Letter: Oscar and Valeria deserve to have names

Posted 7/16/19

To the editor:

For a while, I’ve been trying to express my concerns for the crisis at our border. For too long, I’ve seen adults both in and out of the US administration refusing to …

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Letter: Oscar and Valeria deserve to have names

Posted

To the editor:

For a while, I’ve been trying to express my concerns for the crisis at our border. For too long, I’ve seen adults both in and out of the US administration refusing to end the cruel treatment of migrants at the southern border. In trying to figure out what I wanted to convey to the public, I delved into a mass of articles, eventually stumbling upon an image that left me horrified.

The picture, taken by Julia Le Duc, shows a man and a child lying face down in a body of water. Identification led to three names: the Rio Grande, Oscar Alberto Martinez Ramirez, and Valeria. As impersonal as these may sound, they leave a powerful message with myself, and hopefully others.

The Rio Grande has become a common passage for Central and South American migrants to reach the US border. A New York Times article, states: “facing a surge of families from Central America, Border Patrol agents say they are now pulling dozens of migrants, including young children, from the harsh current of [the Rio Grande] almost every day.” According to the article, the 2019 fiscal year has seen at least 315 people rescued from the river by BP agents. However, just like Oscar and Valeria, not all who attempt to cross survive. A recent video shows a man desperately attempting to swim against the current of the river before becoming motionless and sinking. In early May, BP agents pulled the body of a 10-month-old baby from the Rio Grande after a raft carrying nine migrants was overturned. 

Oscar Alberto Martinez Ramirez and his daughter, 23-month-old Valeria drowned trying to cross into the US through the Rio Grande. They were from El Salvador, and after a failed asylum request, had to flee their country. In a Times article, the director of the Border Network for Human Rights, Fernando Gracia, says “[p]eople have become numbers; they’ve become statistics. People talk about immigrants in the absence of humanity. As sad as it is, I think we need to show the photo,” he says, in reference to the picture of Oscar and Valeria. He’s right. Politics have become less about people and more about numbers. In the presence of an uncomfortable topic like the border crisis, people tend to maintain this mindset. 

We need to stop applying inhuman characteristics to human beings. Oscar and Valeria deserve to have names. They deserve to be more than a plus 2 count in an ever growing death toll. Have we already lost our morals in the current administration? Have we become unable to show empathy, remorse at the actions done in our country? I encourage everyone to say the names Oscar and Valeria. To say the names of Darlyn Cristabel Cordova-Valle, Jakelin Caal Maquín, Felipe Gomez Alonzo, Juan de León Gutiérrez, Wilmer Josué Ramírez Vásquez, and Carlos Hernandez Vásquez. And to cry out for the many unknown numbers and statistics that we are unable to call by a name that we know they had. 

Anna Saal

Barrington

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Mike Rego has worked at East Bay Newspapers since 2001, helping the company launch The Westport Shorelines. He soon after became a Sports Editor, spending the next 10-plus years in that role before taking over as editor of The East Providence Post in February of 2012. To contact Mike about The Post or to submit information, suggest story ideas or photo opportunities, etc. in East Providence, email mrego@eastbaymediagroup.com.