Transnational Ruptures by Catherine Nolin

Author:Catherine Nolin [Nolin, Catherine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780754638056
Goodreads: 1328173
Publisher: Ashgate Publishing
Published: 2006-04-22T00:00:00+00:00

Transnational Ethnographies

Pedro1

With bravado and apparent confidence, PEDRO looked directly into my eyes as we shook hands for the first time in December 1998. SISTER BETH introduced us in the kitchen of CASA LIBERTAD, a refugee transition house in BEVERLY, on the morning that PEDRO crossed the SULLIVAN-BEVERLY Bridge in his bid for political asylum. SISTER BETH’s assurance that I was not with Immigration helped to set PEDRO at ease and she explained that our conversation would not interfere with his refugee application. We agreed to meet again the next day and continued to meet regularly over a six-month period.

Twenty-nine years old, with military-style shaved black hair and an intense gaze, PEDRO explained how, having deserted the army and successfully dodged their grip for a few years, he began to fear for his life after receiving a number of threats once he resettled in LA HAVANA. He left Guatemala on 5 October 1998. With no contacts or plan in mind, PEDRO made the dangerous journey through Mexico and the United States on his own, and came to Canada directly:

I had to leave very fast. Yes. First, I slept on the riverbank in a secret place. I knew very well where to go because I fished in those rivers all the time and I knew of hidden places. So I hid myself for the night and then I went to my house and they said they knew I was coming because they went to look for me … some spies, I suppose. Three times they were there and talked to my mom and dad. So I told them, “I won’t send cards, you never hear from me, don’t worry about it.” My mom was crying and my dad…. I walked in the mountains, asking for rides, and in this way I arrived at the border of Mexico without money. Without money and without food. I crossed at Roma, Texas. [It lies] close to Monterrey. I worked on a ranch for two or three days and they gave me food. I walked for a long time, like five or seven days in the mountains. I didn’t know anyone. Nobody. I wasn’t brave, how do you say? Without knowing, without knowing anything. I crossed with the name of God, asking, and in this way, I went. But I suffered a lot. No food, sleeping on the mountain under the rain.

As with many young men in the military, PEDRO did not enlist but was pulled from the street and forced to endure brutal training exercises. ‘See this?’ he asks in Spanish while pointing to two large bumps and a scar on the top of his head. PEDRO explains:

Here I have two blows to the head but the bigger one is from the military. It’s from when I was in the military. They put like this … with my hands behind my head and dropped me to the floor on my head so that I would learn everything. Ummm, my life is full of suffering. I’ve suffered a lot.

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