EMBRACING IS OUR NATURE

Imagen: EFE/Reduan

This soliloquy begins with a photograph that, in a matter of hours, went around the world. The story of an embrace. It is hard not to be moved. With just a simple exercise in empathy, one only needs to imagine how one would have reacted after such a life-or-death ordeal. I know that I would have needed that embrace too.

That embrace in Ceuta symbolizes what many today, especially from positions of power, refuse to see: humanity. The image— a young man and a young woman from different cultures and life circumstances united in comfort— shows how simple it can be to understand one another. There are no words there, no differences, just two people offering themselves, wholeheartedly, truly.

After everything we have seen in recent days— from the baby rescued from drowning to the hundreds upon hundreds of children sitting, waiting for a fate held in unfamiliar hands— I cannot stop wondering how there are still those who can look away. How, with everything happening, it is possible to ignore or, even worse, DENY the pain and suffering of so many.

That young man left an entire life behind when he plunged into the sea. He fought to breathe, to stay afloat in its vast depths. He lost his friends, he lost his family. He saw people die. And there, far off, as he glimpsed a shore guarded by military forces, he already knew his fate would be deportation. And still, despite everything, he chose to keep swimming, not to sink. If that does not deserve admiration and respect, then what are we even talking about?

It hurts to hear voices criminalizing children. It hurts to see doors closed to people who have nothing. And it hurts even more when all of this is justified in our name. Those of us who are fortunate enough to live in contexts of peace and rights often lose awareness of our place in the world. We are privileged. No— let’s be fully honest about it: WE ARE PRIVILEGED PEOPLE.

Even though we still have much to improve as a society, we cannot forget that only a few decades ago it was our own countries that were at war and starving. It was our grandparents and/or parents who felt fear and had to seek refuge elsewhere. So when a Red Cross volunteer is attacked for having accepted that embrace and cared for that young man in his most vulnerable moment— when someone is attacked simply for extending a minimum gesture of humanity— what are we talking about?

I would have embraced him too. And I would embrace anyone who has fought an internal battle, because leaving behind a known life in pursuit of an unknown one is, to me, an act of brave and extraordinary human beings; because it is natural to feel and to connect. I don’t know if being an immigrant myself makes this affect me more. I prefer to think it is because I am a person— because I still believe that what makes us human is our ability to be moved by both a smile and a tear. And I prefer to believe that, like me, there are many more of us who want to and can silence hatred and misunderstanding.

That is what I want to talk about.

Luna, la voluntaria de Cruz Roja: "Solo le di un abrazo"

By Daniela Rojas.