Artifact Reflection 2

Hi, all.

I'm running a bit low on time, so let's cut to the chase for these next few posts.  This post says I have my second artifact.

Behold, a sneaker in all of its glory.

This artifact is a pair of beat up kid's sneakers.  I actually bought these sneakers at a thrift store in Salt Lake about a year ago just 'cause I thought they were cute and I wanted to draw them.  They're a pair of child's size-seven Converse knock-offs (a brand called "Eastside").  The fabric that was once bright red is faded and dirtied.  The laces have no aglets and are loopy and frayed, at parts only hanging by threads through the nicked silver eyelets.  The soles have been worn thin, and the once-white toecaps are the color of long-neglected paperbacks due to an uncertain combination of dirt and age.  Though they're obviously too small for me to wear, I wanted them from the moment I saw them because they look loved; they look well-worn; they look like the epitome of an American eight-year-old's childhood well-spent.

They're my second artifact because while they could have been a part of my lovely American childhood, they never could have entered that of a young Mexican Reyna's.  Throughout the first part of the book, and even into the beginning of the second, Reyna points out constantly how she and her siblings and every other child in Iguala are almost always barefoot, except for on rare occasions like her cousin Elida's quinceanera and one time when their parents in the United States send her shoes that don't even fit.

I realize this is a very small and simple thing, but it really didn't occur to me that they wouldn't have shoes.  I mean, I've paid enough attention to know that not everybody has shoes - Africa doesn't have shoes.  I doubt China has shoes.  God knows if North Korea has shoes.  But Mexico borders us; they probably make half of our shoes.  I know things suck in Mexico, but the fact that it's such a popular tourist destination always helps to mask the fact that things suck that much.

I should retake AP World Geography at some point.  That was quite a valuable class.

Anyways, I guess this artifact is really "children's shoes or lack thereof."  It makes me wonder why we focus all our charity efforts on Africa and the United States, when really, people also need help in nearly every country on nearly every continent.  I mean, it's true that nowhere is perfect and nowhere can be (there are no utopias), but we still have to try to make the world as good as we can possibly make it, and we still need to help everyone we can help.

Let's help people.

That's all for now.
-Allie H-S