Chivo by Sebastian Chavez

The Sun rises over this quiet and cynical desert. It is one of the most beautiful sites you’ll ever get to see, but it is the land that belongs to the immigrants. The sunlight castes away the darkness from the battleground. This battleground that is home to many immigrants who are fighting for a new life. The sunlight starts to creep up the face of Maria who is a Salvadorian immigrant who has been on a treacherous journey. She says to her 8-year-old boy “Wake up mi amor! Wake up! We have to get ready. It’s time to go. It’s time for a new life.” She approaches her son who is lying on the dirt sleeping, so she thinks. She takes notice quickly that her son isn’t breathing. Panicking and screaming at him “Wake up! Please Wake up! Don’t this to me. Please God! Help! Someone Help!”. Her son lifeless body she held her arms the same arms that embrace him into this world. She keeps screaming “Amor? Amor? Get up! Please get up! No! No! We have to go Amor!”. She shakes him in hope of her beloved son waking up, but her son will never see the light of day ever again. The Coyote a man who is being paid to get these immigrants to cross the border. He screams aggressively to the tireless immigrants, “We have to go! We have to keep moving!”. Maria couldn’t get up she was in shock. Her 8-year-old son was lying on the ground dead. Her son who she will never be able to see him grow and live a life that he deserve to live. That’s the reality of life for an immigrant is that this world doesn’t have sympathy for them. They are treated like dirt and that is because the world believes they are dirt. The desert is the grave yard for most immigrants who don’t make out it. It is home to the forgotten. She kept looking at her son just wishing she could say goodbye. She wished that it was her who had died that night because it felt like she just did. Coyote comes up to Maria and tells “Maria let’s fucking go! There is no time to waste! Leave that worthless piece of shit on the ground! He was holding us back either way. You can make another one! Vamos todos!”. Maria looks at the Coyote with pain and anger,“What did you just say?”, she starts slapping and throwing these weightless punches at him. Coyote just stops her and grabs her trying to console her in the best way he can. “We need to make it to the Los Angeles in one piece! We have come this far. You are also not the only person who has lost someone on this trip. I’m sorry I know that is hard, but he is gone. The good thing about his death is that he doesn’t have to suffer anymore in this hell hole we like to call ‘life’”. It felt like a knife had just pierce her whole heart wide open. Her heart in pain and anguish trying to pick up the pieces in order to carry on. Maria gets up from the ground from where her son lies she knows she has to keep going no matter the cost. “Alright then let’s go” the Coyote says to the group “I am in control of everything we do from here on out. You all belong to me until we get to Los Angeles. It is my duty to get you all there, but I will fail. Most of you will die on this journey. This country doesn’t want people like us. They despise us and they will do anything to make sure we stay out of it”.

The immigrants would travel miles and miles through the hot and treacherous environment. Blister and cuts spread all over the bottoms of their feet. It was a torturous walk something that only the strong are capable of. This walk is a representation of the desire of survival. Hope, but how much hope can a person have in themselves to make it something that is unknown to them? Walking in hope of a brighter future, but in the back of their mind maybe that future doesn’t want them. “It is so quiet and lonely out here”, Maria says this with pain to the Coyote. He looks at her with sorrow glance and says “What is scaring about this place is that even though it is so quiet and peaceful. You can also hear the voices of the forgotten. All the people that have died trying and their bodies that have rotten into this wasteland that they call ‘America’”. Maria was in a state of confusion of how much hate a country can have on a people. Coyote starts to reflect on his past journey “Too many to count and too many I want to forget. Every time I have done this journey it hurts me to see what people have to endure in order to hope for a better life”. Maria replies to him, “What is this life people are searching for? I don’t know what my purpose is without my son. If I’m not a mother then what am I? I was raised to serve my husband and be the best mother I could possibly be to my child”. Maria talks to herself, “I hurt I want to grab my heart and set it on fire. Why am I here? Back home doesn’t want me and to this unknown place doesn’t want me, so who wants me? There is no power no more within me. There is only doubt. This doubt is possessing me”. Suddenly, the Coyote tells everyone “Get down! Get down!”, everyone panics and hides, but they have no clue what they are hiding from. Everyone looks at the Coyote in a state of confusion, “They are here. The white men in uniform they kidnap, murder, rape, and do other things only God knows”. The other immigrants scream out “Shut up! If they hear us we will be killed on site”, these people don’t show no mercy or sympathy for anyone. Coyote looks at everyone and says them “We are going to try to make it over that hill. That is our only option they have us surrounded. Everyone run and don’t look back”. All the immigrants sweating bullets and breathing very heavily. This is a life or death situation. Whatever move they make will be a fatal one for some or for all. “We are going over that hill and I can’t promise all of us will make it” said Coyote. There was silence in the wind nothing to hear or to say. The pressure was high and the tension was clear that this moment was either going to make it or break it. The Border troops were all lined up ready they screamed out “We know you are out there you beaners! Come out! We have tacos and horse shit for y’all”. Startled and frightful of these white men in uniforms Maria questioned it “Why are they talking to us like that? What did we do?”. Coyote just look down and just took a deep breath and told Maria “Do you not understand? They don’t want us here! What part don’t you get? We are fucking trespassers. This is it. On my command we run.” Those were the last words of the Coyote. He would be shot and killed. Maria and other immigrants as fast as they could, but they didn’t make it. They were captured forced into vans and taken to a detainment center (American version of: putting people into cages like savages.) We tend to ignore this hard truth. While you read this there is a mother, child, or father who is either dead or locked in a cage that they don’t belong in just because they aren’t part of this society we know as White America.

Written by Sebastian Chavez