Blog Assignment #2 on Inherit The Sun by Demetria Martinez

Inherit the Earth by Demetria Martinez was a very strong piece that stood out to me. I could relate to it, not directly but my mom crossed the border from Mexico into the U.S. I shared this story with her because she’s always said that if people knew the huge struggle that immigrants had to go through,  they would worry more about aiding people around the border instead of closing off the border. I was extremely impressed by how the writer puts the reader in the dessert with the people and really describes the scenario with a list. A list so powerful that allows the reader to feel the hardship the people are going through all with the hope that at the other side of the border the  American dreams awaits them.

 The first quote I chose was the sentence she starts the piece off with. “The Arizona sun is melting like a pat of butter on the mountain that flanks Tucson’s west side”. This quote stood out to me because this simile is perfect to show how hot it can be in the dessert. I could picture the sun being like a melting piece of butter over the hot dry dessert. She doesn’t have to get into detail about how bad the conditions were, all she has to do is use this simile and the reader can picture the situation clearly in their head. This start really established a good sense of the scene and the mood of the place she was talking about. I could imagine my mom in that hot desert waiting to cross the border.

 The second quote that really stood out to me was one particular item from the list. “We’ve even found a baby’s cowboy boots with silver tips, said Hoover, adding that he doesn’t know what fate the owner of the stroller or the babies met”. This quote stood out a lot after my mom told me that as you walk the desert you can see small handmade graves for all the people that passed away in the desert due mostly to dehydration and lack of food and medicine. She said she saw many small baby sized graves. This quote left me thinking of what could have possibly happened to the baby.

The last quote that really grabbed my attention is “Humane Borders provides water to address the immediate emergency but its ultimate goal is, with other groups, to force changes in U.S. immigration policies—to “take death out of the migration equation,” as Hoover puts it”. This is an important quote to me because it’s a cry for help. Not only due people die because of the poor conditions of crossing the border but also from abuse of the authorities in the border. My mom said she even heard stories of woman being raped and robbed in the desert with no one to help them or save them. Authorities are also allowed to shot at a person if they are running away. We need to raise awareness of the horrible conditions many people of South American people go through to get to this country. Overall the piece was very well written, I loved her style of writing because she does very little explaining and mostly tells her story through the list. The list leaves space for the reader to use our imagination and interpret the list.