Recommended Reading: The Book of Rosy
By Emily Konouchi | Board Member
This past summer, I borrowed a copy of The Book of Rosy: A Mother’s Story of Separation at the Border from my local library. I’d been volunteering with TNJFON off and on for a couple years, but I still didn’t feel like I’d had a view into what a client might have gone through. This book changed that.
Rosarya Pablo Cruz is a mother of 4 and small business owner in Guatemala. When her husband is murdered and an attempt is made on her own life, Rosy flees for safety in the US with her younger son, Fernando, while her remaining 3 kids remain in Guatemala with her mother. Rosy finds a job and sends money home. When she learns that a gang is threatening to kidnap her 15-year-old son Yordy, Rosy goes back to Guatemala for him and makes the crossing a second time, with both sons, in April 2018.
Rosy’s experiences are harrowing. She survives hunger, dehydration and sleep deprivation. At one break from being crammed in the back of a truck, she wanders from the group and comes across human remains. This jolts her into staying close to the truck for fear of being left behind in the middle of nowhere, even though the travel conditions are almost unbearable.
“This is the immigrant experience I wish people could see, not because it’s my experience, but because it’s the story of so many of us, coming to the United States to escape violence and to build lives in which we will contribute to society...”
Even though both crossings are arduous, the second trip is drastically different because by then the Trump administration had enacted tougher policies. Rosy is separated from her sons at the Arizona border. They’re eventually sent to foster care in New York while Rosy endures inhumane treatment at the detention facility. Thanks to a grassroots organization that formed to reunite families, Rosy is eventually brought to New York and is able to start a new life there.
“We want to be part of your American dream. We want to help you realize it. We want to share it with you.”
A couple of things stick with me about Rosy’s story. The first is her sheer grit. Rosy didn’t want to leave her home in Guatemala, but the threats on her life forced her to make a dangerous trek to safety. And when her son Yordy’s life was threatened, she found the strength to do it all over again. The second is how common a story it is. Rosy was detained in horrible conditions with hundreds of other women in her exact situation. We don’t get to read their memoirs but we can imagine the multiplication of pain and suffering and sheer grit that they carry.
At the end of the memoir Rosy writes, “This is the immigrant experience I wish people could see, not because it’s my experience, but because it’s the story of so many of us, coming to the United States to escape violence and to build lives in which we will contribute to society … We want to be part of your American dream. We want to help you realize it. We want to share it with you.”
I’m proud to support the work of TNJFON, which helps so many people like Rosy share the American dream.
Have I piqued your interest in The Book of Rosy? Find a copy at your local bookstore (I’m partial to Parnassus Books in Nashville) or at your library.