Espejos y Ventanas: Author/Readers Forum

Hill-based press offers window into world of migrant culture

by RYAN TEITMAN

"Between four and six million undocumented Mexicans live in the United States, and 500,000 more find a way to make it to the United States every year," states Espejos y Ventanas (Mirrors and Windows), the latest offering from Chestnut Hill's New City Community Press. The book chronicles the stories of Mexican immigrants who journeyed to the mushroom farms of Kennett Square, Pa., to start a new, better life. Edited by Mt. Airy residents Mark Lyons and August Tarrier, the book recounts the stories of these often-overlooked Pennsylvanians, as told in their own words.

The nonprofit New City Community Press was founded five years ago by Mt. Airy resident and Temple University English professor Eli Goldblatt and then-Temple professor Linda Hill in an effort to, in the words of executive director Steven Parks, "give voice to people who don't have voices." Parks runs the press out of his Crittenden Street home.

"In every sense of the word, I run it off of my laptop," he said.

Affiliated with the writing program at Syracuse University, where Parks teaches two days a week, and the University Writing Program at Temple University, the press sells its books to schools and other nonprofit organizations. Espejos y Ventanas has already been used as part of the curriculum at Central High School and Kennett Square High School.

"The idea is, we work with folks for many years, we collect their stories, they define them, and then we sell them to schools," Parks said. "If I sell one book to somebody, and they read it, that's very cool. I love that. But if I give it to a school, and 30 kids read and study it, it becomes a part of how they understand the world."

The idea for Espejos y Ventanas sprung from the Free Library's New City Writing Festival. Leticia Nixon, a local advocate for the Mexican-American community, suggested a project about the lives of the immigrant workers in the community of Kennett Square as a way to challenge negative sentiment about migrants.

"If you look at the lives they're leading, these folks lead very dignified, courageous, family-structured lives," Parks said. "The goal of the book was to allow the population of Kennett Square to tell their stories in their own terms."

The project began with work by Tarrier, who, over the course of two years, found people in Kennett Square who would volunteer their stories. Co-editor Lyons, who has worked with the Kennett Square community on medical and Latino issues, joined the project and interviewed people almost every weekend over the course of four years. Because the people of Kennett Square have varying levels of English and often work over 70 hours a week, the process was slow going. Also, many were illegal immigrants who did not want to tell their stories for fear of being caught.

New City Community Press has released the book as a dual-language edition, with Spanish on the left page and the corresponding English on the right page. Almost all of the people in the book responded to their interviews in their native tongue of Spanish. The book has no "author" in the standard sense; the extensive interviews complied by Lyons and Tarrier were assembled into the narratives that appear in the book.

The experiences of these immigrants vary greatly; some experienced great hardships crossing the border into the United States, while others who were luckier slipped back and forth across the border often. Young men, alone, try to send money back home to their families. Families cross to find a better life in the United States. Margarita Rojas struggles to adjust to life in the United States while managing to leave her abusive husband and start her own successful business, only to receive an order for deportation. Jesús Villicana López made the trip to the U.S. States when he was 16 -- and now sends money back to Mexico for his family (five times as much as they would normally make). Each of the voices in the book has a different story to tell.

Although the voices are greatly varied -- in personality, age, and countless other ways -- the similarity of the narratives blends the stories together. Although the experiences were different for each person, they all came from the same region of Mexico, crossed the border illegally and made their way to Kennett Square.

The only two portions of the book that are not in the speakers' own words are two sections near the end that explain the traditional influence of the Danza Tenochtli and Our Lady of Guadalupe. Both of these sections highlight the cultural influences that remain an integral part of Mexican culture in the United States. Our Lady of Guadalupe combines the faith of the Virgin Mary in Christianity with native Mexican beliefs. Her spirit works to solve problems, perform miracles and soothe the suffering of the people. The Danza Tenochtli is a ballet that teaches children about Mexican folklore. These two small lessons on culture transition the book into the stories of the children of the Kennett Square community. 

Some of the most compelling portions of the book are the stories of the children that came to the United States from Mexico. Some came when they were very young, crossing over illegally with their parents, while others, as young adults, ventured across the border without their families to seek a better life in the United States.

These children face the problems of integrating into the American culture, but have the advantages of school and the opportunity to learn Spanish. Most of the adults interviewed had wanted to go to school back in Mexico, but never had the money to continue their education. Upon reaching the United States, many desired to learn English, but working at the mushroom farms leaves little time for outside education. The children of these immigrants, being bilingual, are able to obtain an education and have more opportunities.

The next project of New City Community Press, which has published three books and is about to release a fourth, Chinatown Seen (Unseen), as well as the journal Open City, will be to expand the scope of the press beyond southeastern Pennsylvania. The press provides an important outlet for the community, Parks said. "In terms of Chestnut Hill, this book speaks to some of the issues that it cares about and lets them hear voices that they don't hear in their everyday lives on the street."

The speakers profiled in Espejos y Ventanas possess compelling stories, and those who take the time to listen will hear a part of American history that is not covered in the textbooks.

Espejos y Ventanas, Mirrors and Windows: Oral Histories of Mexican Farmworkers and their Families is available from the New City Community Press. It is also currently being sold at Ten Thousand Villages on Germantown Avenue. For more information, go to: www.newcitypress.org or call 215-204-7347.