An LNE field trip to UNL occurred on September 27th. The field trip was to the E.N. Thompson Forum on World Issues lecture about Immigration. Ms. Schlake, LNE Spanish teacher, was the teacher who supervised the trip. The lecture began at 7:30pm but before Pete Ricketts, Nebraskan Governor, presented Sonia Nazario to the stage.
Sonia Nazario is an American Journalist who is most well known for her work at the Los Angeles Times. Nazario has been writing about social issues for twenty years and she is the youngest person to be hired at the Wall Street Journal. She is also an author of the famous book, Enrique’s Journey. Currently, she has been working on her second book and has been giving presentations about immigrant children all over the world.
Her lectures around the country somehow brought her to the main stage of the Lied Center. She started her speech by giving her life story. Her father would always call Sonia a ¨dumb jock,” and that really motivated her to prove to him that she could make something of herself. When her father died, her mother took her and her family back to live in Argentina. During this time, the Dirty War was going on and Sonia experienced her friends dying everyday. One day she realized that journalists were killed because they were trying to expose the truth about what really happens in Argentina. From then, she knew she wanted to be a journalist.
She focused her writings on world issues like immigration and she has won many prizes because of her will to tell the truth. Her interest on immigration started from her housekeeper who had to leave her children behind in Guatemala. It surprised Nazario when she found out 51% of the 11 million illegal immigrants in this country are women and children. Being the amazing investigative reporter that Sonia Nazario is, she took it upon herself to travel with immigrants who were coming to this country illegally. She took pictures and documented her experience.
She saw gruesome things and her life was in danger a lot during the trip. She needed six months of therapy just to recover from her awful memories. Despite that, she witnessed incredible acts of human kindness. The immigrants would travel between or on top of the trains and sometimes they would be greeted by very poor Hispanics. These people who barely had enough food for themselves would throw snacks to the traveling immigrants.
Fathma Mohammed, a sophomore who attended the trip, wanted to go because she wanted to learn more about immigration. Mohammed said, ¨I think it was great. She really educated me on many things I did not know about. I feel like it changed many people’s perspectives on immigration.¨ From Nazario´s speech, Mohammed learned how people immigrate to the US and what occurs on their journey.
Sonia wrapped up her lecture by answering the audience’s questions. She thanked everyone for coming and the main endorser of the lecture thanked everyone as well. The students and adults hopped back on the bus then headed back to LNE with some newfound knowledge and new perspectives.