Meet Ana Franco, the Latinx Anne Frank

Ana Franco is 19 years old and has been working since she was just 7. She helped her parents sell corn and mangos until she was 11 and was the go-to person in her family for English to Spanish translations. She makes most people's childhood look like a cakewalk. At 14 years old she was driving her Dad's pick-up truck, doing odd jobs until she was old enough to work in a factory, simultaneous with the beginning of her college experience.

Even before 7 years old, Ana worked to help her parents prep for the long trek to the United States from Guatemala. She just turned five and was as spunky and lively as any child her age. Ana remembers every detail about that journey. She feels fortunate enough to even be aware that she suffers from trauma. A lot of young adults never make that discovery. You see, Ana's family started migrating north with another family that never made it to the United States. They were deported back to their civil-war ridden block in their Central American town and were massacred by MS13, who was extorting families as part of their operation.

Wholesome, loving and adorable are some of the ways to describe Ana's Parents, Carlos and Maria. They tightened their boot straps as tight as humanly possible, worked their butts off and paid their taxes. Just like Ana, they were under the radar. Trump was declared president and the environment is not a safe or sane one. Carlos and Maria were deported a few months ago, in October of 2019. Ana found out when her parents didn't answer their phone after calling them repeatedly. They asked her to call her after her first day at USC. There was no goodbye and no warning. Ana didn't have a home to come back to due to her shack of an apartment being completely destroyed during the ICE raid. She was on the run and ICE had Ana Franco on a list. 

Let's talk about how Ana lives now. Today, she lives in a tight knit, conservative, Mexican "neighborhood" that stretches just one and half blocks. It is completely surrounded by a republican white district in Orange County. Latinx'ers who service the affluent whites in this region live on Ana's block. You can see a vast difference when you drive by her area because it is the only area with apartments for miles. Ana lives in the attic with her aunt and cousin who have fallen on hard times. This is foreign-country for the attic crew. The person letting Ana and company squat in their home is a neo-liberal cousin-in-law who has been known to vote against their own interests. Every grocery store and business is flooded with white Americans and the only time she sees people who look like her are in the backs of kitchens or at the hardware store parking lot. The clinic, hospital, and elementary school nearby were raided yesterday by ICE. Ana doesn't feel safe. She also has to deal with sexism and misogyny in micro or macro aggressive ways as a brown woman. She speaks English well, although there's something to her twang that tells people she's an immigrant. Her skin color does some of the heavy lifting too. She gets profiled and treated coldly at the check-out as a store cashier pushes her purchase to the side while gleefully greeting the next customer, someone that the cashier perceives as a caucasian citizen. 

The Real ID will lock Ana in regionally. As security tightens in the U.S.A. the freedoms of Americans are diminishing. Ana can't cross state borders, get healthcare, pay for school, or receive benefits. She constantly fears that someone will out her as the undocumented girl living in the attic. There's nothing for Ana back in Central America except for poverty, violence, and despair. The U.S.A.'s foreign and trade policies have drained economies in Latin American. The U.S.A. disrupted and distracted Latin America with coups, takeovers, and organizations like The School of the America's who trained right wing assassins to kill dissidents. These actions are undisputed and have destroyed countries like Guatemala, where Ana is from. 

This goes out to those who are in the middle, who don't know or care and the those who encourage not voting. You're wrong. We need to care. It's imperative for our existence. We need to vote for people who care about our problems and our interests. We need to vote for someone who is not going to allow people and kids to get caged and die. Being pragmatic and claiming to be in the center kills innocent people and ignores big issues. I mean, what really is the center of "racist" and "not racist"? What does being pragmatic look like in between those two spaces? So let's stop enabling hate even in the most micro-aggressive way. Ruin dinner. Change the political climate. Do it now because lives are at stake, just like Ana's.

Step One