scene

In the transplant clinic, talking to the social worker:

Dad: "Esto viene a ser un tema diferente, pero quizás no tan diferente. Queríamos preguntarle algo. Mire, es que mi mujer y yo no tenemos papeles," (pauses)

Child: starts tapping foot nervously and looking at parents

Me: "So this is off-topic, but maybe not so off topic. We wanted to ask you something. The thing is, my wife and I don't have papers."

Social worker: nods "Uh huh."

Dad: "Entonces queríamos saber, si a nosotros nos deportan, que va a pasar con la salud de nuestro hijo? El hospital le va a seguir dando sus mecidinas?"

Me: "So we wanted to know, if we get deported, what will happen to our son's health? Will the hospital keep giving him his medicine?"

Social worker, compassionately: "Well, the hospital won't be in charge of taking care of him. My best advice for you is to find somebody, a relative or a friend, who could take care of him if you two were gone."

Me: "Bueno, el hospital no se haria cargo de el. Lo mejor que les puedo aconsejar es que encuentren a alguien, parientes o amigos que puedan cuidar de el si ustedes dos no estuvieran."

End scene


During all the political uproar in the last few weeks, this is the scene I keep replaying in my mind. There's a lot I could say about it, a lot of things I could point out, but I want to say one thing.

There is a lot of uncertainty in the upcoming months, but in the midst of it, I know this. Minorities have been a huge topic in this election. I want to remind us that minorities are people. Most of them are people who need to be heard, people doing their best to meet their own needs, working as hard as they can to plan for their families and loved ones. If we ostracize, if we ignore, if we treat them as "the others" we are denying them opportunity to make good on what they are capable of. Things that benefit not just them, but the rest of our country. Moreover, we deny ourselves the opportunity of standing in awe of the beauty, dignity, and resilience of another human being.