“I’m not so sure it changed. Maybe I got better at hiding behind the curtain. There was one event, however, that changed my direction. Do you know what the government agency ICE is?”
“It has something to do with immigration, doesn’t it?”
“Yes,” Carla said. “It stands for Immigration Customs Enforcement, but the acronym is very apt. Just the thought of ICE sends chills down the spine of every Latino living in this country, legal or not.”
“So what happened?”
“Well, it wasn’t a dark and stormy night,” said Carla, “but it was a rather cloudy day on campus. I was in a sullen mood. I’d left my political science class and was walking across campus. A boy I sort of liked had just told me that I didn’t figure into his future plans. I think I was more upset at being rejected than ending the relationship.”
“He must have been blind,” Al said.
Carla looked up and smiled as Al’s face turned red.
“Thanks, but that wasn’t the worst thing that happened that day. I heard sirens and saw three dark vans coming on to campus. Some men in uniforms got out and all of us knew that it was the ICE. ”
“One of the male students went up to them and demanded to know what they were doing on campus. We always thought of campus as being sort of a sanctuary.”
“What happened?”
“They threw him to the ground and cuffed him. Then they demanded to see his papers. These guys were acting first and worrying about what was legal later.”
“So much for law and order,” Al said.
“Laws are meant to preserve order for the Caucasian majority,” Carla said. “For Latinos it’s just the mechanism for harassing you and reminding you that you really don’t belong here.”
Al shifted in his chair. “I’d like to explore that further some other time but right now I want you to finish your story.”
“Well, big brave Carla ran. I knew that they would start demanding to see our papers and none of us carried papers around on campus. I’m a citizen, but I knew that because I was a Mexican with dark skin, I’d be hassled like all the rest.”
“Where did you run to?”
SMcCutchan