On Separation.
I am beginning this
blog again in hopes that it will be an informal platform through which to keep
my community aware of what I am up to in Guatemala and how I am processing
through what I experience, wrestle with, witness, feel, do, see, etc. I will
have a more formalized method of communication that may be published through
the organization, but I would like to use this space as a more raw expression
of my thoughts and feelings.
Thus, this first entry
will be an introduction to this space. Welcome.
On Separation.
I have been ruminating recently on this word - separation.
Separate, coming from Latin roots se- (apart) and parare- (to prepare
or to make ready). To disconnect, sever, scatter, dislocate.
It has found its way into our headlines and national dialogue
with the administration’s most recent attack on immigrant communities. Family
separation. … Something that, really, while in its more recent expression and coverage,
may appear more overtly cruel, is not new. Here in the United States (and
around the world), we have been removing parents from children and children
from parents (and people from people) for generations.
Around the globe, people are forcibly displaced from their
families, their homes, their ways of life. Be it due to urban gentrification or
war, this reality we find today can be connected back to the perpetuated myth
of global capitalism which ultimately prioritizes wealth in the hands of the
very few, at the expense of the land, vitality, and personhood of the many.
In Guatemala, a country rich with
resources, fertile land, culture, passion, and diversity, people have
been displaced from their land, their families, their right to safety, time and
time again. From the colonization, to genocide, to extractive megaprojects that
threaten to displace entire communities, if not directly from their own land to
another place, then from the land and its resources they have claimed and known
to provide and offer and comfort to something less than what Mother Earth
intended. (A more in-depth information can be found on NISGUA’s website as to
these stories as well).
In one way or another we have all been touched by oppressive
forms of separation. We have been forcibly separated from our richest, truest,
most imaginative selves as we are often both the colonizer and the colonized. Our
land, our resources, our culture, our own ways of thinking have become
something other than they were crafted to be.
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I’ve been thinking about what it means to choose separation. I am impacted by the
decision to leave my home: my friends, partner, family, and the many other
things that provide me with comfort, fulfillment, and joy at this moment in
time. It is difficult to say goodbye, but this separation for me is incredibly
different than those mentioned above. This period of separation is temporary,
and if anything were to go wrong, if I were to get sick, or someone at home
desperately needed me, I could come
back. This period of separation is above all else, my choice.
I struggle sometimes with the over usage and sometimes misusage
of the word “privilege,” but ultimately it can’t be denied in this instance
that I have layers of privilege that have not only allowed me to make this decision,
but are in some ways at the core of why
I am going to do this work in the first place. I carry with me my whiteness, my
cis-gendered identity, a network of people with resources, both financial and
otherwise … and I carry my passport. While accompaniment is about so much more
than providing an international presence to “protect” those in danger, it can’t
be denied that this is a key component. Thus, this choice to leverage our
privilege must be deeply thoughtful and intentional, and must be only a part of
our deeper commitment to seek global change.
I want to live in a world in which all of us have the right
to choose: to choose to stay in the community where we were born, or to move to
a new place that better support our passions, goals, skills, etc.; to choose what
to call and how to create and support our families; to choose to travel, to
love, to interact with and not destroy our earth; to choose to value one
another over profit. And in order to taste a bit of this world, I have chosen
this path. Because I believe that my humanity is bound to you, to my neighbor,
and to the people of Guatemala.
Thank you for all of your support and I look forward to
updating you along the way!
Feel free to email me with any questions: merwilkinson@gmail.com
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