back in managua, back on air

many of you know i was in california for 10 days, and just returned to managua yesterday. at UCSD, i participated in the Center of Expertise on Migration & Health's first annual training workshop, where i presented a paper based on my work with children in mother migrant families. the children's expression, "lo siento en mi corazón", which i have blogged about here, was front and center in my argument that children are actors in transnational migration processes, living the experience of mother migration from their unique perspective, and expressing their emotional distress using what medical anthropologists call "idioms of distress", such as "i feel it in my heart". i am excited to keep working with the children i have grown close to here, and not looking forward to leaving them at all - staying in touch and maintaining these ties remains foremost in _my_ heart. today i was back on air at Radio Universidad with Servicio Jesuita para Migrantes, along with Galen Baynes from the Witness for Peace International Team in Managua, and we talked about the Arizona anti-migrant (racial profiling) law, and its implications for a humane migration reform in the U.S. in short, it seems that we should have learned by now that building more walls at the border will not stop migration, but only push people into more desperate and dangerous border crossings, and asking brown people for their papers is an extreme form of racial profiling and violation of civil liberties - such proposals will not stop people from wanting to migrate, as long as poverty persists in sending countries such as nicaragua, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, and children will continue to embark on the journey "al norte" looking for ways to feed their families and striving for more opportunities. also it seems we should remember that not that long ago, the whole southwest US belonged to Mexico; asking people of native american and mexican descent now to show "papers" proving "migration status" seems a huge irony given this relatively recent historical context. so that's what i've been up to. hoping to get back into interviews starting next week... paz y amor.