After every gathering, I left with an immense appreciation for the dedication, courage, and honesty of migrant families despite the struggles they face. It became clear that we can and should strive for safety and fundamental rights.
Migrant Workers | Trabajadorx Migrantes is a visual poem in response to the community meetings hosted by CoLab, NJMML, and local partners in the Central Jersey region to reflect on stories of migration and labor in the State of New Jersey. After every gathering, I left with an immense appreciation for the dedication, courage, and honesty of migrant families despite the struggles they face. It became clear that we can and should strive for safety and fundamental rights. At a time of strong anti-immigration sentiments and actions in the country, I felt the urgency to use my voice, while also invoking the vibrations and sounds of labor, a pulse of love, and empowerment.
Drawing from my own experience as a migrant in the last fifteen years, I used personal archives that document the constant transit through time and space, adapting, relearning, growing, and rooting. The highway is a metaphor, a place that connects us and separates us from home and work, from the land we have journeyed through and the future we want to reach. I also use archival images of migrant field workers from the FSA (Farm Security Administration) agricultural workers’ camp, circa 1942. I end the poem with the song I Found a Rose in the Devil’s Garden by the New Jersey Dance Orchestra. These archives remind us of the significant contributions and long history of migrants in the State and beyond.
I dedicate this poem to my parents, to the scars on their working hands.
Migrant Worker
by Natalie Romero
Migrant workers
We are the pulse of your abundance
on our shoulders the city rises
with our hands, we feed nations
our restless perseverance shouts loud
echoing our silenced labor and persecuted existence.
Migrant workers,
citizens of the future
defying deadly borders
embodiment of dignity
even with fear, or hunger
walking the impossible journey
we are certain of the value of life.
Behind every migrant worker
there is a family
that hopes
that prays
and dreams
our courage is our legacy
we are weavers of territories
our roots expand with each of our steps
our hearts are seeds
Migrant workers,
they call us aliens but,
Don’t we all come from the stars?
Trabajadorx Migrantes
by Natalie Romero
Somos el pulso de tu abundancia
sobre nuestros hombros la ciudad se levanta
con nuestras manos se alimentan naciones
nuestra perseverancia sin descanso grita fuerte
haciendo eco en nuestra labor silenciada y perseguida existencia
Trabajadorx migrantes
ciudadanos del futuro
desafiantes de fronteras mortales
encarnación de la dignidad humana
aunque con miedo, con hambre
somos caminantes del camino de lo imposible
certeros del valor de nuestra vida
Detrás de cada trabajador migrante hay una familia
que espera
que pide
que sueña
nuestro coraje es nuestro legado
somos tejedores de territorios
con cada uno de nuestros pasos se extienden nuestras raíces
nuestros corazones son semillas
Trabajadores migrantes,
Nos llaman aliens,
pero, no somos todos acaso descendientes de las estrellas ?
