CELIA'S ANGUISH
Photos by Stephen Lemons
Scenes from the struggle: Top left, Celia Alajandra Alvarez Herrera, with her son Miguel; top right, Maria del Carmen Garcia-Martinez (with broken arm); bottom left, Julio Mora with his father Julian; and, bottom right, inmates in Joe Arpaio's infamous "200 Mexican march."
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On the surface, a Sunday morning at the home of Celia Alejandra Alvarez Herrera seems bright and joyous. Her four children scamper and play as she sits at the thick, wooden kitchen table. Her 1-year-old, Daniel, and her 6-year-old, Miguel, occasionally cling to her, seeking attention.
Her 9-year-old, Maria, glides around the house on sneaker skates. The eldest, Heidi, 11, disappears after dutifully sweeping the floor. All four are U.S.-born citizens.
The kitchen is airy and sunny, and a gray-and-white cockatiel chirps in a cage nearby. Herrera, 31, proudly shows off the work permit, and an Arizona ID she scored recently with the assistance of immigration attorney Kevin Gibbons, who ran unsuccessfully against notorious immigrant basher Russell Pearce in last year's GOP primary for the Arizona Senate.
"For most people, it's not a big deal," she said of the paperwork. "But for people like me, it's tremendous."
She no longer has to use her alias, Francisca Perez Mendoza, to obtain work, as she did at the Phoenix landscaping company H.M.I. before that county contractor was raided on February 11. She was arrested that day with about 60 co-workers.
But she says it's too scary to venture back into the work force. She's been so traumatized by her arrest and her time in MCSO custody that she sees a counselor through a local church and takes anti-anxiety medication. That's along with medication for a stomach ailment caused by pain meds she takes for the soreness in her jaw. The jaw she says was busted by a ski-masked MCSO deputy.
As you may recall from an item that I wrote about Herrera in my Feathered Bastard blog in April, before she was released from Estrella Jail, Herrera says she had just clocked in at H.M.I. when she learned that a Sheriff's Office raid was under way. As MCSO SWAT team members flooded the premises, Herrera hid underneath a bed in a trailer on the property. She was soon located by a deputy, who jerked her up and slammed her against a wall, injuring her jaw.
It wasn't her only injury. While she was getting processed, she saw her brother-in-law in line and tried to speak with him. Another deputy hit her forcefully with the metal part of a clipboard, supposedly for speaking to her relative. Her upper arm was bruised for weeks. Both deputies who assaulted her wore black ski masks, she claims.
It took her three weeks to see a healthcare provider in jail. Her jaw was in so much pain she could barely lie down to sleep. The provider prescribed ibuprofen for her jaw; for her arm, she got Preparation H to decrease the swelling. She had to pay for the ibuprofen. It was $10 for pack of about 15. The infirmary also took X-rays.
Once she was released, she saw an oral surgeon, Dr. Jack Buhrow, who treated her for a detached meniscus in her jaw. The meniscus is a bit of cartilage and muscle in the joint of the jaw that allows it to open and slide normally. Buhrow told me that an X-ray would not allow for a diagnosis. Rather, a diagnosis for a detached meniscus would normally come from observation and listening to the patient.
Buhrow performed a procedure on Herrera called a lavage, which Herrera says has helped her, though she still suffers soreness when she opens her mouth wide or laughs. Buhrow confirmed that, for some patients, the injury can be very painful. He also noted that ibuprofen would be "the initial drug of choice." Though keep in mind, Herrera went three weeks without even that.
Asked whether the injury could be consistent with Herrera's account of being flung against a wall, Buhrow said, "Oh, certainly."
But Herrera suffered more than physical injuries during her incarceration. As she was brought into custody, she was forced to strip and endure a cavity search as a male detention officer looked on. A male co-worker was also in the room with her, having the same thing done to him. They avoided each other's eyes during the process.
Herrera, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was wearing Mormon undergarments beneath her clothes when she was told to strip.
"I told them that I can't take these off; it's really important for my religion," recalled Herrera. "They said, 'It's not important. You have to take them off.' They said, 'If you don't take it off immediately, we're going to put you in the hole, in solitary.'"
Herrera reluctantly complied. While in Estrella, the guards were cruel and vulgar, calling the women housed there "prostitutes" and "bitches." Once, Herrera fell asleep while reading a Bible. It slipped out of her hand and onto the ground as she napped. She awoke to watch a guard confiscate the holy book and trash it.
The worst part of her confinement was the separation from her children. She'd still been nursing her youngest boy when she was arrested. Her husband and children relied on the help of their Mormon congregation to bring them food and help with childcare.
