Ornella & Violeta

Latino USA

My Cultura, Futuro and iHeartPodcasts

Society & Culture

4.9 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 27 April 2021

⏱️ 19 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

For seventeen years, Ornella Pedrozo thought of her mom's detainment by ICE as her deepest, darkest secret. When she was four years old, her mother Violeta, who had fled the armed conflict in Peru, was abruptly detained by ICE. That separation, which lasted seven months, was something that Ornella didn't really talk about, until recently. In this episode, you'll hear fragments of a letter Ornella wrote about her complicated feelings back then, and she also sits down with Violeta to talk — at length for the first time — about how those seven months left a permanent mark.

This episode originally aired in February of 2020.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	I'm Maria Inojosa, and I am Penileira Mides.
0:03.0	And on this new series, we're going to get to know the most powerful Mexican government
0:08.6	official ever to face trial in the US for his alleged ties to the infamous drug lord, El
0:15.4	Chappo.
0:16.4	But this is not your regular narco story.
0:19.3	It's like true crime, myths, telenovela.
0:22.6	This is our new series, USA versus García Luna.
0:27.1	Find it whatever you get your podcasts and at futuroinvestigates.org.
0:31.9	FUTURO
0:40.1	You know, was it a reason for experiencing me to feel ready to revisit this memory?
0:45.8	So, one of my friends was over and he asked me what my deepest darkest secret was.
0:54.8	And I felt ashamed that my deepest darkest secret was this about you being detained because
1:03.1	I kind of learned to never talk about it.
1:05.7	Then I realized that it shouldn't have to be a secret.
1:15.2	From Futuro Media, it's Latino USA, I'm Maria Inojosa.
1:19.1	Today, an intimate letter from a daughter to her mother and the way family separation leaves
1:25.1	a lifelong mark.
1:30.3	18 years ago, Ornela Pedrozo was living with her mother, Violeta, in Los Angeles.
1:36.4	Her mom had moved to LA fleeing the Shining Path, which is a radical guerrilla group.
1:42.1	In Peru, they're known as Cendero Luminoso or SL for short.
1:48.0	And that was raising her four-year-old daughter, Ornela alone.
1:51.8	When one day, in 2003, Violeta was taken away by ICE.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from My Cultura, Futuro and iHeartPodcasts, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of My Cultura, Futuro and iHeartPodcasts and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.