“Aren’t all immigrants illegal?
Time after time, I was asked this question after performances of my play Vang, a drama about recent immigrant farmers.
I answered by trying to explain our dysfunctional, convoluted immigration system, how all the immigrants in the play were legal, how they jumped through hoop after hoop to gain their citizenship. There were eight characters in the drama, from four different countries and four different continents: Laos, Mexico, Sudan, and the Netherlands. They fled war, torture, poverty and the disappearance of available farm land. They came for economic opportunity, to save their own lives, and to create a better future for their children.
“But where did you go to find the immigrants?” other audience members chuckled. “California?”
No, all eight of the immigrants depicted in the play lived in Iowa. They butchered our meat and sewed our clothes. They grew our vegetables and provided our dairy. They learned English, went to school and became extension agents with the universities. They helped others learn English and pass their citizenship exam. They helped others settle in here. They lived on little to send money back to their home countries to help their communities there survive.
The Hmong were invited here in 1976 by Governor Robert Ray after the Vietnam War. Iowa became known for its welcoming attitude toward these and other refugees. We were proud of the accomplishments of these new citizens. We were proud of ourselves. We flew the stars and stripes and the state flag and held our heads high.
Nearly fifty years later, I stood on a street corner in a protest, carrying a sign, waving a small American flag. Pick-up trucks circled the square , honking, waving their own flags and and signs, a dueling sense of patriotism. The day had started with political violence in Minnesota, and ended with thousands of people throughout the country calling out ICE raids and calling for due process.
And what is our due? In another fifty years, will we have regressed even more, or will we take a great leap forward in our attitude toward those who, like most of us, came from a different place?
I produced Vang, working with photographer Deni Chamberlin and director Matt Foss. We toured the show all over the United States. Lately, I can’t get the stories of these immigrants out of my head. And I want to hold my head high again.
This week, new paid subscriber fees will be donated to Global Greens Farm in Des Moines, Iowa. Global Greens helps former refugee and immigrant farmers grow and sell food in Iowa.
Have you dipped into the writing of my colleagues in the Iowa Writers Collaborative? Read the new Iowa Sunday paper with the IWC Round-Up and enjoy a wider perspective on culture on Wednesdays with the Flipside.
Such an important story, reminding us of when our who Iowans and Americans once were, and must become again. Thank you!
Vang is a mighty work, and this post on on point and powerful. Hold your head up, Mary!