In “What We Deserve” by Angie Cruz, Angie speaks of a picture that connects to her present day existence. Angie speaks of obstacles her mother ( Dania) had to face for migrating to the United States at such a young age.Throughout the essay Angie mentions Dania marrying Angie’s father who was “old enough to be her father”. In order to provide for her family in the Dominican republic, Dania had an arranged marriage. Dania had to survive abuse and assault in order to bring her family to the US.
Cruz’s family history shapes her reaction to the separation of migrant children from their families today since Angie sees a resemblance of her mother Dania to Magdalena Gomez Gregorio, a eleven year old girl from Mississippi that was “pleading” for help from attorneys/politicians to get her back to her family that was being held by ICE. Magdalena was on the 12 News, being recorded, presumably without parental consent. While being recorded, Magdalena cries stating “he’s not a criminal”. Magdalena is referring to her father not being a criminal. Angie then expresses her visualizations of this video, when Angie looks at this video she sees a “child who needs her parents”. Cruz later compares Magdalena to Dania and how their “innocence was stolen”, since they were both “pushed to adulthood” to fend for their lives. In a way we can see how and why this essay was Cruz’s reaction to the separation of migrant children from their families today. We see how Cruz published this essay to portray a bigger picture of what is occurring with children and what they need to process because of ongoing issues with immigration. We also see why she spoke of her point of view of her mother’s immigration obstacles that connects with this moment of history.
Cruz commences this essay with a photograph, then gives her opinion on the photo, relates her mother’s photograph to Magdalena who is a young girl pleading for help on the news. Cruz later gives a bit of statistics of sexual assault, abuse and violence and tells us what we do not know from what was occurring during and after the photograph of her mother and father, then finishes it off with a note to Dania that states, “you deserve more. Our girls deserve more. Our children deserve more”. We can see how Angie’s personal family history plays a role on her political views.
What do Cruz’s mother and Magdalena have in common here? What is Cruz trying to suggest about the experiences of young female immigrants when she brings the two stories together in this way?
What Dania and Magdalena both have in common is loss of innocence. For example Dania had an arranged marriage in order to get her family papers and Magdalena had to plead for survival, both put in positions where they have nobody to protect them but themselves. What Cruz is trying to suggest about the experiences of young female immigrants when she brings two stories together is how they are forced to become adults. Children of immigrants/ immigrants seem to all be forced into adulthood.
This seems to be particularly true of women, doesn’t it?
Indeed