Palabras

    Recently I stumbled on a new NPR series called Borderland with Host Steve Inskeep. Inskeep has done reporting in Syria and Afghanistan, but his latest assignment brought him a little closer to home. The series attempts (and succeeds) to tell the complex and complicated story of life on the border. Inskeep and other journalists began their journey at Boca Chica, TX where the mouth of the Rio Grand meets the Gulf of Mexico and from there drove west while zigzagging across the border. The series gives a face to the many hot topics that are associated with this region such as immigration and the violence of the cartels.
    While the series gives a lot of facts about the border and shares many stories, two of the stories really jumped out at me. The first took place in a Catholic shelter that takes in recently arrived immigrants in a small town in Texas. The story was about the journey of one of the women who was staying at the shelter, which began in Ethiopia and travelled through 12 countries with a false passport. She was seeking asylum with her husband who was detained upon making it to the U.S. They travelled through jungles and rivers and across the desert in order to get a chance at a better life. This really struck me because I had never really thought about people from other parts of the world making the same journey that numerous others from Latin America make on a daily basis.
    The second was about the words we use and why people choose certain words over others. They explain that the decision to use English or Spanish in the region is a political statement and even the words one uses can reveal a political bias too.  They use the example of calling the physical barrier between the U.S. And Mexico either a fence, which is the term the Border Patrol use, and a wall which some claim to be a more accurate statement. Other words are more obvious as to what your stance on immigration is, such as the term illegal alien versus undocumented immigrant.
    Words do mean so much and it is amazing how so much meaning can be packed into just a word or two. Recently, students at Dartmouth College petitioned for the word 'illegal' to be banned from the classroom when talking about immigration. We've changed the words we use for so many groups of people and we realize how deeply hurtful and harmful a word can be. So I guess I would like to leave off by asking if it is really such a burden to not use the word illegal? And if so, why? Also, I encourage all of you to take a look at the series, because there are so many beautiful pictures and stories in this series.