Chicago Reporter celebrates National Poetry Month by talking with writers from Chicago whose lives have been greatly impacted by the written word.
“Hate” by Ray Guereca
We are enamored with films that depict migrants coming to America on sea who are welcomed by the sight of the Statue of Liberty
and the comfortability
of the New York shores.
That cinematic depiction causes me to wonder,
What do migrants actually see
when they are seeking refuge from famine and disease?
Is it a statue of liberty? Or a wall that stands 30 feet?
Soldiers equipped with M16s, explosives, and army fatigue?
My eyes are fixated on the news
And my emotions are blended with a mixture of blues and disgust
As I watch ICE bang on a door ready for another bust,
A Latino family is dragged out with their head down and in cuffs.
This familiarity has been seen, depicted on screen,
But it can’t be true — it was during the Holocaust when the Nazis captured Jews.
‘Migrants are not taken to concentration camps!’
One might say. Have you seen Guantanamo bay?
Have you seen the cages where the children lay?
This is pure hate.
Ray Geuerca, 2024.
Like many authors and poets, Ray Guereca began writing to process his feelings, record his daily life and communicate his experiences to people who might not have had similar ones.
Unlike most other authors, Guereca got his start writing while detained in a solitary confinement cell in Cook County Jail, where he spent 23 hours a day without space to move, fresh air and sunlight.
“After being put in isolation, I immediately started reading and writing. I started first with poetry-it was helping me. It calmed me down,” Guereca said.
Guereca’s pre-trial detention in Cook County Jail’s isolation division lasted two years. During this period, Guereca says he was was never told how long he would be there. Quickly, reading and writing became his lifeline.
“Writing and poetry are tools I used to help express what I personally endured in the system and how I see the world from the inside looking out,” Guereca said.
Throughout 13 years of incarceration–four in Cook County Jail and nine in Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) facilities–Guereca has continued writing poetry and fiction, while also reading books and keeping up with current events.
Despite IDOC’s notorious censorship of information within prison walls, including book bans and staffing issues preventing people from accessing libraries, Guereca finds ways to research social and political issues across the country.
“[Politics] comes up in different conversations,” Guereca said. “Sometimes we get into hot debates.”
Guereca’s interest in immigration long predates the mass deportations and ruthless border policies that have become central to Trump-era foreign policy in the U.S. Having grown up in a family that celebrated both American and Latin identity, Guereca developed an awareness of multiculturalism as a part of American culture.
“My grandfather Miguel Guereca, a U.S. Navy veteran who helped raise me, was conservative but took great pride in the convergence of cultures in the streets of Chicago–in particular, the Hispanic culture that is now the focal point of discrimination.”
Guereca hopes that his poetry and writing can give readers a glimpse into the parallels between atrocities that occurred throughout history and the ones unfolding in present-day America.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers have been compared to prisons due to their dehumanizing conditions–a comparison further evidenced by the privatization of ICE detention centers.
“It’s demoralizing, being in prison and having everything taken from you,” Guereca said. “I’ve seen on the news, [people detained by ICE] using aluminum blankets, and they’re not given proper clothing. It reminds me of prison.”