The Book of Rosy is the story of Rosayra Pablo Cruz, a mother of four from Guatemala who fled to the U.S. seeking asylum, co-written by Julie Schwietert Collazo, the cofounder of Immigrant Families Together. Rosy’s story and her fight for a dignified existence brings to life an immigration policy that was ignored for too long and continues to keep innocent refugee children separated from their parents. Adding to the heartbreak of the trauma inflicted on Rosy and her children is the fact that her story is not extraordinary at all. Like many of the U.S.’s immigration policies, Trump’s Zero Tolerance Policy was designed to dehumanize those seeking refuge at the border. The goal of these policies was not to keep anyone safe, but rather for certain people to either make massive amounts of money off of the lucrative detention center industry or to benefit politically from the suffering of others.
Beautifully written by these two women whose lives became unexpectedly intertwined, The Book of Rosy is an important read for those wanting to better understand the realities of immigration from the Global South.
My heart breaks when I think about all the losses that have occurred along the Migrant Highway, each one a story that will be remembered only by the person who suffered it.
— Rosayra Pablo Cruz
At its core, Rosy’s story is about faith, sacrifice, and what it means to show up for other people when it counts.
“Some of us who have already begun to break the silence of the night have found that the calling to speak is often a vocation of agony, but we must speak… For we are deeply in need of a new way beyond the darkness that seems so close around us…A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies.”
— Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., 1967
More resources on this topic:
- A report by the Refugee and Immigration Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES); “The U.S. Government Kidnapped my Son”– Surviving Family Separation and Prolonged Family Detention
- Immigrant Families Together working to reunite families and provide ongoing support for asylum seekers
- Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in 40 Questions by Valeria Luiselli about her volunteer working translating for child refugees
*Originally published in Latino Book Review at latinobookreview.com*
Shaker Heights is the kind of community where garbage is stored always out of sight from the street, and every last detailed is planned, from the diversity of its population to the color scheme of each house. When a free-spirited artist, Mia, and her daughter Pearl move to town, their lives become entangled with the members of the Richardson family, each of whom are either enamored with or infuriated by Mia and Pearl’s nonconformity. After a public scandal arises surrounding the custody of an abandoned baby, everyone in town is obliged to take sides in a controversy that will put ambiguous ethics at odds with family loyalties.
ode to shelf-care 