Walking into the room, there were chairs laid out in a circular pattern; very similar to how an anonymous meeting would look. I was immediately concerned I was in the wrong place. It turned out, I wasn’t.
On February 10, 2011, I attended a presentation on immigration. The title of the event was called “Immigration in a New Light”. Giving this presentation was two immigrants who came to America for different reasons. There was also a third person that contributed as well. She introduced the two speakers and gave a short introduction of what this event was about. While walking to the location, I expected a large presentation setting. I had expected a stage and possibly a PowerPoint as well. This was the opposite of what happened. The speakers did not stand up. They were not on a stage. They were a few feet away in the same type of chair I was sitting in. Only 28 people attended this event. This type of set up had a different effect on me than a large auditorium would. I felt closer to the speakers. It was more of a personal story telling than a boring, distant feeling lecture. This was a more persuasive and effective setting.
The first speaker was Richard Froude from England. He told his story of how he came to the United States and the troubles he faced along the way. He came to the United States in 2002 to start his master’s degree in Boulder. In order to do this he needed to apply for his first of many visas. He went on to explain the struggling events that occurred while applying for all of his visas and the high prices of each. He commented on the complicity of immigrating to the United States. He explained, “I am from a place with a very similar culture and I speak the same language. I can’t imagine coming here and not being able to understand anyone and having to figure everything out by myself.” This shows that he knows what it is like to go through this, but even he can’t imagine the difficulty of navigating through these unknown situations when the language is completely foreign. Though this story was very interesting, I did not think it was very persuasive. The message was very vague. It was very descriptive, but the purpose of telling it was not made entirely clear.
The second presenter, Dr. Miguel De La Torre, did a much better job at making his position clear. Dr. La Torre is an immigrant from Cuba. He is a professor of Social Ethics at Illif School of Theology and is also the author of the book “Trails of Hope and Terror”. This alone builds his ethos. He knows what he is talking about and this gives the audience a reason to listen. Instead of talking about his personal experiences right away Dr. La Torre began by giving a brief history lesson about Mexico and Cuba. He explained that much of the United States used to be Mexico. When looked at this way, he argues that Mexican’s have a right to this land. He said that Mexican’s use the fraise, “We didn’t cross the border. The border crossed us.” This gives a pathetic appeal and a logistic appeal as well. Dr. La Torre attempts to create a connection between his audience and the Mexican people by explaining their situation differently than many U.S. citizens would normally hear it. Dr. La Torre mentioned NAFTA and how this operation caused farmers in Mexico to shut their farms down and caused larger farms to become rich. NAFTA is a free trade agreement between Canada, Mexico and the United States. Though this has allowed for easier trade between countries, it has put many Mexican farmers out of business. He used these examples to show that the United States has taken much of the wealth from the Mexican people. His message to his audience was, “what do we owe the people of Latin America?” In his mind, a portion of the wealth of this country belongs to the people of Latin America. So, immigrants who cross the Mexican border are not trespassing, they are claiming what is rightfully theirs. This was one of his major claims.
Because of Dr. La Torre’s passion, he also works with a non-profit organization whose mission is to help immigrants crossing the border. He volunteers with his youth group giving immigrants food and water. Dr. La Torre uses his experiences to create his most effective rhetorical appeal, the appeal to pathos. Dr. La Torre passed around a picture of a 13-year-old girl who died in the desert while trying to come to the U.S. She was inside the United States border when she died. Dr. La Torre says that there is “something morally wrong if a 13-year-old girl could die of thirst and hunger in the richest country in the world.” This shows the irony and also the tragic truth of events that occur inside our borders. This example sticks with many people because of the common place in our culture. No one wants to see innocent children die. Children are precious to us and many people have children of their own. Seeing the picture of the girl triggers emotional ties within each person. He begins his argument by showing this picture to get the audience on his side and then goes on to explain all of the terrible things that can happen to immigrants while traveling to their new homes. He uses more personal stories to back up his claims. This is effective and causes the audience to believe him and his judgments.
Though Dr. La Torre did a better job of expressing himself and his opinions, he did not have a solution to this problem. His entire speech was for the sole purpose of informing his audience of the problems that are occurring and to get his audience on his side. In this regard, he did a great job. I was expecting a proposal for a solution, but Dr. La Torre did make a valid point when saying that this problem has taken hundreds of years to develop and it could take about a hundred years to be resolved. With his objective of informing his audience, Dr. La Torre successfully portrayed the issues regarding immigration into the United States. This event was informative and gave different views on immigration than would normally be heard in this country. The arguments were persuasive for the most part and Dr. La Torre gave many elaborate stories and evidence for the accusations he was making. Overall, this experience was educational and interesting.
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