Rosalia Flores Assignment Week 2

In the essay “What we Deserve” by Angie Cruz, she speaks about her mothers life, her struggle, how it has affected herself and her family, and how it is still an issue today. Cruz organizes her essay in a format in which the whole story is connected to that singular photo. She goes into detail, about the deeper meaning of every detail in this photo, and why it is so important. The central issues she speaks about is immigration and the difficulties and suffering it comes with. Cruz’s mother was forced to marry at the age of 15 in order to have the ability to come to the United States and give herself and her family more opportunities. She refers back to the photo and points out how young her mother was and her expression. She was 11 and was surrounded by her brothers and parents, but the expression on her face was deeper than it seemed. By the time she was that age she had already known her fate, and to any child, this is tragic. To be separated from ones family in hopes of a better future. And it’s these things that happened to her mother and many other young girls that allows Cruz to connect her personal life and experience to politics. Cruz’s mother was separated from her family, knowingly, and was doing it in hopes of gaining opportunities in America. Cruz knows first hand from her mother, what it’s like to be an immigrant, raise children as an immigrant, and the struggle. So now with awful things occurring such as the separation of families at the border and being held in detention center, it is very clear that Cruz does not tolerate such actions and is at a constant fight for social equality. To free these people, since her mother knows first hand what it is like to be separated from your family with the promise of perhaps gaining a better living. In the text Cruz states about her mother’s expression in the photo “I am looking at the eyes of a child who understands she has no choice in the matter. My mother has said that poverty and the will to survive gives you no choice.” This displays how sometimes many people against immigrants tend to say that they shouldn’t of put their children at risk in the first place or that they should of tried to make a living in their own country. But the reality is that, there is no choice. These people, these families, these children, do not have a choice. And this is a very important piece to me because it something many fail to understand. That we aren’t here to take away someones job or recolonize. We are human beings, children, that want to stay alive.