#at least i lived in romanian texas

[united-under-skyfall]

my sibling who speaks peruvian spanish as a second language and german barely at all having a spanish accent when she speaks german 🤝 me who speaks romanian as a second language having a very strong accent that sounds like it's from the romanian equivalent of texas when i speak romanian

[toournextadventure]

THE OC LORE THE OC LORE LETS HEAR IT??

JUST LET ME KNOW WHAT KIND OF OC LORE YOU WANT BESTIE

But I'll give you some very basic life stories about birb!Reader's older family for fun 😌 if you wanna know about the siblings, let me know, I've got lots more 👀

Reader's ENTIRE adopted family is full of Outcasts, unwanted people, and those that ended up alone whether on purpose or not. It's constantly growing so it's always an absolute madhouse and everyone is either an aunt, an uncle, or a sibling. Chaos always ensues

Her Grandpa, for example, is a true European vampire. He was a blacksmith centuries ago and is the one who teaches Reader all of her "old school" skills. All of her swordfighting skills came from him and he's the one who made the sword for Gomez. One of his favourite pastimes is throwing pop quizzes at all the grandkids to see if they're keeping up with their Romanian. He'll be damned if his grandkids don't learn his language (at least they think it's his language, he has never confirmed a single thing ever in his life). When Wednesday comes around, he's pleasantly surprised at her intellect; they talk for hours in languages Reader doesn't understand

Then there's her Abuelita. She and her parents had come up from Mexico when she was only 4 or 5 and grew up in Southern Texas. They got scattered when she was about 24 and ended up on the East Coast where she met Grandpa and the rest is history (Reader is convinced she only speaks Spanish. Jokes on her, Abuelita speaks perfect English, but the joke has been going on for so long that she can't give up on it now). She bullies Reader even more when Wednesday is around, just to see the amusement on Wednesday's face when Reader gets frustrated

Auntie C is a bad bitch, we stan. She grew up in foster care in Seattle and was miraculously adopted by Abuelita and Grandpa. Easily got her PhD and is a neurosurgeon who does NOT take any shit from the kids, especially the older ones because they damn well know better. No spouse, no kids (except for the Family Kids), ALWAYS in her hoe phase, she is living her absolute best life. She also takes no shit from Wednesday, throwing her own threats right back; it's a wonderful bonding experience

Tio's parents sent him to America at 11 so he couldn't get drawn into the Colombian Cartel. Spent almost three years roaming before being found by Aunti C, who befriended him and eventually brought him home. He's a musician at heart and taught Nicky how to play guitar (he tried teaching Reader, and she's not too shabby, but not near as good as Nicky). Tio, more often than not, is the one who teases Reader most and ABSOLUTELY gives her all kinds of shit when he finds out about Wednesday

Pop probably has the most traumatic past. Growing up on the East Coast, his father (and uncle and cousin) died in a coal mine collapse. Not long after, his mom took her own life, leaving him alone. He was adopted out of an orphanage and became the youngest of Abuelita and Grandpa's group. He and momma were high school sweethearts that got married out of college (he knows more than most about Reader's struggle with her anger, and he's her biggest supporter). He thinks Wednesday is a good anchor for Reader to finally start trying to heal

Momma, strangely enough, had a perfectly normal life. She still talks with her parents, has one sister and a few nieces and nephews. Everyone teases her for not having trauma, to which she says "watch it before I GIVE YOU something traumatic to worry about." She mother's Wednesday in her own way and even though Wednesday will never admit it, she enjoys the genuine care from someone other than her own family

[spidertalia]

Hello hello!! I saw your states post and was wondering if you can share with us your headcanons for New York or Texas, whichever one you feel more inclined to !! Thank you so much in advance! 😺💖💖

i'll post both since i have quite a bit on each ! so beware, this is gonna be a long post lmao

i'll go on about new york first because i have a lot on him dfghj. firstly, his human name is theodore douglass (he was given his first name by england, but chose his surname); he sometimes goes by theo, but only ever lets close friends call him teddy.

when he was a kid, theo was surprisingly shy, but very nerdy. he was a somewhat quiet child who loved to spend every waking moment reading and/or learning. england was actually kinda proud because of this, since new york could speak five languages by the time he was physically seven. he didn't really much else to do as a child, and was often left alone, so he would read and read and read.

nowadays, he's much prouder and loud, but still very, very nerdy. he can speak 31 languages fluently (outside of his indigenous languages), and is learning a further nine languages currently. he's fluent in english, spanish, cantonese, mandarin, russian, yiddish, haitian, italian, hawaiian, bengali, french, arabic, korean, hebrew, japanese, tagalog, hindi, polish, germany, greek, lithuanian, french creole, portuguese, urdu, ukrainian, swedish, norwegian, czech, finnish, danish and dutch fluently. he's reaching full fluency in afrikaans, and is currently learning slovenian, indonesian, samoan, romanian, swahili, yoruba, igbo and somali. he prides himself highly on his vast language fluency (nyc is actually one of, if not the most linguistically diverse city in the world !) and likes surprising the nations with their native language whenever he meets them. he knows more nations than any of the other states- he's actually friends with romano and lithuania ! he and romano have a mutual respect for each other, especially since new york was so eager to learn everything he could about italian culture while romano was living there, which romano appreciated.

he's also well educated outside of languages. he has a vast knowledge of art- from paintings and sculpture to dance, film, music and theater. he has a near encyclopedic knowledge on theater and plays. he has an extensive film collection of at least 25,000 films, and have an even bigger music collection- most of which he stores in his houses in nyc and manlius. he genuinely adores every field of art, and spends the majority of his time in nyc going to galleries, plays or art museums. his favorite areas of art are paintings, music and film. his favorite music genres would probably be classical, rap, r&b, hip hop and rock. he has a deep love for the rap and hip hop scene that was born out of nyc, and many of the artists that became major during the time are still his favorites.

he's also a very, very efficient worker; which is ironic, as he hates work. he's very fast and thorough in his work- if you want something done right, you go to him. not only is he good at paperwork and such, he's actually surprisingly good with his hands. he can repair cars, do home renovations, fix wiring, build furniture, make and mend clothing, hunt, fix machinery, knit, crochet and even farm. he's developed a vast number of skills over the years, and he loves learning more and more skills. he often busies himself with learning whatever new skills he can. he also often spends his time just tinkering with things for fun.

he also has a vast knowledge on fashion, and prides himself on his fashion sense. he's the most fashionable state out of all of them. he does usually dress very stylish and such, but he enjoys dressing in several different types of clothing, including punk, grunge and boho. he has quite a few walk-in closets, i'm sure, and has even made several of his outfits by hand.

he does have a bit of a superiority complex and is quite proud. he's generally pretty unphased and hard to surprise, as many nyc residents are. he's good friends with pennsylvania- they both have a love of machinery, tinkering and reading. they have occasional movie nights. he constantly argues with new jersey and massachusetts.

i also see him as being jewish, as new york state has the highest jewish population of any state.

now as for texas !

texas is very much a second alfred, minus the hero personality and plus a deep love of meat and meat-based dishes. he has a strong accent, one that he's very proud of. he's a very good cook, especially with meat-based dishes; he likes experimenting with meat and dishes in general. he's the older triplet to arizona and california, but ironically spends a lot of time fighting with california. he is, interestingly enough, quite good friends with florida- they both have loud, boisterous personalities and bond over being the 'weird' states. he's also, thanks to this, friends with ohio; the three have formed their own little club. he does typically get along well with his other state siblings (arizona, new mexico, nevada and utah). he's quite close to utah, as that's his only brother and he spent quite a bit of time with him when utah was young.

texas, in terms of personality, can absolutely be insufferable, obnoxious and loud at times; however, when he's hosting people he becomes a completely different person. he's a truly impeccable host; he'll cook several of his best dishes, extensively plan out activities and check in very regularly with his guests to ensure they're doing well and having a good time. he's insanely welcoming and hospitable, and is one of the best hosts of all the states.

he's also very similar to alfred in appearance- both in facial structure and hairstyle !! many have even remarked texas is basically a darker haired, dark skinned version of alfred.

