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Mothering in the Long Night


We mother in a season where lullabies compete with sirens.

Where bedtime prayers include please let them come home tomorrow.

Where our children learn the shape of fear before they learn cursive.


We mother while the world tells us that tenderness is weakness, that protection is radical, that love must be quiet to be acceptable.


But love is not quiet.

Love is a drum.

Love is a line of women holding each other steady in the dark.


We are raising children inside a storm of state violence, disinformation, and deliberate confusion.


We are told painkillers cause autism, that science cannot be trusted, that families are disposable.


We are watching children detained, displaced, transported across state lines like paperwork instead of people.


We are watching bodies become collateral in political theater.


This is not normal. This is not accidental. This is not coincidence.


When children are taken in large numbers, history teaches us it is never random.


It is strategic. It is about power, obedience, and fear.


And when women and children are targeted, it is always about control of the future.


There are growing and credible concerns across survivor advocacy communities that sexual violence increases in environments of detention, chaos, secrecy, and impunity. We do not need conspiracy to understand this. We need pattern recognition. Wherever people are disappeared, silenced, or dehumanized, abuse follows.


Our refusal to look away is not paranoia. It is vigilance.


WHERE ARE THE EPSTEIN FILES????


Where is Liam Conejo?


And there are people still unaccounted for in places people whisper about like “Alligator Alcatraz”—detention facilities so isolated they function as legal black holes. Whether every rumor is true is less important than this: people vanish when systems are designed without transparency. Mothers know what it means when someone doesn’t come home.


We are not hysterical.

We are historically literate.


Mothering as Sacred Resistance


To mother now is to become:

  • A witness

  • A protector

  • A strategist

  • A storyteller

  • A guardian of truth


We hold our children and we hold the line.

We soothe nightmares and we build networks.

We make soup and we make plans.


We remember that softness and strength are not opposites.

They are partners.


Grounding Practice: “Return to the Body, Return to Power”

Place one hand on your heart.

One hand on your belly.

Breathe in for 4…Hold for 2…Out for 6.

Repeat three times.


Say silently:

“My body is not powerless.” “My love is not naive.” “My presence is protection.”

Feel your feet.

Feel the floor.

You are not floating in this moment.

You are rooted.

You are here.

You are capable.


Do this before reading the news.

Do this before organizing.

Do this before sleep.

A regulated nervous system is a revolutionary resource.


We Must Organize, Train, and Prepare


Not from fear, but from clarity.


Women and children are historically targeted in authoritarian systems because:

  • We carry memory

  • We carry lineage

  • We carry the future


We organize by:

  • Building mutual aid networks

  • Learning legal observation skills

  • Training in trauma-informed response

  • Practicing situational awareness without panic

  • Teaching children their rights in age-appropriate ways

  • Knowing where our people are, who is safe, and how to respond


This is not militarization.

It is community guardianship.


It is remembering how villages used to function before states claimed ownership of our safety and failed us.


Call to Action: Where Your Money and Energy Matter


These organizations are widely respected and directly support immigrant families and children:


Legal Defense for Immigrant Children

Immigration Attorneys & Bond Funds

National Advocacy

If you want your money to go directly to attorneys defending detained children, prioritize:

  • RAICES

  • KIND

  • Immigrant Defenders Law Center


Set up a monthly donation, even $10. Consistency is more powerful than urgency.


Final Blessing

To mother now is to love inside a burning house and still plant gardens.

It is to whisper comfort and speak truth.

It is to recognize that our children are not only ours, they are each other’s, and history is watching how we held them.

We are not weak for grieving.

We are not radical for protecting.

We are not dramatic for naming what we see.

We are awake.

And awake mothers change the world.


From my mama heart to yours,

We're stronger together and there are more of us than them.

La Familia. Ohana.

Build your village and prepare. I love you.

 
 
 

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