Sometimes, books are meant to detach you from the world. They are often a fairytale, poetry, mythology, or romance, but not with the book We Are Not From Here. With this story, Jenny Torres Sanchez grabs you and turns you around to face head-on into real, genuine brutality. Making you feel as if you were really there living the cruelty and dangers that the characters face. This story follows the narrative of two siblings, Flor (pequeña) and Pulga as they attempt to escape the dangers of their town in Puerto Barrios, Guatemala with Chico, Pulga’s best friend. In their desperation to escape their horrors, they traverse the horrific journey through Mexico to get to the United States in the hope of a better future. They go through the trip, with dangers such as la Bestia, escaping armed men, and crossing through a desert, each time losing their humanity until one of them meets their death. By writing about these horrors, Sanchez makes us remember these things so that we can become better able to confront the bad things in our lives and society. Despite the harsh realities and pessimism in this book, we should not ban this or any other book because it limits the perspective of a kid about the world. These books are honest, and in a way hopeful for the future and how we should confront our own problems.
These forms of literature should not be banned because they share a reality that either has happened or is happening right now. Pulga and Pequena, who are exhausted and malnourished, find themselves lost in a desert under the scorching sun. Pulga gets caught by a deportation who transports him to a deportation center. While in the building, he describes his experiences inside the building and says “The room is freezing, exactly like walking into a cooler. The room is gray and fluorescent white and silver —no warmth at all…I wonder if we’re being brought here to die.” The people in these deportation centers are dehumanized, and treated like animals in cages, comparable to concentration camps. By limiting the availability of such truths, people might choose to ignore or deny these realities. But Sanchez, through this book, tells us that this is real and that we have to remember this cruelty. He tells us this through the narrative of Pulga, further reminding us of the truth that many live through every day. Towards the end, Pulga gets rescued from the deportation center with the help of Pequena and a lawyer. He meditates on his journey and how it all came to a close. “That’s when it hits me. Everything – all those days of desperation and holding tight, of fighting and never stopping, all the nights of crying and fearing and starving and not cairns, all the sacrificing and dying. It really happened. All of it. To me. To us. To all of those in cages. It happened. And it’s finally over. I can finally leave it behind.” Books and other forms of art bring us back to the horrible reality of this world; and through Pulga’s narrative, Sanchez makes a plea that this really happens, this is brutal, and to remember them. We cannot deny art like this, people have to learn the truth about what has happened and what is still going on. One must not be blind to this, or it will happen to other people, families, or oneself.
Furthermore, books should not be banned because, in a way, it gives hope for the future and how we should handle it. A study from joint research at the University of Arkansas and the University of Buckingham revealed that schools that didn’t ban books in their libraries, notably religious private schools, were more politically tolerant, participated more, had more civic knowledge, and more engaged in their community than kids who were in public schools that banned books. Through student engagement, it is further supported that books should be allowed because they tell us to confront the issues in the world instead of denying them or downplaying their effect. Despite the positive impact of these realistic arts, some might argue that books spread false information or that they are not suitable for underage children. A good example of this is the book Mein Kamp, an autobiographical manifesto by Adolf Hitler, that highlights his antisemitic beliefs and the other horrifying goals that he had. However, by banning these books we restrict free speech, deny any debates towards the subject, and allow repressive ideas to flourish which defeats the purpose of banning books like Mein Kampf . If we ban arts like these we also miss out on wonderful works such as the Second movement of Shostakovich’s 11th Symphony which highlights the event in the Bloody Sunday Massacre. This Symphony explores a devastating event and calls us to confront head-on the problems of our times. As a result, anti-book banning allows people to engage more in their communities, are more open-minded, and are more likely to confront their problems instead of ignoring them, allowing us to live in a better society.
Sanchez wrote the book We Are Not From Here as a cautionary tale of the dangers that many immigrants like Pulga, Chico, and Pequena face every day. We are thrown into their inhumane experiences like their desperation, their fear, their starvation, their sacrifice, and their death. Sanchez makes you look face front into real concrete brutality as if you were really there. Watching as these kids flee their homes in horror, desperate to travel to another country for a better life. By banning books we risk the engagement of future generations in society and politics; we risk their ignorance on problems and give them a closed mindset. In contrast, truth telling art like this book brings us back to these horrific realities, begging us to remember them. These arts give us the strength to confront our own realities; they are honest, hopeful in its own way, and mind opening to its viewers.
When reading the book, We Are Not From Here, I was saddened by the harsh experiences of these children. As a child of immigrants, I felt a need to somehow change the lives of these immigrants but felt devastated at the fact that these books were banned. The banning of books like this made people ignorant of the realities around them, only being fueled by false lies by other media. Despite the horrors and the concrete brutality, I knew that these books were good in its own way. They are a plea to remember the problems of the past, and to confront the problems of our own time. Therefore, I wrote this essay in order to bring awareness to banned books as they should not be banned for any reason. I recommend reading this book to all people in order to truly understand the struggles that we overlook. This book gives us the strength to face our problems head on, defiantly, and with hope for the future.