[squirrelwrangler]

You've always interested me so much. Can I ask where you are from? :3 Are you American?

I'll admit, I'm a little befuddled by this ask, but as is obvious from my sporadic personal posts, yes I am American. I was actually born in Washington D.C., so I feel I can claim some weird extra US points by that. Both of my parents were officers in the US Navy, so while I have never lived outside of the US, as a child I moved frequently from one coast of North America to the other, so as far as which regional cultural subset, even though I currently live in Texas and have for the last 20+ years, I don't identify as Southern. (Plus if you know the sub-regions in Texas, living south of the Nueces River as I do means that my local area has some strong ties to Northern Mexico). I do have a Texan variant of the drawl but I talk fast and slur my words, so idk how recognizable it is. Also had to have some speech therapy as a young child (couldn't pronouce my Rs).

Family-wise at least maternally I have ties to the Pacific Northwest and upper Great Plains, but that constantly moving military family history means a strong disconnect from that intra-generational extended family in close proximity that is relatively common elsewhere. My paternal grandfather did immigrate to the States from what was then Czechoslovakia, and the village that he was from is still on the Czech Republic side, but ironically he was Slovak (and Hungarian). Other European ancestry is a mix of various German, Swiss, Romanian, English, and Swedish, and for some ancestors we can go back to canton records in the 1400s and others we're looking at a "Romanian" mercenary who entered the country less-than-legitimately through Alaska and worked for the proto-CIA, and he's not the only 'okay that's a fake name' dude. So yeah, overall am a pale-ass White American. (Family history claims a spec of Salish but also that it was so far back in the family tree that nobody pretends to have Native American ancestry).

Been to Italy once for a short trip, have hopped over the border to Canada and Mexico for afternoon trips once, and thanks to an aunt who lived there I've been to Hawaii as a very small child. But for the most part my entire life have been inside the continental US and almost always within a few miles of the ocean. That military brat history means government vouchers if you moved yourself aka every new base transfer my parents were driving us, U-hauls included, on a three to five day road trip across the US, so I've seen the roadside versions of most states. And quite a few state and national parks. And while I never lived in on-base housing, I grew up on Naval commissaries and Naval government hospitals and in areas outside of major cities - suburbs of Annapolis and north of Corpus Christi. San Francisco was the only really really big city I lived in, and D.C. the one I spent a lot of summer visits to. And if you know D.C., it doesn't have skyscrapers. Hate those. I have what I call the optimal seagull to pigeon ratio - it's better to live where the dominant parking lot flock is gull. You could not pay me to swim in the ocean; I don't like beaches. But I have to be within a 20 minute drive to said beach or else I feel miserable. Growing up I had no desire to enlist myself, but it's the closest thing to personal/familial culture above anything regional. I hated football long before I moved to Texas because I had to attend too many Army-Naval football games in shitty wet cold Maryland late autumn weather. (Also I hate most fish but will swear by crab and crab cakes).

As for religion- well my dad's family was staunchly Catholic, he was an altar boy- but he's the definition of lapsed, refuses to step into a church for fifty-odd years. And what I was raised as? Atheist but culturally Christian, I'd say. The sum total of my religious instruction was "God is 𝝅 because everything is broken down into circles including DNA" and then what history and especially art history books taught me. And yes, that makes living in the Bible Belt meets Latino Catholic region both amusing and extremely infuriating. Cis Female. Ace. Thirties.

Have owned dogs most of my life and most of those dogs have been sighthounds and the cats were Siamese, so I have a strong understanding and interest in domestic dogs while also thinking that the optimal hound should have a cat's personality and the perfect cat acts like a dog. As a teenager I did ride horses - English style, to break that Texan stereotype.

If you've never had tamales, you're missing out. Also Beef Stroganoff is served best on white rice, and there's no such thing as too much sour cream. And Hatch chilies are an abomination.

[blueiscoool]

Where is Attila the Hun's Tomb?

Attila the Hun, who invaded and ravaged both the western and eastern halves of the Roman Empire during the fifth century A.D., died on his wedding night at age 58. It's a matter of debate whether Attila died of natural causes, or whether his new wife, Ildico, murdered him. But despite his murky ending, does anyone know where he was buried?

In a word, no. The tomb of Attila the Hun (A.D. 395-453) has never been found and it is unclear where exactly it is.

Attila was leader of the Huns, a non-Christian people who lived on the Great Hungarian Plain and who eventually took over a large swath of Central Europe. Attila was sometimes referred to as "Flagellum Dei" in Latin, which is often translated as "scourge of God" but can also be called "whip of God." He threatened, but didn't actually sack Rome and Constantinople. And Attila forced emperors to pay him vast amounts of gold in exchange for peace agreements that often did not last long.

However, while much is known about Attila's warmongering days, less is known about his burial.

"There is only one [surviving] written source about Attila's funeral" Zsófia Masek a post-doctoral researcher of archaeology at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, told Live Science in an email.

That source is the sixth-century ancient writer Jordanes, who wrote in his book "Getica (opens in new tab)" that Attila was buried in a triple coffin. The innermost was made of gold, the second made of silver and the outermost made of iron. The gold and silver signified the wealth that Attila had gained for the Huns, while the iron signified the Huns' military might, Jordanes wrote.

The servants who helped build the tomb were killed in an attempt to keep its location secret, Jordanes wrote, claiming that he got his information from records written by Priscus, a Roman diplomat who had contact with Attila and others from his court. Attila was also buried with gems, captured enemy weapons and ornaments and the servants were killed so that these "great riches" may "be kept from human curiosity," Jordanes wrote.

Where is his tomb?

Scholars that Live Science talked to are not certain where the tomb is or whether any of it may still be intact.

His tomb may be located somewhere on the Hungarian Puszta (also known as the Great Hungarian Plain), László Veszprémy, a history professor at Pázmány Péter Catholic University in Budapest, Hungary, told Live Science in an email. Attila made his headquarters somewhere on the plain and his tomb is likely not far from it, Veszprémy said, noting that it may be "next to a river or even in [a] riverbed." The tomb "may survive, if [it wasn't] emptied during the earlier centuries," Veszprémy said.

Historians have been interested in finding the tomb for some time. "People were interested in it at least from the 13th century on, but mostly located it next to Roman ruins," Veszprémy noted.

Other scholars also believed that the tomb is likely located somewhere on this plain. "I believe that his final resting place could lay in the Great Hungarian Plain. There are no serious doubts against this hypothesis," Masek said. "Of course, it is possible that it is located in the Serbian or Romanian parts of the Plain region," which the Huns also operated in.

It's uncertain whether anything remains of Attila's tomb or whether it will ever be found. "Perhaps one day somebody will stumble upon his grave, but I wouldn't hold my breath," Michael Maas, a history professor at Rice University in Houston, Texas, told Live Science in an email. 

Another scholar was more optimistic. "No doubt the tomb will be found someday... It may well be found to have been robbed in antiquity," Ralph Mathisen, professor of history, classics and medieval studies at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, told Live Science in an email.

There is a possibility that the tomb could have already been found, but not identified with Attila, said Valéria Kulcsár, an associate professor of archaeology at the University of Szeged in Hungary. For instance, a large hoard of gold artifacts found at Nagyszéksós, Hungary dates to around the time the Huns flourished, but does not have any human remains and it is not clear who they were buried for, if anyone.

One question a scholar raised is whether the tomb of Attila should be found. "Personally I prefer it to be a mystery than an archaeological find waiting to be analysed," Masek said.

By Owen Jarus.

[sassyfrassboss]

Trump was 15 mins late and left the Queen standing alone waiting on him. He also walked in front of her and brought all of his adult children along which is ridiculous. I say good call on keeping as much distance as possible. At least she didn't hide in the bushes to avoid him like she did with the Romanian dictator.

Trump could be whatever we want, but agree with Sassy, optics matter and not having engagements with the Trumps but inviting the Obamas to KP and Jill to an engagement, it isn't the most diplomatic and neutral desicion they have taken.

