This past week, the actress, Diane Guerrero, from "Orange is the New Black" and some episodes of "Jane the Virgin" went viral, and it had nothing to do with her career. Diane Guerrero spoke about her parents being deported when she was 14, and on that day, she was all alone. Her parents and brother were gone, sent to Colombia. The situation her family always feared, turned out to become a reality she had to face at a young age.
The reality is that if you are a child with undocumented parents, this is a situation you will always fear, even when your parents might say, "Don't think about that, we will deal with that situation when the time comes." But the truth is, you never know when it will happen to you. You can be the same age as Diane Guerrero, or you can be older with younger siblings, and have both or one parent get deported, and then it becomes difficult. Diane Guerrero was an exception because she was able to defeat the odds; her parents always had a plan, just in case they would get deported. When Diane's family got deported, she knew there would be family friends who would help her out, and she also knew her parents left her with some money, which helped her. But the reality is, not all undocumented parents or the family, in general, have a plan. Normally, undocumented parents try their best to not talk about the subject as much because they do not want their children to live in fear; however, in my opinion, I feel like the child will always have that fear of one day finding out that their family just got separated, and they will have no clue on what to do. Even though Diane was a little prepared because her parents always talked about the situation, she was still in shock and could not believe it, but at the end of the day, she had someone to call and a place to be.
Diane Guerrero's story is something that has been going on for a while, but not everyone is talking about undocumented people, whether they are undocumented students or parents, these stories are not being told. Neither is this issue being discussed by Latinos as much. Although undocumented students are discussing this issue, they are, in a way, protected by the law, and they are known as Dreamers. Yet, undocumented parents are not protected by any law, so they and their kids live in fear of not being able to openly discuss the issues because there is always that concern of getting deported.
I am glad Diane Guerrero, along with other Latina artists, are opening up and discussing these issues of deportation and are being activist. These celebrities are using their platform in a positive way and are standing in solidarity with the undocumented people. Even though it can be hard because there are several people who are against undocumented people, who have commented on Diane's social medias as well as other famous people who are standing up for this cause, this is not stopping Diane and the others.
My message to my readers is the same message every activist is saying and that is to stop deportations and go out and vote for the candidates who want to stop seperating families.
