer Public Health Fellow, providing counseling services and psychoeducational workshops with the Latino Organization of the Southwest (LOS) and the Illinois Latino Family Commission. Padraic has participated in two excursions to Mexico through the School of Social Work to volunteer with organizations that serve migrants such as Jesuit Migrant Services and the Kino Border Initiative. Padraic also frequently presents at summits and conferences about immigration, economic justice, social work practice, and queer activism. Padraic identifies as a gay, white, cisgender man. Padraic grew up in Bucyrus, Ohio, where his family spent the majority of his formative years significantly below the federal poverty line. Padraic is half Romanichal Gypsy. While he believes that Gypsies have historically been subjected to oppression, prejudice, and violence, his ability to maneuver U.S. society without discrimination, combined with the experience of growing up poor and queer, enhances his inner drive to stand in solidarity with other oppressed populations such as immigrants, women, and people of color. In his free time, Padraic enjoys reading, spending time with friends, drinking coffee, dancing bachata, listening to music, traveling, learning new things, and occasionally taking naps.
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Visiting Editor Join BROAD’s team for Your Issue Hector Garcia
Dr. Héctor García Ch. is a Senior Lecturer and a Loyola Sujack Master Teacher. He is also Director of the Undergraduate Spanish Program at Loyola University Chicago where he teaches courses on Peninsular-Latin American literatures, film, and cultural studies. He is an Associate Faculty Member of Loyola’s Interdisciplinary Honours Program and Women’s Studies/Gender Studies Program where he explores the intersectionality of Latin@-American Studies, Gender Studies, and Queer Theory. Before teaching at LUC he taught at The University of Chicago where he obtained both his M.A. and Ph.D. His present research interests focus on Queer and Masculinity studies in Mexican Literature + Film while incorporating the larger XX/ XXI Latin@ - Latin American Landscapes, besides exploring Mexican/Latin@ - U.S. Borderland Studies. His most recent talks have been on Mexican Transnationalism and Queer studies at ACLA [American Comparative Literature Association], MLA [Modern Language Association], and LASA [Latin American Studies Association]. His publications include articles on Alejo Carpentier’s novel Concierto barroco in México and Cuba’s Casa de las Américas, aside from articles on Ilan Stavans’ work on Bilingualism and Bicultural Identity. Locally he has published in Chicago newspaper articles and given radio interviews on Mexican literature and culture. He has invited highly celebrated Mexican writers Jorge Volpi, Margo Glantz, Ignacio Solares, Eloy Urroz, and Georgina García Gutiérrez
(among others) to Loyola in collaboration with the Chicago Mexican Consulate and the UNAM-Chicago Campus where he is a Visiting Scholar. He is currently preparing a book manuscript tentatively titled Roberto Bolaño, Enrique Serna, and Juan Villoro: Parody, Dark Humor, and Literary Wit in Contemporary Mexican Masculinities with a US publisher. In November 2014, he was the Invited Director of LUC major national conference sponsored by The Joan and Bill Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage titled Chicago Catholic Immigrants Conference: The Mexicans. The national conference highlighted the numerous waves of Mexican Catholic immigrants who have settled throughout Chicagoland during the last century. During these past one hundred years of Mexican and Mexican-American presence many institutions of the Catholic Church have helped this diverse transnational ethnic community assimilate and intermix into the larger multicultural Chicago urban landscape. This conference was the second of a series of national conferences on Catholic ethnics in Chicago. UNAM-Chicago and The Mexican Consulate in Chicago collaborated in this event. Invited speakers included: NPR’s María Hinojosa; Pulitzer Prize Finalist, Luis Alberto Urrea; and leading scholar, Anne M. Martínez. BROAD Info + Editors
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words are useless sometimes words aren’t enough Deborah McCullough
Spirit of Mercy The Spirit of Mercy wears a waistband and crown made from tuna cans left by travelers in the desert. Her shawl is a map of the Southern Arizona border where over 185 remains were recovered between October 2012 and September 2013; her skirt carries the name of each of those people. Many sources report that the number of deaths is likely 5-10 times higher than the number of bodies found.
O the Places You’ll Go BROAD Voice, BROAD Communities Laura Maria Bohorquez Garcia
Dear Laura Being in high school is tough, I know you have many questions about how and what you’re going to do after high school given your multiple marginalized yet resilient and beautiful identities. I know it is scary to leave your home, the comfort of your family, the homemade tamales and the relationships you have built and although I want to say don’t worry it will be fine, I can’t. I have to be real with you. As you prepare to graduate you will encounter barriers, one of those will be navigating college as a student that is undocumented, another will be being able to afford it because you aren’t eligible for federal financial aid and the hardest one will be inviting people into your life journey over and over again. Sharing your status will take courage; some people will shun you and dehumanize you, and others will learn and be empathetic. In those moments keep in mind that it will have to be done and you will have to embrace, sometimes you will have to teach, and others just let go because the battles aren’t worth it. Just watch out, don’t let yourself or your community get tokenized. You will graduate with enough money to afford the first two years of college, you will find yourself, and your family and all of your belonging packed in a van driving across the state to your new home Western Washington University. Once you get to college you
will learn that your education was not a great education, one that we all deserve. You will learn that the school system is privatizing our opportunity to learn and that it has used you as a number to collect money for being in school instead of learning in school. I apologize. Don’t give up the education you received from home, the patience you learned from packing the cherries, and the endurance you gathered juggling multiple jobs will come in handy. While in college you will enroll in a course on diversity in higher education and our communities will constantly be referred to as “at risk youth, as a community creating low performing schools, as troubled kids, as people that need to learn; but rarely as humans with funds of knowledge, as creative and energetic souls, or as resilient educators.” Just keep in mind that you deserve your place in that classroom. After learning, seeing, and hearing that you don’t belong that you are a deficit you will reflect on your k-12 experience even more. You will find that the more educators that you encounter, the more you realize that they too have been burned out by our education system. They no longer have their fire lit, the fire they once had to become a teacher and make sure that every student that ever crossed their classroom left better than they came in. You will see how overwhelmed and positioned they are to believe that
we are okay if we memorize facts only to pass tests, and base everything off of your grades. That is not an education. Don’t let that C get to you; letters and numbers don’t define your knowledge. After learning about this you will want to do something so you will choose higher education as a career, there you will find that the educators there are also underpaid, overworked, and find themselves paying for their classroom supplies. You are scared but know that you can’t let a system that prides itself as being one of the best in the world, one that would never deny education to womyn get away with welcoming students with electronic detectors, support tracking systems that criminalize us and create spaces of hostility and fear instead of learning and liberation. In your heart you know that education cannot sound so familiar to the detention centers and jails criminalizing our black and brown communities. After applying to about a hundred scholarships, missing dozens of games, family birthdays, and holidays
Understand that our communities have been taught for generations to wake up thankful for another day yet are positioned with little opportunity to do so because our realities ask that we defend and survive, not live and thrive. you will graduate and find that you have zero debt, that the countless hours you spend writing essays and looking for scholarships were worth it. That the community you searched for and found in order to succeed is proud and has become your family. You should be proud, the only thing you have left to do is to pay it forward. You will decide to apply to graduate school. To prepare for graduate school you will make dozens of calls that make you feel like no matter how much more you do and sacrifice you will never be considered enough. You will be told that graduate school is out of your reach and that they don’t provide scholarships and financial aid to international students. You will be frustrated because every time you start your conversation you will explain the reasons you are not an international student. Don’t let frustration get to you because you find a few schools that give you a glimpse of hope, you apply and get in. You did it, you even get an assistantship. You will find it harder to navigate graduate school even though you already knew that our educational system works in silos. You will go to the financial aid office and be told that it is an issue addressed by admissions only to put you in the place to have to share your status and come out multiple times leading to a
so that they can improve their services to serve all students.
life is to make our education a right, holistic, and a priority.
Two years go by and you almost quit because your family is struggling financially, because the school with a social justice mission statement denies your justice, because your colleagues make ignorant comments in four hour long night classes, because you left home and traveled 2,000 miles to live in Chicago the first city you have ever lived in. You find yourself no longer in your 3,000 populated town. You may be among thousands of people but you feel lonely. Remember you are not lonely.
You will find strength again and you will ask your institutions to do something about it; however, over and over they will say that they can’t get involved in “politics” because they have to be nonpartisan and because it is not the institutions responsibility but that of our governments.
At this point- keep in mind what your parents came here for, keep at heart the many sacrifices they made, they crossed borders, they lost family, they dove into a new culture they are your heroes and you are one of many heroes for future generations. You must keep going because they kept going and our ancestors kept going only so that we could graduate high school and get to college. Your purpose in
You will be shocked and feel defeated, you will wonder how they don’t see that education is a revolutionary act, that what happens to students outside of the classroom walls affects the students in class. Schools have the power to make changes and leverage their resources to support the community instead of only gentrifying it. At this point tell yourself that being a student is a political act that education for many of our underrepresented communities is a second or third choice because unfortunately for most of us our first choice is surviving and making sure our families have a meal and home every day. Tell yourself that your voice and experiences are preparing you and the larger community to look beyond the dream. As you grow older you will realize that you have been positioned to focus only on the negative, at this point don’t judge yourself or feel like you have been ungrateful. Understand that our communities have been taught for generations to wake up thankful for another day yet are positioned with little opportunity to do so because our realities ask that we defend and survive, not live and thrive. Your realization will encourage you to not only be human but act human. You can’t fix it all and you can’t defend it all. You have to pick your battles and find the time to build community, reach out to the family you have grown apart from and do everything in your power to make sure that your students are not just walking through halls but through educational spaces. You graduate with your M.Ed. and you find a job that helps you build and work alongside freedom fighters. After being in classrooms for 21 years of your life you find more time have time to live, think, heal, breathe. You think back and realize that you have also been in spaces with the educator who is underpaid and overworked but still holds on to the notion of our humanity, of community and the belief that if one rises we all rise and if one falls we all do. Isang Bagsak. You will thank Pat Fabiano, Sadika Sulaiman-Hara, and Erin Howard.
You have also found the educator that struggled and wore their heart on their sleeve through their graduate degree because they knew that our community needs more role models, that we need research that not only uses us for the benefit of their career but that of the community. They make it accessible to us. You will thank Cecily Hazelrigg, Tom Nerini, and Angela Chen.
thing the world needs. You have found your purpose now go out and get folks to join us.
You have find educators within and outside of the movement who understand that we can’t read, learn, survey, and question the books without being within, seeing the faces, feeling the pain and being resilient. You will thank educators like Lupe Ledesma, Maribel Galvan, Pamela Alvarado, and Matt Mattera.
The journey in writing this letter was beautiful. I cried, smiled and ate a lot of chocolates. To be honest however, nothing would have made this piece real if it wasn’t for the people in my life who believed in me enough to help me not only find scholarships and donate to my college fundraisers but also believed that my success was bound to their success. I dedicate this letter to the students and educators who took that extra step.
You have found students who are educators because of the knowledge they have collected throughout their life journey, educators who don’t need degrees to be considered legitimate. You will find scholar activists like Nancy Guarneros, Grecia Rivas, Francisco Salcido, Catalina Adorno, Grace Esparza, Yael Pineda, Kai Kai Mascarenas, Carolina Bortolleto, Deborah Alemu and many many more. At some point you will find yourself advocating alongside organizations made possible by outreach, stories, time, and support. You will find the immigrant rights movement. You will find yourself in spaces making connections to the person next to you not only because you chose to sit at the same table but because it was meant for you to meet them, because it was meant for you to share each other’s humanity, because it was meant that you celebrate each other’s stories and learn about others together. You will reaffirm that you have been a part of spaces full of freedom fighters and scholar activists celebrating the accomplishments of the community all along. That people are connected not only through vision and support but through the understanding that in order to succeed we have to celebrate, build, educate, connect, and empower. We collectively have to take action, each of us has a responsibility and there is no act too small. You will realize that your journey although short is beautiful, resilient, and real. That you will continue to come full circle over and over because that is what life is about to keep moving forward. The only thing I have to tell you at this point is to continue being a scholar activist and a freedom fighter that these identities should never be separated in fact embraced more. You are doing something you love and some-
Sincerely, Scholar Activist @laurambgt ====================================
I share this personal letter with you to remind us that we have to feel, process, let go but most importantly we have to keep going. In our contemporary education system educators and students alike are pressured to focus on performance, test, and grades often limiting the ability to reflect on our experiences. We can’t let this continue to dictate our decision making process. As scholar activists and freedom fighters we must reflect and act only then will we achieve educational equity, our freedom and liberation. Our humanity should be enough for us to believe that we are worth it, that we owe it to ourselves and each other, that we owe it to our ancestors and to our future generations. Everywhere I turn I see humanity, I see freedom fighters and scholar activists so let’s build, challenge, and win together, let’s keep moving forward.
