It
is not common for current immigration debates to be focused on specific groups
and unintentionally be given greater media attention. And in regards to
multiple dialogues surrounding the U.S.-Mexico Border, the hundreds of deaths
along the border drastically go unidentified. In recognizing these degrees of
attention, I do not intend to make any suggestions that I am ranking the
hierarchy of oppressions in the multiple layers of border politics and
anti-immigrant legislation.
The
New York Times article, ‘Bodies on
the Border’ and short documentary engage in a very problematic and deadly
consequence for Mexicans immigrants entering the United States undocumented. It
is said that since 2000 over 800 bodies have been recovered from the desert and
are both undocumented and unidentified. Although these bodies are unable to
speak, their collective deaths on the AZ/Mexico Border speak to the continuous
risks of displaced Mexicans seeking a better life in the United States. And
though many anti-immigrant critics claim these deaths to be a result of
Mexico’s current conditions and therefore should not be the United States
tax-payers financial burden.
The
historical context presented in Kathleen Alcalas, Flower in the Skull elaborates how displacement for Mexicans coming to
the United States is not a new phenomenon, the same way U.S. and Mexico
policies have historically both pushed and pulled undocumented immigrants
north. Concha’s story and the story of the Opata give examples of one of the many
reasons why immigrants risk their lives everyday and the internal turmoil that
results from it.
“We
had no choice. We had to pick up our feet and put on our sandals and walk. Away
from our homes, our fields, away from our mountains and valleys, away from our
rivers and sacred places, away, even, from our sky” (5). Like many undocumented
immigrants found dead at the border, they have no other choice but to leave
their families and communities behind and run the risk of death. A choice that
is perceived as free will, but actually a result of systemic structures of
power that result in these painful separations.
A
historical context that is elaborated in this novel expands the historical
understands of border reactions and outcomes. These unidentified immigrants as
the article states, asks us to see how these deaths are questioning the way we
analyze and understand the definition of human rights. This is a continuous
violation that today is a direct result of the United States and Mexico
policies. These two governments are deeming theses victims, as disposable.
“If I stayed, here where the desert sang for me,
where the tress grew and the birds lived and every rock and lizard was a
companion to me, if I stayed, they told me, I would die.”(4) A death that
Concha avoided, but still a daily risk in reality for undocumented folks. A
death that doesn’t allow the border wound to heal, the unidentified souls to
rest and the families to grieve.
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