Andre Yang
WHY I FEEL THE WAY I DO ABOUT SB 1070. If the hurt in someone else hurts us, in a man we don’t know, who is present always and is the victim and the enemy and love and all we need to be whole. –Rosario Castellanos, The Other. Because my fifth grade teacher, Mr. Sanchez compared my future to gold. Because, when I told my friend Ernesto about an uncle’s 3-day funeral, he told me about his grandmother’s 3-day funeral. Because of what Christianity has done for me. Because there is corruption in all organizations. Because we’re all victims of colonialism. Because when the first girl I thought I loved didn’t feel the same way back, Tommy Bernal surprised me with the first hug I’d ever received from a friend. Because no one else hugged me again for another three years. Because Sherman Alexie recognizes that the Hmong are the Native Americans of Asia. Because John Doe Xiong is suing the United States for the right to go back to Laos to die with his family on land he still calls home.
Because there are still animals like the Saola that, when forced behind walls, would prefer death. Because I’ve read about the Native American man who, the last of his tribe, refused to give his name to the white remains of humanity. Because indigenous peoples are closer to the land & its spirits, & in being so are closer to one another no matter where they are in the world. Because SB 1070 is hate manifested on paper in words. Because I believed for too long that I couldn’t do anything about anything. Because a girl named Rosa once kissed my cheek. Because I have not forgotten what it means to “love thy neighbor.” Because my cousin, Virus, never acquired citizenship, was convicted of manslaughter after a gang fight, spent six years in an Arizona prison, & is on parole release pending deportation once US-Laos relations improve. Because no one stood up for my people when they needed the help. Because the Hmong, running for their lives in the jungles of Laos, still need help.
Because America fucked things up in Vietnam, The Secret War, the Middle East, & is desperate to prove it knows how to finish something.