I share this letter with you to remind us that we have to feel, process, let go but most importantly we have to keep going.
broadside poetry in street lit style Cory Grapenthien
It’s a good thing I was born on the North side of the border. So I can live without fearing for my life every day. So I can live with the luxury of being surrounded my family. So I can live in a city with plenty of opportunities. So I can LIVE.
It’s a good thing I was born on the North side of the border. So I can work in the career of my choice. So I can work to support myself and my family. So I can work for a morethanlivable wage. So I can WORK.
It’s a good thing I was born on the North side of the border. So I can experience what living in the Land of the Free really means. So I can experience being able to freely travel with documentation. So I can experience seeing this country from the South side of the wall. So I can EXPERIENCE.
It’s a good thing I was born on the North side of the border. So I can help those people who come here seeking work and opportunity. So I can help with the trauma and unimaginable pain they have been through. So I can help make the U.S.A. a place that welcomes newcomers instead of building taller walls to keep them out. So I can HELP.
How did I get so lucky?
words are useless sometimes words aren’t enough Brandon Mooney & Padraic Stanley
Fui Extranjero y Me Acogiste Depicted in this poster are numerous butterflies, symbolizing migrants, flying towards the border, where there are open hands symbolizing hospitality and opportunity. The butterfly's wings contain the words opportunity, family, friendship, and courage, written both in English and in Spanish to symbolize the values each migrant holds and the dual cultural identities possessed by migrants who have built their lives in the
Inside R Out? White? Male? Feminist? YES. J. Curtis Main
OPEN YOUR BORDERS It is likely I will never know the immigrant experience first-hand. It is likely that the privileges I have as someone born in the U.S. who has stayed in the U.S. will stay privileges. It is likely that the U.S, too, will continue to be the wealthiest country in the world.
dangerous reasons. People demarcate “theirs.” People build “security.” Communities gather to create “us” and “them.” Whether national borders, state borders, or borders between difference, many of the borders I see are worth crossing ... in peaceful ways.
And in all this likelihood I will continue to listen. I will continue to support. I will continue to have an open heart and mind to those people who travel across borders.
Many of my cherished friends and family are immigrants or children of immigrants. Coming to the U.S., a romanticized journey most of the world constantly hears about, is full of empty promises and shattered dreams. But for many, regardless of struggle, once in this country of abundance, things are better than
As many of us are aware, borders are setup, often, for
they were before. People often move for something better and more promising. I like to treat my space, resources, kindness, and home as open to others, as open to border-crossing. I wish, too, that many countries in the world would take a similar approach. In my 31 years, I continually find more support for the idea that it is far better to share resources than horde resources. So, then, I feel similarly about access across borders. This access is not restricted to jobs, citizenship, license, and education. I strongly believe we all ought to ease our borders, from nations to individuals. Friendships across borders? They are so very rewarding. Workplaces stretching across borders? I find more creativity and positive energy. Love across borders? I see conflict and violence fall away toward understanding and building. Community and coalition building across borders? Well now, is that not why so many of us are activists? To recognize humanities across (recognized and celebrated) differences? If it is not obvious just yet, I am using borders as an analogy to differences. Ever since I can remember, I was hit hard with two life lessons that continue to this day: 1) Difference is bad. Difference threatens. Difference harms. Difference is sinful. Difference makes you less you. Difference ought to be stamped out and discouraged. 2) Difference is life. Difference is normal and to be celebrated. We are all different and unique and valuable. Difference is one of the most beautiful and enriching parts of life. If you do not know me, I tend to lean toward the latter. Okay, fine, I live in the latter as much as possible! I cannot imagine a life lived that does not seek out to learn more across difference. To me, that is one of the best parts about life. Which leads me back, inevitably, always, to being so very confused by much of the world’s take on migration. Humans are migratory creatures! We spread across the entire world! We even live in Antartica. I have never fully understood why, especially, the U.S. tends to lean toward hating on immigrants. Sure, there is xenophobia, racism, colorism, islamophobia, anti-semitism, and ethnocentrism abound. But beyond these, movement and migration, overall, helps nations and people.
Be like the billions of humans before you that helped bring us to these lives of resources: cross borders with open minds and longing hearts. It’s not only people that move, but a lot more. Ideas. Opportunities. Languages. Recipes. Music. Friendships. Medicine. Fashions. Spirituality. LOVE! The list is nearly endless of what we can and often do share. When we keep open hearts and minds, and I mean folks on both sides, human movements should be okay, great even. Those who welcome migrants must remain open, and those who move must remain open. Often, it is the latter who are expected to be more open and carry the double burden of both moving and learning. Yet, learning and exchanging should be accountable to all people. Again, I like to bring it home. I like to imagine countries as homes. I was raised to be hosptitable. I was taught to share space, food, smiles, warmth, education, time, and other types of resources. I very much hope that neighborhoods, cities, friend circles, schools, places of worship, counties, states, countries, and other types of borders can take this approach of easing and opening their doors and walls. Much like opening one’s home, or one’s space, or one’s hand for a handshake or arms for a hug. Thus is my call to people for this first ever issue on (im)migration and for life in general: OPEN YOUR BORDERS. Be hospitable. Be kind. Be vulnerable. Be attentive. Be helpful. Be curious. Be like the billions of humans before you that helped bring us to these lives of resources: cross borders with open minds and longing hearts.
screen/play film review, justice take The DREAM Is NOW
Release: 2013
Director:
Davis Guggenheim,
Genre:
Documentary
Where to Find:
Available for free streaming on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfiInvpjPtI or www.thedreamisnow.org and also available on Netflix and Amazon Instant Video
Overview:
The Dream is Now is a short documentary that follows the lives of four undocumented students living in the United States, highlighting their struggles, their lives, and their accomplishments. The first few minutes set the tone for the remainder of the documentary, making the intended message very clear. “For some people, this is the news-a story to follow, or a side to take. For them, it is something else. They are from different parts of the globe, but their intentions were born in the same place-here. Because they were taught at young age to believe, they are driven by something outside themselves. And yes-it is a dream, but for them, the stakes couldn’t be higher, because what happens here [Congress], right now, at this very moment is not a contest to follow or a race to be scored. It is something very real-it is their lives.” Ola and her family are originally from Albania and had received political asylum, but due to a clerical error, they lost their status. During a routine visit to immigration authorities, when Ola was 17 years old and more than midway through her senior year, their renewal application had been denied and her family was put in process for deportation. Alejandro is a perfect candidate for the Marine Corps, which has been his dream since reading “Flags of Our Fathers” in the eighth grade, but also is ineligible to enlist because of his undocumented status. Erika graduated with her bachelor’s degree but could not utilize it because of her undocumented status, so she turned to activism to provide a pathway to legal status for her and the other 12 million undocumented immigrants. And José also graduated with his bachelor’s degree in engineering at the top of his class, but now works in construction, even though there is a vast shortage of engineers in his state of Arizona. The Dream is Now highlights four relatable and emotional stories for viewers, with the intentions of changing hearts and minds, as well as inspiring people to action. The documentary brings up numerous important issues facing undocumented youth today, including deportation, blocked access to state and federal financial aid, difficulty paying for schools, and mental health. The documentary takes the time to talk about the suicide of Joaquin Luna, an undocumented high school senior that completed suicide out of depression and desperation because of his undocumented status.
BROAD thumbs up? This documentary has many tear-jerking moments, and it is certainly a must-watch for anyone who wants to have an introduction to undocumented student issues or enjoys hearing these stories for our own revitalization or celebration of the resilience of these individuals. However, there are some aspects of the documentary that could be improved upon-unlike the four students depicted in this documentary, not all undocumented students are high achieving and similar “poster-children.� Each undocumented student is an individual and has a support system that looks differently-they may grow up in different environments, and have different levels of inner strengths and resiliencies. Just because an undocumented person is not a high-achieving poster child does not mean they are not entitled to the same human rights, dignity, and opportunities as everyone else. Selecting these four students for this documentary was done strategically to convince more people who may be on the fence about undocumented issues to empathize with the issues brought up by the documentary; however, it is important for those with a more critical lens to keep in mind the aspects of class, race, gender, sexual orientation, and disability. This is a great documentary to show for groups and classes, and the website www.thedreamisnow.org actually offers free guides for organizing your own screenings of the documentary and also has free downloadable packets for leading discussions.
QUOTE CORNER
tell-a-vision
MADADS
visions & revisions of our culture(s) African Immigrant Poem
TELL-AVISION
SCREEN/ PLAY
BOOKMA RK HERE
TELL-AVISION
QUOTE C ORNER
BROAD FACULTY FEED
BROAD RECAP
LIBERATIO N LEADERS
CAREER CALL
WLA REANIMA TED
VOLUNTEE R VOICES
FreeQuency’s spoken word poem from the 2014 National Poetry Slam Finals is a moving piece about racism, identity, colonization, and belonging.
Consider:
BROADSID
E
VISITING EDITOR
ME
1. How does FreeQuency describe the “othering” she experiences as an African immigrant? SSAGE ME 2. How does she experience the relationship between the United States and Africa: colonialism, assimilation, MICRO differences between African American and African immigrants? AGRES 3. What is the meaning behind the butterfly symbolism sheSHuses toward the ADVAend of the poem? U NS
NCE
Link:
youtube.com/watch?v=0q01bob61F8
BROAD
WE’VE GO T MAIL
broadside poetry in street lit style Anahi Tapia
We Are Human In black jeans and a black jacket, I cam-
ouflaged myself into the gloomy night. That night that carried our weight of agony, getting wet from our sweat, tasting the blood from the blisters on our toes and screeching at our cries. I remember jogging towards the border until I was next to a dark hole that was scraped under the border fence. I wiggled through the hole, the coyotes demanding voice whispered, “¡Muévense, Uno por uno!” The pupils of my eyes widen in the dark and my insides trembled. However, I ran with my feet pressing against the heavy wet mud and my face scraping against the limbs of the trees. Then, I rushed to hide from La Migra. I made it, but my dad and my brother were caught! Now I was only a 10 years old girl, alone in a foreign country fearing the unknown so my mouth opened to let out a silent scream of helplessness as I prayed to see my parents cross the border and embrace my shivering body.
Little did I know that the border was just the first border I had to cross? For the past years, I have been trying to hold to IIT’s scholarship requiring me to be a fulltime student while still needing to work 30 hours becuase scholarships do not cover my living expenses. The burden and frustration to have to stretch every dollar to pay for rent, food, clothes, shoes, insurance, books, tuition, vision screenings and a pair of new glasses; IT NEVER STOPS!
It’s no longer a fence close to piercing through my skin or a monstrous border separating me from my family, now it feels as if they are plucking needles in my legs as trying to keep me from moving forth. For the past years, these new borders have been slowing my goals of becoming an organizational psychologist and instead, I’ve been financially burned out, emotionally frustrated and feeling afraid of what’s next. I was forced to skip a semester, 21 credits away from my graduation. I became an adult too young and it is time this stops! I have not been able to enjoy being a college student and join IIT’s Rock Climbing Club or study abroad program at the Australian National University.
I’ve learned to not look too much into my future and learned what fear looks like. The uncertainty, doubt, and fear has led many undocumented students to destroy their own existence, as they found themselves tied, their dreams buried in a grave with the many rejections and dehumanizing treatment. Their energies, like mine has been exhausted. The engine in their lives has died. But mine has not. It is time to create more secure scholarships and remember that we’re tomorrows change makers! And for that, I ask of all those mentors out there to please stop depicting the undocumented student as the ideal student who is always able to achieve the highest GPA, while still being able to be involved on campus under these circumstances of
WE ARE HUMAN.
