Companionship is the Greatest Weapon Against Hardship

Photo by John Cameron on Unsplash

In the short while that our group has been working with Homies Unidos, I have not come to many realizations — only a couple solidifications. One, community truly is strength. Two, companionship is the best weapon against hardship.

During our very first meeting, it was heavily emphasized that this was a close-knit community that we would be working with. We would need to come in with the best intentions and make an effort to connect with the community members if we wanted to work with them.

I was so excited for this part.

In my head, we were going to go to the community event with pastries to share and we would see firsthand how the community functioned. Perhaps, we would talk to some people and bond a little.

Unfortunately for me, I could not make it to the event.

Photo by Dan Stephens on Unsplash

Which was probably for the best. In my opinion, this was the hardest and most important step of our ongoing documentary process. Not only is the community built around a mutual experience, it is also built around a language of which I understand very little of. It was a fortunate turn of events that our two fluent spanish speakers were able to attend the event and were able to connect to the women in a way I am sure I would not have been able to.

Since I am the outlier of my group, I have been taking a backseat for this project because I cannot offer much more than sentiment and action. One thing that I am intensely familiar with though, is community-building. I am Native American, it is practically in my genetic makeup to uphold the value of community.

With this group, the companionship and community is so strong that it makes me emotional. This is clear even through the video that my groupmates show us.

The therapy-like circle that these mothers sit in to talk about the things that are weighing on them is cathartic even as I struggle to understand every word that they utter. I am captivated as one mother gets emotional describing how it feels to be alienated by a country when all she wanted to do was work for a better life. When I look around the room I see nothing but support and empathy.

It is at this point where I really see how strong these women are. I see how strong their support system is. It is unfortunate to think about how all of these women are experiencing the same troubling circumstances, but at the same time it is wonderful to see the strength that they exude for one another. This solidifies for me that the value of community.

When I think about what this project might do for other community outliers like me, I figure that empathy will do most of the heavy lifting. It is hard for me not to be cynical in the current climate that we live in. Many people refuse to see what ICE is doing to the immigrant community — and some of those people also seem to believe that they might deserve such treatment. But most people have families that they care about. I want them to imagine what it must feel like to have that family taken away from you, to have to live in fear that your family CAN be taken from you at any point.

If companionship is the greatest weapon against hardship, we all have to start with a little bit of empathy.