THE WAY IS FORMED BY WALKING
THE WAY IS FORMED BY WALKING
By Priya Das
America loves our food, our language, but they don’t want us,” says Tania Mattos who is, “undocumented, unafraid, and unapologetic.” She talks about the first hate mail she got, addressed to her personally, saying, “Go the f*^& back to where you came from.
“America loves our food, our language, but they don’t want us..”
What does solidarity mean in these circumstances, and how can we act to stem this tide of exclusion? Mosaic America’s multicultural programming continuously grapples with these questions. To be in solidarity is to stand together as one, seeing a world that belongs to each of us. As much as solidarity implies agreement, it also means resistance. Standing for who I am, for who each of us is; standing up against norms that divide; standing with people. It is a journey that starts with identity and continues through belonging, fueled by purpose, marked by scars.
“To be in solidarity is to stand together as one, seeing a world that belongs to each of us.”
Tania was speaking in an episode from the Mosaic series From Diversity to Belonging. The series was created to help us understand the history of and potential solutions to the identity and cultural issues in the US. This episode aired conversations with some of the participants in Christina Antonakos-Wallace’s film, FROM HERE, a hopeful story of four young artists and activists from immigrant families redefining Belonging in an era of rising nationalism: Tania and Sonny from New York; Akim and Miman in Berlin. The film accompanies them as they move from their 20’s into their 30’s: fighting for citizenship, creating a family, surviving violence, and finding creative expression.
“The film accompanies them as they move from their 20’s into their 30’s: fighting for citizenship, creating a family, surviving violence, and finding creative expression.”