Tuition continues to go up but scholarships won’t and yet we’ve been obligated to live under higher standards and be punished severely if we dare to fail. This needs to stop and start to acknowledge student’s potential, capabilities and above all, support the healthy development of all undocumented students. My name is Anahi, I am undocumented, I am a student at IIT and I am no longer a dreamer. I am a goal
S
words are useless
B
Above: Rough terain, a lone sock tangled in thorn bush; Right: Barbed wire warning; Above right: View from abandoned farmhouse along route; Bottom Middle: A prayer for safe crossing;
sometimes words aren’t enough Jeaneane J. Quinn
O U N
D
SSpS
A R E D I S
Above Left: View from mission stairwell-mission provides safety, meals, and rest before migrant women attempt to cross the desert or return home; Left: Turnstile to Mexico-easy access from the U.S. side; Above: Traffic jam mosaic-inching towards the U.S. border
S Right: A looming presence-picture taken from Mexico side-photographing border from U.S. side is illegal; Below: Graffiti art memorializing migrant deaths along border; Bottom Left: Hard boundary between two neighborhoods; Center: Border patrol checkpoint in Nogales, USA; Far Right: Operation Streamline-The final stop for migratns before sentencing at the Federal Court House in Tucson
Right: View of border patro argents through passenger wi dow; Bottom Right: Messag of solidarity beneath barbed wire; Far Right: Beautiful boundaires-migrants are mem rialized with found objects in mixed media boxes, created b Deborah McCollough, a loca Tucson artist. [Editor’s note Deborah is also featured in th issue’s Words are Useless seri
SSpS
ol inge d
mon by al e: his ies]
AP HO ESS TO AY Left: Boxed in-sunlight beyond the close interior of Border Patrol vans, which transport undocumented migrants to the processing center. 2,260 migrants died at the border between October 1999-2011. (Source- Humane Borders.)
O the Places You’ll Go BROAD Voice, BROAD Communities Umu Hawa Kamara
Big Blue Barrels I was born in Sierra Leone, a little country in West Africa, during the civil war that lasted from 19912001. My mom said I was lucky to be born because the war was an absolute fiasco. Innocent people were killed and little kids were forced to join the army. The movie Blood Diamond starring Leonardo DiCaprio was based on our war. Sierra Leone’s biggest resource is its beautiful diamonds. Fighting over the diamonds was the main reason for the war. Sierra Leone has never recovered from its downfall. The struggle of the country and its inability to rise up can be traced back to a corrupt government that has been misusing funds sent from other countries to help out Sierra Leone’s citizens. When my mom was pregnant with me she was living in Bo, where there was fighting. She and her sister were fortunate to escape from there and travel to the capital, Freetown, where the war hadn’t taken much of a toll. I was born in Freetown in 1998. Even though it was safer in in the capital, the economy was still depressed. People were struggling to survive. Many people made the difficult choice to leave the country and travel abroad to start a better life to provide for their families back home. My mom was one of those people. When I was one year old, my mom left me with my grandparents and moved to America. She said that was one of the hardest things that she had to do as a mother. When I was very little, I remember talking to her on the phone and hearing her voice.
I saw pictures of her, but it was difficult to put her voice and face together. Once, when I was five, a big shipping truck pulled into my grandparents’ front yard. I remember I was curious about what was in the truck, so I immediately stopped what I was doing and went to find out. When the door of the truck was lifted open, I saw big blue barrels inside. In my mind I already knew why we received them and where they came from. U.S.A. was written on the side in big black letters. They were from my mother. But the real surprise was what was inside. The big blue barrels, taller than me, were transported into the storage area inside our house. My father was in charge of directing the unloading of the containers. Everything was taken out and organized. Each item had a name on it. I remember I got clothes, shoes, books, and toys. They were the last items packed so that I would be the first to receive my gifts. How would I describe my first doll? Tall. Fashionable. Terrifying. It was rubber and I was only a few inches taller than it was. I was so afraid of taking it outside because I thought it would melt under the hot African sun.
The movie Blood Diamond starring Leonardo DiCaprio was based on our war... Many people made the difficult choice to leave the country and travel abroad to start a better life... My mom was one of those people.
As for my grandparents, they received money in addition to what was in the containers. The money was used for necessities and morning provisions (breakfast). Everyone in our family played an important role in our day-to-day lives. My grandma and aunts were in charge of going to the market and buying the ingredients they needed to cook dinner. We needed the money my mother sent because times were hard and the wages that my father brought home just weren’t enough sometimes. At the market they bought things like freshly-caught red snapper, cassava leaves, and yams. Every meal was cooked fresh every day because electricity was expensive and unreliable. The lights in the town barely came on at times. When the lights did come on unexpectedly you would hear people cheering all around. TVs were turned on and music played like it was a big block party. Most of the time we used generators to power the house at night. After the barrels were empty, we continued to use them in many ways. The same money that was used to buy provisions was used to buy bags of rice to fill the containers. We also used the barrels to store water, because in the area where I lived water was very scarce. The barrels were not just for us. The contents of some of my family members’ containers were used to build entrepreneurial businesses. Items were sold to make money. My family was proud to help the nation grow. My mom sent containers every year because we depended on them in our push to survive year round. Over the years there were many attempts to bring me and my father to America. When I was nine, I finally got the chance. Now I’m on the other side of the shipping container process. It’s hard. Everything we send to Sierra Leone is stored in our apartment. I sometimes joke that we live like hoarders. All year long, we collect the items that will be inside the blue barrels. Some of the furniture is bought at garage sales. Many items are bought on sale at stores. These items include clothes, shoes, toys, lotion, perfume, etc. Hours upon hours are spent organizing, labeling, and counting everything. We keep a ledger to track the items inside the containers. This means that if, for example, we run out of toothpaste, we can’t just get it out of the container stock. Instead, we have to go and buy our own toothpaste. A lot of people ask, Why don’t you send money to the people back home instead of going through all
Now when I’m packing the containers, I get a little nostalgic, thinking about how exciting it was to see a big blue barrel with U.S.A. written on the side.
that work? Well, the containers are a way for us to provide people with their personally requested items that may be too expensive in Sierra Leone. Shipping these containers is also an obligation. People who have been given the opportunity to come to another country have a responsibility to help their families back home. This shipping process supports our country’s entrepreneurs and allows them to feel a sense of independence and initiative. It’s better to give people a job than to give people money, because it gives them the opportunity to work and earn and be independent. Now, when I’m packing the containers, I get a little nostalgic, thinking about how exciting it was to first see a big blue barrel with U.S.A. written on the side.
We must also be comfortable having uncomfortable conversations, asking deeper questions, to go beyond this border in our minds and seek in our hearts and think with our minds.
“
quote corner
just words? just speeches? Jose Antonio Vargas
Citizenship to me is more than a piece of paper. Citizenship is also about character. I am an American. Victor (Palafox, an undocumented Alabama immigrant rights activist) and I, we’re Americans. We’re just waiting for our country to recognize it.
When I got it [the Washington Post job], I called [a high school mentor], and I said ‘Am I taking somebody else’s job?’ Because that’s what you’re taught to think. You’re taught to think that you’re taking, and you’re taking, and you’re taking.
I learned that when you write a story there’s something called a byline, meaning that your name is on the paper, and I remember just seeing my name on paper and thinking to myself that if I’m not supposed to be here because I don’t have the right kind of papers, what if I’m on the paper?...As far as I was concerned, this was a way of existing.
What is the border really about? What are we afraid of, and why? Who is really being exploited, and to what extent? Who are we? Who are we, and where are we going?
QUOTE CORNER
tell-a-vision
MADADS
visions & revisions of our culture(s) La Patrona
TELL-AVISION
SCREEN/ PLAY
BOOKMA RK HERE
TELL-AVISION
QUOTE C ORNER
BROAD FACULTY FEED
LIBERATIO N LEADERS
WLA REANIMA TED
Migrants from Central American frequently ride on top of freight trains to transport them up through Central America and into central Mexico. Migrants may spend multiple days on top of the trains, risking dehydration, violence at the hands of the gangs and cartels that control the trains, or falling off because of branches, losing balance, or falling asleep. Las Patronas is a group of women in the village of Córdoba, located in the state of Veracrúz in Mexico. They spend all day making bags of food and water to throw up to the migrants when the trains pass by. Often times, that simple bag of food and water can save a migrant’s life.
Consider:
BROADSID
E
VISITING EDITOR
MESSAGE
ME 1. A lot of people wonder why immigrants come to the United States, but what do you think may be reasons for why migrants leave their countries of origin? MICRO 2. Because riding on the fright trains is so dangerous, only the poorest of migrants who cannot afford other AGRES methods of migrating north still ride on the train. What does watching this about these miADvideo SHUNS VANCE and learning WE’VE GO T grants teach us about privilege? MAIL
Link:
youtube.com/watch?v=M7kbiG20ugc
BROAD
message me we asked. you answered. BROAD people
May 2015
As a black woman, people sometimes overreact when I show that I’m upset when in reality, it’s the same as anyone would act. But it’s the fucking “angry black woman” stereotype that somehow sticks, even though white women tend to be much more touchy. Sorry.
I’ve been told my Italian accent makes me a pasta snob...I guess it’s true though.
BROAD Info + Editors
How have you been stereotyped because of your race?
People assume I’m smart because I’m Asian.
Mexicans are not dirty.
I know I have the upper hand because I’m an upper-middleclass white male but at the same time that doesn’t mean I’m an asshole.
BROAD
BROAD Info + Editors
I know it’s not a serious struggle but having blonde hair, dressing with current trends and treating myself to Starbucks every now and then somehow makes me a “basic white girl.”
O the Places You’ll Go BROAD Voice, BROAD Communities Edward Chong
Anxieties of Citizenship: Homonationalism and Undocuqueer Activists The issue of immigration in the U.S. have reached a major turning point in the U.S. in the past decade. Beginning with migrant workers mobilizing against labor exploitation and then undocumented immigrants campaigning for legalization and citizenship, the immigrants’ rights movement has recently found new leaders with youth and students campaigning for the right to education. At the same time in the U.S., same-sex marriage has become a polarizing issue among several states and a new queer visibility has been pushed by activists. Queerness has been propagated by mass media and have been isolated by its more radical origins in the U.S. However, the intersections between queerness and undocumented immigration status has received very little attention and many undocumented immigrants who are also queer have become in addressing their invisibility. The “undocuqueer” movement has only gained traction in recent years as a response to young immigrant youth who espouse heteronormative narratives and create the image of the undocumented immigrant as a romanticized family-oriented worker or student. However, the undocuqueer movement has allied with queer groups in order to push immigration issues as a queer one. This paper will analyze the potential for queer theory to destabilize the heteronormative narratives surrounding undocumented immigrants and how the undocumented queer immigrant dismantles the neoliberal homonationalist discourse. The undocumented immigrant is inherently a queer subject in
opposition to U.S. ideals of the family and reproduction. Undocumented activists attempt to conform to the nuclear family narrative, while undocuqueer activists reject this model. Sociohistorical Context Immigrant youth mobilizations gained major visibility in support of the DREAM Act, or Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors. The DREAM Act was introduced in 2001 and offered conditional U.S. residency as long as the youth is able to prove they arrived in the U.S. as a minor and have stayed in school or plan to attend college. The youth activists called themselves “DREAMers” in support of the DREAM Act and their protests often include marchers wearing caps and gowns to illustrate themselves as proper citizens and students. However, the DREAM Act has gone through several revisions only to not be passed in every attempt. Other immigrant rights groups have used human rights-based rhetoric and the argument for family reunification. The activists cite the separation of undocumented parents and their citizen children through deportation and the inhumane living conditions and abuses associated with indefinite detainment without due process rights. Immigrant activist’s strategies of appealing to emotion have been effective in creating coalition networks with several human rights groups, religious institutions, and organizations by
ethnic groups. In addition to never passing the senate of the U.S., the DREAMer’s form of protest and rhetoric excluded the parents of the students. The heteronormative narrative left many queer undocumented immigrant youth questioning their position in this struggle. The Undocuqueer movement developed in order to be inclusive of undocumented queer youth who did not fit the archetypical young cisgender student. The Undocuqueer struggle is not meant to contradict the struggles of queer activism and undocumented immigrant movements, rather form solidarity amongst their intersecting oppressions.
