Vilma Garcia
Upon seeing my classmates Altar: Remembrance of Immigrant Children, I really felt connected to the message they were conveying. Having migrated as a child myself, it physically hurts to imagine what parents, children, and families have gone through under the trump administration's zero tolerance policy. To think that children were ripped apart from their families, that they went through so much trauma is truly heartbreaking. Just recently we learned that some parents could not be located and reunited with their children, that thousands of children have been “lost”. This angers me at how little this administration, this government thinks of immigrant children, children who have no fault at all, children whose only wish is to be reunited with a parent, to see a world with more opportunities.
This altar brought me to tears for it reminded me that there are families that will never be together again. That there are children who left this world too early due to the cruelty of other humans. There are children, youth, who died of a cold... a cold, an illness we have treatments for. Should they have been seen as children, as human, as valuable, should they have received proper human care, they would still be here, not taken too early. It is very saddening to think that there are toys on that altar, toys to represent how young these souls were, toys that they might not have had in life, toys that they might have been excited to receive once they reached the “land of opportunities”.
I am really touched that my classmates chose to remember and honor the souls of the immigrant children we have lost. It gives me hope that they are not forgotten, that their stories are still with us, and that they will someday hopefully receive the justice they deserve. Thank you.
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