Mi Chavo

Today I saw “mi chavo” after many years without hearing from him. My partner and I were leaving “la Jalisco” on Jefferson Rd. When we saw him getting out of his car. He was with his mother, wearing a shirt with the Atlanta Episcopate print. He definitely looked older.

Meeting him would not have been shocking, if it weren’t for the fact that we were still affected by the hurricane, the children were upset because we took them late to their father’s house. And there were the memories of the last time we spoke on the phone, he was in detention waiting for deportation.

My partner and I were on our way to an event organized by the Economic Justice Coalition, the Unitarian Universalist Church and the Indivisible District 10 org. She was Marshal at that event and I had an information table for AIRC. A table that was left unattended for a few moments, as the family fun day to invite people to vote in Dudley Park was a party. With barbecue chicken, hamburgers, hot dogs and street corn like me. A party of activists and people with many years of experience in the fight for civil rights in Athens.

Among them, legends of the movement, such as Linda Loyd who after many years of racial segregation, was one of the first women of color who graduated from the UGA as a social worker. Linda is also a co-founder of the Economic Justice Coalition. One of the oldest African-American lead organizations, mostly black women. If Linda's presence was not powerful enough at that moment, she was sitting next to Ovita Torton, a district representative in government. Ovita has builded a public and community service career, long line of names of freedom fighters on this event, long like the line of people at the hot dogs stand, which were delicious by the way.

There were so many organizers and social activists at this party that it was hard not to stop and say hello and good morning. I know it wasn't an excuse to leave the AIRC table unattended. But there were the leaders of the Ainti-discrimination movement in Athens, the founder of Athens in Harmony and people with a lot of power for change, like Alys who was also a Marshal and has supported many projects including Linnentown and AIRC. On the other hand, there weren't many people looking for information. Those who weren't in the food line or sitting listening to the music or listening to the speakers were scattered around the many tents of the organizations, and of course the children's area.

“Mi chavo” had been deported many years ago. The community did a campaign to help him get out of deportation proceeds. Unfortunately he was deported despite the efforts of dozens of friends, coworkers and his religious community who esteemed him very much. Apparently “mi chavo” returned to his community immediately, more eager than ever to live with his Catholic community, to which he has been devoted for a long time.

How many of those present here in this event,  would sign the petition so that mi chavo would not be deported? I don't know, but I think that the majority would have signed it, if they had seen the affection that his community put into him.

I imagine that some of those who are reading this, don't know that people who are deported return to live with their family, even if it takes them years, even if they risk their freedom and their lives. It is something that has always happened in the community of mixed-status families. It has happened since it became illegal to cross the border.

(Mexicans in Mexico call the USA “the other side.” Because that’s what it was for us. When the United States invented the border with Mexico, the families who stayed on the other side of the border came to visit their families on this side and we went to the other side to see our families. It is said that in some places, it was literally going to the other side of the street.)

I remember that I once read an almost clandestine, from a classroom, from a local school, a magazine with the stories of young Hispanics. The stories were simple. I remember this particular story of a girl who narrated how the police had deported her father. The trauma and pain of this girl was evident in so few words. At the end she said that nothing mattered anymore, she was happy because her father was back home.

The history of immigration did not begin yesterday, it is older than the fight for the right to vote, and even though it seems incredible, after a century we continue fighting for the same rights to vote and migrate.

Even though the right to migrate and the right to vote are like barbecue and street corn at this event, one gets more attention than the other, but both are worth getting in line to enjoy it.

-Beto Cacao