Growing up in San Diego, I am familiar with the political climate about the border and how it affected my friends. The novel, Signs Preceding the End of the World by Yuri Herrera showcases the struggles of growing up between two cultures and the challenges of being an immigrant.
Her perceptions of the United States compared to Mexico shows that she’s more fond of where she grew up in Mexico and find the United States far from home. Makina’s experiences remind me of the stories my friend’s and family would tell me about how they came to America. I was editing my friend’s college essays and they talked about their experience coming back to America. They were born here but their mother took them back to Mexico soon after and they didn’t come back to the US. They spoke about how transitioning to living in America was and how they were teased for not speaking English when they were starting elementary school in the US. This story resonated with me because it reminded of how my mother would tell me about her experience about immigrating to the US from Cambodia. She would get bullied because of her race and how she didn’t know any English. I believe that immigrants are diminished and discredited for their struggles. People love to think that whether or not they are here legally or illegally, we need to alienate them because they’re not born here. But that argument is invalid because this land has never been ours. We were never the first to inhabit it, the first people who inhabited this land were the Native Americans that IMMIGRANT Europeans slaughtered, massacred, and hoodwinked into stealing their land and erasing their culture. The stigma about immigrants is stemmed by this idea that they are stealing our jobs and are freeloading off our country but the reason why people come to America is because of the safety and/or opportunities this country would be able to provide for them and/or their families. As a daughter of immigrants, I grew up watching my parents work hard to provide for our family in order to give my sister and I the opportunities they were deprived of. I feel like that’s what most immigrants and immigrant children have in common; the strive for a better life. Another aspect is being ignorant of the reality of becoming a citizen. I had a friend whose family immigrated here from South Africa in 2000 but did not get their green cards until 2013. But there is this blurred ideal that immigrants do not have a positive impact in our country and only hurt our country but this is perpetrated by harmful stereotyping and toxic white savior narratives that oppress minorities instead of showcase the resilience of immigrants.
Signs showcases the perspective of the reality and cruelties of how America does not take ownership towards the racism they inflict on minorities and immigrants. The video I attached above is from The Hamilton Mixtape and samples the line from the Hamilton song “Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down)” where Hamilton and Lafayette exclaim “Immigrants, we get the job done”. That line has resonated with many fans of the musical as I’ve seen protest signs made with phrases from the popular musical. I think it’s worth sharing because everyone’s story of how they got here is different and to diminish their struggles and calling immigrants “lazy” – especially if they’re not here legally is flat out ignorant.
Literary Genres in Translation 