Every year, for the past three centuries, in the remote town of San Ignacio de Moxos (located in the department of Beni in Bolivia) the Moxos’ indigenous council gather to organize the celebration of their famous Ichapekene Piesta Inasianuana. An event that dates back to 1689–the very year the town was founded but it roots can be traced back to a time before the arrival of Europeans to the American continent.
I am I and my circumstance; and, if I do not save it, I do not save myself.
José Ortega y Gasset
The circumstances that forces a family, or a person, to emigrate can vary. In my case, the circumstances that led my life to go from being in Bolivia to being in the U.S. didn’t make much sense. It would take me years to unravel that mess and understand why my family decided to emigrate.
At that time the idea I heard, from adults, before traveling; it was that life is better there, that you are going to live with your dad. The only thing I came to understand from those words was that there was an immense expectation, the anticipation was all around me. No one sat down to explain to me what did they mean by ‘life is better there‘? or why would we stop living with Mom?
yo soy yo y mi circunstancia y si no la salvo a ella no me salvo yo
José Ortega y Gasset
Las circunstancias que llevan a una familia, o a una persona, a emigrar pueden ser tan distintas como inesperadas. En mi caso, las circunstancias que llevaron a que mi vida pasara de estar en Bolivia a estar en los EE.UU. no tuvieron sentido alguno. Me tomaría años deschipar ese embrollo y entender porque mi familia decidió emigrar.
En ese momento la idea que escuché (de los adultos); antes de viajar, era que la vida es mejor allá, que vas a vivir con tu papá. Lo único que yo llegué a entender de esas palabras fue que había una expectativa y anticipación inmensa. Nadie se sentó a explicarme ¿qué querían decir con lo de ‘la vida es mejor allá‘? o ¿por qué íbamos a dejar de vivir con mamá?
Peter Verastegui 