The undocuqueers... navigate....the borders that bind their lives: U.S. vs. Homeland, queer vs. straight, citizenship vs. undocumented.
Queer Foundations Queer theory offers several contributions to undocuqueer struggles; the sexual and gender politics in congruence with immigration politics allow both movement to expand their realms of power. In “Critically Queer”, Judith Butler deconstructs the history of the term “queer” and how its meaning has never been stable. The lack of a concrete definition does not detract from the potential of queer as an identity category, rather the flexible boundaries offers new potentials for queerness that allow it to change with new ideas of sexuality and gender. The queer undocumented immigrant again disrupts the boundaries of queerness through the impact of citizenship status on queer people and how immigrant experiences impact conceptions of queer identity. The intersections of race, gender, and Marxism with queer theory cumulate in Roderick A. Ferguson’s “Introduction: Queer of Color Critique, Historical Materialism, and Canonical Sociology”. Traditional understandings of Marxist theory naturalized the heteronormative conceptions of gender and sexuality by placing the family as a primary economic unit and essentialized racial hierarchy by not considering the impact of racism on the economic inequality under neoliberal capitalism. The migrant worker is an exploited subject in Marxist theory, their labor being taken advantage of due to their citizenship status. The undocumented immigrant is an inherently racialized subject by being stereotyped as Latino in mass media, despite many undocumented immigrants coming from many continents (Chavez 2008). The queer undocumented immigrant disrupts the classic Marxist ideas of society by rejecting the discursive subjugation of working-class queer Latinos.
In analyzing the migrant experience, Gloria Anzaldúa’s “Borderlands/La Frontera” is critical for those who live in these “borderlands”. As a queer Chicana woman her experiences in the seemingly mutually exclusive boundaries between sexuality, gender roles, and ethnic identity were filled with trauma. However, Anzaldúa finds solace in the power that is embodied in queerness and how Chicana feminism complements this. The queer undocumented immigrant also lives in this borderland, in-between culture and in the unstable position of undocumented immigrant. The undocuqueers actively navigate living within the borders that bind their lives; U.S. vs. Homeland, queer vs. straight, citizenship vs. undocumented. While these facets of identity intersect and are resignified as a source of strength among the undocuqueers. The Undocuqueers The Undocuqueer gained the most visibility with the work of Julio Salgado, a political artist who created a mural in Los Angeles, California. The mural depicts five portraits of undocumented queer youth and quotes about their undocumented identity and how the intersecting struggles benefit each other’s struggle. The mural uses colorful imagery to allude to the rainbow flag symbol in such a public matter to provide visibility to a largely ignored group within the immigrant rights groups and queer movements. Julio Salgado continues to be a prolific muralist, printmaker, and painter who continues to create political works on undocuqueers and creates other work in solidarity with other social movements.
Thethat so undocuqueer’s they can improve activist their origins services begin towith servethe all students. youth immigrant mobilizations and DREAMers. The queer youth felt largely ignored by larger narratives that set as studious, Two years go all byundocumented and you almost youth quit because your hard-working, and law-abiding innocentthe kids, just family is struggling financially, because school without citizenship thatstatement undocumented with a social justice and mission deniesyouth your were going to beyour contributing members of society. justice, because colleagues make ignorant comThe undocuqueers created a political to ments in four hour long night classes, alternative because you the heteronormative archetype of immigrant youth, left home and traveled 2,000 miles to live in Chicago where queer against assimilation and the firstradical city you havepolitics ever lived in. You find yourself respectability were embodied against theYou oppressive no longer in your 3,000 populated town. may state denies them rights as humans. be among thousands of people but you feel lonely. Remember you are not lonely. Lee Edelman’s “The Future is Kids Stuff: Queer Theory, Disidentification, The Death states that At this point- keepand in mind what Drive” your parents came contemporary queer discourses here for, keep at heartpolitical the many sacrificesoveremphathey made, size figureborders, of the child theythe crossed theyand lost follow family,heteronormathey dove into tive logics of reproduction. states queer a new culture they are your Edelman heroes and youthat are one of activists should model of an obsession with many heroes forreject futurethis generations. futurity and embrace a negative affect associating with the psychoanalytic term, “the drive”.and The You must keep going because theydeath kept going undocuqueer youthgoing follow thissologic the our ancestors kept only thatby werejecting could gradmodel of the idealand citizen that will obediently follow uate high school get to college. Your purpose in
the capitalism inaorder start families life isdemands to make of our education right,toholistic, and a that will reproduce future citizens. The undocuqueer priority. politic demands a recognition of their humanity, despite the state’s forask a proper You will rejecting find strength again demands and you will your citizen. institutions to do something about it; however, over and over they will say that they can’t get involved in Much likebecause Anzaldúa’s “shadow-beast”, a major annual “politics” they have to be nonpartisan and undocumented event is “Coming but Out of because it is notimmigration the institutions responsibility the where organizers publicly reveal their thatShadows” of our governments. undocumented status in defiance against the disempowerment that hiding immigration You will be shocked andfrom feel defeated, youofficials will wonbrings. of the undocuqueer youth der howOutside they don’t seeprotests, that education is a revolutionare active in media andtothe internet, actively ary very act, that what happens students outside of the campaigning through media to connect classroom walls affectssocial the students inrapidly class. Schools activists supporters across their vast have theand power to make instantaneously changes and leverage distances. The obvious relationship the “Coming resources to support the communitywith instead of only Out of the Closet” andpoint “Coming out of the gentrifying it. At this tell yourself thatShadows” being a is clear. Both movements findeducation strength and powerof student is a political act that for many in activism surrounding identities that or are ourvisibility, underrepresented communities is a second shamed andbecause stigmatized. third choice unfortunately for most of us our first choice is surviving and making sure our families Large national LGBTQ rights groups have have amainstream meal and home every day. Tell yourself that largely been silent in the immigrant rightsyou moveyour voice and experiences are preparing and ment. Since the repealtooflook the Defense of Marriage the larger community beyond the dream. Act (DOMA) in 2013 and several states recognizing same-sex marriage, several international queer As you grow older you will realize that you have couples who waited for the opportunity to bring been positioned to focus only on the negative, at this their others to America with green pointsignificant don’t judge yourself or feel like you havecards been were able toUnderstand legalize their partners (Titshaw 2009). ungrateful. that our communities have However, thefor undocuqueers have largely been silent been taught generations to wake up thankful for on issuesday related to marriage equality, focusing their another yet are positioned with little opportunity efforts the legalization of fellow undocumented to do soonbecause our realities ask that we defend and immigrants. survive, not live and thrive. Queer Theory and Your realization will Migration encourageStudies you to not only be hu man but act human. You can’t fix it all and you can’t The intersecting of immigrants thefind U.S. defend it all. You struggles have to pick your battlestoand and queers have been documented by several theothe time to build community, reach out to the famirists inhave recent years.apart Martin F. Manalansan IV’s “Queer ly you grown from and do everything in Intersections: and Gender in Migration your power toSexuality make sure that your students are not Studies” takesthrough on an ethnographic and anthropojust walking halls but through educational logical to studying theM.Ed. influence of queer spaces.approach You graduate with your and you find a identities in international migrations of people. job that helps you build and work alongside freedom The gendered dimensions of migration encourage fighters. gender-biased labor conditions or exploitation. The impact of sexuality in migration reveals potential After being in classrooms for 21 years ofthe your life you sexual violence and sexual of migrants. find more time have time toexploitation live, think, heal, breathe. For queer immigrants, many Youundocumented think back and realize that you have also were been brought children andwho eventually developed in spacesover withas the educator is underpaid and in their queer identities, only on to quickly learn that both overworked but still holds to the notion of our are stigmatized in the U.S.and the belief that if one humanity, of community rises we all rise and if one falls we all do. Isang Bagsak. In the U.S., undocumented are often You will thank Pat Fabiano, immigrants Sadika Sulaiman-Hara, called “illegal immigrants”, a dehumanizing label that and Erin Howard. frames undocumented immigrant’s existence as a
The undocuqueers seek the liberation of those who do not exist within acceptable norms of queerness & outside the boundaries of proper citizenship. crime. The growing militarization of the U.S. and Mexico border has been in response to fears surrounding Mexican immigrants crossing the U.S. border without authorization. However, as illustrated by Eithene Luibheid’s “Sexuality, Migration, and the Shifting Line between Legal and Illegal Status” the categories that differentiate between “legal” and “illegal” are products of political authority and the needs of the state. As a result of neoliberal economic structures, the borders allow a strict eligibility that dictate the kinds of immigrants that are deemed welcome in the U.S. These exclusive criteria are attainable by privileged heteronormative couples and only until recently the “homonormative” couple with same-sex marriage and domestic partnership laws allowing for partner reunification. The socioeconomic inequalities among queer communities are perpetuated by only allowing the most homonormative and resource wealthy to enter the U.S. through all legal channels. Politicizing the fears of the immigrant other and reinforcing the narratives of American exceptionalism, Jasbir Puar’s “Queer Time, Queer Assemblages” obtains a new relevancy when analyzing the “threat” of the Undocumented immigrant. In Puar’s original argument, the aftermath of the 9/11, occupation in the Middle East, and a new visibility and racialization of Muslims and Sikhs contributed to what is called “homonationalism”. Homonationalism is the process where a state will espouse “queer-friendly” discourses, while painting another country as an archaic, homophobic, and not as progressive. However, homonationalism can hide insidious motivations behind portraying queer-positivity, such as the supporting the economic inequali-
ties of marginalized groups. Latinos in the U.S. began to represent the archetypical “illegal immigrant” with the passing of the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) in 1986, a beginning of a series of punitive immigration laws that sought the criminalization of immigrants and increased deportation. As queer movements gained traction within the U.S., the processes of neoliberal capitalism still ravaged countries without the resources to compete on the global market. Why Undocuqueers Matter? All undocumented immigrants are at risk of getting caught and detained by immigration officials. Detainment can be indefinite since the immigrant was not “arrested” and have no right to due process with a trial. Within these detainment centers, many of which are contracted through the government to private corporations, detained immigrants face inhumane treatment awaiting to be deported back to a country they have no resources or connections in. Undocumented queer immigrants face a different set of challenges in deportation proceedings since they are more likely to be detained due to poverty and failed U.S. asylum appeals. Once detained, queer undocumented immigrants are significantly more likely to face violence within and lack basic medical care (Turney 2010). Most service providers who specialize in addressing immigrant issues are not well trained in queer topics. The vive-versa is true as well where queer support groups are unable to fully provide the needs of undocumented immigrants (Karma 2011). Both the queer and queer movements have little interactions with eachother, other than a few exceptions (Chavez 2010). The Nation and Undocuqueers The most obvious base for coalition building amongst undocumented immigrants and queer rights groups is that undocumented immigrants can be queer and queers can be immigrants. The very processes of attempting to gain citizenship creates the citizen as subject to the constantly changing demands of neoliberal capitalism (Ong 1996). The potential of queer theory to contribute to the undocumented immigrant rights movements are numerous. Queer immigrant politics have the potential to disestablish physical spatial boundaries of nationhood and citizenship that exclude undocumented queer immigrants (White 2014). Using Roderick’s Neo-Marx-
ist queer of color critique, the undocumented immigrant is isolated from the products of their labor. The queer undocumented immigrant is another manifestation of the effects of capitalism, race, gender, and sexuality on a individual without the same rights of citizenship. Homophobia and anti-immigrant sentiment both play a role in the rhetoric against undocumented immigrants in the U.S. Once labeled as an “illegal”, nativists can justify their abuses against immigrants and ignore the U.S. involvement in perpetuating global inequalities. Undocumented immigrant males are seen through a rape metaphor and the U.S. reifies the nuclear family as the ideal social structure (Brady 2008). Queer undocumented immigrant activists seem to avoid the marriage equality debate because marriage only supports those who have the networks and resources to go through the immigration process. The queer critiques of the institution of marriage also include the heteronormative assimilation that reinforces the economic structures that many cannot access. The gay marriage movement reinforces the homonationalist oppression of queers who do not fit the assimilationist model of the proper queer. The undocuqueers seek the liberation of those who do not exist within acceptable norms of queerness and outside the boundaries of proper citizenship. Conclusion The impact of undocumented immigration status and queerness is still uncertain as the undocuqueer movement is still in its relative infancy. Understandings of undocumented immigration must expand to include the impact of queer identities in order to gain a comprehensive description about the impact of neoliberalism, race, class, gender, sexuality, and globalization. The potential for queer theory to not only understand, but contribute to undocuqueer activism is an exciting aspect of these two fields merging. Queer theory’s unstable nature is necessary when the borders between the state, individual, and society are constantly shifting. The undocuqueers as a subversive subject offers new light and potential into new forms of queerness.
