For my second intervention, I'm going to do a continuation of the first intervention which was about the struggles for an immigrant.
My cousin, Alejandro, was a victim of capitalism the way I see it. His mom, my tia Norma, wasn't financially prepared to raise a child all on her own. With my mom and other aunts leaving to America, tia Norma had no other choice but to join them so she can be able to afford a life for both her and her child. Alejandro was a sensitive kid, with a heart of gold and all the love to give. He used to call me his little sister because before my mom moved to America, she used to help care for him the most. He was loved immensely by our family and the community around him–his death left a stain in all our hearts.
The sad part of this is that many immigrant families are forced to leave their loved ones behind to chase the dream that they're after. Many are able to fight against capitalism and make it out successfully, while others struggle to make ends meet. To be born and raised in America is to have a privilege not many have but even then we're stuck behind our own struggles because, well, if you're not rich it's 10x harder to make things work. As an immigrant, you have to work even harder than that because you're starting from 0. My parents spent the first 10 years of their life in America working dead end jobs, making little to nothing all while facing racism from their colleagues. My tia Norma worked day and night shifts to only be able to send enough money for Alejandro back in Honduras. I continuously ask myself: is a better life worth leaving behind your present life?
For the intervention, I took inspiration from Marina Ambromavic's: The Artist is Present and created my own version of it. Instead of sitting in front of an audience, I sat in the middle of my room, photos of my family surrounding me, and I wrote in my journal and felt every feeling I had towards the trauma of losing a close family member. In the video, I added the song "Vaya Con Dios" by Freddy Fender which was the song my grandfather played at my cousins funeral. In the video, I showcased a couple of photos from my family's archives: one of the house my cousin lived in, one of my cousin as a kid with his friends, one of my grandma and one of me and Alejandro's brother, Miguel. I also came up with a poem titled "Sacrificio de Omoa" which translates to Omoa's Sacrifice which is where my cousin and rest of my family grew up.With this poem, I sent it to my best friend who grew up in Morocco and I asked about her and her family's experience with moving to America.
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