Though media coverage of the ICE raids terrorizing Hispanic communities across OKC has lightened in recent weeks, many people—especially Latinos like me—remain ever vigilant, our eyes always darting to the rearview mirror.
My mother is Latina and my late father was Native, so I look just like the kind of brown man ICE might want to harass. Strike one.
Sometimes I forget that I don’t speak well anymore—in any language—because of my strokes. Strike two. My English and Spanish frequently fuse together in an incomprehensible mess of words and phrases that would confuse a grocery store clerk and alert an ICE agent. There’s no translating for that.
Still, I manage.
Hoping to avoid strike three—unlawful detainment—I made my way into Lagos Market, 4001 NW 10th St., where the language barrier can make people nervous and leave a guy like me looking and feeling suspicious.