In my opinion, in the last years they have shown more inclination to the left (with their statements, charities and causes they support) than with the right, when they have to be neutral. The Queen can be whatever we want, and has done very bad movements concerning her family, but that woman has shown the amazing gift she has to remain politically neutral, not even making statements that can be taken out of context.

And William should be careful, Earthshot Prize is a good initiative, specially because she isn't lecturing, the problem is if he can't find people from the right to support him, because as far as I've seen, this year is very supported by a lot of people from the left, so that can cause diplomatic headaches.

I agree.

William has done an amazing job with not lecturing and hitting the right tone. He flies in helicopters and he isn't out there telling you not to fly in helicopters but that we can continue with our lives but we need to find a way to make things more sustainable and efficient to counter.

I think many people tend to believe that right is against sustainability, the environment, etc., but that isn't the case. Look at George Bush. His Texas ranch is beyond sustainable. I am more politically neutral but I have worked for oil and gas corps and manufacturing corps. My current company is leading its industry in sustainability. I recycle, garden, use public transportation, buy second hand clothes, donate all to do what I can to cut back on my carbon footprint.

If the Earthshot event is attended by politicians it needs to be a mix. He doesn't need to invite Trump, and I don't think he should, but if the Obama's and the Biden's are invited, the Bush's should be as well.

There are a lot of rich conservatives out there that are environmentally friendly.

Meghan has done a good job recently of pissing off US politicians on both sides, and Downing Street because she cannot remain neutral.

William is never going to please everyone, which I think he knows. I do think they have remained, for the most part, neutral. However, from time to time I kind think "yeah you probably shouldn't have said that." But I get it, he has thoughts and ideas and passions which might not align with everyone's. I'm not going to fault him for it, but being cautious of not crossing the line is key.

Look at all the hate Charles is getting from his Middle Eastern money deals.

Every step they make is watched and there is always someone who has no problem stabbing them in the back.

[nofacethefell]

Rambling of Things

So, I've been accused of being bad for a number of reasons the last few weeks. I am bad because:

I am a man.

I am pansexual.

I am a minority.

I am against illegal immigration.

I don't think white guilt should exist.

No one ever really listens to my arguments or my defense and so here I am. Posting on Tumblr like people will actually care but hey...makes me feel better.

I am not bad because of my gender. I'm not a rapist, nor am I sexist because I was born a man and am mentally a man. Being born with a penis doesn't make me evil or stupid. It doesn't mean I can't love cute things and express my emotions. I am allowed to do that. I am allowed to be a man and not feel guilty about my gender. I am allowed to be a man and like feminine things, to like masculine things. I am allowed to support rape survivors and to also tell my the story of my own rape, without it being that I'm "trying to make everything about men."

I am not less of a man for being soft spoken or for having an androgynous voice. I am not more of a man because I hate crying, I'm just a man.

I am allowed to be and do those things and not be the embodiment of what anyone thinks a man should be, positive or negative.

I am not a whore for being pansexual, just like I'm not a whore for liking sex and I'm not a tease for sometimes not wanting it for weeks at a time. I'm not invalid in my sexuality. Pansexuality exists, just like being bisexual, gay, straight and everything outside of that exists. I may not always understand all sexualities, and I may be socially clumsy at times, but that doesn't make them any less real to me or in general. I can be just as monogamous as any sexuality, and my sexuality isn't what would make me unfaithful....that's a moral thing I think and my sexuality has no bearing on that. I am proud, even if I don't go to pride events, and even if I don't tell you right away that I'm pansexual. I'm not ashamed having horrible anxiety that keeps me from being as brave as others, in life in general, and I greatly respect those who can get up and dance when I'm clinging to my wall. I'm not ashamed of supporting quietly.

I am a Spanish man, my ancestors came to America a long time ago and this is my home. I am Spanish American. I am of European descent. I am also German, Romanian, Italian and Cuban. I am not ashamed of my heritage just because I don't speak Spanish all the time, I'm not ashamed just because I dress like southern white boy who clashed with Dracula (I'm from a small town in Texas and really like black clothes), I am not ashamed. I never have been.

I'm not any less Spanish just because I'm pale, or because I speak with a southern twang. I'm not hiding that I am a minority, anyone who knows me knows this. I'm actually pretty proud of my heritage, and every little bit of other cultures that have been laced in.

I am against illegal immigration. A long time ago my family came here and lived peacefully and quietly. I am proud of that, but not everyone did that. Some came, destroyed and hurt people who were already here. They didn't want to understand, they didn't have tolerance for different. Back then it wasn't illegal but it should have been. So many people from so many places came here and tore things apart in favor of themselves and as a result an entire culture of people was beaten down and herded like cattle. Bad things happen when people force themselves on others.

Legal immigration is not easy. It is hard, so very hard and so very costly. That should change, and I want that for my country and for the people wanting to be in it for the sake of better lives. However, I don't support illegal immigration. America is suffering, everyone can see it. There are so many things to mend, to fix.

It wasn't a law back then, it is now. I want my country to respect its own laws and to fix the issues with legal immigration in order to end the problem, or at least ease the strain of it.

The fact is there is no way of knowing if a person is good or bad, no way to read a soul. Not all legal immigrants are good law abiding people, just like not all illegal immigrants are bad. However, there is a system and not following it will only lead to more choas. If that means pausing immigration to fix that system to be more efficient, and more beneficial to everyone then so be it.

I don't think my white friend should apologize for a jacket that announces he doesn't bear white guilt. I don't think you should apologize for the mistakes of people long dead. You should learn from history, acknowledge it and bear the weight of lessons learned in mind; you shouldn't repeat it or try atoning for something you had no hand in.

Apologise for yourself if need be, and work to be a better person. That's all that's asked. I firmly believe that most people don't want your guilt, they just want acknowledgement and change. Being proud to be white isn't a bad thing. You are allowed to be proud, just like everyone is. So long as you understand that your race, your color, your heritage doesn't make you any better or any worse than anyone else.

All of our ancestors have done things we may not be proud of, but they are not our mistakes. There is no place for guilt.

You can fight hate with hate. You can, as a country we seem to try that method a lot, but all it does is drag on and add fuel to already deadly flames. Anyone of any color can be racist. To say they can't is laughable and unfair. Racism is something learned, I believe that to my core, and as such it can be unlearned and changed.

So don't feel guilty, feel aware and feel determined to change, if not the world then yourself and maybe the people around you. Accept that some people won't and strive to be the louder voice in the minds of young people and your peers.

I am not posting this to infringe on anyones beliefs. I value mine, and I'm sure you do too. However, for me, I rarely get the chance to speak about mine. People dismiss me because I have mental health issues. They ignore me because of my admittedly dark and sometimes offensive sense of humor, which I will not apologise for, I am more than what makes me laugh in a moment. Some even simply decide that I am ignorant and I'm sure someone will think so.

I figured though, that if I can respect the beliefs of others that are so different than mine, then perhaps mine can also be respected.

Thank you to the non-existent people who will probably never read this...and to the few very real people who just might.

[lookingglasstheatre]

1. What are you listening to right now? “Kill V. Maim” by Grimes

2. What song makes you sad? I have a whole playlist called “I Used to Know You, But Now We’re Strangers” composed entirely of songs that remind me of exes or old friends I’m not longer in contact with..

“Gimme Danger” by The Stooges is a big one, along with “Everlong” by The Foo Fighters, which both remind me of very specific relationships. But, my pick for this is “Farther” by Third Eye Blind.. it could apply to a lot of different people..

“And I think about you dying years from now never having known who you are […] All I think about is waiting and all the people we are fading into Farther from you every day..” - “Farther” Third Eye Blind

3. What is the most annoying song in the world? Songs aren’t usually annoying to me unless they’re overplayed. I don’t know, no song is annoying me at the moment. Maybe that song “We Are Young” by fun. I’m not even sure it’s annoying, I just hate it.

4. Your all time favorite band? The Birthday Massacre, probably. That would be the most unique pick. Or Elliott Smith, if that counts.

5. Your newly discovered band is? The Regrettes. It’s amazing to me that Lydia Night is like 16 years old. I hope those kids keep killing it. Good luck to them.

