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Solo deals with deportation, affected families

11/4/2009 9:20:03 AM

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Post-Bulletin, Rochester MN

A solo show is expected to take audience members Thursday night in Austin through the life of a woman whose husband was deported in 2001 to Mexico.

True story

What:"The Deportee's Wife" presentation, followed by a panel discussion and community dialogue.

Where: Frank W. Bridges Theatre, Riverland Community College, 1600 Eighth Ave. N.W., Austin.

When: 7 p.m. Thursday.

Admission: Free.

"The Deportee's Wife," being shown at Riverland Community College in Austin, lays out Giselle Stern Hernandez's marriage on the "front lines of the North American immigration debate," according to Austin's Human Rights Commission and Advocates for Human Rights.

Giselle, who was born and raised in the United States, moved to Mexico to live with her husband, Roberto, in August 2001, after he was deported four months earlier from Chicago to Mexico. They had been legally married, but it made no difference, the organization says.

Her husband was ordered to stay out of the United States for 20 years.

In the show, the organization says, Giselle takes the audience through her journey to face "hard truths" about how race, class, white U.S. privilege and gender intersect within the structures of a badly broken immigration system.

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Ali999
Lansing, MI

Posted on 11/4/2009 at 11:20:54 AM

Oh, brother. A woman knowingly marries an illegal alien and then both are surprised when they have to take the consequences of his illegal entry? Please. What other crimes would we think that the perpetrator should be absolved of because he is married to a U.S. citizen? Tax evasion? Fraud? DUI? Speeding?

Fact is, Mexicans should consider themselves insulted that Mrs. Hernandez feels that it’s such a hardship to follow her husband to Mexico. And if Mrs. Hernandez doesn’t like it there, well, how about doing the same things THERE that Mexican illegal aliens HERE do to us? Demand bilingual education and pubic services. Demand “free” healthcare. Demand citizenship for yourself. (After all, Mexican law, from what I’ve heard, makes it very difficult for even legal immigrants to naturalize and to work in some professions once they do.)

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Ali999
Lansing, MI

Posted on 11/4/2009 at 11:28:25 AM

By the way, Ms. Hernandez, if you’re so concerned about injustices, Mexico should prove a fertile field for you. Mexico is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, ranking #13 or #14 in GDP, yet has massive income inequality, largely due to its corruption and its economic and social policies. It uses the US to siphon off its poorest citizens to us, thereby reducing pressure for change.

As for race, just what “race” are Mexicans? I’m Arab-American and as brown as my Mexican-American sister-in-law who also has some French ancestry. The richest man in Mexico, one of the richest men in the world, is the son of Lebanese immigrants, Carlos Slim-Helu. Fact is, Mexico and Latin America have much the same immigrant experience as the U.S. does. Mexico just seems to put more pressure on its immigrants to think of themselves as Mexicans rather than as hyphenate Mexicans. Have you ever heard of an “Arab-Mexican” or “Jewish-Mexican” or even an African-Mexican?

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bluestar
rochester, mn

Posted on 11/4/2009 at 4:20:29 PM

Just what is “white US privilege”?

I see that this is being portrayed as a “true story.” Hope the show doesn’t leave out the truth as to what the law is.

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