Woman from Honduras ("Separated")

FOR OUR SISTERS FORCED TO FLEE.

Acrylics and marker pen on canvas. 12x12, 8x8 and 8x8 ins.

In May 2018, we learned that the US government began separating children from their parents after crossing the US-Mexico border. They were placed in detention centers that included cages, with no effective policy or a roadmap to reunite them. Two precious children died in US custody in 2018.

***

Her niña’s eyes still had the blue tint of newborns, but she knew they’d settle on brown, like hers. These little signs of her daughter growing filled her with strength and faith during their arduous escape from Honduras. Exhausting danger, harassment, thirst, hunger and humiliation would soon be behind them. America, the land of the free, would embrace them both, rescuing them from violence. Now she could provide her child a future.

The story of family separations zapped by her like lightning, but she couldn’t fathom such inhumanity. Not when they just barely escaped the hell of their homeland. Surely the greatest country in the world couldn’t also be so heartless.

But at the US border she saw the officers coming for her niñita. The muffled cries and pleas around her were unbearable. The terror that consumed her paralyzed her body but never her heart. A split-second choice. She locked eyes with her precious child in the most loving gentle gaze. She made her smile peacefully, for this would be the very last memory they have of each other for a while – maybe forever. She refused it to be a memory of tears, fear and despair. She chose one of hope, adoration, beauty, kindness, strengthening their unbreakable bond. A moment of true love and peace before they were ripped apart.