Last Full Day

Today was our last full day in California and it was spent very simply and wholly.  On the way back from our powerful trip to the desert yesterday, we stopped at a the local panadería near Chicano Park and picked up a couple dozen postres or pastries.  Then, this morning, we met our friend, Nelson, who works as a day-laborer commonly referred to as jornaleros.  Those who are day-laborers often come to San Diego everyday, with and without papers, to stand outside Home Depots and other construction wholesales waiting to possibly be picked up for work.  To support their families, they must risk this each and everyday.  As we approached, it was clear how suspicious many of the men were and they began moving away from our group.  We soon realized many of them were moving away because of nearby camera.  The cameraman and reporter, we soon learned, worked for Dan Rather and were doing a report on immigration reform.  Nelson and Rodrigo, a member of our group, agreed to wear microphones as we asked Nelson questions and he shared is story to the camera. 

We were all so incredibly grateful to hear Nelson's story.  After loosing his business in Miami, he was forced to come back since there was no work in his native Perú, leaving his wife and daughters behind. Since then, he has never been able to go back, nor has he seen his family in over 12 years.  Nelson went on to share the very harsh and unjust reality of the life that he and many others live, the exploitation and abuse they receive.  Over 50% of the time, Nelson shared, the day-laborers are not paid for their work, but are unable to fight back against their employers because many of them did not have legal papers.  Exploitation of the workers is not a new thing, and many of the other men we met had stories of abuse, harassment, and cruelty that they had experienced.  To think that this cruelty is going unnoticed and unaddressed as we speak is a sickening thought, especially since it seems that very little can be done for the victims, but Nelson explained their desire to organize and change this pattern of injustice.  By organizing, they can help to ensure the fair and equal payment and treatment of workers, and it is still a work in progress to do so. 

After this experience, we all shared lunch in Balboa park, a park which spans nearly two miles of parks and gardens, containing over a dozen museums to visit inside the park boundaries.  Although a very beautiful site to visit, it was clearly a much more affluent area than where we had just been speaking with Nelson and other day-laborers.  We had a relaxing lunch and heading to are final site: Southwest Key, a home for children in limbo.

When there are children that cross the border with a parent or guardian but are caught, their guardian is often detained awaiting deportation or other legal trial, but the children cannot always be immediately returned to their home country as they  may have no one to go back to, nor can they legally reside in the U.S. without legal papers, so they become a child in limbo and live in homes such as Southwest Key.  Many of these children stay for about a month until a sponsor, another guardian or trusted member of their home community, can be validated and they can be safely taken home. If a sponsor cannot be found, then the children are simply sent to other homes such as Southwest Key throughout the United States until things can be worked out.  Some children even pursue legal cases and so must reside a little longer in order to complete them.  Either way, these children lose much of their identity as they are forced to stay, unwelcome, in a country that is not their home country.  Many have siblings in other homes across the U.S. while some were with their siblings at Southwest Key.  During our time their, we did arts and crafts and played soccer with the kids, and it was one of the highlights of our trip, to be able to be kids and forget some of the borders that exist in our lives that separate us unnecessarily.

There was one girl that we struck up a conversation with as we sat in the shade next to the soccer net making pulseras, or bracelets.  She began to ask us about our own homes and the places that we came from. Then she began to asked something I will never forget.  She asked if we saw her home country and her land as different.  She was not asking if we saw her people or the cultures as different, but the land itself, the earth as different because it happened to be on one side of a line that we decided to put down.  I honestly could not see any difference between the two, which also echoed similar feelings of being on the border, at the fence, and looking through to see a world that was different in many ways and yet the same.  Erica, the young girl, shared these thoughts with me and I will never forget them, and the most amazing part, was that to this young woman, it was so clear and obvious that land is land is land and that we are no different because we were born on one side of a line in the sand. This is so often forgotten, but  I, and all of us really, will try our best to not forget that, but rather, think of the people on either side first.