Pablo, I'm enthralled with your retelling of your parents' account. Please serialize their experience, if you're so inclined. I'm also a child of recent immigrants who hustled a life out of nothing, although they came from an English speaking country. They arrived at around the same time your parents did, but in a small village instead of NYC.
These accounts should resonate with every American, regardless of the documented status of the person in the account at the time they arrived. Every non-indigenous family here descends from ancestors who came here from elsewhere to scramble and scratch out a life. Those with more generations between them and their immigrating ancestors would do well to remember that, exercise kindness and welcome to fellow people struggling to make their lives better.
Always appreciate your comments, C. (Should I call you "C"? It occurs to me now that I don't know your name.) Exercising kindness, as you wrote, is the key. I do think telling immigrant stories can help, but that's a very long-term strategy. I'm glad you liked the piece. I'll see about writing more like these. Where did your parents immigrate from, if you don't me asking?
Yeah, C. or CJ works. I'm going by that until I fully decide to emerge from the shadows, come out of the closet and claim being a burgeoning writer. lol
I appreciate your willingness to engage in long term strategy. If anything, we've seen the long game play out to the detriment of many of us. The xenophobic and oligarchic Reagan-era aims were relentlessly pursued by his acolytes, and now they're on the precipice of installing all of their nefarious plans.
My parents came from Jamaica but weren't fleeing anything. They didn't get here together. They did it the "so-called" right way, and it took each of them years to get through separately. People who've never gone through immigration have no idea how slow and difficult it is. It's tough if you're looking to make a go to improve your life, but it's dangerously and interminably slow if you need asylum, like many of the people this regime is deporting without processing.
I'm going with C to pay homage to "A Bronx Tale" lol Yeah, it's really hard and confusing. The rules are constantly changing. This is what I think a lot of people don't understand about immigration. People can come here "the right way" but only have temporary protections. You can have temporary protections for many years and then suddenly find that that protection suddenly lapsed because the rules changed. In the meantime, people live their lives, lay down roots, get jobs, buy houses, etc. All of a sudden, you're "illegal." It's so cruel and insensitive to call such people criminals. This kind of thing happens all the time. It happened to my wife, but thankfully DACA gave her protection.
C is cool, and I'll try to stay off the crack, unlike the actor who portrayed Bronx Tale's protagonist.
You're right about the Calvinball US immigration system. It's bad enough trying to navigate the constantly changing laws and exceptions on the books. It's worse that the current regime now ignores immigration law and the Constitution. I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for future pieces about your parents' experience.
Pablo, I'm enthralled with your retelling of your parents' account. Please serialize their experience, if you're so inclined. I'm also a child of recent immigrants who hustled a life out of nothing, although they came from an English speaking country. They arrived at around the same time your parents did, but in a small village instead of NYC.
These accounts should resonate with every American, regardless of the documented status of the person in the account at the time they arrived. Every non-indigenous family here descends from ancestors who came here from elsewhere to scramble and scratch out a life. Those with more generations between them and their immigrating ancestors would do well to remember that, exercise kindness and welcome to fellow people struggling to make their lives better.
Always appreciate your comments, C. (Should I call you "C"? It occurs to me now that I don't know your name.) Exercising kindness, as you wrote, is the key. I do think telling immigrant stories can help, but that's a very long-term strategy. I'm glad you liked the piece. I'll see about writing more like these. Where did your parents immigrate from, if you don't me asking?
Yeah, C. or CJ works. I'm going by that until I fully decide to emerge from the shadows, come out of the closet and claim being a burgeoning writer. lol
I appreciate your willingness to engage in long term strategy. If anything, we've seen the long game play out to the detriment of many of us. The xenophobic and oligarchic Reagan-era aims were relentlessly pursued by his acolytes, and now they're on the precipice of installing all of their nefarious plans.
My parents came from Jamaica but weren't fleeing anything. They didn't get here together. They did it the "so-called" right way, and it took each of them years to get through separately. People who've never gone through immigration have no idea how slow and difficult it is. It's tough if you're looking to make a go to improve your life, but it's dangerously and interminably slow if you need asylum, like many of the people this regime is deporting without processing.
I'm going with C to pay homage to "A Bronx Tale" lol Yeah, it's really hard and confusing. The rules are constantly changing. This is what I think a lot of people don't understand about immigration. People can come here "the right way" but only have temporary protections. You can have temporary protections for many years and then suddenly find that that protection suddenly lapsed because the rules changed. In the meantime, people live their lives, lay down roots, get jobs, buy houses, etc. All of a sudden, you're "illegal." It's so cruel and insensitive to call such people criminals. This kind of thing happens all the time. It happened to my wife, but thankfully DACA gave her protection.
C is cool, and I'll try to stay off the crack, unlike the actor who portrayed Bronx Tale's protagonist.
You're right about the Calvinball US immigration system. It's bad enough trying to navigate the constantly changing laws and exceptions on the books. It's worse that the current regime now ignores immigration law and the Constitution. I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for future pieces about your parents' experience.
Wow.
Thank you for your powerful, moving, evocative writing.
I appreciate the kind words, Grace. Thank you for reading.