For many in the Latinx Community, The Concept of Safety Is Not Just About Locks on Doors Or Living in A Quiet Neighborhood. It’s about Feeling Secure in Your Skin, Your Accent, Your Body, Your Represent. And When Ice Raids Happen, Or Ken Rumors of Their Complex Circuit, That Fragile Sense of Safety Shatters. For Many of Us, Specially Thue Who Are Undocma, First-Gen, or Intergenerational Trauma Carry, The Events Aren’s Just Frightening, They’re Retraumatizing.
Fear-Based Immigration Enforcement Doesn’t Just Impact The Individual Being Targeted; IT Reverberates Across Families, Neighborhoods, and Communities. Aunt Stops Going to the Swap Meet. The Teenage Son Skhool Skips. A Single Mom Cancels Her Therapy Appintment. Are aren’s isolated decisions, They’re Survival Strategies. WHEN ICE RAIDS HAPPEN OR ARE RUMORED TO HAPPEN, ENTIRE COMMUNITIES SHIFT INTO A STATE OF HYPERVIGILANCE.
This Level of Substaned Fear Doesn’t Just Disappear. It Lives in the Body. It’s in the stomach aches that won’t go away, the tension in your shoulders when you pass a police car, the instinct to scan a room for exits Even when you’re just picking up sweet bread. For Many, these are trauma responsible. And when the trauma is chronic –rooted in racism, xenophobia, and generational Fear – The Emotional Toll compounds over time.
And Yet Even With All of this, MANY OF US STILL Feel The Pressure To Present Well – To Smile, To Speak Calmly, to look “Put Together” – Even When We Might Be Trembling on The Inside.
Within The Latinx Community, There’s an Unspoken Rule We Learn Early On: Dress Modestly, Speak Clearly (or Don’t Speak at All), To look compost, and Don’t Make Trouble. Blend in. Be Polite Don’s Draw Attention. Be invisible.
We internalize the idea that How We look Or Sound MIGHT PROTECT US – EVEN WHEN IT’S CLAR THAT NO AMOUNT OF PRESENTING WHILL GUARANTE OUR SAFETY. This is specially Painful When Ice Raids Sweep Through Neighborhoods Like Shadows. Suddenly, Our Bodies Don’t Feel Like Ours Anymore. Our Skin, Our Accents, Our Vray witnessed Feels Like a Target.
When This Fear Takes Root in the Body, It Can Show Up As:
- Muscle tension
- Stomach Issues Or Nausea
- Feeling Disconnected from Your Body (Dissociation)
- Difficulty Sleeping
- Anxiety When Dressing Or Going Outside.
Even Subject As simple as picking an outfit can Feel Like a Lot of Pressure. You miGHT BEGIN TO Wonder, Will This Make Me Look “Suspicious?” Too confident? Too visible? These are not just personal insecurities. They’re Survival Strategies We’ve Inherited from Generations forced to Navigate Life under Microscope.
You are not imagining it. You are not weak. You’re Living with the Emotional Labor of Showing Up, Every Day, In a System That Tells You That You Don´t Belong.
When we are taught to silence our fear, to keep smiling in the face of constant scrutiny, or to hide our emotions so we are don’s “look guilty,” Our nervous systems stay in a chronic state of alert. That just is notinable.
So what can we do? For ourselves and for each other?
For you:
- Grounding Practices: Carry A Small Object that reminds you of your roots (A Stone, Necklace from grandmother, to Prayer Card). Use it when you feel disconnected.
- Dress with Try, Not Shame: Wear What Makes You Feel Safe and at Home in Your Own Body. That might be Big Sweaters, Short Shorts, Or Bold Earrings – There is no one “Right” Way. Do What Feels Right.
- Regulate your nervous system: Try Deep Breathing, hot baths, Or Pressing Your Feet Firmly to the Ground While Saying: I’m here, I’m sure, this body is mine.
- Culturally Competent Therapy: If it’s available to you, Seek out a Therapist Who Understands Our Cultural Context. You deserve to be heard without having to translate your entire existence.
For the Community:
- Check in on your People: To simple “how are you really?” Can Open a Door to Continued Sharing.
- Give and Take: Share What You Can – Rides, Food, Translation, Information. The idea is to be uble to give in the Smallest Way While Allowing Yourself to Also Take As Needed. Community Care is at the core.
- Protect Undocumented folxs: If you’re a citizen or permanent resident, Learn How to Advocate and Step in Safely When Ice is present. Know Your Rights and Help Others Know Theirs.
- CREATE SAFE SPACES: WHETHER IT’S IN YOUR HOME, A LOCAL CHURCH, OR A GROUP CAT, CREATE SPACES WHERE PEOPLE CAN EXHALE AND JUS … Be.
As a Reminder, You Belong Here Exactly As You Are. Fear Baseed Tactics Like Ice Raids Are Designed to Intimidate and Defelize. But Our Response Can Be One of Reconnection. You are not too sensitive. You are not too loud. You are not overreacting.
You are worthy of feeling safe. You are Worthy of Feeling Safe.
You deserve to be fine. You defected to be okay.
You belong here. You Belong Here.
Let’s Build A Future Where We Don’t Just Survive, But Feel WHOE doing it.