6. Best female voice? Hope Sandoval of Mazzy Star has an amazing voice. I wish I sounded even a little bit like her.

7. Best male voice? So, I don’t think he’s the best.. but holy shit, Ville Valo from HIM has a sexy voice. It’s so sexy as to almost make you forget how cheesy HIM lyrics are. Almost.

8. Music type you find yourself listening to most? Pop music, probably.. and shitty punk rock, lol.

9. What do you listen to, to hype you up? Depends on what I’m getting hyped up for. “Bubblegum Bitch” by Marina and The Diamonds for going out and looking pretty. All of Enema of the Sate by Blink-182 for energy in the morning. Kanye for working out. Aesthetic Perfection when I’m about to hit up a goth club, hah.

10. What do you listen to when you want to calm down? Belle and Sebastian, Slowdive, Radiohead, Lana Del Rey

11. Last gig/concert you went to? My friend’s band, Sleepsnack.

12. Band you find yourself listening to the most right now? My taste shifts once the weather gets warm so; Blink-182, Fountains of Wayne, Sufer Blood, Wavves, Third Eye Blind, My Chem’s Danger Days record.

13. Most hated band? I don’t listen to music I hate unless it’s inflicted upon me by other people against my will. So I’m not good with naming bands I don’t like. As far as bands I hate for personal or political reasons.. I hate ANY band that harasses or condones the harassment of women or minorities.

14. Song that makes you think? “Romeo’s Distress” by Christian Death. It’s such a great fucking track, but I want to believe that it’s anti-white supremacist, instead of the other way around… I have read the lyrics over and over trying to figure out if Roz Williams was actually just racist. I want to believe it was written mostly for the shock value and ultimately a song just telling a story and issuing a kind of warning.. but who knows for sure.. [sigh]

15. Band that you think the world should love as much as you do? I’m always kind of surprised more people I meet aren’t more familiar with Sneaker Pimps or IAMX’s early records. Chris Corner is kind of a hero of mine.

16. Coolest music video? Marilyn Manson’s “The Beautiful People” and the video for Death Cab for Cutie’s “Title and Registration.” “All I Full of Love” by Bjork. There are probably a bunch more I’m forgetting. All Grimes music videos.

17. Music video with the most watch? This question is phrased weirdly. But if you’re asking what music video I’ve watched the most… Malice Mizer’s “Illuminati.” Definitely. LOL. Along with Velvet Eden’s “SAD MASK.” Oh god, KALM flailing around in awful CG fire is what I LIVE for.

18. What do you play/would you play in the bedroom to spice things up? Souvlaki by Slowdive. With candles lit, after smoking together.

19. Ever been in a mosh pit? No. I would die. Look at the fucking size of me. I am a delicate doll.

20. Are you in a band? Nope. Someone start an all-girl Ramones and/or Blink-182 cover band with me.

21. Ever dated a musician? “Dated” would be kind of a strong word for it, but I had an ongoing casual thing with a guitarist in a band.

22. Do you wish yourself that you were a musician? Yes, but only because I wish I were any good at playing one of the myriad of instruments I’ve tried to learn. I wouldn’t want to be famous though.

23. Best all chick band you know of? Sleater-Kinney.

24. Last song that you heard on the radio/cd…etc…? I haven’t listened to the radio in a long, long time. I haven’t bought a CD in many years. If you’re counting any kind of physical media, I’m spinning an LP on my turntable right now; it’s Blink-182’s Enema of The State and “Anthem” just finished playing.

32. What do you think of Classical music? Eh, I can understand why some people find it boring. My mother was a classical pianist and I grew up listening to a lot of classical music. I just developed a taste for it after many years, I guess.

33. What do you think of Country music? It reminds me of growing up in Texas. There will always be at least one or two country songs I like - a lot of which reminds me of middle school dances and crying in the bathroom alone because my crush didn’t like me back. And everyone likes at least one Johnny Cash song.

34. What do you think of metal? I like it. I can only take so much screaming, to be honest.. but some bands I really love can be classified as metal.

35. Last BIG band that you saw live? Blink-182.

36. Are you a groupie? Nope.

37. Do you listen to music in foreign languages? I used to listen to a LOT of J-Rock. I also listen to music in Korean, German, Romanian, and French.

38. What famous musician would you like to “spend the night with”!?

Woman; Lauren Mayberry of Chvrches. She’s a great front woman and so, so cute.

Man; I’d say Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance, but I feel weird about it because he’s also married to another super-crush of mine; Lindsey from Mindless Self Indulgence… so maybe Elliott Smith when he was still alive. I get a strong impression that he respected women.

39. Worst concert moment? Any time someone drunkenly falls all over me and/or hits me. It always seems to happen. Also when I saw Kaya live with my sister there was a guy trying to hit on her the entire time and I felt really bad that I didn’t exactly notice until we were out of the show.

40. Funny concert moment? When I went to see Marina and The Diamonds there was a guy next to me with his boyfriend and right in front of us was a woman with her teenage son. At some point they lit up a joint and offered some to the mom (who honestly looked kind of square) and she and them got high together. It was pretty amusing watching them chill together.

41. Sad concert moment? I went to see IAMX with a boyfriend, who I loved very much, but he didn’t really know the band. A few rows back, my ex (who I had just recently broken up with) was there with a coworker. I was sad we’d gotten to a point where we couldn’t go together or hang out anymore because we have really similar taste in music and that concert was amazing and I was sad not to be able to hang out with him during it.

42. Best local act you can think of? King Woman is originally from this area, I think.

43. If you were a musical instrument what would you be? Vocalist. I suck at everything else. In a perfect world I’d be the guitarist or keys.

44. Do you listen to the radio? Honestly, no, and I haven’t since grade school, really.

45. Do you watch music TV? I don’t have cable.

46. Do you follow the music charts, like the top 40? I did in grade school, but I haven’t really paid attention to music charts since then.

47. Have you meet any famous musicians? Met Kaya at an autograph session at Anime USA. It was at the peak of my Kaya obsession. He told me I was pretty. It was awesome.

48. Are any of your friends/family/etc. musicians? My mom was a piano teacher. My dad is basically tone deaf, haha.

49. Song that best describes your feelings right now? “I Really Like You” by Carly Rae Jepson.

50. Song that describes your life? The ENTIRE record Froot by Marina And the Diamonds. ESPECIALLY “I’m a Ruin” “Blue” and “Forget” and “Weeds”.. and “Immortal” Yeah, I can’t pick just one song… The whole record. Just listen to the whole thing and you’ll understand me, haha. Which I realize, does not paint me in a very flattering light.. but it’s accurate.

“Gimme love, gimme dreams, gimme a good self esteem” -Blue

“Cause I have lived my life in debt I’ve spent my days in deep regret Yeah, I’ve been living in the red But I wanna forgive and forget” -Forget

“I miss all of my exes They’re the only ones that know me And God knows that sex is A way to feel a bit, a little bit less lonely Yeah, I tried to keep it covered up Yeah, I thought I cut him at the root But now I think my time is up Cause he keeps growing back Like weeds” - Weeds

51. Do you know the names of all the band members that you listen to? Not even remotely. There are some exceptions, but for the most part, no.

52. Does a musician’s physical attractiveness play a part? A part in what? I think it plays a role in how popular they become. As far as it playing a role in how much I like them, I appreciate bands with a strong aesthetic, but it’s hardly necessary. Some of my favorite bands I wouldn’t even be able to recognize if I saw a photo of.

53. What famous musician do you want to marry? I don’t think someone’s musical output is a good way to gauge their marriageability..

54. Favourite movie soundtrack? The Scott Pilgrim vs The World OST.

55. Any musician pet hates? Any time musicians are arrogant enough to insult other musician’s work just for their own credibility. Like, you’re not cool for hating pop music, my dude. >_>

56. What do your parents listen to? My mother listens to mostly classical music, my dad likes James Taylor and Joni Mitchell

57. What are you listening to right NOW? Private Affair by The Virgins. I fucking love this song.

58. Do you wear band etc T-shirts? I hate wearing band t-shirts with a fiery passion of a thousand suns with VERY rare exceptions.

