Bienvenidos a La Cuenta!
Thank you for checking out La Cuenta. We will be officially launching this weekly newsletter soon. Let us tell you a little bit about what we’re doing here:
Everyday, approximately 11 million individuals labeled undocumented in the United States provide the essential services that keep this country afloat.
Through this simple process of surviving, these individuals incur myriad costs that are largely invisible to the majority of Americans. From financial expenses like out-of-pocket health care to the emotional costs of constant fear of deportation to the spiritual costs of perpetual separation from friends and family, these are costs with compounded, long term implications.
La Cuenta begins the arduous process of accounting for these myriad costs, one expense at a time. Each week, we will explore one item added to the metaphorical bill of what undocumented American living costs. Our bill includes a sum of dollars, hours, tears, scars, goodbyes, and discarded opportunities. It is both incomplete and overwhelming.
A Prelude
If you want to know what it is like to move through life as someone who is undocumented in the United States, we’ll tell you it is an exhausting mental game. You have to trick yourself into believing it’s going to be okay. How could you possibly step outside otherwise? Contrary to how you’re portrayed on TV, it’s not like you’re part of a secret group of people rummaging in the alleys of America, even if President Obama invited you to “come out of the shadows'' several years ago. The IRS, the DMV, the police: they know that you exist. There are records that you surrender to the whims of the government in order to do the simple task of living such as getting a driver’s license and car insurance. Proof of an address and documents of your identity ensnare you in this country. You are, conspicuously, documented in your process of living “illegally” in this country. People in the U.S. government know that you are working under the table. They know how to find you. If they have a reason to come get you, they come get you. But here’s the logic that lets all of this happen in broad daylight (and not in the shadows): if the government doesn’t have a reason to come get you, they're pretty much going to take advantage of you. Because being an undocumented immigrant is convenient for the United States. Your time, your labor, your ingenuity: this country extracts these from you cheaply, with no safety net proffered.
This newsletter begins to name the costs of this American convenience. We hope you’ll join us on this weekly accounting.
How did we get here?
“We” is Alix Dick and Antero Garcia. Alix is a filmmaker and writer in Los Angeles, originally from Sinaloa, Mexico. Antero is an associate professor in the Graduate School of Education at Stanford university and a California native. Together, we’ve spent the past year and a half exploring the limits of contemporary social science research and improvising the necessary tools for participatory approaches to critical empathy and societal change. You can read more about us and La Cuenta on our about page.
If you are interested in contributing to La Cuenta please drop us a line.