A Letter From Luz
Honorable First Lady,
Čestitam Melanija, as your mother would say. Congratulations, Melania! You are the first woman not born in the United States to become the First Lady. As an immigrant and a world traveler, you understand from personal experience how easy it is to shift roles from host to stranger. I am glad that your parents benefitted from chain immigration. As an immigrant myself, I understand how hard it is to have your loved ones on the other side of a vast expanse of land or sea.
A dreamer born in Novo Mesto, a tiny town covered by smoke and steam[i] and raised in Sevnica, Slovenia, daughter of Amalija Knavs, a farm worker who later became a local factory worker,[ii] and Viktor Knavs, a member of the Communist Party and a car salesman,[iii] your desire for more than a simple life at a snail pace took you to fashion houses in Paris and Milan.
Regarded as benevolent and respectful by a neighbor who lived in an apartment complex nearby during your youth,[iv] you became a permanent resident of the United States in 2001 and took the Oath of Allegiance in 2006. A bright woman, you speak English, Slovene, German, French, Italian and Serbo-Croatian languages.[v] Such cross-pollination of cultures and languages are integral parts of your identity.
Despite your husband’s attempts to dissuade you from launching the ‘Be Best’ anti-bullying social media campaign, you stood firm. This proves that you are not only astute and independent, but that you can tell a right from a wrong and stand by your convictions.
Abuelo Jose Maria always warned, “Nadie aprende con cabeza ajena.” Although I believe that no one learns with someone else’s head, I sincerely hope that this letter inspires you to co-create a world without walls based on the values you hold dear: justice, respect, and opportunity for all.
The separation of undocumented immigrant children from their families when they cross the border, placing hundreds of young ones already at-risk miles away from their agonizing parents is a crime against nature, humanity, and god. As a former refugee, I can assure you, dear First Lady, that these children will carry wounds that will haunt them a lifespan.
I believe you when you say that you care deeply about these children. When the news hit, you expressed genuine concern, wanted to ensure the children’s wellbeing, and didn’t approve having parents and kids separated. I am sure that a bright and sensible woman like you cannot comprehend how such cruel and inhumane acts can be part of a “Make America Great Again” plan.
Abuelo Jose Maria used to say, “La ignorancia alimenta el odio.” Y asi es, ignorance feeds hatred. Por eso es tan importante to distinguish history from myth. And you dear First Lady, as an immigrant required to study the history of this country for your naturalization test, know more about this subject than the President of the United States.
As a country built from the gifts of native people and undocumented immigrants, we often sustain the illusion that everything “American” sprouted by spontaneous generation and indulge in a glorious fabricated past that never existed.
Even our nation’s namesake derives from Amerigo Vespucci, the Italian explorer, navigator, and cartographer born in the Republic of Florence in the 1400s who accompanied Christopher Columbus, the undocumented immigrant who paved the trail of genocide that decimated two-thirds of the population of what they called the Americas and who ignited the African people’s slave trade. From the natives, La Conquista stole their lands, and from Africa, it stole the people.
As a well-informed First Lady, you know that the Americas include North, Central, and South America. Pues sí, “America the Beautiful” spans from the Arctic circle all the way to Antarctica and includes Canada, the United States, Mexico, Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panamá, Colombia, Venezuela, Brasil, Guyana, Surinam, Perú, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Argentina, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Haití, Barbados, Las Bahamas, Santo Domingo y otras islas del Mar Caribe. ¡Esa es la única América que yo conozco!
Nothing reeks of history more than food, dear First Lady. Although you are more the smoothie and fresh fruit type to keep a cut figure, I am sure you know that in our “American” cuisine, even those praised culinary items grilled during our 4th of July came to this country in the hands of undocumented immigrants. The hamburger patty created in the 19th century in Hamburg, Germany, is a great example. The hot dog, another Independence Day favorite, can be traced back to undocumented German immigrants who brought German sausage to this country back in the 1800s.
Our very “American” corn on the cob was domesticated by natives in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Even the potatoes in the potato salad traveled quite a bit before reaching the United States. First cultivated by the Aymara people in what is today Bolivia and Peru, around 200 B.C., potatoes arrived in North America in 1621.
When it comes to our favorite 4th of July dessert, nothing, my dear Frist Lady, is more “American” than apple pie. Geoffrey Chaucer printed the first recipe of apple pie in England in 1381. The apple pie arrived with the undocumented immigrants, also known as the Pilgrims, traveling aboard the Mayflower in 1620.
Even Lady Liberty is an immigrant. “Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” reads Emma Lazarus’ sonnet at her feet. A present from France, the Statue of Liberty celebrates Dreamers like you.
As you see my dear First Lady, everything held so dearly as an expression of the United States’ identity, character, and sense of place traveled to this land in the hands of undocumented immigrants or was already here in Apache, Blackfoot, Cherokee, Cheyenne, Comanche, Hopi, Navajo, Seminole, Pima, Potano, Tohono, Yaqui and many other native lands before the Pilgrims, the Huguenots and the Spanish Conquistadores arrived. That mixture of traditions from this sacred land and every corner of the world is what makes this nation a Gran Mestiza.
My dear First Lady, in my grandfather Jose Maria’s words, “Las almas perdidas no saben su historia.” And I agree. Lost souls do not know their history and live in terrible anguish because they don’t know who they are.
As an immigrant and former refugee, I thank you for paying a visit and offering your help to our children unjustly held prisoners at the Tucson Southwest Key on Oracle Road. Despite the “I really don’t care. Do you?” I am sure you understand as a mother that a nice haircut, a bed, and a pair of new shorts is not enough.
I see you, Melanija, the child who wore a second-hand polka-dot winter jacket to school, descendant of farm and factory workers, a Dreamer who carved a future as an immigrant far away from her homeland, the small-town local girl who weaved her way to the White House. You inspire girls all over the world. And I trust that you, my dear First Lady, will do anything in your power to help these frightened children reunite with their distressed parents as promised during the press conference after your recent visit to Tucson.
With glimmering hope, I call the beautiful banks of the Sava River and the forest that watched you grow, the sacred rains, the winter snow, the four winds that brought you to this shore, the fire in your immigrant heart to offer you the strength required to fulfill your promise and lead us out of this violent chubasco.
Respectfully,
Luz
Mariel Masque – Copyright 2018
All Rights Reserved, including International Rights.
Sources:
[i] Johnson, Glen, “The People of a Small Slovenian Town are excited that Melania Trump is About to Become First Lady.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, California, November 14, 2016.
[ii] Ibid.
[iii] Ibid.
[iv] Johnson, Glen, “The People of a Small Slovenian Town are excited that Melania Trump is About to Become First Lady.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, California, November 14, 2016.
[v] Kessier, Ronald, “The Real Melania Trump.” The Washington Times, Washington DC, May 8, 2018.