59. What do you think of people who do? I’m usually pretty.. not into those people. Like, hate is a strong word… but I’m really into fashion. Band t-shirts are like a really lazy way of expressing yourself to me. And they’re almost always printed on really boxy, non-soft material. Everyone wants to fight me on this.. I just don’t care for them.

60. What music sub-culture do you feel like you belong to? None? I always dressed too goth to really feel like I belong in the punk scene even though that was primarily what I was listening to in high school. I guess goth, but I don’t get along with or have much in common with most of the generic goths I know and I listen to too much pop for them. Is the indie-synthpop scene a thing..?

61. What song is stuck in your head right now? The theme song to Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

62. Do you sing in the shower? When I was a kid I would drag my giant boom box in the the bathroom with me and listen to it while taking a bath; mostly audiobooks, but sometimes music. I usually didn’t sing along though.

63. If so, what? If not, why not? Not sure? I sing in the car a lot. If music is on and I know the words and I’m alone, I’m singing.

66. How important is your partners taste in music to you? I’m really open about music, so whatever they are into I’ll probably get into as well. If we already share a taste in music we can discover more together, which is really fun. As long as they don’t HATE my music, it’s fine.

67. Hanson moves in next door to you, do you go introduce yourself, or do you arrange to beat them up? I’d probably just update my facebook status like, “Hanson lives next door to me. So, there’s that.” And invite them to my next barbecue.

68. Sex, drugs, and rock ‘n roll, you dig? Yes, sometimes, and yes.

69. Do you cook to music? Sometimes, I no longer have speakers right next to the kitchen.

70. Do you sing in the toilet? Nah.

[ladystylestores]

Homes for disabled hit hard by COVID, faced past violations

Neil Sullivan was angry, frustrated and crushed with guilt. His brother Joe had been rushed by ambulance from his home for the developmentally disabled to the emergency room with a possible case of the coronavirus.

Neil had known the people at the Elisabeth Ludeman Developmental Center near Chicago were at risk. Regulators had flagged the facility over the years for violations such as neglect of residents and not keeping restrooms stocked with soap and paper towels. And now, in the middle of a pandemic, a staffer told Neil they were still short of life-saving equipment like surgical masks, gowns, hand sanitizers and even wipes.

He watched helplessly as COVID-19 tore through Ludeman, infecting 220 residents — more than half the people living there — and 125 workers. Six residents and four staff members would die. Neil was overcome with dread that his 52-year-old brother would be among them.

“You start thinking to yourself, is there something I should have done better?” he said.

The outbreak in Ludeman shows the threat of the pandemic to a highly vulnerable population that is flying almost completely under the radar: The developmentally and intellectually disabled. While nursing homes have come under the spotlight, little attention has gone toward facilities nationwide that experts have estimated house more than 275,000 people with conditions such as Down syndrome, cerebral palsy and autism. Many residents have severe underlying medical issues that leave them vulnerable to the coronavirus.

At least 5,800 residents in such facilities nationwide have already contracted COVID-19, and more than 680 have died, The Associated Press found in a survey of every state. The true number is almost certainly much higher because about a dozen states did not respond or disclose comprehensive information, including two of the biggest, California and Texas.

Many of these places have been at risk for infectious diseases for years, AP found.

Perhaps the best-known government-funded homes for the disabled are called Intermediate Care Facilities, which range from large state-run institutions to homes for a handful of people. Before the coronavirus hit, regulators concluded that about 40 percent of these facilities — at least 2,300 — had failed to meet safety standards for preventing and controlling the spread of infections and communicable diseases, according to inspection reports obtained by AP. The failures, from 2013 to early 2019, ranged from not taking precautionary steps to limit the spread of infections to unsanitary conditions and missed signs that illnesses were passing between residents and employees.

Story continues

No such data exists for thousands of other group homes for the disabled because they are less regulated. But AP found those homes have also been hit hard by the virus.

“These people are marginalized across the spectrum,” said Christopher Rodriguez, executive director at Disability Rights Louisiana, which monitors the state’s homes for the disabled. “If you have developmental disabilities, you are seen as less than human. You can see it in education, civil rights, employment. And now, you can see it by how they are being treated during the pandemic.”

Advocates are urging the federal government to do more to protect the disabled in congregate settings. They noted that as the virus spread, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) ordered states to provide information to the federal government about COVID-19 infections and deaths in nursing homes. CMS also increased fines and made data about infections in nursing homes available to the public.

But the requirements did not extend to homes for the developmentally disabled, where the overall population is smaller but the virus is still taking a heavy toll.

“The lives of people with disabilities in these settings are equally as at risk — and equally as worth protecting — as people in nursing homes,” the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities said in a May 5 letter to Alex Azar, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees CMS.

Some states had outdated plans and policies to face a pandemic, said Curt Decker, executive director of the National Disability Rights Network. In Georgia, for example, he said the state’s policy provided for protective equipment for nursing homes, but not homes for the disabled. He said staffing levels and training were already “a crisis” across the country even before the coronavirus.

“It was clearly a disaster waiting to happen,” he said.

CMS did not respond to the AP’s questions within two weeks and did not say why requirements are different for nursing homes. For days, the agency said it was working on a statement, but did not provide one.

_______________

As the outbreak spread through Ludeman, Neil felt as helpless as on the day his family dropped Joe off at the facility decades ago.

His parents believed they couldn’t have children, so they adopted Joe. But shortly after, his mother discovered she was pregnant with Neil.

As children, Neil and Joe shared the same room. When Joe developed severe behavioral problems, their parents turned to Ludeman.

To this day, the images of leaving his brother behind at the institution are seared into Neil’s memory. He looked back and glimpsed his brother, staring out a window, wailing.

“It was the most desperate cry you could ever imagine,” he said. “It was a child that knows it’s being left behind by its parents.”

Over the years, Neil looked out for his brother. As his parents got older, he became Joe’s legal guardian, driven by “survivor’s guilt” from that day so long ago when they left Joe behind.

When COVID-19 began spreading across the country, Neil prayed it wouldn’t hit Ludeman — where some 340 people live in 40 ranch-style homes spread across a campus that resembles an apartment complex.

About 66,000 people nationwide live in Intermediate Care Facilities like Ludeman. Even more people live in other types of group homes, which operate under less scrutiny. Nobody, not even the federal government, seems to know exactly how many people live in these homes, which advocates say is another sign of a highly marginalized population.

More than 2,100 homes for the disabled have seen COVID-19 infections among residents or staff, according to the AP survey — an undercount because not all states provided specific information.

The virus poses an especially big risk for the disabled. Some are bedridden or prone to seizures. Others have visual or hearing impairments and are non-verbal, so they can’t articulate when they don’t feel well. And social distancing — one of the key preventive measures for COVID-19 — is nearly impossible because many residents have roommates, share common living areas and need full-time assistance for basic tasks like brushing their teeth.

“You’re dealing with a community that needs constant 24-hour, one-on-one supervision,” said Joe Montemayor, whose union represents employees at homes for the disabled in Texas. “Their reasoning isn’t quite there, so you do your best to teach them about the spread of germs and things like that.”

It’s gotten so bad that some staffers are afraid to report to work, Montemayor said.

Advocates also worry that the special needs and fragile medical condition of the developmentally and intellectually disabled will make them a low priority if hospitals — especially in rural areas — are overrun with COVID-19 patients. Disability rights groups have filed federal civil rights complaints against several states to stop ventilator-rationing proposals, fearing that the disabled will end up last in the line because they may not be able to adhere to protocols after an operation or procedure.

“People with disabilities have just the same right to extend their lives for as long as possible as any other human,” said Elizabeth Priaulx, a legal specialist with the National Disability Rights Network.

For the families, the fear of the virus is compounded by the fact that they can’t visit their loved ones.

Stephanie Kirby’s voice breaks when she talks about her son Petre, who has lived in the Denton State Supported Living Center in Texas for three years. More than 60 of the 443 residents at the large, state-run ICF contracted the virus, according to the local health department. AP found the facility has been flagged seven times for poor infection control practices since 2013.

Petre is 28, but functions on the level of a 4-year-old. Kirby hasn’t seen him since March, when the governor banned visitors to prevent the spread of the disease. It’s the longest they’ve been apart since she adopted Petre from a Romanian orphanage.

Now, Kirby worries not only about Petre’s health, but about the emotional impact the separation might have on him. She doesn’t want him to feel like she has abandoned him — like his family did in Romania. But she fears it’s too late.

Kirby said she’s asked Texas officials all the way up to the governor’s office why they won’t allow her to see her son, and she’s gotten the runaround. On Mother’s Day, Kirby drove to Denton, parked her car outside the front gate and sat there for three hours, crying.

“I didn’t know what else to do,” she said.

Christine Mann, a spokeswoman for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, said the agency is working closely with the facility to prevent the spread of disease. Mann said that infection control violations were “minor incidences” immediately corrected, and that the facility has increased video conferencing and added phone lines to help families.

But for Kirby, that’s not enough. “When will a mom be considered an essential person in the life and health and well-being of her children?” she asked.

___________

For Neil, the coronavirus is only the latest of a string of challenges with Joe at Ludeman.

Many staff members have been kind, and Neil praised those who have worked with his brother in recent years. But some of Joe’s teeth were knocked out in the 1990s with no good explanation, Neil said. At other times, Neil suspected Joe didn’t receive the attention he needs.

“There were people there, especially in the past, that really treated them like zoo animals,” Neil said.

Neil tried to move his brother into another institution with more activities, but Joe was turned down because that facility considered him too aggressive. For people like Joe, options are scarce.

Ludeman has been cited dozens of times since 2013, most often for safety violations but also for more serious issues, including mistreatment of residents. While Ludeman was not cited specifically in the infection control category, inspectors noted that staff didn’t always encourage practices like proper hand washing.

Meghan Powers, a spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Human Services, which oversees the facility, said the high numbers are driven in part by the fact that all residents have been tested.

“It is also sometimes challenging for our residents to adhere to all of the protective measures we are taking,” Powers said.

The agency implemented “many new protocols” at Ludeman and other facilities across the state on March 12 that included creating an infectious disease team, restricting visitors and checking the temperatures for all staff and residents at shift changes, Powers said. She acknowledged that Ludeman had challenges in the past with maintaining soap and paper towels, but she said that problem was solved by improving its supply distribution. And while shortages of personal protection equipment were an issue across the state, staff working directly with sick residents “have never run out or been severely short to date,” Powers said.

Like Ludeman, many other homes for the disabled have struggled to contain outbreaks, AP found.

Nearly half of the 2,300 Intermediate Care Facilities with past problems controlling infections were cited multiple times — some chronically so, over the course of multiple inspections. In dozens of instances, the problems weren’t corrected by the time regulators showed up for a follow-up visit. At least seven times, the safety lapses were so serious that they placed residents’ health in “immediate jeopardy,” a finding that requires make prompt corrections under the threat of a losing government funding.

Inspection reports show that regulators repeatedly found examples of:

_Staff not washing hands while caring for multiple residents or re-using protective gear like gloves and masks.

_Unclean environments, such as soiled diapers or linens left out, insect infestations, dried body fluids and feces on surfaces of common areas.

_Outbreaks of influenza, staph/MRSA and scabies in a small number of cases.

Other types of group homes aren’t included in the data, but it’s clear that many were also poorly prepared to stop the spread of the virus, the AP found. For example, hundreds of group homes in Massachusetts reported positive cases, as well as the state’s two Intermediate Care Facilities, according to the AP and advocacy groups. Advocates say low pay and difficult working conditions have led to high staff turnover and inadequate training, exacerbated by the pandemic.

The outbreak at Ludeman was so bad that the National Guard was called in to help. A family association asking for supplies said Chicago’s Major League Baseball teams donated 2,200 rain ponchos that the staff could use “until disposable gowns are available.”

When Neil got the call that his brother was infected with COVID-19, all the years of frustration spilled over.

“It was just rage,” he said. “I was so upset that I was afraid to talk because I didn’t know what was going to come out of my mouth.”

It didn’t help that he was on his own. His father has Alzheimer’s and is in a nursing home fighting its own outbreak; his mother has chronic lung disease.

After finding out his brother was being rushed to the emergency room. Neil called Ludeman’s staff and talked to other families. He was told that the facility was running low on critical items like protective masks, gowns, disinfectant — even anti-bacterial soap.

So he began a drive to collect goods, calling friends and family and reaching out to people on social media. After he had enough supplies, he decided to make a trip to Ludeman. He didn’t even know if they’d let him onto the campus — the facility was on lockdown. But he was going to try.

As he pulled up to the red and brown brick building with white trim, he didn’t know what to expect.

No one stopped him. He jumped out of the car and began unloading the goods. And then he got a surprise. There he was, Joe, sitting in a room with a staff member. Sullivan’s heart raced. He smiled, then waved to his brother through the window.

“I can tell you it made a world of difference because I really, genuinely believed he was going to die until I saw him,” he said. “Once I put my eyes on him, he still didn’t look good. But I believed he was going to pull through.”

In the end, Joe would beat the virus. Others wouldn’t be so fortunate.

_______

Contact AP’s Global Investigative Team at Investigative@ap.org

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How Trump Created a New Global Capital of Exiles

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/how-trump-created-a-new-global-capital-of-exiles/

How Trump Created a New Global Capital of Exiles

An asylum-seeker outside El Chaparral port of entry in Tijuana, Mexico, waits for his turn to present to U.S. border authorities to request asylum. | GUILLERMO ARIAS/AFP via Getty Images

Jack Herrera is an independent reporter and photojournalist covering immigration, refugees and human rights. His writing has appeared in Pacific Standard, The Nation, GEN magazine, Columbia Journalism Review, USA Today and other publications.

TIJUANA, Mexico—If you go early in the morning to the plaza in front of El Chaparral, the border crossing where a person can walk from Mexico into the state of California, you’ll hear shouts like “2,578: El Salvador!” and “2,579: Guatemala!”—a number, followed by a place of origin. Every day, groups of families gather around, waiting anxiously underneath the trees at the back of the square. The numbers come fromLa Lista, The List: When a person’s number is called, it’s their turn to ask for asylum in the United States.

These days, the most common place names shouted are Michoacán or Guerrero, Mexican states where intense cartel violence has sent thousands fleeing northward—occasionally, they’ll call Guatemala, El Salvador or Honduras, countries where pervasive poverty, gangs, drugs and femicide have done the same. But every so often, the name of a different, more far-off country is called. In the span of just two weeks late last year, a list-keeper called out a number, in Spanish, followed by “Rusia!” They also called out numbers for people from Armenia, Ghana and Cameroon. Asylum-seekers from the Democratic Republic of the Congo crossed, as well as people from Eritrea. One day, the list-keeper called out “Turquía!” and a Turkish family rushed forward to claim their spot. The family was escorted by Mexican immigration officials over the pedestrian walkway into the United States, where they told Customs and Border Protection agents that they had, like everyone else, left their home country fleeing for their lives.

These people were the lucky ones. They had managed to persist in Tijuana, waiting until the day they finally heard their numbers called. Others haven’t been so fortunate. With The List’s queue regularly stretching longer than six months, many migrants fall victim to predatory robbery, kidnapping or murder before they can find refuge; others find the wait in one of the most dangerous cities in the world simply unendurable.

When Americans think of the people crossing the southern border, they might imagine Mexicans or Central Americans—or, even more generally, Latin Americans. But migration, both legal and illegal, from Mexico into the United States is incredibly international. In the course of 2018, Border Patrol agents apprehended nearly 9,000 Indians, 1,000 Chinese nationals, 250 Romanians, 153 Pakistanis, 159 Vietnamese people and dozens of citizens of over 100 other countries. Fifteen Albanians and seven Italians were stopped trying to cross the southern border, as were four people from Ireland, a single person from Japan, and three people each from Syria and Taiwan. Border Patrol even apprehended two North Koreans on the border in 2018 who were separately attempting to cross into various parts of Texas.

