Putting their life on wheels and fleeing "La Bruja" Brewer ( Spanish rendering of her last name that means "the witch" ). Sofia and Angela escaped Jail without their children. "SB1070 was the match that ignited the stick of dynamite" said Richard Martinez, a Tucson civil rights attorney.
Adventures of House Cleaners in Arizona :
The Daily Beast
Migrants in Limbo
A judge blocked the harshest aspects of Arizona’s new law, turning planned protests into a victory party. Bryan Curtis talks to undocumented immigrants about why they can’t rest easy.
July 30, 2010
By Bryan Curtis
Bryan Curtis is a senior editor at The Daily Beast. He was a columnist at Play: The New York Times Sports Magazine, Slate, and Texas Monthly, and has written for GQ, Outside, and New York.
Migrants in Limbo
Some excerpts :
Angela and Sofia, two Mexican-born house cleaners, were my focus group. Angela is 51 years old. She has an elegant bearing and looked almost regal in a black-and-white dress. Sofia, 41, is shorter and rounder and quick to crack a joke. Both are undocumented immigrants who have been living under the radar in Tucson, Arizona for more than a decade. To hear about their predicaments is to see exactly how much, and how little, was won in court this week.
We met in a small house belonging to a friend of theirs in South Tucson and sat around a table that was draped with a checkerboard cloth. The women were nervous at first—they rarely ventured far from home except for work, they said—but soon, speaking through an interpreter, they began to open up. Both had been floored by Bolton’s decision Wednesday. Angela said she could hardly bear to watch the news. Sofia smiled and retorted, “I watched the news every day so I would be ready to run.”
Indeed, after 1070 was signed in April, Angela and Sofia, like a lot of undocumented Arizonans, put their lives on wheels. Both considered fleeing if the law went into effect. Three weeks ago, Sofia even sent her 4-year-old daughter back to Sonora, Mexico, figuring she could meet her child there. (She’s now trying to get the child back.) Angela signed over the power of attorney for her 15-year-old daughter to her daughter’s American godparents, on the increasingly likely chance she would wind up in a Border Patrol van. For the first time in years, vanishing seemed like an option.
On the plus side, Bolton’s decision ended that feeling of terror
.....................
Another clear effect of 1070’s defeat was that it had stirred a new Hispanic civil rights movement. “1070 was the match that ignited the stick of dynamite,” said Richard Martinez, a Tucson civil rights attorney. Asked what she made of Gov. Jan Brewer, Sofia replied, “I don’t even want to see her.” Angela concurred. Among Spanish-speaking 1070 opponents, I heard Brewer referred to this week as la bruja—a Spanish rendering of her last name that means “the witch.”
.
We met in a small house belonging to a friend of theirs in South Tucson and sat around a table that was draped with a checkerboard cloth. The women were nervous at first—they rarely ventured far from home except for work, they said—but soon, speaking through an interpreter, they began to open up. Both had been floored by Bolton’s decision Wednesday. Angela said she could hardly bear to watch the news. Sofia smiled and retorted, “I watched the news every day so I would be ready to run.”
Indeed, after 1070 was signed in April, Angela and Sofia, like a lot of undocumented Arizonans, put their lives on wheels. Both considered fleeing if the law went into effect. Three weeks ago, Sofia even sent her 4-year-old daughter back to Sonora, Mexico, figuring she could meet her child there. (She’s now trying to get the child back.) Angela signed over the power of attorney for her 15-year-old daughter to her daughter’s American godparents, on the increasingly likely chance she would wind up in a Border Patrol van. For the first time in years, vanishing seemed like an option.
On the plus side, Bolton’s decision ended that feeling of terror
.....................
Another clear effect of 1070’s defeat was that it had stirred a new Hispanic civil rights movement. “1070 was the match that ignited the stick of dynamite,” said Richard Martinez, a Tucson civil rights attorney. Asked what she made of Gov. Jan Brewer, Sofia replied, “I don’t even want to see her.” Angela concurred. Among Spanish-speaking 1070 opponents, I heard Brewer referred to this week as la bruja—a Spanish rendering of her last name that means “the witch.”
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