Whether it be one undocumented immigrant or five hundred, an undocumented person in America is considered to be illegal. While many of these people are searching for new opportunities and a better life for their families, they are still subject to the threat of deportation and mistreatment. Throughout the novel “Chasing the Moon”, by Carolyn Boehlke, the treacherous journey from Mexico and the lives of those hiding from the police are portrayed through a fifteen year old girl named Nadia. The book follows Nadia as she comes into the country and tries to make her way in a foreign land she is unfamiliar with. She not only has to continue her journey in the United States without her family who gets deported at the border in a police bust, but …show more content…
She describes the situation in Nadia’s families’ village and shares their hopes for more opportunities in the United States, where they could make a better life for themselves. When the opportunity presents itself, her family is hesitant, but decides it is best for everyone. Before leaving, Nadia’s mom tells her she must cut her hair and become a boy saying that “[she] needs to know that [she’ll] be safe” (68). Accompanied by many family members, they pull all their money together and made way for a drainpipe that would take them into the new world. The idea of this new world is glorified by all the people, however they do not know just how treacherous the journey really is. Experiencing advances towards her cousin Anita and the painful injuries acquired from the journey on foot, Nadia and her family continue on with “feet [burning] with agony” and being allowed minimal food and water (96). Food shortages plagued the walkers and they are forced to ration the remaining food into miniscule portions. The author uses the families’ struggles to show the plights of those crossing the border. In many instances, people are unable to eat for several days at a time in order to save the food. As her family makes their way into the drainpipe, they are once again forced into less than sanitary conditions; “There was a distant sound of trickling water and something occasionally scampered past my bare feet” (164). As they approach the end of the drainpipe, they feel hopeful when they see light, but quickly realize it is nighttime and their fate of returning to Mexico was unavoidable. Boehlke once again does not voice her direct opinion, however she portrays the awful conditions people go through that no one should have to experience. Topics such as poverty and hunger engulf the lives of hardworking people in search of a better
The crossing of the Rio Grande into Mexico is an important structural device and symbol of the novel. This is when they enter the frame. of the novel in which all the conflicts take place. The crossing of the river naked is symbolic of the cleansing of their souls as well as a new beginning. In only a short time after arriving in Mexico, conflicts start.
I thought that Diane Guerrero who is an American actress speech about her family’s deportation was interesting. She recently appeared on an immigration themed of Chelsea handler’s talk show. Guerrero is the citizen daughter of immigrant parents. Guerrero mentioned how her family was taken away from her when she was just 14 years old. “Not a single person at any level of government took any note of me. No one checked to see if i had a place to live or food to eat, and at 14, i found myself basically on my own”, Guerrero added. Luckily, Guerrero had good friends to help her. She told handler how her family try to become legal but there were no sign or help. Her parents lost their money to scammers who they believed to be a lawyer. When her family’s
Imagine a teenage boy who is isolated on a faraway island, without food or water. The hot and sticky weather is intolerable, but the rampaging storms are worse. He quickly develops malaria and diarrhea, and on top of that, blood-sucking insects and menacing reptiles lurch beneath his feet. He has no idea what is coming, but he needs to survive. This is the story of a young boy who has to travel to the other side of the world to realize that everything can’t go his way.
Have you had a time in your life, where everything just seemed to be going wrong, and life was hard. Then all of the sudden you actually have a good day. You made it through when times were bad. In the novels Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson, and Shooting the Moon by Frances O’roark Dowell the theme getting through the hard times so you can see the good ones, is shown by Jacqueline and her family not being treated fairly, Jacqueline leaving her home, and Jamie's brother going to war.
This poem captures the immigrant experience between the two worlds, leaving the homeland and towards the new world. The poet has deliberately structured the poem in five sections each with a number of stanzas to divide the different stages of the physical voyage. Section one describes the refugees, two briefly deals with their reason for the exodus, three emphasises their former oppression, fourth section is about the healing effect of the voyage and the concluding section deals with the awakening of hope. This restructuring allows the poet to focus on the emotional and physical impact of the journey.
...ure and its mechanisms of law enforcement and media take over and quickly spin the story into a kidnapping and the criminalization of the well meaning house keeper. Araceli, the house keeper; although, falsely charged has no voice and cannot defend herself due to fear of deportation. The labeling of undocumented immigrant as criminal goes in line with stereotypes and institutional discrimination which has been studied in the course.
This agency creates a complex self-realization that readers find in both of the characters, however both shows different approach that differentiate their character from one another. As a result, both characters manifest a sense of victimization, but somehow in their hope for upward mobility, negate that. The power of this purpose is retrospective to all migrant workers because that is all they have---it’s rather success or failure.
