"I would not be alive if not for a series of small heroic acts." For McSweeney's, I wrote about the everyday heroic acts of my immigrant mother and so many like her whose emotional labor and strength deserve to be seen.
"At a time when the pain and struggles of immigrant families have never been more visible, think also of our smaller joys and triumphs, the everyday in-between moments, rendered invisible for so long that the darkness paved the way for this destruction and dehumanization. Think of our labor—not only the houses constructed and the crops harvested, but also the daily emotional fortitude it takes to build a new life of love and protection in a land that offers so little of both." Read more...