It doesn't happen very often that I simply fly around the world for a couple of days, but that is exactly what I did this past week, spending two days in New York City. Of course I had a really good reason for doing so: my wife was getting honored for her work by being awarded the Juan P. Osuna Memorial Award at the annual gala of KIND, the organization she works for.
Defending the Rights of Migrant Children
KIND, an acronym for Kids in Need of Defense, is an NGO dedicated to providing legal defense to unaccompanied migrant children worldwide. Only in the last year it has represented more than 7,000 children, served 675 clients affected by forcible separation, and offered therapeutic programing to more than 3,900 kids at the US-Mexican border. In its fifteen years of existence KIND has had an average success rate of 95%, where children are represented through the conclusion of their cases.
Juan Pablo Osuna is known for his lifetime's work on issues regarding immigrant and refugee children, working nearly two decades as a senior immigration legal advisor in the Justice Department. He served as Director of the Justice Department's Executive Officer for Immigration Review, the Board of Immigration Appeals Chair, Deputy Assistant General, and Associate Deputy Attorney General in charge of immigration policy and other issues. After his passing in 2017, the memorial award named in his honor has been offered to a worthy professional who carries on his tremendous work.
Gala at the Ziegfeld Ballroom
The event took place at the Ziegfeld Ballroom in Midtown Manhattan, with all the necessary pomp and circumstance. It started out with a light mingling accompanied by cocktails and hors d'oeuvres, after which we took our seats for the main event. Naturally, Wendy Young gave the welcoming speech, being the president of KIND and the late Juan Osuna's wife. This was followed by video presentations on KIND's work, musical performances by Nova Y. Payton and Mandy Gonzalez accompanied by the American Pops Orchestra, and various talks by a range of distinguished guests. One of them was Isaias, a client of KIND who has escaped from persecution in Honduras and is now an aspiring recording artist.
The actual award was presented by Enrique Chavira Cantu, who received the award last year. He currently works at the New York City Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs. This year's recipient, Elba Coria Márquez works as the Director of Advocacy in the Mexican branch of KIND. Some of her previous achievements include organizing and directing the first refugee law clinic in Mexico at the Ibero-American University, and developping the first model of alternatives to detention for unaccompanied migrant children as the Regional Associate of the International Coalition Against Detention. I am incredibly proud of her, and honored to be her life partner.
Famous Faces at the Fireside Chat
Following the award ceremony the dinner commenced, after which additional guests made their appearances on the stage in a somewhat less formal conversation. They included Brad Smith, co-founder of KIND and president of Microsoft, Horacio Guiterrez, CCO of the Walt Disney Company, Casey Ryan, Executive Committee Chair at Reed Smith LLP, and interestingly Alejandro Mayorkas, the Secretary of Homeland Security. All of them had some things to say in which they related to the issue of migration, but my highlight of the event was the presentation of the award and the amazing work it stands for.
Finally, the occasion was completed with another chance to walk around, and mingle with everybody who came to congratulate Elba. This gave me a chance to actually meet the people she has been working together with, some of them I have only heard their names, most others however, were completely new for me. Of course I had the honor to take lots of pictures of her with her coworkers and associates from other organizations.
Rounding off the Gala with One More Day
Once the gala had finished we retired to our hotel, located conveniently only a block from the venue. The next day we spent together as a mini-vacation enjoying New York City, before flying back respectively to Mexico City and Berlin. Looking back at the last couple of days, I feel great pleasure of knowing that it is not just me, who, being a complete layperson, is convinced of Elba's ingenuity, but that she is in fact recognized by her professional peers for her outstanding work. This sensation feels as nice as if I had received the award myself, or probably even better.
