“When I came to Germany, I had to explain to the doctor I visited that I had neither had access to health insurance nor healthcare for the 15 years I lived in the U.S. She couldn’t possibly understand that.”
By KATARINA MACHMER
EL NUEVO SOL
BERLIN, GERMANY—With the upcoming presidential elections in the United States many social reforms are at stake, such as financially more achievable higher education, universal healthcare and a change in immigration policies.
Latinx activist Monsy Hernández fights for these achievements and her community from Germany, where higher education and universal healthcare are accessible to everyone.
Having lived undocumented in South Carolina for 15 years, Hernandez self-deported to Germany in 2017 because of the state’s restrictive measures affecting immigrants and DREAMers. In exile, Hernandez volunteers for the Hispanic Caucus from Democrats Abroad, which is the official Democratic party arm for Americans living outside the United States. She organizes events and leads discussions around issues that concern the Latinx community in the U.S. and globally.
Katarina Machmer talked with Monsy Hernández about transatlantic differences in education, healthcare and immigration – differences revealing the necessity of social reforms in the United States.
Monsy, you attended Elementary, Middle, and High school in the U.S. What was this experience like as un undocumented immigrant?
When I was growing up in South Carolina, I was told that the way to succeed was to study. Being an undocumented child of a very poor neighborhood, I believed that education was key. I so desperately wanted to get out of poverty, so I studied and volunteered for all the clubs – I technically did everything I should have to succeed. I remember there were a lot of wealthy kids in my classes who would bully me and cheat off of me. They’re lawyers now, and I haven’t even started college yet because it has always been unachievable for someone like me.
I’m now out of poverty because I self-deported. Once Trump took office, I felt I was unable to survive not only in South Carolina, but in the U.S. as a whole. My husband and I decided to move to Germany, where he had studied previously. I didn’t even know the language, but my life is so much better than 15 years in a country that I called my home.
In which way?
As soon as I got to Germany, I was able to go to school. This was something I never dreamed I’d be able to do in the U.S. I’m taking German classes and they are affordable, it’s no big deal – that’s crazy to me. Education here is so cheap and accessible to an immigrant who has only been in this country for 3 years. However, I shouldn’t be bewildered by these ideas. The Latinx community should have never accepted being underpaid or not having access to education and healthcare. We deserve better, although we’ve been taught that we don’t.
Did you have health insurance when living in South Carolina?
No, there is no health insurance coverage for undocumented immigrants. I didn’t go to the doctor for 15 years. There were times when I got very sick but going to the doctor wasn’t something my community had access to – both financially and literally, since there were no hospitals in my redlined neighborhood. Once, a man fell off a roof, and still the idea of going to a doctor was so inconceivable to us that we didn’t take him. He died because he had a concussion. We were used to these scenarios.
This is just unimaginable for someone growing up with Universal Healthcare.
I know. When I came to Germany, I had to explain to the doctor I visited that I had neither had access to health insurance nor healthcare for the 15 years I lived in the U.S. She couldn’t possibly understand that.
Here in Germany, it’s just a given that you have health insurance and that you should go to the doctor. To my community in the U.S., it’s a dream, a rich-white-people-thing. We just hope we don’t die.
Presidential candidate Joe Biden supports Universal Healthcare in the U.S. What else is at stake for the Latinx community in the election?
Immigration reform is, in fact, what we must care about first. The United States holds children in cages at the Mexican border and separates them from their families. Immigration took away my own parents, too. This is the severity to which the immigration system destroys us. I am not the only one to self-deport; I have friends who fled because they could no longer handle living in constant fear of being deported or detained.
How is life as an immigrant different in Germany?
I don’t feel this pressure and stress anymore since I am residing here as a legal immigrant. I cannot explain having that weight off that your entire self and everything you do is no longer criminalized. I don’t have to worry no more about the detention centers or the paperwork.
Yet, these issues, naturally, still very much affect me because they are affecting my family in the United States and my community. We cannot allow our children to be in cages and our people to continue struggling in a country that owes a lot of its wealth to our shoulders.
Getting immigration reform is going to take much more than Joe Biden – it’s going to take community efforts. We need to come together and fight for a change, because these human rights issues are not going to be solved overnight. They will occur time and time again. I have been affected under a democratic president: I have seen immigration restrictions being tightened and my mom being held in a detention center. So, my political efforts are going to continue, no matter who wins the elections.
Thank you, Monsy, for this Interview and your activism!
Monsy Hernández, Latinx immigrant rights activist from Mexico City, mobilizes around the presidential elections in the U.S. from Germany, where she lives in exile since 2017.
