Submitted by: Suzanne Oboler, Professor, Latin American and Latinx Studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice
To view online, click here: “La Migra” Poem by Pat Mora
This is a poem about the Border Patrol hunting down immigrants on the border.
This is open source per the website “About LiveJournal.”
Submitted by: Suzanne Oboler, Professor, Latin American and Latinx Studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice
Click here to read online: “Detained in the Desert”: A Play by Josefina Lopez, 2011
“This text is very timely. It covers racial profiling of Latinxs due to Arizona’s “papers please” law (SB 1070); migrant deaths; the criminalization of humanitarian aid; hate speech and right-wing talk shows (there is a character based on Lou Dobbs); anti-immigrant and anti-Latinx violence; religious redemption; self-transformation; ghosts.” (Comment by Oboler, 2019)
“Detained in the desert” is a satirical look at the anti-immigrant laws that brings together two completely different people on opposite ends of the immigration debate through a karmic debt that must be paid. Detained in the Desert received its world premiere in Los Angeles, California, at CASA 0101 (October 1-November 21, 2010), located in the heart of Boyle Heights, where Josefina Lopez herself grew up. The play’s story pivots around two people detained in the desert, how they got there, and the impact the experience has on their thinking about immigration and the role they both occupy within the specific political landscape of Arizona. Significantly, Lopez wrote this play during a time of national conflict so as to prevent herself from falling into a state of despair and to lend her voice to the struggle of those in Arizona working against the rhetoric of hate that has come to permeate the cultural landscape, from the legislature to the media. To write this play, Lopez conducted research that included following the evolution of SB 1070, listening to talk radio, and studying performed struggles at the U. S. Arizona-Mexico border between humanitarian activists and vigilante Minutemen types, the latter known to aggressively follow and sabotage the efforts of groups such as Border Angels by targeting for shooting practice the containers of water they leave throughout the desert for desperate crossers.
The play was found in Chicana/Latina Studies, Vol. 10, No. 2 (Spring 2011), pp. 128-195 (68 pages). The play is from the book Detained in the Desert and Other Plays, WPR Publishing, 2011. Copyrighted, but available through the library using John Jay login.
Submitted by: Suzanne Oboler, Professor, Latin American and Latinx Studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice
The short story, “Cloud Cover Caribbean” is in Celia Correa de Zapata (ed). Short Stories by Latin American Women: The Magic and the Real. Texas: Arte Público Press. 1990 pp 202 – 207. For each of these would-be immigrants to Florida, the United States is the promised land. Like many refugees before them, they risk their lives on a fragile boat with inadequate supplies in hopes of making a new life.sion. This is a short story in a book by Latin-American women.
Copyrighted. Only available in print in library in the Stacks (PQ 7085 .S48 1990 ); no digital format.
Submitted by: Suzanne Oboler, Professor, Latin American and Latinx Studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice
To read online, click here: “Everything Is Far from Here” by Christina Henriquez, 2017
Short story from The New Yorker. July 24, 2017. In a purgatory-like immigration center, a woman awaits the arrival of her son, who got separated from her as they were trying to get to the United States. This is a story about refugees and all they go through to come to this country.
This article is open access from The New Yorker. However, it is copyrighted. Use for educational purposes under the Fair Use provision.
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