The bigger story about the migrants flown to Martha's Vineyard

Also: The stakes in the midterms couldn't be higher [View in browser](    [❤️]( September 25, 2022 Dear Cog reader, Ana Hebra Flaster was 5 years old when her family left a working-class barrio in Havana in 1967. She and her family landed 1,500 miles north in Manchester, New Hampshire, where they stood out as refugees: their dark skin, their strong accents, the Beny Moré records her parents played loudly — windows open — in their duplex. Manchester didn’t have a Latino community in 1967. “So Mami, Tia and Abuela created a Cuban community out of thin, cold air,” Ana writes. They spoke Spanish, cooked Cuban food and raised their children together. Years later, as the older women died and the family spread out, Ana found herself the unexpected matriarch. But how could she hold her 27-member family together when simply corralling everyone for get-togethers seemed impossible? Some of them had moved away. They worked late hours. Kids were busy with sports. Ana’s [gorgeous essay]( explores how we hold onto the things that bind us together even as we inevitably move apart. Usually, Martha’s Vineyard has faded from the news by mid-September, once the famous vacationers have gone home. But the Vineyard was back in the foreground this month, after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis chartered two planes of South American migrants to the island. Katie Peeler, a critical care pediatrician and regular Cog contributor who has spent time at the [border in Texas]( wrote about [the bigger story]( we missed in the imbroglio. Thanks for reading. We hope you enjoy the first weekend of fall. P.S.— Speaking of fall, we're [asking for donations this week]( as part of our annual fall fundraiser. WBUR has never required a fee to receive this newsletter or listen to your favorite programs. Instead, we count on voluntary contributions from listeners and readers like you to fuel our work. So, if WBUR is a part of your life, [please consider making a gift]( to help us sustain everything you count on. Kathleen Burge Editor [Follow]( Support the news   Must Reads [The outrage over migrants flown to Martha’s Vineyard is justified. But we're missing the bigger story]( When systems to help vulnerable people secure their rights fail, we don’t give up, writes Katie Peeler. We ask for help. [Read more.]( [The outrage over migrants flown to Martha’s Vineyard is justified. But we're missing the bigger story]( When systems to help vulnerable people secure their rights fail, we don’t give up, writes Katie Peeler. We ask for help. [Read more.]( [How I became the matriarch of my Cuban family in New England]( The resilient women before me bridged two cultures and two countries, protecting the mother tongue with ferocity, writes Ana Hebra Flaster. Now it's my turn. [Read more.]( [How I became the matriarch of my Cuban family in New England]( The resilient women before me bridged two cultures and two countries, protecting the mother tongue with ferocity, writes Ana Hebra Flaster. Now it's my turn. [Read more.]( [Why you're never too old to build 'castles in the air']( While that yearning to hear the rustle of Lego pieces in a fresh, soon-to-be-opened box lingered, Miles Howard hadn’t bought a set in two decades, not since he was a kid. Then came the ‘Lion Knight’s Castle.’ [Read more.]( [Why you're never too old to build 'castles in the air']( While that yearning to hear the rustle of Lego pieces in a fresh, soon-to-be-opened box lingered, Miles Howard hadn’t bought a set in two decades, not since he was a kid. Then came the ‘Lion Knight’s Castle.’ [Read more.]( [The stakes in the midterms couldn't be higher]( If Trump’s enablers gain control of Congress, they will make it their top priority to foment chaos, while election officials devoted to the cult of MAGA work to subvert the election system itself. [Read more.]( [The stakes in the midterms couldn't be higher]( If Trump’s enablers gain control of Congress, they will make it their top priority to foment chaos, while election officials devoted to the cult of MAGA work to subvert the election system itself. [Read more.]( [As we fight monkeypox, we must remember the somber lessons of HIV]( White men are getting a disproportionate share of monkeypox vaccines, writes Josiane Martinez. Unless health leaders act, those disparities could get worse. [Read more.]( [As we fight monkeypox, we must remember the somber lessons of HIV]( White men are getting a disproportionate share of monkeypox vaccines, writes Josiane Martinez. Unless health leaders act, those disparities could get worse. [Read more.]( What We're Reading "I have very few memories of my mother, Iris. Neither does my older brother, Norman. The simple explanation is that, in our house, after she died she was never spoken of again." "[From Boy to Bono]( The New Yorker "It is a curious fact that, while plenty of people in Britain are royalists, basically no one is interested in offering any sort of substantial philosophical justification for keeping the Windsors around." "[Why Does The British Monarchy Exist]( Gawker "It’s not the first time that Mr. Putin has suggested he is liberating people like my aunt and uncle, and it’s no truer now than it has been in the past." "[My Family Knows That Putin Will Get Whatever Result He Wants]( New York Times "If you build castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them." — Henry David Thoreau, quoted by Miles Howard in "[Why you're never too old to build 'castles in the air']( ICYMI [My Wife Died Of An Asthma Attack. If She'd Known About 'Peak Week,' She Might Have Survived]( The third week of September is dangerous for asthma sufferers. It's when germs and allergens come together to make breathing particularly difficult. If only Peter DeMarco's wife Laura had known. [Read more.]( [My Wife Died Of An Asthma Attack. If She'd Known About 'Peak Week,' She Might Have Survived]( The third week of September is dangerous for asthma sufferers. It's when germs and allergens come together to make breathing particularly difficult. If only Peter DeMarco's wife Laura had known. [Read more.]( If you’d like to write for Cognoscenti, send your submission, pasted into your email and not as an attachment, to opinion@wbur.org. 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