My Side of the River

I was tired of watching immigrants become scapegoats while the real threats to safety were ignored. It always felt like the real threat to safety was never looked at, never examined. I guess white skin and guns weren’t considered to be a suitable combination to villainize.

You don't have to tell anyone you're the best, but you have to be. (Be great, but do it modestly).

The key to learning is finding a single bead of a lesson to take with you, he said. “As you go through life, that bead will turn into a rosary of knowledge, guiding you toward the right path.

And if U,S. history has taught us anything, a police officer’s “discretion” is often rooted in racism, whether their own or that of the racist institution signing their checks.

It seemed to me that the institution of religion was as fickle and divisive as the institution that enacts anti-immigration laws, both separating families on earth as it is in heaven

often rooted in racism, whether their own or that of the racist institution signing their checks.

And if U.S. history has taught us anything, a police officer’s “discretion” is

I was to be great, but I was to do it modestly. “Está bien, Mama,” I replied. “I’ll be the best.” I couldn’t have imagined all the ways her belief would continually empower me, and all the ways the pressure of that belief would eventually debilitate me.

that there are seasons of lack and plenty, of drought and flooding.

In many ways the river taught me about life: that wealth and poverty are in proximity, but always separated; that people don’t like what they can’t control, preferring instead to reward you only when you fulfill their narrative about who you are supposed to be;

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

Maybe it was when I realized that a person could go hungry in the land of abundance.

Everything felt foreign. I felt foreign, like an impostor of a citizen.