Dos/Two
A few weeks ago, I started writing a children's book, this one, like most of my books, deals with immigrant issues, and I called it "Dos/Two". The story is about a couple who come to the United States illegally, their son Oscar, is born here, so he is a US citizen; the parents continue to be "illegal citizens". In my way of seeing, no human being is illegal. If we were to examine the history of this country, the only real natives would be the Native American Indians; that includes us, Indigenous people who come from different countries of America, the continent.
As a writer, I don't want to be close or near to the reality, I want to be right there in the core of these issues. I came to the United States the same way, years ago. I know the sadness that one has to endure when you leave your loves behind. This is true whether it is in our country of origin, or now-a-days here, as is happening with immigrants who are being separated from their sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, the whole family. What a painful and inhuman law.
My books have taken me to do presentations all over the United States. Everywhere I go, I find families in distress. Nothing, or very little has changed for immigrants. Sure there are some positive actions, more organizations work closely with these issues and are making very positive changes. Immigration also has changed to more sophisticated machines to detect people coming across the border. Also, in places like Texas there are patriot groups of US citizens that help to patrol the border.
Once, while working with a humanitarian organization, I met a young boy from Chiapas who had been lost in the desert for over four days. According to him, one of his friends died in the desert. This Indian boy reminded me of myself, he had bruises all over his body, his eyes were swollen, his headache would not go away, he was completely disoriented. He asked me, "Where do I find work? I need to start working right away to help my mother, father and little brothers in Chiapas." As you can imagine, I had no good news for him, the organization that I worked for offered shelter and food, but that was it. This boy didn't need a job, what he needed was professional help, to help him heal from his wounds, mental and physical.
My own brother told me that when he was coming to the United States for the first time, he came by himself; he left his beloved family somewhere in Mexico. He found a little brush that was bitten by his son, the memories of his baby boy made his heart sink in terrible sadness. He turned back, with the hope that maybe if he went back he would find a job, he didn't. He sold everything he owned and came back with his whole family. I find stories like this everywhere I go, but I also find wonderful stories of families who are prosperous and happy.
In "Dos/Two", my latest story, the mother of the boy has been arrested by immigration in a raid on her place of work. His father does not have papers either; the only one legal is the boy. I tried to find a good ending for the story, one that will bring hope to the boy, mother and father, but as I said, I like to keep myself as real as possible. The only hope I could bring to the story is the continuation of the struggle by both the parents and the organizations that keep on working for change with these ordeals.
Mainstream publishing companies like to publish Latino stories that have to do with cultural heritage and are fun and colorful. Right now, there is a huge market for bilingual books, from the commercial point of view it is good for these companies to publish work by Latino, Latina writers. My story now is in the hand of my agent. I truly hope that someone out there sees this book for what it is, a contemporary issue that deals with a cruel reality happening to children right now.
Jorge Argueta.
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Ivory Madison says:
Regarding happy or sad endings or a lack of resolution...
Dear Jorge,
I struggled with this issue in my (unpublished) novel. I was concerned that my "positive" ending made it sound less serious. You're in the photo-negative situation--some people expect a children's story to have a happy ending, and you're not sure you want to gloss over the tragedy that spurred you to write in the first place.
It sounds like you found your resolution. I always try to think of it as if the boy and the family you are writing about are real, exist inside of you, and you are telling their story for them as accurately as possible.
There were storytellers and audiences, as you know, long before there were agents or publishers. Forget about your critics. There's no way you could write something that would not inspire people to fight for justice.
Sometimes an unresolved ending is necessary because you haven't resolved the issue in real life either, and sometimes a sad ending is necesary to show people their own empathy.
Also, children are as complex as adults and are as frustrated by injustice as we are in real life, so why not in your story? I think the story would be utterly facinating to children because of the lack of an easy resolution. I think for the children whose lives unfolded similarly as the story, it would be a treasure for them to read over and over, knowing they weren't alone in a sea of generic images of the American family.
I can't wait to read it.
Ivory Madison
Founder & CEO, redroom.com
F. J. Pineiro says:
The immigrant experience.
Estimado Jorge: February 16, 2008
A confluence of things, like the alignment of the stars, seems to be taking place. I found your work today in Red Room as I was applying to join, and in your blog read with great interest of your quandary regarding your upcoming book which deals with the issue of immigration and its stark realities. Meanwhile, Red Room was announcing that Senator and author Barak Obama had just joined its ranks. As you know, Senator Obama, Mrs. Clinton and all the other candidates for the presidency of this country have also been talking about immigration. To them, it is a thorny issue, to be approached gingerly, keeping in mind what the voters have expressed. But the voters have expressed everything, from hatred and outrage, demanding the immediate expulsion of all illegal immigrants, on one end of the spectrum, to complete and total amnesty of illegals on the other.
Mr. Obama is intelligent enough to point out to all voters that these aroused feelings among the citizenry are nothing new. Quite the contrary: They occur today throughout the world, usually whenever the national economy slows down, as in France two years ago, and in Germany just after the previous wall of separation was torn down. (In those days of jubilation, little did we imagine that similar walls would soon be raised right here in the U.S. and along the west bank of Jordan. "Tear down that wall, Mr. Bush!") But the truth can cost a candidate precious votes, for there are none so blind as those who will not see.
Mrs. Clinton could remind us that these hysterical demands to arrest what is actually one of the hardest working sectors of our community have all been heard before. They were hurled against Jews in New York when they arrived in large numbers, blaming them for economic ills. Italians and Irish immigrants were similarly accosted in turn. And it is happening now in Africa as part of the poisonous excuse leading to ethnic cleansing and even genocide. When times are tough some people always look for someone to blame, and the weakest members of society are the easiest scapegoats. But that is not what the voters want to hear.
Or perhaps Mrs. Clinton and the other candidates have reconciled themselves to the idea that this repetition of aggression against the latest group to arrive, (as all of us or our immediate ancestors previously arrived) is human nature. We just don’t seem to learn from our mistakes.
Besides, if the angry masses were to learn that through all the present chaos of war and economic loss the rich are still getting richer, the poor getting poorer and the middle class is disappearing, they might turn their ire against those in power. And that could start a revolution, where almost everybody loses.
Adding to that confluence or things that I mentioned at the start is the fact that my novel Currents of Destiny, has just been published, and it is the story of two families who emigrate from the Old Continent along with countless other families seeking a better future. As a trilogy, it follows them through several generations and four continents until their cycle of migration closes 150 years later, back where it began.
Needless to say, that odyssey involved crossing many borders and in each case becoming the latest immigrants to arrive. Immigration began when that first group of Homo sapiens left the rift valley in search for a better place to live and it continues still. One would think that by now we would have found a better way to deal with it's inexorable push.
I too am looking forward to your book.
Francisco J. Piñeiro