![]() ![]() Before the first word is even said, Luiselli knows that “eighty percent of the women and girls who cross Mexico to get to the U.S. “But,” Luiselli writes, “nothing is ever that simple.” Each child must do verbal gymnastics to illustrate the journey that led them to this room. The procedure, on paper, is simple: Luiselli presents the questions, the children speak, and Luiselli transcribes their answers in English for the lawyers who will fight to secure their legal status. In her expanded essay Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in Forty Questions, Luiselli outlines the intake form for undocumented minors. ![]() This situation happens every day at the immigration courts in New York City, where novelist and essayist Valeria Luiselli volunteers as an interpreter. Let’s say this conversation will be recorded, and what you say-and how you say it-will determine where you are allowed to live. Now, tell it in your second language, or one where the handful of words you know transforms you back into a child. Here’s a challenge: tell me a story, without knowing the beginning, middle, or the end. Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in Forty Questions ![]()
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