It’s About Helping.

In “Sabrina Needs Her Identity Back,” the author’s central point is to show the reader a whole different lifestyle and the conflicts that come with it that many people may not be aware about. The main character, Lorena, has to use someone else’s identity as a result of her legal status. Unfortunately, this is a crime that many people who are not criminals have to turn to which can leave an impact of some sort. The main character says herself, “I don’t know what to call myself anymore.” If I were looking at a selfie taken by this person, I would see Lorena. She is her own person, not the identity, or better yet the Social Security Number she has to borrow from her cousin. That being said, to have to borrow someone’s identity in order to be able to work means both taking a risk and grasping an opportunity to make a new life.

As I was looking through my Instagram and camera roll on my cell phone trying to choose 5 selfies to post, I realized that there are a number of aspects of my identity that are not visible in a selfie. I am often told that I do have a lot of physical features that resemble those of a typical full Mexican female. This is one of the biggest aspects of my identity that is not visible in my selfies. A selfie of mine does not show that I am a first-generation Mexican-American. This means that I am the first in my family to be born in the United States, and my parents were born in Mexico. My selfies also don’t often show that I enjoy school or that I have been academically successful for most of my life. Similarly, I don’t think these aspects would be visible in Lorena’s selfie. You would not be able to see her identity as a person who immigrated to this country at such a young age after having a difficult childhood. A selfie of Lorena would not show all the hardships she has overcome in her life at such an early age. I don’t think that I could construct a selfie that I would be fully content to portray me because although a picture can be worth a thousand words, it can’t exactly explain those words. There will always be something left out of those selfies.

There were many details that resonated with me in Lorena’s story. Truthfully, at times I felt like this is a story I could’ve written myself. Unlike Lorena, however, I have not experienced many of these things first hand as I was born in the United States, but I can’t say the same about many of my close family friends and relatives. For some people who read Lorena’s story, it may be just another story that makes you sympathize the character, but people don’t realize that these kind of things actually happen almost every day. There are parents who leave their children to come to the United States for a while before bringing here. Every day, people — families get caught and placed in a “cement holding cell” for hours before being released. The people who help immigrants cross the borders, coyotes, make sure that the children are doing okay on the hot, long journey that awaits. Many illegal immigrants unfortunately have to turn to using a false identity in order to work. People who are very close to me have experienced these things. Another identity I share with Lorena is that we are both biology/premed majors, and interestingly enough, we both drive a Volkswagen. I, too, have felt “at the bottom of the food chain.” Like in Lorena’s family, “In my family, you go to work, no matter what, unless you have to be hospitalized.” I really resonated with Lorena when she said, “It’s really hard for me to keep my identity of being Mexican,” as I find myself having to balance both my parents’ culture and that of the United States. The biggest thing I can say where my identity is different from Lorena’s is that I actually have no relation to any farmworkers, but even then, the consequences of coming to this country illegally are relatively the same for all. Like Lorena, my goal is to become a doctor, not for the money, but so that I may be able to help the people who live in underrepresented communities. The one thing that might be different about Lorena’s selfie and mine is that she may appear more tired in hers, considering the fact that she works up to 84 hours a week where I, on the other hand work no more thatn 30 hours a weel. Other than that, I honestly believe that our selfies would not be as different as one would thing. After all, for both of us, it truly is about helping.