Garcia

Andrea Garcia

Emily Litle

ENG121001

9 September 2020

No Words, Deep Meanings

In the cold murky water, lies the soulless lives of a man and his child on the bank of Rio

Grande. They’re both facing down, with the child’s arm that appears to be purple or discolored,

resting on the back of her father's neck. The child is small, not much older than two years of age,

she’s thin, and appears to still be wearing diapers under her pink tights. Her father, also

appearing to be thin, is wearing blue shorts and a black shirt. He has no shoes on, and he has his

daughter tucked inside his shirt with their heads side by side of one another. You could also see

their backs, without any wounds. Surrounding them are long thin branches, green plants, and tall

grass. You can also see the water they are laying in that has ripples, which looks like the water is

moving gently around them. You could also see beer cans and other plastics around them, along

with a small wooden boat beside them. This image is both disturbing and upsetting, while it’s

meaning can be conveyed through ethos and pathos.

This picture was first published in a Mexican newspaper called La Jornada, which later

went viral on various social media platforms. The publishing can be an example of ethos because

La Jornada is one of Mexico’s leading daily newspapers, which many people read and trust the

information that is published because the newspaper is very well known. Once people caught

news of this image and it’s backstory, it began being published in other major newspapers such

as The New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times. Social media platforms are also well

known and many people use them, so displaying these images online made people look at the
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image and have access to it. These major newspapers and social media platforms helped spread

awareness of that photo, and it’s meaning, which demonstrated the horrifying consequences

immigrants go through to seek asylum in the United States, and how these deaths can be

overlooked by some because no major sources really talk about it, up until that photo was

published.

Again, this photo is quite disturbing, which can also trigger one’s emotions while

viewing the photo. This photo definitely caused an emotional response for some, that can be

considered as pathos. This image displays a father and his child lying face down, dead. Now,

each person may have felt differently about the image, but it made people feel something. Some

may have had their parental instincts kick in when they saw the dead child. Others may have felt

sorrowful for the family because they didn’t make it through their journey to a destination of a

safe haven, only to find death down the road. There could have also been a handful of people

who thought that the man and his child got what they deserved because they tried to enter a

country illegally.

Personally, when I viewed this picture, it made me sick to my stomach, and made me

think about how lucky me and my family are. Fortunately, my family was able to immigrate to

the United States safely and create a better life for me and my family. It makes me very upset to

see the millions of families who suffer a tragic fate like this. It also makes me very angry when

people think that this man and his child “got what they deserved” because they came here

illegally. I understand the different perspectives about the photo, but this image definitely made

me realize how blessed I am, and I think this publication was made so people could also think

about what goes on behind the scenes, because it’s something we hardly see in news papers and

social media.
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This photo was published during a heated debate about immigration in the U.S. Some

have said that this photo has clearly demonstrated the result of inhumane U.S. immigration

policies. This photo provided rhetorical strategies such as ethos and pathos, that ultimately made

people think twice about their lives and the countries they live in. This picture did not display

any words, but contained a deep meaning that certainly made people think about what else is

happening in the word around them, even if it doesn’t apply to them, they had an insight of what

it is like for other people and their own struggles.

Work Cited

Le Duc, Julia “Sucumben en su ilusión” June 2019, Photograph. La Jornada

8 September 2020
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Linthicum, Kate. “A Photo from the Rio Grande Captures the Tragic End for a Father and

Daughter.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 26 June 2019,

www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-father-daughter-drowning-mexican-border-20190626-

story.html.