An Americanized Deportee

Yesterday, I talked about elections and closed with a wild statistic: 700 Salvadorans leave for the United States every single day. That's illegally, folks. No visas. No secure passage. No guarantee you'll live to see the Rio Grande.

A young friend of mine has already paid her 10% of the final transportation cost: $6,000 cash. Her family will pay the balance when she gets to the other side. Now she is waiting for the coyote to call her and then she'll pack her bags and say goodbye to her two year-old daughter....for who knows how long.

Her final destination? Our nation's capital.

It is heart-wrenching to watch. But after spending time here, I cannot say I blame her. Like most places in Latin America, if you're born poor El Salvador, you die poor in El Salvador. She wants more for her baby and she'll do it the only way she knows how: hard work.

While people leave the country in droves, the US Department of Homeland Security replaces them quickly with fresh deportees each month. The worst of them all, convicted felons and vicious gang members trained on the streets of Washington, Los Angeles, New York, and Houston are led off the plane and then released into general society. The Salvadoran police force has dealt with their share of violence but they weren't quite prepared for gang warfare. From small towns to larger cities, gangs fight for territory, charge monthly "protection fees," and commit random violence for initiation purposes and even sometimes...."for fun," according to one recent report in a national newspapers.

While not all those sent back are gang members, many still fall into a larger, all-encompassing catagory I call "The Americanized Deportee." These are individuals who lived the majority of their young lives in the United States. Some have no living memory of El Salvador and some don't even speak Spanish. A radio documentary featuring the life of Jose William Huezo Soriano AKA "Weazel" follows a young man as he is deported "home," facing a new life, in a foreign place, completely alone.

"I've been banished from the U.S. you know. Like they used to do in the medieval days. They used to ban fools. I went to kindergarten in L.A., elementary school, junior high school, high school. I grew up singing, you know, My Country 'Tis of Thee, that little song America the Beautiful, pledging allegiance to the flag. I grew up with all that. You know? And here they are, 27 years later, kicking me out." -Radio Diaries Website

Radio Diaries is a phenomenal program that hands tape recorders to everyday people in order to approach oral history from a new perspective. Correctional officers, teenagers with terminal illness, community leaders, and even guys like Weazel carry these tape recorders from three months to three years, recording thoughts and experiences as they happen. Produced by Joe Richman, Radio Diaries has a fantastic website that features some of the compelling documentaries that have been featured on NPR in the recent or distant past.

Click on this link: http://www.radiodiaries.org/radiodiaries.html
Scroll down to the bottom of the page and listen to Weazel's story. Tell me what you think.