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emilyjaco25's review
4.0
An urgent and important read that I feel everyone should be looking into. Lays out information so clearly yet the frustration and empathy is so strongly felt.
mkfreckles's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence
bibliobrandie's review
5.0
From 2014 to 2015, Mexican writer Luiselli worked as a translator for the U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services in New York, where she administered a 40-question survey to unaccompanied and undocumented minors who fled Central American the United States. I read this as I was reading The Displaced and it was incredibly valuable for understanding the crisis that immigrants to the U.S. are facing. This is a call to action and a plea for empathy and understanding.
Everything within this short, 119 page book is beautifully written and harrowing but one thing she wrote has stuck with me long after I closed the book: "What happens to children during their journey through Mexico is always worse than what happens anywhere else. The numbers tell horror stories...80% of women and girls who cross Mexico to get to the US border are raped on the way. The situation is so common that most of them take contraceptive precaution as they begin the journey north." They leave home knowing this but choose to make the journey anyway because life in their home country is so much worse.
Everything within this short, 119 page book is beautifully written and harrowing but one thing she wrote has stuck with me long after I closed the book: "What happens to children during their journey through Mexico is always worse than what happens anywhere else. The numbers tell horror stories...80% of women and girls who cross Mexico to get to the US border are raped on the way. The situation is so common that most of them take contraceptive precaution as they begin the journey north." They leave home knowing this but choose to make the journey anyway because life in their home country is so much worse.
shelbynuck's review
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
5.0
An essay about youth migrating to the United States from Latin America and the 40 questions they’re asked when seeking citizenship/asylum.
Sharp and Biting are the best descriptors for this essay. A must read.
“The priority juvenile docket, in sum, was the government's coldest, cruelest possible answer to the arrival of refugee children. Ethically, that answer was more than questionable. In legal terms, it was a kind of backdoor escape route to avoid dealing with an impending reality suddenly knocking at the country's front doors.”
“Its urgent that we begin talking about the drug war as a hemispheric war, at least one that begins in the Great Lakes of the northern United States and ends in the mountains of Celaque in southern Honduras.”
Words Matter.
“children caught while crossing illegally, laws that permit their deportation, children who come from the poor and violent towns. In short: barbarians who deserve subhuman treatment.”
Sharp and Biting are the best descriptors for this essay. A must read.
“The priority juvenile docket, in sum, was the government's coldest, cruelest possible answer to the arrival of refugee children. Ethically, that answer was more than questionable. In legal terms, it was a kind of backdoor escape route to avoid dealing with an impending reality suddenly knocking at the country's front doors.”
“Its urgent that we begin talking about the drug war as a hemispheric war, at least one that begins in the Great Lakes of the northern United States and ends in the mountains of Celaque in southern Honduras.”
Words Matter.
“children caught while crossing illegally, laws that permit their deportation, children who come from the poor and violent towns. In short: barbarians who deserve subhuman treatment.”
liambossant's review against another edition
informative
sad
fast-paced
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Deportation, Racism, Trafficking, and Violence
gvstyris's review against another edition
challenging
informative
medium-paced
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse
Moderate: Gun violence, Violence, and Deportation
Minor: Trafficking
readingthroughinfinity's review against another edition
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced