We Are Not From Here

by Jenny Torres Sanchez

“We are small people,” Pequeña said again. “With small names, meant to live small lives.” She looked like she was in a trance. “That’s all we’re allowed to live, that’s all the world wants us to live. But sometimes even that, even that it won’t give us. Instead the world wants to crush us.”

I don’t know if I believe in God. Because if God exists, and if he sees everything, why doesn’t he see us? Why? And why do we have to die to finally, finally be safe? And how can the world hate us for trying to survive? And how are we only reunited with our mothers in death? But these are questions no one ever wants to answer. Or maybe there are no answers. Not really.

But this book is an imagining of an unimaginable journey, one that could never portray the brutal reality of it. I strived for accuracy, but this is a trip impossible to truly know, unless one has taken it personally. Until it is over. Each migrant’s story is vastly different. And each migrant’s story is also the same.