Bibliography Butler, Judith. “Critically Queer” The Routledge Queer Studies Reader. Eds. Donald E. Hall, Annamarie Jagose, Andrea Bebell, and Susan Potter. NY: Routledge, 2013. 18-31. Print. Ferguson, Roderick A. “Introduction: Queer of Color Critique, Historical Materialism, and Canonical Sociology” Eds. Donald E. Hall, Annamarie Jagose, Andrea Bebell, and Susan Potter. NY: Routledge, 2013. 119-133. Print. Edelman, Lee. “The Future is Kid Stuff: Queer Theory, Disidentification, and the Death Drive” Eds. Donald E. Hall, Annamarie Jagose, Andrea Bebell, and Susan Potter. NY: Routledge, 2013. 287-298. Print. Puar, Jasbir. “Queer Times, Queer Assemblages” Eds. Donald E. Hall, Annamarie Jagose, Andrea Bebell, and Susan Potter. NY: Routledge, 2013. 515-528. Print. Manalansan IV, Martin F. “Queer Intersections: Sexuality and Gender in Migration Studies”. Eds. Donald E. Hall, Annamarie Jagose, Andrea Bebell, and Susan Potter. NY: Routledge, 2013. 529-546. Print. White, Melissa Autumn. “Documenting the Undocumented: Toward a Queer Politics of No Borders.” Sexualities 17.8 (2014): 976-997. Print Chavez, Karma R. “Identifying the Needs of LGBTQ Immigrants and Refugees in Southern California” Journal of Homosexuality 58.2 (2011):189-218. Print. Ong, Aihwa. “Cultural Citizenship as Subject-Making: Immigrants Negotiate Racial and Cultural Boundaries in the United States” Current Anthropology 37.5 (1996): 737-762. Print. Brady, Mary P. “The Homoerotics of Immigration Control” Scholar & Feminist Online 6.3 (2008): 1-7. Web. Lewis, Rachel A. “Gay? Prove it: The Politics of Queer Anti-Deportation Activism” Sexualities 17.8 (2014):958-975. Print. Luibheid, Eithne. “Sexuality, Migration, and the Shifting Line Between Legal and Illegal Status” GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 14.3 (2008): 289-315 Titshaw, Scott. “The Meaning of Marriage: Immigration Rules and Their Implications for Same-Sex Spouses in a World without DOMA” William & Mary Journal of Women and the Law 16 (2010): 537-612. Print. Turney, CT. “Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor, and Your Queer: The Need and Potential for Advocacy for LGBTQ Immigrant Detainees” UCLA Law Review 58 (2010): 1343-1388. Print Chavez, Leo. The Latino Threat. Los Angeles: University of California Press. 2008. Print.
Once you are an immigrant, you never forget that you are one.
“
quote corner
just words? just speeches? Jorge Ramos
Thanks to the influence of Hispanics, this is a different America.
Calling someone illegal is insulting to all of us.
The United States gave me opportunities that my country of origin could not: freedom of the press and complete freedom of expression.
You have to go through a mental and emotional process to recognize who you really are. I finally recognized that I cannot be defined by one country.
We need not only one Cesar Chavez; we need a thousand of Cesar Chavezes.
I will go to a nice restaurant in Miami, and no one sitting at the tables will notice me or even know who I am. Then everyone in the kitchen comes out and wants to take a picture.
Nobody is in favor of undocumented immigration, not even the undocumented.
O the Places You’ll Go BROAD Voice, BROAD Communities Ray Salazar
On Our Lady of Guadalupe & manhood for my 9-year-old son
I value taking my 9-year-old son, Adrián, to the barber shop. As we walk from the car to the shop’s door, I take his hand. When he was smaller, his little fingers barely wrapped around the edge of my palm. Now that he’s older, his grasp inside my hand is changing. These days, his fingers remain outstretched like a comb in my grasp. My little boy is searching for his independence. So I encourage him to tell the barber how to cut his hair: “I want the front long.” “Adrián, it’s too long,” I step in. “Noooo,” he responds with a disappointment he’ll likely use one day when I say he cannot use my car or stay out late. For now, the barber still looks to me for the final word. “Fine. Just a bit on top.” On Sunday mornings, I want to repeat the memory I have of my father combing my damp hair when I was a kid. With brilliantine on Easter and on school picture days, my dad sent me off proudly with the scent and slickness of a new haircut. I treasure the few moments of my father combing my hair, making the perfect part on the left side of my head. My son doesn’t want anything in his hair on Sunday mornings. “Just water,” he says as we prepare to go to church. In what seems like only weeks ago, I lifted my little boy up with one arm, carrying him next to my heart: my little boy who looks like me and, at three
years old, sang off-key. But these days, he is a too heavy to hold on one forearm. Now, his voice blends smoothly into songs as it does into prayers. At mass, dressed as an altar server, Adrián’s hair sweeps across his forehead as if brushed over by someone’s blessing. In the procession bearing a heavy cross high above his head with hair I want to comb neatly, my son struggles to balance the pole. He persists. On Sundays, this is how he carries out his faith. I watch him from a pew wondering how he remains comfortable with the tips of his hair in his eyes. Then I begin to wonder in my internal silence, more soundless than a prayer, if or when my son will question the Mexican Catholic faith he was born into. The other day in the car, out of nowhere, my son asked me, “Papi, what was your greatest fear as a kid?” I couldn’t find an answer. “I don’t know, m’ijo,” I said after some silence. “Maybe failure.” If or when my son asks me to explain the complexities of our faith, I don’t know if I’ll find the words. So, for now, on this December 12, on the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, I find the words to explain what I believe about our faith to my nine-year-old son. Adrián, as you grow older each December 12, you’ll hear how people question our celebration of La Vírgen. Some associate her origins with the European
conquest. Others doubt her image’s celestial creation. Others say she is a commercial figure, no longer a religious one. But within the faith that you were born into, within the family that all the goodness of the universe brought you into, each December 12, we celebrate Our Lady of Guadalupe’s influence. As you grow older, I hope that when you see the image with the patient gaze, when you see the outline of her bent knee underneath her golden gown-as if she were moving closer to all who visit her, I hope that you affirm her maternal image. When you see her brown hands perhaps enclosed in thoughtful prayer or perhaps compelled to open and embrace those asking for intervention at her feet, I hope you recognize, as all Guadalupanos do around the world, that she is the mother of Jesus. Our Lady of Guadalupe is the mother of a Jesus I want you to know not as the martyr, the victim, or the chilling image of a crucified man I knew as a child. I want you to know Jesus as a man whose existence inspired a sense of justice. I want you to know a Jesus who rebelled. I want you to know a Jesus who knew his purpose in the world and fulfilled it. Because by knowing this Jesus, you will grow into a man who helps others. When you become a teenager, you’ll likely hear someone tell you to “man up” and to face fear with an unmoved heart. But this is not the man I want you to be. Our Lady of Guadalupe gave life to man who expressed the emotion within his human heart. Even when able to perform the miracle of bringing a dead man back to life, Jesus did not give into a perspective of insensitivity. He saw the sad circumstances of human loss from other people’s views. Jesus recognized the grief in others’ hearts. Jesus cried.
I hope, my son, that you define your manhood not with stoicism but with sensitivity.
I hope, my son, that you define your manhood not with stoicism but with sensitivity. When your heart is moved by anger and you, perhaps, feel compelled to express that rage with violence using a manly brute strength, I ask you to remember that greater insurrections occur through acts of kindness. One Sabbath, despite the tradition of rest, Jesus healed a crippled woman. With his controversial act, Jesus set a woman free from her infirmity, lifted her face into the sky, and helped her see, again, the universe’s glory. Criticized for breaking custom, Jesus-as a lone man-defended his actions against his critics. He grounded his rebellion in the belief that on that holy day all life should be liberated. Acts of kindness, Adrián, can give a sole man the courage to challenge the misguided-no matter how powerful they might be. Whenever you face a seemingly impossible decision-whether drawn out or abrupt-may your mind and heart be guided by that memory of Jesus’s radical benevolence. Most importantly, may you fight against the manly impulse of impatience. For nine months, your mother patiently carried you inside of her womb. As your temperament evolves, may you somehow, somewhere inside of you, carry that pre-natal memory: that waiting, that not knowing, that trusting in something grander than yourself. May you value, as I have come to value, the power of a mother’s patience-a quality many men, unfortunately, disparage. Patience, we must remember, brings new understandings. I, your father, am not a faultless man. So I, too, must remember the fortitude of recognizing my mistakes. All good men should. Nine years ago, Adrián, minutes after you were born, I brushed the thin hair on your soft head with my fingers and whispered into your tiny ear the destiny I ask Our Lady of Guadalupe to help you fulfill: “Welcome to the world, m’ijo. Here, you will use your intellect to help lots and lots of people.” On December 12, may our Lady of Guadalupe bless you, inspire you to believe in her, to believe in yourself, and to remember-always-how much your father believes you will become one impressive man.
bookmark here find your next social justice text here BROAD Readers
First Sentence:
Released:
“In the Fall of 2005, I represented an asylum-seeker in a case before the Immigratio n Court in San Francisco.”
2008
Genre:
Nonfiction
Overview:
ted undocumen 4 2 f o s e ri 24 o them. These mpiles the st y o b c r ld e to rn s O a r m s, te Pete the world-fro e United Sta d n th u in ro a ts s n e c ra us pla immig ver, from numero roon, and others; howe re a ls a u id iv e ind , Cam credibly a, Colombia stories are in ir e h T s. e Mexico, Chin m invisie common th light the very e h v a ig h h ll ll a a y y e e der th give the rea oving, and th n m a c d s n a a ll t e n a w n poig ence, as umented f their experi ce of undoc n e ri e p x e d ble nature o live ght into the valuable insi .S. folks in the U
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s:
ote Notable Qu
rs who other mothe to lk ta to e k nd “I’d li ansgender a tr re a t a th s have son love cept them, to c a to m e th tell want to port them...I sh, them, to sup I can, in Engli s a c li b u p s now make this a Americans k e th s, lo g n A so the ortant so re. This is imp a c le p o e p d erson.” an to another p s n e p p a h r e it nev
thumb’s up?: The stories in this book provide a breadth of in formation to give the user insight into the ex perience of undocum en ted immigrants. Many stories follow the char acters around their ex periences in their coun of origin, of their trans tries it, of their experiences in the United States as undocumented, and in some occasions their deportations or deaths These stories highlight . their struggles and th eir triumphs, and they pr vide real stories in an oattempt to put a hum an face on the nationw discussion on immigra ide tion. Not BR
OAD enough?: This book provides th e opportunity for the reader to step into the world of an undocum ented immigrant, hope fully building empath and compassion. Unfo y rtunately, those who re ad these groundbreakin books are not the indi g viduals that need conv incing. This book is pa ularly effective in mot rti civating individuals wh o are already supportiv the cause, but can als e of o be a great tool to co nv ince someone who m be on the fence. ay
message me we asked. you answered. BROAD people
BROAD May 2015
Mexico
BROAD Info + Editors
the US-Mexico border
BROAD Info + Editors
My friends, roommate, past lovers, colleagues, ancestors... just about everyone!
