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A review by ridgewaygirl
Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay In Forty Questions by Valeria Luiselli
5.0
This is an account of the time Valeria Luiselli spent serving as a translator for unaccompanied child asylum seekers in 2016. Moving between the history of why children are forced into taking a dangerous journey alone, one that, at best, ends with an uncertain welcome at the end of it, the facts about the migration and with the stories of the children Luiselli interviewed, this very short book is powerful and effective. Highly recommended. I'll be thinking about this one for some time.
When causes are discussed, the general consensus and underlying assumption seem to be that the origins are circumscribed to "sending" countries and their many local problems. No one suggests that the causes are deeply embedded in our shared hemispheric history and are therefore not some distant problem in a foreign country no one can locate on a map, but in fact a transnational problem that includes the United States--not as a distant observer or passive victim that must now deal with thousands of unwanted children arriving at the southern border, but rather as an active historical participant in the circumstances that generated that problem.
When causes are discussed, the general consensus and underlying assumption seem to be that the origins are circumscribed to "sending" countries and their many local problems. No one suggests that the causes are deeply embedded in our shared hemispheric history and are therefore not some distant problem in a foreign country no one can locate on a map, but in fact a transnational problem that includes the United States--not as a distant observer or passive victim that must now deal with thousands of unwanted children arriving at the southern border, but rather as an active historical participant in the circumstances that generated that problem.