Vanessa
Photograph by Victoria Pickering, Flickr “Because all I did was read a story,
then retell it on this page.”
—Diannely Antigua, “Immigration Story”
“Hola, todos.”
Gloria, Vanessa Guillén’s mother, is in the corner of a busy street, holding a press conference. Her hair is in a bun on the top of her head, and she’s wearing a black shirt. Her hands are full: with her left, she holds a poster that shows a missing person report, alongside #FindVanessaGuillen and Help us get her home! in purple marker; with her right, she holds a Fox 44 News microphone that she occasionally speaks into, her mouth moving behind her bright blue mask. Her voice is gentle, steady. Her eyes continue to shift from the audience in front of her to the poster that she’s carrying: her hija, her Vanessa, la soldada desaparecida.
From June 10th to June 15th, local news channels cover Salma Hayek and her mission to bring awareness to a soldier’s disappearance. Around the same time, I begin seeing Vanessa’s face on Instagram: my explore page shows a young woman in her uniform, the front of her patrol cap a blank canvas—she must have taken this when she was a PVT, I think, noting the time between her promotions—her background the American flag. She’s staring directly at the camera. A soft smile is playing at the corner of her lips. I can imagine this picture, before it became the symbol of