When the protagonist, Maria, understands first-hand the struggle that she must endure when her family forces her to pay for her sister’s baby’s care without being able to enjoy any of the money she worked hard for. Maria starts to work for Javier, a representative of the cartel that attempts to smuggle drugs into the United States for money. She needed to swallow pellets of heroin that were to be well wrapped. It was a struggle for Maria to consume sixty-two pellets at first and it was difficult for her to endure her trip with the pellets inside of her belly, knowing that there was a risk that the pellets could open up and kill her quickly and painfully. Lucy, one of the women on board the flight that Maria was on, had a pellet rupture inside of her upon her arrival to New York. She died shortly after meeting with the drug
The busy season for the shop she was working on came and the owner of the shop kept demanding for what we call overtime. She got fired after she said, “I only want to go home. I only want the evening to myself!.” Yezierska was regretful and bitter about what happened because she ended up in cold and hunger. After a while she became a trained worker and acquired a better shelter. An English class for foreigners began in the factory she was working for. She went to the teacher for advice in how to find what she wanted to do. The teacher advised her to join the Women’s Association, where a group of American women helps people find themselves. One of the women in the social club hit her with the reality that “America is no Utopia.” Yezierska felt so hopeless. She wondered what made Americans so far apart from her, so she began to read the American history. She learned the difference between her and the Pilgrims. When she found herself on the lonely, untrodden path, she lost heart and finally said that there’s no America. She was disappointed and depressed in the
A large part of the undocumented population was formed by Asian immigrants. Many of them have been deported by Obama Administration. Moreover, many of these are refugees who fled to the U.S. after the wars in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, had entered the United States as infants and toddlers. They have little or no family connection. Thousands of Cambodians and Vietnamese have faced the prospect of deportation (Hing 48). Some of the organizations, such as Asian Pacific Islander Youth Promoting Advocacy and Leadership appealed to Barack Obama administration to halt further deportations and has staged protests to raise awareness and engender action against deportation (Hing 49). However, according to Rep. Judy Chu, chairwoman of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, undocumented young people from Asian and Pacific Island nations make up only 2.6 percent of recipients of deportation relief under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, even though they account for about 8 percent of those eligible (Foley 56). Asian Americans do not get the same level of attention as Latino American because of the myth of “model minority”. The public can only see the good side of Asian immigrants in the U.S. Many of the stories about undocumented Asian immigrants are unknown. Jose Antonio Vargas who came to America in his early age. He is a successful journalist and activist. But now he is facing the risk of being
Ngai, Mae M. 2004 “Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America” Publisher: Princeton University Press.
Ngai, Mae M. Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America. Princeton, N.J. [u.a.: Princeton Univ. Press, 2004. Print.
The gentle early morning breeze blew across their faces like the whispering winds sway the trees. They had been walking all night long, and finally made it across the border. My mother’s hair was ruffled up, her nose had a steady trickle of blood running into her open mouth. She grunted softly as she lifted her hand up. Tears streamed down her eyes. She knew she had finally made it to her destination.
In Noël Alumit’s novel, Talking to the Moon, he engages his readers in the life of the Lalaban family. Through the journey of the Lalaban family, Alumit lets us understand the different issues that Filipino-Americans encounter in the United States. Alumit cleverly utilizes the journeys of both Jory and Belen to provoke thoughts about family as well as different social issues; he utilizes these characters to progress the narrative arc of the novel. As the head of the Lalaban household, Jory and Belen take their journeys at times together and at times separately. Though physical journey is evident, Alumit permits these characters to travel space, time, and worlds. Through the usage of the concept of family, the journey of Jory and Belen unfold where they realizes their own realities. During this journey, the notion of the “American Dream” is contested. Alumit uses Jory and Belen’s experiences to provoke our thoughts about family, reality, and the “American Dream”. Through the exploration of these journey we understand the Filipino immigrant experience in American. These journeys also show us how different categories and identities affect our understanding of family.
Illegal immigration has been an issue in this country since its founding. However, in recent years, more and more people are deciding that the conditions in their native countries are too dangerous and impossible to overcome, so they decide to take on the journey to try and enter the United States, “the land of opportunity”, without the proper documentation. In the novel Enrique’s Journey, by Sonia Nazario, we see first hand the expedition many of these people take in order to fulfill their dreams of helping the families they leave behind. Many of these people, like Lourdes and Enrique, come thinking that the “American Dream” will be easily obtained through hard work. Unfortunately, times have changed, and this promise of riches is no longer the norm. Those undocumented immigrants that are lucky enough to make it to the United States are faced with a harsh hit of reality when they realize that the perception they had build of America, with an abundance of jobs, is actually flooded by poverty and an unsteady job market.