Conchas story is about colonization, migration and change. The Opata people were taken over by the apaches. Concha and the Opata had to relocate and find a safe home because of war. Conchas’ experience walking for days is a good representation of what is happening in Arizona today. According to the article “Bodies in the Border', there have been about 2,000 bodies found along the Arizona-Mexico border. The US’s implementation of increase security does not stop people from immigrating because of need. Similarly to the book, the Opata had a need to immigrate and in Concha’s experience, she did not want to go to El Paso. She was happy in her village. But her mom saw what state the village was in and because of need they had to go. The first similar experience is El Gusano’s death. El Gusano died due to the weather and his body was left out in the sun, no grave no nothing: just left to rot. This is what happens to many bodies in the Arizona desert. The documentary explains how thousands of bodies are found and sent to identify but what about those bodies that never get found. They simply are left alone in the desert, lost and forgotten like Gusano.
In her long walk throughout the dessert alone, Conchas' experience and feelings are what millions of immigrants have gone through in order to get to the US for a better life. There is a part where Conchas explains her feelings; “No longer a human or part of a village, but just another part of the desert. I did not think, I did not feel, I just walked (Alcala 42). This statement to me is similar to the many border stories I have heard. It gets to a point where you no longer feel, where you are just walking and walking and the thought that initially drove you- better life for self or family continues to push you to keep going, just like what it did for Concha. The documentary gave me chills when it said that the lives lost along the border to some people mean nothing. That they are seen as illegals crossing the border, therefore they broke the law and deserve to die. This statement just made me visualize Concha and the Opata traveling the long distance just because they were displaced from their land. It made me think if the thousands of faces that have traveled through that same rode the Opata took, through that same dessert that for some has no end. The article also said how their will always be new immigrants and to me, its painful to think that these deaths will continue, thousands of bodies will continue to be found and from those, hundreds will go unidentified. This article of the border realities and the experiences of Concha and the Opata sheds light to this human issue that the US continues to oppress and rather, makes worse than better.
In her long walk throughout the dessert alone, Conchas' experience and feelings are what millions of immigrants have gone through in order to get to the US for a better life. There is a part where Conchas explains her feelings; “No longer a human or part of a village, but just another part of the desert. I did not think, I did not feel, I just walked (Alcala 42). This statement to me is similar to the many border stories I have heard. It gets to a point where you no longer feel, where you are just walking and walking and the thought that initially drove you- better life for self or family continues to push you to keep going, just like what it did for Concha. The documentary gave me chills when it said that the lives lost along the border to some people mean nothing. That they are seen as illegals crossing the border, therefore they broke the law and deserve to die. This statement just made me visualize Concha and the Opata traveling the long distance just because they were displaced from their land. It made me think if the thousands of faces that have traveled through that same rode the Opata took, through that same dessert that for some has no end. The article also said how their will always be new immigrants and to me, its painful to think that these deaths will continue, thousands of bodies will continue to be found and from those, hundreds will go unidentified. This article of the border realities and the experiences of Concha and the Opata sheds light to this human issue that the US continues to oppress and rather, makes worse than better.
No comments:
Post a Comment