broadside poetry in street lit style Elishah Virani
the r e h t Mo land
night, through the t p e w I s a e close She held m light. into the day e m d te r fo Com ees, ll on my kn fe I s a d o the blo . She caught me a breeze e v a g e h s , g was sweatin And when I , ht about life g u o th d n a parks I sat in her strife. es after any ch a e b r e h g to home, Came runnin ars led me st r e h d n a t ave me ligh roam. Her moon g e places to m e v a g e h s , pless nights allies, And on slee my lifelong f o e m o s d r that I foun It is with he despise. to love and d e n r a le I land It is on her ? er, my land th o m y m k n I tha and. So how did uld underst o w e h s g in p r better, ho I left her fo f ease, was a life o d te n a w I Cause all tease. h she was a o , e in m f o ther s, But this mo by blue lake a b r e h in of beauty e glimpses m e v a g e ke. h S ocean at sta n a e b ’d e r n’t left, the But if I had a, am every se w s d n a y a r aw he. So I flew fa forting as s m o c s a lt fe admit none , But I must nonetheless n e d r u b a t se, bu g and a cur s. It’s a blessin with distres e m s ll fi t r a e in my he Her absenc er, like any oth n u ty u a e b eal She was a r ther. lace of a mo p e th e k ta can For no one
who to follow social media social justice social life BROAD people
Immigration Policy Center Girl Forward Loom Chicago Refugee One Jesuit Refugee Service Pulse America (pulseamerica.co.uk)
O the Places You’ll Go BROAD Voice, BROAD Communities Bethany Collins
We All Live in the Border: A White Woman Negotiates Cultural Identity
On November 6 & 7, 2014, the Loyola Latin American Studies Program and Hank Center for Catholic Intellectual Heritage partnered to host a conference titled Chicago Catholic Immigrants: The Mexicans. During the conference, a number of speakers, researchers, and panels presented on many aspects of Mexican immigration to Chicago, illuminating the intersections of faith, religion, history, politics, and many other elements of these immigrants’ experiences. LatinoUSA’s Maria Hinajosa provided a keynote on her own experiences and insights as a Latina in the United States. Student panels described their challenges and successes, and how they are working to make education more accessible to their immigrant and undocumented peers. Another panel shared anecdotes, histories, and research around la Virgen de Guadalupe, the essential figure of Mexican Catholicism. The conference brought together a myriad of voices to explore the richness of the Catholic Mexican culture in Chicago. Attending this conference, she expected to be interested, educated, informed, and even entertained. She did not expect to find herself, a white, middle class, young woman from Michigan so entangled in every session and panel. But she is. Why? Because the United States of America do not belong to this white girl. This country is not a place where she can settle, comfortable in the majority, with a stable
identity. No. This woman lives in the border too. A theme running throughout the conference was just how much negotiation takes place around every single aspect of an immigrant’s life. Names, personalities, families, occupations, homes, languages, political groups, laws, food, and public spaces become complicated and even contested.
Dr. Elaine Peña shared the story of a shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe that once existed in Rogers Park. This space started as a standard bus stop--just a small length of city sidewalk--then became the site of a miracle, a place where a Mexican community gathered, prayed, socialized, sang, cried. At the same time, it became a place where other community members expressed disgust, awe, disinterest, or a sense of superiority. For a time the shrine flourished, but it gradually fell victim to the conflicts, cultural, spiritual, political, and even logistical, around it’s very existence. Today it has completely disappeared. The story of this shrine illustrates so many values and conflicts of the Chicago Catholic Mexican experience. She knows the shrines too. She visits them, lights candles, imagines la Virgen’s mantilla encompassing her, protecting her, embracing her. She misses the shrines, wishes her new home in Rogers Park still had one.
being torn apart. She is sorry. She hates her home, the home that created ICE, builds fences, believes in aliens. She will never know this fear; she is documented, but she still hurts. She is still powerless. She wishes her votes counted, finding it hard to believe they do. Gloria Anzaldúa, in her poem, “To Live in the Border Means You”, speaks of the many confusing, conflicting identities a Chicana has, & must learn to live with. This woman cannot reduce her identity to a single, comprehensible whole. She describes feeling “caught in the crossfire between camps...not knowing which side to turn to, run to” (216). This woman can never quite find a place, as she is “at home, a stranger” (216). Anzaldúa recognizes the failures of her own culture, created by men and harmful to its women--”dominant paradigms, predefined concepts that exist as unquestionable”--and rejects them, but cannot reject the fact that it is her culture (38).
Raymundo Salazar related a personal anecdote, expressing the importance for him of sharing his own Mexican faith and family experiences, his memories of his own mother, with his own U.S. American daughter. Mr. Salazar expressed just how crucial it is that a parent can pass on his most precious memories to his children, but he also helped me understand that translating memories across cultures can be incredibly difficult. Mr. Salazar had to find a way for his own daughter to understand what the memories mean to him, and what he wants them to mean to her.
Gloria’s poetry gives words to the white woman’s heart. She is not Chicana, but she lives in the border too. Her very self is fragmented into any number of identities, & she must navigate this complicated terrain in every area of her life. She can never choose to simply be one or another. She cannot compose an identity that allows every piece to sit comfortably. For this woman, although white, privileged, safe, to live is to negotiate, to give & take.
Her own father--her Gringo father--told her about la Virgen too. She spent hours with her hands in the masa, making hundreds of tamales for the fiesta on December 12. She wore her own mantilla, watched her brother, a little Anglo “Juan Diego,” discover roses.
She cannot compose an identity...comfortably. For this woman, although white, privileged, safe, to live is to negotiate, to give and take.
JoAnn Persch described the day of deportation, perhaps the most dreaded experience of immigrants. For immigrants without documents, deportation looms like a cloud above their heads, ready to tear their families apart without a proper goodbye. She cries, hearing the stories of people not her own, but still her people. She cannot imagine the pain of
broadside poetry in street lit style Garret Gundlach, SJ
h c a e For o r e r r e u G a i r Ma
free nd border, o c e s e th d se ts You’ve cros , green shir s ie sk e th from eyes in ways. on the thru The North, to in p ee d e it You’ve mad afely sleep. s n a c u o y , nce where, for o
But now begins the border’s best and last defense, fear- the calling card of power.
this night in u o y s e k It wa disturb, to flood and d, rn, your min tu e r ’s ty li a e lights with r d and blue e r h it w g n l.” repeati me, “Illega a n n a ic r e m your new A
Yes, you are more than yo u, in hope, joined with your many mo re: your mother and your fa ther, your partner and your ch ild, here or calling from sout hern home.
e. share a voic e p o h d n a y The
every siren, , Fear wears er home late tn r a p d n a d every chil t the door, a k c o n k y r eve : its disguise s a d n u o s y ever “You are your own worst enemy,” it says, “And it’s only time before you pay your chosen price.”
ar, in hope, fe n a th e r o ught m But you bro not alone. is e ic o v s it and
es n, photo fac r o w ir e th Along with every night g in k r o w r last, and you st and your r fi r u o y s k each spea rnal name, te e e n o r u yo ” but not “Illegal, rero María Guer
-and so you fight on
The Pink Paperbacks Novel reflections from a bibliophilic feminist Ellie Diaz
Traveling Through Porous Borders in Literature American lit and British lit are among the most popular English courses at universities. We like to revel in the familiar. We feel “proper” when we read the classics. Sometimes we want to feel so close to home that we set up boundaries in literature, drawing a border around our classroom, our home or our treasured novels. This year, I took a world literature course. And I washed the inky border away with a flood of diverse stories, authors and adventures. The class, which was discussion-based and had a total of 15 students, focused on identity and the travels of liminal characters as they return to a homeland or settle in a new country. It asked the questions “What is identity?” “Are borders physical or a social construction?” “What is history and can we change it?” “What consists of American lit and who do you have to be to write it?” I still don’t have the answers to those questions, questions I had never thought about before, but I don’t think I have to. The first day of class, the professor projected a world map onto the white board. Then he traced the novels we were going to read. We would travel to India and follow an old woman who sweeps the steps of travelers, to the unpredictable Sundarbans to follow a foreigner scientist in her own country as she battles sexism, tigers and storms. Then, we would visit
London, where two intertwined immigrant families struggle to find a balance between science, faith and culture. Then we would witness a police chief murder an innocent immigrant, and trace his history through Bosnia and Chicago as a journalist tries to bring his story to justice. Finally, we would land in Santo Domingo where a dictator’s curse follows generations of characters through bad luck and footnotes. After the semester, I was exhausted from the traveling, but ecstatic that I ventured beyond the comforts of typical American and English literature. Here are a few selections and excerpts from my journey: The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz “They say it came from Africa, carried in the screams of the enslaved; that it was the death bane of the Tainos, uttered just as one world perished and another began; that it was a demon drawn into Creation through the nightmare door that was cracked open in the Antilles. Fukú americanus, or more colloquially, fukú - generally a curse or doom of some kind; specifically the Curse and the Doom of the New World. No matter what its name or provenance, it is believed that the arrival of Europeans on Hispaniola unleashed fukú on the world, and we’ve all been in the shit ever since.”
White Teeth by Zadie Smith “No fiction, no myths, no lies, no tangled webs –this is how Irie imagined her homeland. Because homeland is one of the magical fantasy words like unicorn and soul and infinity that have now passed into language.” The Lazarus Project by Aleksandar Hemon “‘Sarajevo is Sarajevo whatever you see or don’t see. America is America. The past and future exist without you. And what you don’t know about me is still my life. What I don’t know about you is still your life. Nothing at all depends on you seeing it or not seeing it. I mean, who are you? You don’t have to see or know everything.’” The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh “There was a time when the Bengali language was an angry flood trying to break down her door. She would crawl into a closet and lock herself in, stuffing her ears to shut out those sounds. But a door was
But I do have the choice to break down the confinements of comfortable literature and travel through porous borders and unfamiliar pages. And I choose to pack my bags. no defense against her parents’ voices: it was in that language that they fought, and the sounds of their quarrels would always find ways of trickling in under the door and through the cracks, the level rising until she thought she would drown in the flood.” Sometimes, world literature and border literature make readers embarrassed, which is why I think some veer away from the genres. While reading these books, we occasionally have to admit our faults and dispel predispositions. It’s my fault I didn’t know where Sarajevo was on a map before reading The Lazarus Project. It’s also my fault I supported saving and preserving tigers without a second thought to the villages that have to defend themselves against the creatures in The Hungry Tide. It was naïve of me to think America is navigable and a land of opportunities when immigrants are struggling to find identity in a judgmental environment. Crossing back and forth between literary borders is enlightening. It makes readers ask questions to new tour guides. I’ve never had to immerse myself in a new language, or battle duel cultures or hold on to the past while creating a future. I’ve never been forced to live on a constant border. But I do have the choice to break down the confinements of comfortable literature and travel through porous borders and unfamiliar pages. And I choose to pack my bags.
broadside poetry in street lit style Dawn Sherwood
exico, untable in Chiapas, M r co ac r he ot ch ea ld d month through thei an k wee ch ea Artisan women ho e ad m of money they have recording the amount cooperatives.
ry box s a key to the treasu se es ss po an m wo ch Ea rd-earned money. ha r ei th le nd ha to r in orde All must be present d artisan who is worrie likely did not make it. he d I am interviewing an an er rd bo e th o. d tried to cross at was three years ag Th She says her husban ft. le he y da e th om him since She has not heard fr
ilies actually doing m fa an ic ex M d he lis e towns with estab “Are there really entir r her arm. He is shy. de un om fr e m at up oks on foot to el Norte. ek tr s ou Her 9 year old boy lo er ng da e th y contemplating I can tell he is alread
months later States and N n d e e v it n se U , rd a a n rw zo s, Ari Flash fo nt rder at Nogale o b e th ccessful migra g su n n iti u is n a to I am v g in en resting n’s shelter list States. She is e th to in I am in woma g in perience cross recount her ex her ailments. her mind and
rk from migran A bulletin board displays artwo d recuperation f Others who are finding rest an on the wall c Over half of the artwork hanging o” They all read, “Chiapas, Mexic n. I could have known these wome
Migration from Chiapas, Mexico, well?� she asks.
