Once I Was You Quotes

“I hope I am following in Harriet Tubman’s footsteps, because she had the capacity to dream of liberation. Not all of us allow ourselves to fulfill our dreams of freedom. Maybe you dream of being free from a job, a relationship, a city.… But acting on freedom can be the scariest thing we do. To believe we are so radically free that we can dream the craziest, wildest dreams for ourselves and then work nonstop to make them come true, no matter the odds. No matter the borders we have to cross. No matter how many glass ceilings we have to crash through. This struggle, the restless determination, the feeling of urgency that comes with working to make things better—it never really goes away.”
― María Hinojosa, Once I Was You: A Memoir of Love and Hate in a Torn America

“History is written by the victors, which means we should question the version of history that has been handed down to us—by teach-ers, the media, and authority figures. The victors certainly have not labeled themselves or the people they descended from who arrived on this land without papers or permission as the very first "illegal aliens." In-stead, we are taught that this is a land that welcomes immigrants (pássive indigenous people just wanting to share...), a place where the idea that we are all created equal is a self-evident truth (though written during slavery), that we are each endowed with unalienable rights (except voting, if you were a woman, till 1920), including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Perhaps the most important document for immigrants in this country, the Declaration of Independence, says we all have a right to exist and to fight for our existence (but mostly if you were a white man).”
― María Hinojosa, Once I Was You: A Memoir of Love and Hate in a Torn America

“Since when did the Constitution say, Hey, by the way, this document is only for those of you who have papers? If you can’t prove you were born here, no constitutional rights for you. Says who exactly?”
― María Hinojosa, Once I Was You: A Memoir of Love and Hate in a Torn America

“When the US won the Mexican-American War in 1848, Mexico was forced to cede nearly half of its territory—land that later made up California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming—for $15 million as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The people living there did not cross any border or migrate anywhere. Instead, the border crossed them, forcing US citizenship on them overnight with the promise they could keep the land they owned. That promise didn’t stop businessmen and railroad companies from stripping Mexican Americans of 20 million acres”
― María Hinojosa, Once I Was You: A Memoir of Love and Hate in a Torn America