Asylum… 1939
The Siania steamed into Veracruz harbor the 13th of June 1939, carrying 1500 political refugees in need of immediate asylum… an “immigration crisis” the rest of the world would have preferred to ignore.
Among the asylum seekers was the poet Pedro Gárfias:
Qué hilo tan fino, qué delgado junco
—de acero fiel —nos une y nos separa
con España presente en el recuerdo,
con México presente en la esperanza.What a fine threat, what a thin slice
Of faithful steel separates us:
Of Spain, here in our memory,
Of Mexico, here in our hopes.