Written by Atziri Marquez
Happy Spring to all in the Amate community! While one doesn’t need a new season to start anew, it certainly helps. My “new beginning” at Amate House took place months ago, though it looked quite different from the rest of my community members. While most of my housemates had just graduated college at the beginning of the program year, it had been over 3 years since my college graduation from Swarthmore. Since then, I had lived in Japan teaching English. Needless to say, I chose quite the time to move back to the US. But if anything, the chaos that had been unfolding back home only fueled my desire to return to the social justice work I’m passionate about.
I knew that, after living by myself for the past three years, I wanted to live in community, which has been my anchor amidst all the transitions I’ve endured, most especially my introduction into immigration law in today’s political landscape. It has been quite the challenge, one might say a baptism by fire, but helping clients navigate an increasingly complex immigration system has been nothing short of gratifying. It has also shown me how inherently broken and unjust our “justice” system can be.
By the same token, for our winter in-service day, with the temperature dropping to a freezing 14 degrees below zero, we stayed in the house and watched Ava DuVernay’s documentary 13th, which examines the prison industrial complex and mass incarceration of African Americans in the United States. I’d like to say things have changed since I first saw this documentary ten years ago, but that would be a lie.
Trends show the total incarcerated population in the US continues to grow, despite declining crime rates, with African Americans continuing to be vastly overrepresented. My fellow community member, Kenzie, also at the Greater Chicago Legal Clinic, assists with expunging clients’ criminal records and has developed a greater understanding of this as well. At the same time, ICE raids and the overall increased militarization of communities of color run rampant across the country, particularly in Chicago.
As tempting as it is sometimes, I’m choosing as best as I can not to give into cynicism or despair. I am inspired by the stories my community members share every day at the dinner table, both by overcoming adversity they encounter in their fields, as well as the small victories they accumulate. While each of us may differ in our backgrounds, faith, and spirituality, it is clear we are all deeply committed to love, compassion, and justice.
Like my housemates, I will continue to put my energy into service and stewardship with our fellow community members in Chicago, in each of our respective fields, be it education, healthcare, social work, or law. I will engage more with the growing advocacy and solidarity movements in Chicago, whether by attending protests, completing Know Your Rights workshops, or helping to pack whistle kits in Pilsen. I will do whatever is in my power to support my Chicago community and my housemates, and try to live out the following words of Martin Luther King Jr, which will undoubtedly ring true with the whole Amate family today.
“Agape is not a weak, passive love. It is love in action. Agape is a willingness to go to any length to restore community…It is a willingness to forgive, not seven times, but seventy times seven to restore community…If I respond to hate with a reciprocal hate, I do nothing but intensify the cleavage in broken community. I can only close the gap in broken community by meeting hate with love.”