ASSIMILATING THE EXILE / ASIMILANDO EL DESTIERRO

In 2022, we had to leave our country for life-or-death reasons. My brother, a prosecutor who worked at the time for the Ministerio Público in Guatemala (Department of Justice), began receiving death threats by phone from an organized crime group dedicated to extorting businesses in exchange for money. These threats lasted two years and escalated over time into other types of situations that were even worse, not only for him but for us as our immediate family as we went through the immigration process. They ended when we reached US soil.

The Spanish word «destierro» (exile) has several meanings. The most appropriate is when the State expels someone from the territory as punishment. However, for me, it means forcefully and violently uprooting something from its deepest roots.

We had to leave everything behind and face and start over from scratch in a new country totally different from ours in every way.

This is an ongoing project,  the story of a process that is not yet over, because it is a scar. A process of adaptation, confusion, emotions and situations that an «desterrado» faces.