A story that needs telling

It’s a heart-wrenching story. But it’s a story that must be told. It’s a story that puts a very human face on what is often discussed in impersonal terms: immigration, illegals, border, them, us, ours.

Enrique’s Journey is the story of a young Honduran boy who traveled to the U.S., mostly on top of trains, to find his mother who had migrated North to find work years before. This book was required reading for Bluffton first-year students and for seniors in the Capstone course.

Now alumni, parents and friends are invited to join with Bluffton students, faculty and staff for a discussion of Enrique’s Journey with author Sonia Nazario at 11 a.m. April 7.

Just having read the prologue, I am so intrigued. It’s going to be one of those books that I won’t be able to put down once started. It tells of the desperation mothers feel to justify leaving their children to find work in order to support their children and the abandonment children feel without their mother’s presence.

Lazario wrote in the prologue, “Latina migrants ultimately pay a steep price for coming to the United States. They lose their children’s love… People are losing what they value most.”

It would be a great story if it was fiction. The bond of a mother and son and the lengths they go to show that love, the intrigue and danger encountered on top the “Train of Death,” the kindness of strangers along the way.

Unfortunately it’s not fiction. It is all too real. And it is an important part of the “immigration issue” which should not be overlooked.

Join us for the book discussion on April 7, either in person or online.

Poking a sleeping dog?

To me, the idea of taking a year to explore hot-button contemporary issues is a kind of like seeing how often one can poke at a sleeping dog before it wakes up and bites you. But never one to back down from a challenge, for the past three years Bluffton’s faculty has chosen to explore a “significant contemporary issue in cross-disciplinary ways” through general education courses and student-life programming.

It’s an interesting concept. Select Forum speakers, academic courses and student activities all focus on exploring this one theme throughout the year. First-year students are assigned summer reading focused on the topic, and then the author of that book is the speaker at Opening Convocation. A faculty member is selected the “civic engagement scholar” and serves to champion the theme. The year is wrapped up with Civic Engagement Day with additional speakers, student and faculty presentations and other events and activities.

The first two themes were: Environmental Stewardship: Living in the Natural World in 2007-08 and Living with Uncertainty in a Complex World) in 2008-09.

Some examples of student initiatives from these studies included a campus-wide recycling program and the introduction of Trayless Tuesdays (where there are no trays in Marbeck to save water, dish soap and food) in 2007-08; and the performance of “Whatever Kindles,” a fictional docudrama exploring the everyday experiences and struggles of members of Christian Peacemaker Teams, and men from across campus walking one mile in women’s high-heeled shoes to raise awareness of rape, sexual assault and gender violence in Walk A Mile In Her Shoes® in 2008-09.

This year the chosen civic engagement theme is “Beyond Borders: The Role of Immigration in a Global Community.” Sonia Nazario, a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist and author of the required summer reading Enrique’s Journey, was the Opening Convocation speaker.

In the President’s Forum address, President Harder recalled Ms. Nazario’s challenge for us to deal with the “shades of grey” surrounding the immigration question. He said, “One of those ‘shades of grey’ issues for most of us is the reality that our own ancestors were immigrants to the United States, often coming here out of their own sense of desperation. They—and we as their descendants—benefitted tremendously from the opportunity they found in America.”

Hmmm. It’s going to be an interesting year to see where the students go with this one.