Catherine Komp, radio producer at Virginia Currents on NPR (locally WCVE 88.9 FM,) recently sent me the audio documentary below. Created by her colleagues for a show called Making Contact, it examines migrant deaths on our borders.
A look at migration through magical realism
Finalist International Latino Book Awards, 2014
When I was writing The Girl Who Could Silence the Wind, I struggled many times as I wrote scenes of unspeakable violence. Should I write such gruesome things for young people? Was it necessary or gratuitous?
In the end, I chose to include the awful details, leaning toward telling fiction as honestly as I could.
I hope you’ll carve out a little time to listen to the audio. January ushers in a new Congress and a fresh immigration battle. The debate will be heated on both sides, a healthy – if painful – exercise. What I continue to ask is that we remember that, in the end, we are talking about people, about human beings, and about the ethics of addressing suffering.
Filed under: Guests Tagged: Catherine Komp, Idea Station, latino, Making Contact, Migrant death on the border, NPR, The Girl Who Could Silence the Wind, WCVE