a Southern state which borders Guatemala
ra, Mexico Nogales, Sono
ssed in the last two weeks nts who have unsuccessfully cro cal injuries. from their emotional and physi contain signatures
O the Places You’ll Go BROAD Voice, BROAD Communities Ray Salazar
H ow a f at her expl ains O ur La dy o f Guadalu pe to h is da u g ht er
As many of us know, for Mexican Catholics, December 12 marks the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Worshipers sing mañanitas, songs of praise early in the morning. These celebrations commemorate the morning, we believe, she appeared to Juan Diego on Mexico’s City Tepeyac Hill in 1531. On this morning, I share my ofrenda, my writing, to Our Lady of Guadalupe with one request: guide me to help my daughter fulfill the destiny I whispered into her tiny ear minutes after she was born. When my little girl was three years old, she stared at our nativity one Saturday afternoon. She asked me, “Papi. Why are all the baby Jesus boys?” Grounded in my progressive views, I responded, “You’re right, m’ija. Little girls can be baby Jesus, too.” My daughter, I realized, was a feminist and, I, her proud Pops. On December 12, when millions of Mexican Catholics celebrate the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe and buy roses in her name, I contemplate: How can I ensure that I, a progressive Chicano father, contribute to my daughter’s feminism and faith? When I was sixteen, I saw La Vírgen at her basilica on Tepeyac Hill. My grandmother and my aunt who never had children took a six-hour bus ride with me
to ensure I saw the image exalted by Mexicans for centuries. In Chicago in our 26th Street home, my father, silently, without knowing, also showed me to believe. Each morning before he left for work, each evening when he returned, my father made the sign of the cross before another image in our home: the image of La
Vírgen de San Juan de Los Lagos. The summer of 1985, in the dark morning around 4 a.m., we pulled out of our garage for what would be our last family road trip to Mexico in our green Dodge van. My father shifted a new transmission into drive, stepped on the gas, and turned to my mother, as he always has in times of doubt: “Pídele a La Vírgen que nos cuide.” My mother, exhausted from packing and staying up all night, my mother with rollers in her hair that dark morning, crossed herself and prayed for a safe journey. To this day, my mother finds the strength and compassion to advocate on our behalf. My grandmother, my aunt, my mother, my wife--it has been the women in my life who taught me, who instilled in me the ever-lasting importance of faith. It has been my children’s mother, not I, who taught our son and daughter how to pray. Each night, no matter how on time or how late their bedtime is, my children say, “We need to pray.” Accompanied by a night light and stuffed animals, I listen to words chosen by my daughter and arranged in youthful order so they rise among the stars and give my little girl peace. Within my five-year-old’s intentions, I hear my own hopes: “En el nombre del Padre, del Hijo, y Espíritu Santo, Amén. Diosito, por favor cuida a mami, a papi, a yo, and everybody on Earth. Gracias por todo. Amén.” My little girl scrunches into her pillow. I lift the pink comforter into the air so it falls without a sound upon her. She closes her luminous eyes, eyes intense as Amaryllis blooms, eyes like her mother’s, and lays her head in comfort on a pretty pillow to welcome dreams. Sitting at her bedside, I ask for the words to explain. Our Lady of Guadalupe is the image our gente turns to when we need God’s help. With a blue cloak of stars, with humble eyes that connect with those of us who pray and present roses at her feet, La Vírgen reminds us of the goodness in the universe, even when we feel we cannot find it. Of this goodness, La Vírgen reminded me when your grandma fought against an illness.
Because, m’ija, even as a man with arms strong enough to lift you into the sky and with hands big enough to protect you in an embrace and hold you, as if you were only the size of my own heart, I feel scared sometimes. This is when I turn to the image above the roses, when I need to remember the strength of the Mexican women in my life-the women who have always been stronger than the menand I ask for the courage, the focus, and the faith to persevere. Like most daughters, you, too, will likely enshrine an image of her Papi as a faultless man. Know that I will aspire, every day, to be that good. And this, too, is why I ask La Vírgen to help me be a better man. I think about the moments when you will confront injustice in this world. It’s at that moment I want you to remember that Our Lady of Guadalupe led farm workers, like your grandpa once was, to demand what they deserved: decent pay, safe places to work, respect. Chicanas, like your mother, found in this brownfaced saint a self-recognition and a validation that helped them re-define a passive faith into images of La Vírgen as an independent force. When you see La Vírgen’s image in its traditional form, as Tonántzin, her indigenous name, or in another interpretation of female power, may you always recognize your history. When you look at your own image in the mirror, always find your beauty. Remember, there will always be one man who thinks you are the most beautiful woman in the world. Angela, five years ago, minutes after you were born, I whispered into your tiny ears the destiny I ask La Vírgen to help you fulfill: “Welcome to the world, m’ija. Here, you will use your intellect to help lots and lots of people.” On this December 12, may Our Lady of Guadalupe bless you, inspire you to believe in her, to believe in yourself, and to remember, always, how much your Papi believes in you.
S
words are useless sometimes words aren’t enough Daniela Montecinos
Le Depart Daniela Montecinos was Loyola University Chicago’s first Artist-In-Residence in the Autumn of 2013. She is a Chilean artist who now lives in Southern France with her husband who is also an artist. In her words: “Since an early age I’ve been a traveler, a wanderer, often away from home. My viewpoint, even if I may work from life, has the flavor of nostalgia and of longing. Memories from distant places, people, and events are inevitably intertwined with my present. A deja vu, a feeling that something’s missing, is somewhat present in my work.” http://danielamontecinos.blogspot.com/
SSpS
S l e e p walker
T r a v e l s
SSpS
Historias Minimas
No Where 2
Patrie
Historias Minimas
Why
microaggreSHUNS it’s the little things that count BROAD People
good immigrant | bad immigrant
Why is it such a big deal, you’re here aren’t you?
illegal aliene Are you here legally? Is your family? These undocumented youth were brought here by their parents at ‘no fault of their own’’
Why do undocumented people need their own scholarship? Jeeze
therapist, professor, friend who doesn’t educate themself
blank space for social security #| forced to divulge address We don’t accept consular IDs at this bar / club / xyz
criminale Are you marrying to fix your papers? | illegals Why didn’t you just come here legally? | Why don’t you just become legal?
World of Women Measuring the Strength of Women in Pounds & Kilos Elishah Virani
One Word, A Million Stories
Immigration. A four syllable word often accompanied by skeptical looks and plenty of controversy. For most, it is a concept that they have opinions about and have heard stories about, but for some, it is what shaped their lives. In the case of many of the South Asian families that I know, the immigration story has been pretty similar for the most part. Usually, it begins with a married couple leaving their motherland and everything they’re used to for what they hope is a better life. They think about their future and the security of their children and make the decision to leave behind their families, their homes, their friends, and an entire life that they had been building since they were children. All for something that they can only hope will be as great for them as the stories they had been told. So they venture off into the unpredictable lands of the United States with no support system and barely enough money to get by, but what they do have is determination in their minds, and faith in their hearts, and somehow that is enough. They find a small apartment to live in and some heavy labor jobs in order to have a roof on their heads. They often struggle with language barriers, racism, lack of experience, and a lot of helplessness, but they constantly remind themselves of the reason they came here in the first place. So they work even harder, regardless of the obstacles, and eventually they are able to comfortably raise children who have the privilege of getting quality education and be surrounded by opportunities. These stories are what us South Asian kids have grown up hearing, and although at times it gets annoying and redundant, we always hold them close to our hearts because they remind us to be grateful for what we have. We are reminded to cherish our parents who sacrificed everything for us, and to always hold tight to our roots and our culture that our parents have done a great job at not losing in the journey. These stories seem so simple and so typical, but they encompass so much that is impossible to see, much like the word immigration itself. I guess in essence, it is a simple four syllable word that would be a great question on a spelling bee, but there is so much more to it than just 11 letters. This one word contains so many different stories, struggles, ideas, cultures, conflicts, controversies, and perspectives; and it’s different for everyone. What does it mean to you?
srotidE + ofnI DAORB
srotidE + ofnI DAORB
They often struggle with language barriers, racism, lack of experience, and a lot of helplessness, but they constantly remind themselves of the reason they came here in the first place. BROAD Info + Editors
BROAD Info + Editors
Angry Atheist Angry. Godless. Opinionated. Mario Mason
America: A Home to Immigrants
BROAD Info + Editors BROAD Info + Editors
BROAD Info + Editors
Through my own personal experiences and the experiences of those around me, I’ve compiled a list of reasons why one would choose to relocate to the US. The biggest thing that separates America from most other nations for me, personally, is that it is a meritocracy. I am able to create my own path (for the most part) as long as I have the drive and ambition to do what it takes to get to where I want to be. Another factor is the diversity present in America. Whether you are Arab, African, Hispanic, Chinese or any other ethnicity there is a high chance you will meet other people who share similar background as yourself. This can be very comforting when you feel like a stranger in a new land. Growing up in Jamaica it was generally thought that a hardworking person could make it on his own based on his talent and not his political connection. By doing what you are passionate about you can also be very successful. Although this may not be 100% true, there are dozens of rags to riches stories that migrants aspire to be like/follow. In Jamaica, America is considered the land of opportunities. Not only are there tons of educational opportunities but also through a strong sense of personal freedom immigrants are given opportunities they may not have even considered before. Overall, living conditions in America are a lot better than most places. This includes: Public transportation, green cities, clean water, low levels of air pollutions and government aid. In America, once you become a citizen you are able to actually buy and own land as oppose to some governments that only allow you to rent/buy the rights of a land. The social welfare system here in the US is also very admirable. In the grand scheme of things our healthcare is not that bad, unemployment insurances are available to help the unemployed, and also centers for people to receive care they need such as domestic violence support to rehab for alcohol. Compared to many developing countries America is also a lot less corrupt. Overall the common theme here is freedom. American offers a lot more freedom. I , along with many other immigrants have a lot more options with what we can and want to do with our lives. It’s taught that you can do whatever you want and be whoever you want as long a you put the work in.
In Jamaica, America is considered the land of opportunities. Not only are there tons of educational opportunities but also through a strong sense of personal freedom immigrants are given opportunities they may not have even considered before.
BROAD Info + Editors
Despite having a system that is unfair to immigrants, a broken healthcare system, and a lifestyle that seems almost mechanical and opposite of most cultures, America is home to a number of migrants from all over the world. So why do people leave their homes and myriads of relationships to become a stranger in a new one that does not accept them?