Now,one of the most direct effects of Trump’s border policy is that thousands of foreigners from all over the world have found themselves unexpectedly stuck on the southern border. Since 2017, President Donald Trump has turned the country’s immigration system on its head to deter Central American asylum-seekers. But policies meant to address Guatemalan or Honduran migrants have also affected Jewish people fleeing persecution in Hungary; Syrians escaping civil war in their home country; and LGBTQ people fleeing Vladimir Putin’s homophobic regime in Russia. The effects of U.S. border policy are not confined to northern Mexico. They reverberate around the world.

When I met asylum-seekers at El Chapparal and around Tijuana, most of them told me that they’d been waiting in the city for months. Even though U.S. law says that anyone who claims to be fleeing for their lives should be immediately admitted to a port of entry for vetting, under the Trump administration, Border Patrol has started a controversial policy of “metering.” Now, agents accept only a set number of asylum-seekers each day and send the rest back. In Tijuana, they accept around 20 to 60 people per day, while thousands are left waiting and more are constantly arriving. That’s how The List was born: Migrants themselves began keeping a ledger as an attempt to create a fair waiting system—a virtual line—to get past the manufactured bottleneck.

But that wait may now be for nothing. In July, the Trump administration announced it would no longer accept asylum applications from people who transited through a third country on their way to the U.S. Anyone who traveled through Mexico or another country that wasn’t their place of origin without first applying for asylum there could be returned automatically. (The asylum restriction, immediately challenged in court, has been temporarily upheld by the Supreme Court pending a final decision).

At a time when the total number of refugees around the globe has reached the highest level since World War II, the United States has refashioned the immigration system in a way that forces those fearing for their lives in their home countries to put their lives at further risk on the way to safety. Many potentially legitimate asylum-seekers who once might have found at least temporary refuge in the United States while their applications were being reviewed are now made to undertake a harrowing and dangerous journey across the world, only to be forced to wait in Mexico’s borderlands—and less likely than ever to be allowed in later. Across the border, Mexican cities like Tijuanaare struggling to deal with a shifting crisis of their own, with thousands of desperate people, many stuck in a foreign country they never intended to stay in, struggling to survive in a region afflicted by its own intense violence and poverty.

That’s Daniel’s situation.(Out of an abundance of caution, I’m using pseudonyms in place of current asylum-seekers’ names.) An English teacher from Ghana, Daniel has been waiting in Tijuana since June to cross at El Chaparral. This past October, Daniel told me his number on The List was 4,068. At that time, the numbers being called were in the high 2,000s. By New Year’s Day, the numbers being called on the list were still below 3,800, and Daniel was still waiting to cross.

I met Daniel in the small church shelter where he sleeps in a ramshackle neighborhood built on the steep side of Cerro Colorado, the enormous hill that rises out of the center of Tijuana. As we sat on a bed in the pastor’s room, the 42-year-old spoke openly, though he initially remained vague about the reasons he left Ghana.

“I came here because I had a problem with some people. If I hadn’t left that place, it wouldn’t be good,” he said.

Daniel told me his story is “very sad,” and he didn’t want to burden me with the details, but he had to leave the country very quickly. He spoke in a voice that was soft but gravelly and rough: He said he has throat cancer, and I could hear it was painful for him to speak. But he still had the gentle tone and mannerism of a teacher. When he noticed me misspell his real name in my notebook, he quietly reached over and pointed out where an “e” should have been an “a.”

Mexicans call asylum-seekers like Daniel extracontinentales—a word for immigrants who come from outside the Americas. Daniel has been one of the many extracontinentalesbiding his time in Tijuana, waiting for his turn to cross into the U.S, and he thinks he’s still got months before they call his number on The List.

Life for extracontinentalesin northern Mexico can be tough. While thousands of people from outside the Americas arrive on the border each year, most shelters are equipped to house Latinos. Staff at migrant homes around the city told me they had trouble providing the right food for foreigners, especially those with religious dietary restrictions. There can also be a cultural disconnect. Though Daniel is friendly and approachable, he still has a look of distance to him, a gulf created by language and custom. Each night, he sleeps in a small bunk bed in a room with about two dozen other people, all from Mexico or Central America. No one in the shelter speaks any English besides the church pastor, so Daniel’s evenings are mostly quiet. He smiles when others make eye contact with him, but most people quickly look away. While in the shelter, I heard a Central American man use a demeaning word for black people in Spanish to describe Daniel.

As wait times to cross the border grow longer, many foreigners live in precarious and unstable conditions in Mexico. In many ways, the situation has become a humanitarian crisis.

Many foreigners I met in Tijuana—people from Ghana, Yemen, Jamaica, Cameroon, India—talked about experiencing loneliness, isolation, and racism. They told me Mexicans are generally welcoming, tolerant and respectful, but the country is still a hard place to be for non-Latinos—especially those who do not speak fluent SpanishorEnglish.

Some get by using a phone to translate into Spanish, but most foreigners have trouble integrating, especially when it comes to finding work. Many wind up working long hours in the factories on the outskirts of the city, or in other jobs involving physical labor. At many car washes around the city, it’s become a common sight to see groups of Africans—Ghanaians, Cameroonians, Congolese—cleaning cars, the very same kind of cheap but steady labor that many Mexican migrants resorted to in Southern California in the 1990s and 2000s.

For people like Daniel, the wait might become permanent. In July, the Trump administration announced it would no longer accept asylum claims from anyone who transited through a third country on their way to the United States unless they applied at each country they passed through first, effectively making allextracontinentaleslike Daniel ineligible. Though U.S. officials say asylum-seekers can simply seek refugee status in Mexico, journalists and human rights groups have documented many cases of asylum-seekers facing kidnapping, rape, robbery and murder in that country.

“Mexico is a good country,” Daniel says. But he still wants to make it to the United States, where he hopes he might finally be able to find stability, safety and a community.

Though the experience of being a foreignerin northern Mexico can be isolating, Tijuana is a decidedly international city. Long a transit point, it’s become a milieu of cosmopolitan culture. Russians have been arriving in the city since the late 1940s (many fled the former USSR), and there’s even a popular taco stand called “Tacos El Ruso” with a cartoon on the wall that proclaims, “Que Rico Takoskys.”

This multinational characteristic is particularly vivid in the city’s only mosque, a small, plain building in the city’s west, not far from the Pacific Ocean. During a Friday prayer in October, I watched as the imam began his sermon in Spanish before transitioning to English—though many of the men gathered didn’t speak either language.

“We’ve got people from Egypt, Turkey, Russia, Tajikistan, Pakistan, Afghanistan—I mean, everywhere. You name it, we’ve got it,” Imam Omar Islam, a Mexican-born convert, told me. He says many of the people he meets in the mosque have come fleeing conflict in their home countries, trying to make it to the U.S.

The men mostly arrive in groups with their compatriots (Egyptians with Egyptians, Indians with Indians), but during prayer the group comes together as one, and at the end of the imam’s sermon, they rise to greet one another. There was a young man who escaped civil war in Yemen who shook hands with a group of West Africans, including Emmanuel, a man who fled multiple homophobic attacks in Ghana.

Today—especially as the Trump administration cracks down on the asylum process—many migrants who first intended to go to the U.S. have decided to stay in Mexico. Some seek humanitarian visas, while others try their luck as undocumented immigrants.

Emmanuel told me has no desire to stay in Tijuana. With clear west African features, he stands out, and he says he’s been beaten and robbed multiple times by thieves who target the vulnerable migrant population.

“I can’t stay here. It’s too dangerous,” he said.

In 2018, Tijuana was, by some measures, the murder capital of the world. And, according to reports by U.S.-based advocacy organization Human Rights First, “refugees and migrants face acute risks of kidnapping, disappearance, sexual assault, trafficking, and other grave harms in Mexico.” Besides the inherent vulnerability of being itinerant, asylum-seekingextracontinentalesalso can routinely face racism and anti-LGBTQ violence in Mexico.

