Return Migrants

Who, or what, is a migrant? Is it a person defined by a legal category? A visa? A piece of paper? Or a personhood, defined by his/her liminality, his/her in-betweenness.

      I have been all of these, multiple times and each time I cross a border, for a few weeks a few months or a few years; I have been defined as one. I continue to be a migrant, though I have in some ways, found a “home,” that is not where I was born.

      These photographs capture some of the return migrants I have met – mainly in Mexico. These are folks who have returned from El Norte, the United States. They have returned to a much simpler life, in most cases.

      A few returned due to family obligations, some, and others because El Norte didn’t accept them for who they were.

      In these photos, you will meet many characters: The musician, The Chef, The Poet and also the Manager.

      Perhaps, each one of them has crossed your path in the U.S., either as your gardener, your waiter at the restaurant or the construction worker who built your home.

      For now, they are back – back to tending to their families, writing poems, singing songs, building homes, driving cabs.

      Whose loss is it – one might be forced to ask – that we couldn’t fully comprehend and understand their talents?