O the Places You’ll Go BROAD Voice, BROAD Communities Jacob N. Batycki
In the Blur For most, being in two or more places at once seems like a fantastic and uncanny concept. Indeed, how can one defy the laws of physics to be in two places at once? Nonetheless, for many this is neither fiction nor fantasy: it is reality. For immigrants, life is a constant balancing act of learning and negotiating identities. Limiting oneself to a single identity and a single place in time is one of the greatest challenges faced by immigrants. I am the child of Polish immigrants. I am a first generation Polish-American, and I live between the blurs of my two national identities, my two motherlands, and my two homes. I am never wholly here and never wholly there. In this notion, Chilean artist Daniela Montecinos depicts the dichotomy between past and present. In late November of 2013, Loyola University Chicago Department of Fine and Performing Arts (LUC DFPA) hosted Daniela Montecinos’ exhibition Transits. In her displayed pieces, Montecinos revisited “the memory of moments missing or disappearing,” as inspired by her stay in France nearly ten years ago (LUC DFPA). Offering an exposé on situations in motion in thelives of people and animals, Montecinos’ blurred charcoal representations of fragments in time elicited reflection and invited me to lose myself in the moment. I felt truly present, able to slow down and enjoy a feeling of serenity in an otherwise breathless and fast-paced run between past and future. Her artwork captivates her audience with a reality that is the ceaseless thrust of life. She explores what is life’s ruthless forwardly push,
just as she herself had experienced it while living in France as an immigrant.The blurs in Montecinos’s art were calming, romantic and alluring, and left me pondering my place between my own life’s blurs - my own immigrant identity. Wandering about the exhibit analyzing Montecinos’s art, I felt an immediate connection to her drawings of suitcases which led me to think of my travels between my two homes in Poland and the United States. I inadvertently focused on what then seemed like a trivial notion - that of packing and unpacking my suitcases. Although it can be stressful due to unrealistic weight restrictions on luggage, I actually take pleasure in the process of packing. For “half the fun of going out is getting ready,” I find the preparations for any of my trips to be an essential and enjoyable part of my experience. Montecino’s art led me to reminisce about how as a young boy I would start packing weeks in advance, because I was always so excited to travel. Although I am now too caught up in the pace of a college student’s busy life to think about my travels and to start packing that far in advance, I still feel the excitement of travel, especially while frantically packing only the night before a departure. However, upon arriving at my destination, be it in Poland or when I return to Chicago, I avoid the act of unpacking. At the displeasure of my father, my suitcases typically lie around for days and days. My mother, however, is just as I am. Every year when she
returns from Poland, we joke that she should just keep everything in her suitcase in preparation for her future trip. The idea of a suitcase left open and filled with personal belongings quickly turned from trivial to provoking and reflective. What can I learn about the psychology behind my decision to live out of a suitcase while at either of my homes? Does an immigrant avoid unpacking and leave his or her suitcase open solely because a future trip is imminent? Or is this because an immigrant is always en voyage? Is it a longing for the place that he or she departed: a guilt of abandonment? Does the untended suitcase leave a hint of one’s origin and relieve the fear of forgetting? Is an immigrant always in the blur between the two or more solid marks of his or her present and past? Artists tell how the inexplicable and enigmatic ways of the lovestruck heart astonish and confuse, but do we ever consider the ways in which an immigrant’s heart does the same? After all, isn’t it the love for one’s roots that inflicts this pain?
Chicago and Poland every month. It is then that I wish I were looking out the window of a LOT Polish Airlines flight, holding back tears as I always do when I hear the captain’s announcement welcoming us over Polish soil as we begin our descent for Warsaw. As if awoken from a daydream, I remember that I am still in Chicago, but I remind myself that it is only a matter of a few months before I will experience that sense of coming home again. Similarly, when I am in Poland, I miss Chicago. While sipping tea on my taras on a summer morning in Poland, seeing those very Tatra Mountains, I long to feel the breeze and hear the sounds of Lake Michigan’s waves hitting the rocks on Lake Shore Campus. I miss the hustle and bustle of the city, and I long to hear the sounds of the L and to see the city’s skyline and captivating lights. Although I know how much it will pain me to leave Poland as it does every single time, I feel an urge to return to Chicago - the Chicago that is and forever will be home, forever and always in my memory, my future.
Montecinos’ artwork depicting people and animals blurred in the moment evoked in me memories of past travels, leaving me with a bittersweet nostalgia. The blurred charcoal representations of people and animals made me think of my mother’s poetry, and her writings on immigrant identity. My mother writes that the heart of an immigrant forever “pozostaje w agonicznej rozterce” - it forever remains in an agonizing perplexity (Helena Batycki, Serce Emigranta, unpublished material). Torn between the past and the present, between origin and destination, between one home and another, an immigrant rarely achieves a full sense of emotional stability. Such is the trouble of balancing and negotiating identities - all one can do is embrace the ambiguity and live from one day to the next. I perpetually find myself in this kind of state - I feel that I am never wholly here or there. When I am in Chicago, I long for the crisp air and beautiful sight of my beloved Tatra Mountains in Poland. Seeing a LOT Polish Airlines jet departing or approaching O’Hare grows in me an unsettling wanderlust and urge to drop everything and fly away, only to return to Poland, my Poland, moja Polska. I miss the countless hours spent listening to my grandmother’s inspiring accounts of the immigrant’s struggles during her first few years here in the United States back in the 1970s. I miss the scenic walks I take with my Godmother when we go blueberry and mushroom picking every summer. I miss the three years of my late childhood that I spent in Poland with my mother, when my father would fly back and forth between
It is times like these when I experience what Montecinos captures in her art: “the memory of moments missing or disappearing” (LUC DFPA). I reminisce about the past, and even though I can and do revisit those very places, each time leaves me with a different sentiment. Each new visit evokes old feelings & memories while simultaneously creating new ones. Each time, these memories are concrete, specific, and contain little details and trivial minutiae of a single moment. I think back to seeing a homeless man passionately playing his violin on the Planty in Kraków, a Gypsy woman selling flowers at a restaurant in Warsaw, a man preaching religious teachings on State and Randolph in Chicago, or two neighborhood dogs mating on my driveway in Koscielisko... Montecinos’s artwork brings these moments of my past back to life and leaves me pondering the past’s effect on the present. Like history that ceaselessly builds on itself affecting future outcomes, these past memories and the ones that are yet to come will forever continue to affect me. No matter where I will be, I know myself to be powerless to the influence of the past, for any moment can evoke a nostalgic longing for lived experiences. I not only carry pieces of my past, but I also leave a little bit of myself in each of the places I love. As an immigrant, I am always living the “faded loss, longing, and sweetness [that] are silent, suggested, and whispered” in my memory (LUC DFPA). Like Montecino’s subjects, I live in an ambiguous blur of motion. I am here, but I am also there. My heart & soul defy the laws of physics every day.
Liberation Leaders Illuminating Then & Now, Inspiring Forever Julio Salgado
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Bio:
Works:
Julio Salgado was born in M exico in 1983 family migrate . His d to the Unit ed States in 199 his younger si 5 after ster was diag nosed with a disease. A U.S kidney . doctor expla in ed to Salgado that a return ’s family to Mexico wo uld kill the yo sister, so they unger chose to stay in the United They had to liv States. e under an u ndocumente after they ove d status rstayed their visas. Salgad that while bei o n otes n challenging th g undocumented was cert ainly roughout his youth, comin his queer iden g out with tity was even more difficult growing up. for him He lived in a community w people under here other stood his stru ggle as an un ed person, an documentd so he “came out” as undo to some of th cumented e people in h is community; he kept his q however, ueer identity to himself th high school an roughout d college. He first came ou mother abou t to his t his queer id entity after sh some old jou e found rnal entries h e’d made. Bec undocumente ause of his d status, Salg ado did not q federal financi ualify for al aid and had to work at low jobs to put h -paying imself throug h college. Aft years, he grad er nine uated with a degree in jo from Californ ia State Univer urnalism sity.
ADS MAD TE QUO ER N COR
tell-a-vision visions & revisions of our culture(s) Undocumented and Awkward
AL L TE ON VISI
-ATELL N VISIO
EN/ SCRE Y PLA
COR E T QUO ER N
ARK M K BOO RE HE
BROAD
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N ATIO LIBER ERS D LEA
WLA ED IMAT REAN
R NTEE VOLU VOICES
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This web series was created by Dreamers Adrift, a collective of undocumented activists that use art and media to talk about the experience of undocumented immigrants in the United States. The group’s goal is to put real, human faces to the immigration debate and give young undocumented people a voice in the movement. The first four episodes are featured here, but more can be found on the Dreamers Adrift YouTube account.
Consider:
IDE ADS BRO
VISIT G IN
T E GO
V 1. What do you think about this series? Do you relate to any of it? Or doesWitE’make you reflect on any of your own MAIL privileges – job access, financial aid, ability to get a driver’s license,CEetc.? AN ADV 2. How does this creative project serve as a form of O activism? What is the impact?
Link:
youtube.com/watch?v=1XbnTK6udQA
MICR S E AGR S N SHU
D A O BR
(not) buying it busted advertising, bustling economy Immigration Political Ads
NOT BUYING IT!
Consider: Consider: youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9uvp0Jljh6U youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9uvp0Jljh6U youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=tIkNAA2y4I4 youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=tIkNAA2y4I4 youtube.com/watch?v=q7Iyrf3pkjE&noredirect=1#t=18 youtube.com/watch?v=q7Iyrf3pkjE&noredirect=1#t=18 1. What do they have in common? What kind of language do they use to talk about immigration? 1. What do they have in common? What kind of language do they use to talk about immigration? 2. What is the impact? 2. What is the impact?
(not) buying it busted advertising, bustling economy Migration Cartoons
BUYING IT!
Consider: 1. What tactics to these cartoonists use to criticize U.S. immigration policy and anti-immigrant sentiment? Is it a form of activism? Public education? Art?
broadside poetry in street lit style Garret Gundlach, SJ
Squeeze a region with clenched fistslip, where will the desperate but north?
dream, This is not an American but a debate between go, choosing and needing to tightening grip the deserting risk or the . on the pueblo’s vital pulse
Free Trade, Free Hands
g Not every hand is helpin and the same that feeds hind America’s scenes, be m fro rden it’s roof and fields and ga slaps also shut rt door. all but the border ’s dese
ow The left hand doesn’t kn ing, what the right hand is do nd and until the Invisible Ha nd of Supply and More Dema handed, be sought and caught redcuffed and reprimanded, We’re biding the time, tied, thinking our own hands for southern neighbors , to be squeezed completely dry. brutally and anonymously
search this warning: results with assumptions citizenship, immigration, law
t he deser t n i n w I. To dro
broadside poetry in street lit style Garret Gundlach, SJ
-but this is your only way, ance, funneled by steel circumst ce, single file, tempting chan
The desert breeds contradiction where nothing else will grow, between squeezing northern routes places a rock and all these hard d drawn by opportunity an f and pushed by the lack thereo nd. its freight-train need behi North loses south here, low ground loses highby night, summer by day is winter y nameless and the countless prefer to sta d lazily oblige. the authorities gladly an diction The desert breeds contra d gullies, where the same cricks an and shade, cracks in hills that protect will always also be shed, the chutes and galleys flu ng crushed with their safe and sleepi nning walls by flashing floods and ru water. of southbound mountain trek between These extremes that you may snap at any time, side, contradictions split their , with nowhere else to hide ilsbare to wrestling lesser ev
e h T t r e s e D Damned if you do, Damned if you don’t
Damned to be another e desert. to drown, somehow, in th
.
II. Betting Hope against the House
Can you weigh his hope against his risk, unknown against unknow n?
Can you tell him, then, exactly when his hunger is enough, n crossed, when his border has bee t come? and he has no choice bu
Can your policy confess the extent of the duress to lay another path beside only desert gaps r? you’ve, outspoken, left aja
h t r o N
again Playing odds, the house risk, bet his hope against his expense, northbound need against his son’s against his life:
Blood on every pl ayed hand, when the house w ins, a home loses their family, -forced-gambling, man. III. A desert wake
the desert takes it all but has nowhere to hide, so just leaves it under skies
where it claims and leaves its liveslaying them down among their scattered effects, it pays its final respects for the brave, then crazed, then tired.
broadside poetry in street lit style Garret Gundlach, SJ
e Sketch I. A Courtsid
New to it all, I watch the court like someone watches sports, the first quarter to choose who to cheer and who we’re up against-
en starts, Before it ev s, my team, g o d r e d n u , I know the solemn, see to e m o c e v e, the one’s I’ -twelve wid n te d n a p . six rows dee e Deportees th d e m a n they’re
Operation
Fluorescent tee’s and hoodies, Spanish wired to their ears-
“All rise and please be se ated,” the judge has finally ente red and what just seemed to be beginning has now a different ring, the sound of hidden thin gstheir hands and feet in ch ains.
“courtroom 600”: Photograph courtesy of Davidlohr Bueso, 2014
Row by row, one by one, these mothers and these daughters, these fathers and these so ns stand to speak to leave while the single home-te am fan, the prosecuting man, sits triumphant, silently, nodding twelve times, “S atisfied.”
He wins quickly and wins often what he calls a game all in the work of another day, but back home, these scores mean much more -of no interest to these courts.
Stre amline
II. The Prosecuto r’s Word
Your road of bold choices ends here with no ne, your rote response of Yes and No and Guilty like the dozen befo re and the dozen who follow-
ame, r why you c o w o h r e tt e, No ma are the sam s ie r o st r u yo er - they’re ov
so say so, and go home.
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