Editor’s note: Excerpts below are from the full story at www.tribunodelpueblo.org
This is a cultural project on refugee children organized by Chicago artists, where people read the stories of the children in banners and reflect on how they would feel if their sons or daughters went through the same experiences. It is a project to take action, whether hosting an event, having a meeting at your home, calling your senator, governor, and / or president. For information contact: antoniomartinez@gmail.com.
Children below describe what four or more weeks of walking, paying coyotes for rides in vans, riding on top of trains is like. They are all trauma victims. They are not yet trauma survivors; their lives have been traumatic, the journey and arrival at the border is traumatic. And separation is traumatic. The majority of these children tell this exact same story:
“We don’t ever know if it is day or night. The bright lights are always on. There are no windows. It is freezing cold and they give us these paper blankets that don’t keep us warm. We don’t have beds, we sleep on a cold, concrete floor. They only give us juice and crackers to eat, for the whole time we are there … sometimes a small sandwich . . . ”
“The burrito they sometimes give us is just a wet, soggy tortilla and beans that we could not eat. When the guards weren’t looking, we threw them in the garbage.”
“I had to sleep sitting up on the cold floor. I didn’t get any food for five days; I was so skinny. I couldn’t shower or use the bathroom for three days.”