These are the stories of love and responsibility. The stories of families surviving together across borders, oceans, deserts. The stories that continuously build a web of feelings weaved by the money sent, the money received, the gifts, the care and affection that makes lives lived in separation, worthwhile living. The stories of people that care, that work everyday to bridge distant realities closer together. The stories of daughters, sons, fathers, mothers, wives, husbands, grandmothers, uncles, aunts, families that depend on each other for happiness and survival. The stories of generosity, kindness and sacrifice. The stories of migrants and the love that makes everything possible.

It is a dangerous thing to forget the climate of your birthplace,
to choke out the voices of dead relatives
when in dreams they call you by your secret name.
It is dangerous to spurn the clothes you were born to wear for the sake of fashion;
dangerous to disdain the plaster saints before which your mother kneels
praying with embarrassing fervor that you survive in the place you have chosen to live:
el olvido – judith ortiz cofer

aquí estamos, estos somos,
una muchedumbre que busca un trabajo, un hogar,
hombres y mujeres exigiendo una oportunidad,
aprendiendo de nuevo a nombrar, leer, transcribir,
mientras guardamos costumbres en inciertos desvanes
y le vamos entregando al tiempo la memoria y los olvidos,
hasta morir muy lejos de nuestros montes, playones y ríos.
náufragos del destino – hugo cuevas-mohr