Editor's note: The immigration dilemma is an issue that affects not just faraway border states; every community in our region has been touched. This project, “Living in the Shadows,” is the story of one Cincinnati family whose daily life is clouded by the complicated laws and opinions around immigration.
The story is told through the eyes and voice of a Cincinnati teenager, whom we are calling Adriana. Comics journalist Kevin Necessary and reporter Breanna Molloy conducted several interviews with Adriana, her mother and her brother. Most of the text is taken directly from those interviews.
We have chosen not to identify the family members and, as a result, we are not using their real names. The drawings are not their exact likenesses. During the television interview, they will be shown in shadow.
Here’s why: We don’t want to put the family at risk of being arrested or broken up by identifying them. Arrests of undocumented immigrants like the mother in this story have risen sharply in the last year. We have seen that in our community, too.
Our goal is simply to tell the story of one family in our community and how their lives are affected in the national debate on immigration.
Chapter 1: Are you illegal, too?
Chapter 2: La familia
Chapter 3: Coming to America
