Oxnard USA: The Ordinary Life of a Latinx - By Raul Garcia
Raul Garcia: I am a current UCLA undergraduate and an aspiring attorney with the goal of entering the public interest field. My hope is to begin law school in 2022. I grew up in Oxnard, California, which is home to many Latino families who harbor dreams that are rarely fulfilled. My personal history is what has inspired both my professional and academic achievements, as well as my steadfast commitment to remain faithful to my roots. I want to amplify the voices I grew up with, and to empower human rights for Latinx through legal aid.
Thank you for this wonderful and safe space. My comic, as you will discover, is titled Oxnard USA: The Ordinary Life of a Latinx. Here, on this cover, I try to give a preview of the environment, a strawberry field in Oxnard CA that surrounds Jose Luis. He is my main character. Oxnard is known for a narrow form of labor that undocumented families participate in.
In 2006, Jose Luis is an ordinary Latinx who was brought illegally into this country at the age of three and this is my interpretation of how it looks.
His parents make it across the border and begin a new life in Oxnard where they work the fields. They enjoy their new life despite the enormous workload, and the presence of overt violence. The strawberry is meant to reflect that possibility.
I drew the Yes We Can slogan because in Spanish it stands for “Si se puede”, which is a political slogan used throughout Mexican culture to strike hope on a given matter. The United Farm Workers movement, for example, used it to demand economic and social justice. The slogan was also used during the 2008 and 2012 Obama presidential campaigns, “Yes We Can!” It mobilized millions of voters and it was thus the symbolic slogan of change.
This traffic stop I drew is meant to foreshadow Jose’s violent experience. ICE agents had developed a deportation case against his father after a traffic violation. In fact, one morning. Jose woke up to shouts of strange men yelling to quickly wake up and sit in the living room. He then saw his father viciously get taken away while his family sat on the couch.
The emotional damage of that arrest was detrimental to Jose’s physical and mental health. Sitting on that couch is something he has never forgotten. And here the drawing with the door is from Jose’s POV.
This happened to me in 2012 and it is why I drew these images. This image in the top left says 2012, Yes We Can again. And then underneath I respond with the drawing of yes, it happened, 419,384 humans were deported and separated- the most in US history.
Here is an example of a warrant for deportation in which I added Latino names. Why? Well, let’s think to ourselves a little and answer it in our minds.
As a result, you can see Jose in a depressed state as a child constantly reliving the moment he saw his father taken away. Those thoughts continued into his teenage years, which is why I drew him sitting in his desk at school. His teens were also filled with labor to support his family, and in the top left corner you can see the letters M,T,W,T,F,S,S to indicate what he does most of the week. He, not surprisingly, ends up graduating with very poor grades and you can see him here having a conversation with the counselor. Jose is striking a deal to graduate using work hours as credits. “All that matters is that he graduated.”
After high school Jose discovers that cannot get a job outside the family janitorial business. Why? He discovers that he has no legal paperwork. He too is an illegal alien. His dreams to reunite with his father are shattered and he takes it out on himself by chronically drinking. The broken bottle images reflect his shattered dreams of reuniting with his father someday. It also reflects how risky it is for him to get deported. Ultimately, he feels broken, lost, and confused.
Jose constantly relives the moment when his father was taken away. I shaded the couch darker because he cannot take it anymore. The bottle here says: don’t give up. It’s his inner self telling him to move forward any way he can. Jose then ends up working the strawberry fields his father once worked in.
It is there where Jose met Esperanza, a young fellow picker who was also a full-time community college student. She struck hope into Jose Luis when she encouraged him that it is possible to do both, “¡Si se Puede!” The colors here are meant to express hope and recourse.
Jose signs up for college and he does not perform well. A visit to his counselor was due because he was being placed on academic probation. His counselor heard his story and pointed Jose in the right direction. He became a DACA recipient and now works at the front desk of student services and is a full-time student majoring in political science with aspirations to become an immigration lawyer.
The facts on DACA are listed: improved psychological well-being, declines in levels of distress, negative emotions, and fear of deportation. Jose is now expressing his new-found piece of mind and hope. His facial expression is meant to show that relief while simultaneously not letting his guard down.
Jose’s story is ultimately about hope and courage to find a path to a better future. He ultimately returns to education thanks to Esperanza, whose name in English translates to hope. Jose then finds piece of mind by becoming a DACA recipient with help of his counselor and is now working towards changing the narrative often affixed to people of his status.