Emmanuel plans on crossing the border and asking for asylum in the United States, but his number on The List is weeks, if not months, away. After his last robbery, he says he can’t afford rent. He’s desperate, and unsure what to do. For many of these extracontinentalesstalled in the north of Mexico, the U.S. border is simply the final obstacle at the end of an immense odyssey.

There’s a fairly straightforward reason why so many people from around the world end up in northern Mexico, even though their ultimate destination is the United States: visa restrictions. For many people, it’s impossible to fly straight to the U.S. without a visa, so many asylum-seekers fly into Latin American countries with the plan to travel northward.

For people with stronger passports, like Russian, Indian and Chinese nationals, it’s possible to fly directly into Mexico. Many of theseextracontinentaleshave landed first in Mexico City or Cancún, where they masquerade as tourists before making their way to the border. (The rate of arrival is higher than you might think: On a single Monday when I was in Tijuana, six Russians and two Chinese nationals were detained at the airport on charges of traveling with forged or improper documents; they were promptly returned.)

But many people from African and Middle Eastern countries have trouble securing travel even to Mexico. So, for many forced migrants—like Daniel and Emmanuel—the journey through the Americas begins much further south.

Daniel says he never had any intention of coming to the U.S. originally. He just needed to leave Ghana. In a rush, he flew to one of the few countries on the planet where Ghanaians could travel without a visa: Ecuador. (Daniel arrived in April, three months before Ecuador added Ghana to a very short list of countries whose citizens can no longer arrive without a visa.) He landed in Quito, the country’s high-altitude capital in the Andes, without any plan.

“When I got to Ecuador, communication was a real problem. I speak English, but I have never traveled to the American continent. So when I got there, the language—Spanish—I didn’t understand anything,” Daniel said. “I asked someone, ‘Which country in this area speaks English?’ And they said, “Around here? Nowhere—unless you go to the United States.’”

Daniel says he didn’t know anything about the U.S. “All I knew is that there is a country called United States, and that it’s very good country,” he said. But, after a week in Quito, he made his choice and caught a bus toward Colombia, the first leg in a long journey to Tijuana.

On the buses he took, Daniel spoke to other migrants—many from Venezuela but also others from Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of the Congo—all heading northward. In recent years, thousands of people from around the world have made the same long and arduous journey as Daniel, from a South American country to the U.S.-Mexico border. (Ecuador, which has some of the freest visa requirements of any nation, is perhaps the most popular starting point.) From there, they travel down out of the mountains into Colombia, and then to the border with Panama. At this point, the journey becomes incredibly perilous. Many do not survive.

There is no road between the jungles of northern Colombia through the swamps into central Panama. Traveling on foot, northbound migrants must trek first over cloud forest and then across 50 miles of marshland, through a stretch of sparsely populated wilderness called the Darién Gap. The trip is, by all accounts, brutal. Reporting from northern Mexico in the past year, I’ve spoken with asylum-seekers from Ghana, Cameroon, Venezuela and the Democratic Republic of the Congo who all said they had made this trek. The stories they tell are harrowing: People die from snakebite or from drowning. Many eat nothing but uncooked rice for the week it takes to transit the Gap.

Emmanuel grew silent when we started talking about the journey through the swamps in Panama. He asked to pause the interview and later explained he was overcome with guilt because he didn’t stop to help people he saw dying. He barely had enough strength to carry himself forward.

“I can’t let my mind go back there,” he told me, shaking his head repeatedly.

Along the migration routes, human traffickers, kidnappers and robbers prey on travelers. People get robbed in every country, but every person I spoke with, without exception, said they were robbed at gunpoint by bandits in the jungle in Panama.

Daniel says that if he had known exactly how horrible the journey would be, he might not have made it. But many of the people traveling northward do know how arduous their travel will be and continue anyway. They simply have too much to lose if they turn back.

For Emmanuel, the situation back in Ghana became so severe that he chose to make the journey northward from Ecuador not just once, but twice. After he first fled homophobic violence in Ghana in 2016, Emmanuel made it to the U.S. border and crossed at the official port of entry. As he argued his asylum case in court, he remained in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention. He says he learned his English while there. After almost two years, Emmanuel was hopeless and depressed. He decided he couldn’t stay locked up anymore and chose to give up on his asylum case. ICE deported him back to Accra.

Once returned to Accra, Emmanuel was attacked again by the men who originally persecuted him. Emmanuel says he’s not gay, but he welcomed LGBTQ patrons into the mechanic shop he ran. Nevertheless, people in his community accused him of being gay and tried to kill him, he says. He showed me huge scars on his belly from stab wounds and a video someone filmed soon after he was returned to Ghana showing him bloody and unconscious in a crowded hospital. Fearing death, Emmanuel escaped again and flew back to Ecuador this past spring.

He says the journey is the hardest thing he’s ever done. But still, he chose to make the trek a second time. He says he had no choice. In Mexico, he showed me that he still gets threatening phone calls and WhatsApp messages from unknown contacts. He is certain he’ll be killed if he ever returns.

The people making the northward journeyto the United States have left behind some of the world’s most severe strife and brutality. In Tijuana during the past year, I’ve met English-speaking Cameroonians who told me how they fled violence at the hands of their country’s Francophone majority (an ongoing campaign of repression that some humanitarian organizationsbelieve amounts to ethnic cleansing). They shared stories of torture and rape used as weapons of war. I met Russians who arrived on the southern border in recent years after escaping the persecution of LGBTQ people under Putin’s regime. People have fled war in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan and Central African Republic. Thousands of Hungarians and Romanians have made their way to the southern border after fleeing increasingly violent anti-Semitism and growing authoritarianism. And in the past four years, the U.S. has seen a fast-growing number of Indian religious minorities cross the border, after leaving behind burgeoning Hindu nationalism in their home country.

At the same time, the Trump administration has claimed that the promise of refugee status has become a “pull factor” that has drawn to the U.S. people from around the world with dubious asylum claims. What the U.S. needs, the administration argues, is a deterrence-first policy. But it’s hard to imagine a deterrent more onerous than the journey from Ecuador to the southern border—a punishing gantlet that some like Emmanuel have been forced to make more than once.

Thanks to the Trump administration’s new “third country” asylum restriction, declaring asylum in the U.S. now comes with a dramatically increased risk of deportation back to one’s home country, a terrifying prospect for so many.

However, new immigration policies have delayed effect, one felt acutely here on the border: Many people trying to reach the U.S. were alreadyen routewhen the newest restriction was announced in July. Emmanuel was making his way through Guatemala; Daniel had been in Tijuana less than two weeks and had already taken a number from The List. Now, both men are stuck in Tijuana with limited choices.

Even if they decide to remain in Mexico, their fates are far from certain. Besides the dangers of robbery and violence, Human Rights First has documented cases of Mexican officials deporting asylum-seekers without due process. And, under pressure from the Trump administration, Mexico has begun dramatically expanding its own deportation machine. Just during a few days I was recently in Tijuana, Mexican officials deported over 300 Indian nationals back to Delhi on a flight from Mexico City.

In October, I visited a Mexican immigration office in southern Tijuana that’s been converted into a makeshift detention center.

“Which countries are detainees inside from?” I asked a janitor on her smoke break.

“Every country,” she told me. “Peru, Haiti …”

“United Nations inside there,” someone else joked.

When I asked the woman what the conditions were like inside, she just shook her head and raised her eyebrows. As she looked over her shoulder nervously, she motioned silently in a clear gesture: “not so good.”

The threat of detention might persuade some foreigners to give up, to leave Mexico. But for many people, like Daniel or Emmanuel, going home is not an option.

The promise of the United States, of freedom from persecution or violence, persuaded the two Ghanaians and thousands like them to travel tens of thousands of miles, across oceans and mountains. But steps away from the southern border, they learned that the door had been slammed shut. Tijuana was never meant to be the final destination for Daniel or Emmanuel or so many other asylum-seekers. Rather, the city is just a place they’ve wound upatrapado—stuck.

Jorge Armando Nieto contributed to this report.

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