Immigration in a New Light, by Jenn Etzel

On Thursday February 10 I attended the lecture, “Immigration in a New Light”. The discussion took place in Driscoll and was in the form of a small circle discussion with about 12-15 people. Kristen Andersen, who is the University of Denver Chaplain Assistant, ran the lecture. Andersen began the discussion by saying that immigration is not just a political issue, but it is also a moral issue. She then introduced the two speakers, Dr. Miguel De La Torre and Richard Froude, and then Richard Froude took the floor first to tell his story followed by De La Torre.

Dr. Miguel De La Torre was born in Cuba and came to the U.S. as a refugee on April 3, 1961 at the age of six. He answered the question, why do you think I came? To this he said, “some might say to take services or steal, but all of these are naive and wrong.” The real answer is that he was forced by U.S. foreign policies of Latin America. This way of asking his audience a question, De La Torre clarified why he came to the U.S. He also knew that some of the people he may be speaking to could think that he came to the U.S., “to take services or steal.” By including this as part of his answer he is speaking to all audiences and understanding that there are two sides to the argument of immigration.

In his talk, Dr. Miguel De La Torre gave some history of Mexico border issues. By starting his story off with some history of the border issues that ultimately affected him, he was very creditable. De La Torre knew what he was speaking about and everyone listening definitely knew that through his great understanding of Mexican border issues. Mr. De La Toree is also creditable because he helps men, women, and children along the border so he experiences the border issues on a day-to-day basis and sees the horrible things that are happening to immigrants trying to cross.

One story that Dr. Miguel De La Torre told was about a young girl who was raped and died while trying to cross the border. He stressed that something is morally wrong when a 14-year-old girl dies in the richest country in the world.

Also, the story about the young girl was definitely a perfect story for his specific audience. Since mostly young men and women were at the lecture, the story definitely helped get his point across and hit closer to home with us younger students; it was perfect to catch the attention of everyone. The story was a great use of pathos because he pulled out an emotional response.

De La Torre also made clear why he was in the U.S. in the first place. He says he is here because he is following all his resources that were originally stolen from him; he says this is what I owe to Latin America. Dr. De La Torre also says, “this house was built on my cheap labor.” He believes that he owns his house and deserves it because it was built because of his work. This point that De La Torre makes also creates an emotional response from the audience. He really puts things into perspective about what immigrants, like himself, bring to the United States. The people who he previously referred to as naive and rude, may feel an emotional response to De La Torre’s point.

Another interesting part of the lecture was when Dr. Miguel De La Torre made the point that even though he has been a United States citizen for some years, he would more likely be stopped by a border patrol over Richard Froude, who is only a lawful permanent resident. Dr. Miguel De La Torre has the dark skin, dark hair look that many people on border patrol view as an immigrant and often question as being illegal. Although, in reality, Richard Froude who is white and does not look like an immigrant until you hear his British accent, is not even a U.S. citizen yet. Both De La Torre and Froude agreed with each other on this idea.

A small way that Dr. Miguel De La Torre relaxed the mood of the somewhat argumentative topic of immigration was by using humor. This humor was very slight and just got a chuckle out of the listeners. By doing this everyone’s attention seemed more focused and interested in what he was going to say next.

Dr. Miguel De La Torre did a great job in telling his story because it was interesting and kept everyone’s attention throughout the entire time he was speaking. When compared to Richard Froude I think that De La Torre used more rhetorical emphasis in his story and had more of an argument about immigration, although both were interesting to listen to because it gave two very different perspectives on immigration.