The great letter of Cédric Herrou's mother, this brave farmer activist who helps the young migrants of la Roya. Great translation job, thank you Sara Green!
Cédric Herrou TAG has reported on before, he is the man who helps refugees near the French Italian border. If you read the letter from his mother ones can see why caring is in his nature. I have great respect for his mother and Cédric and of course they have my support.
A letter from Cédric Herrou’s mother
A letter to you, the Public Prosecutor …
I am the mother of the man you are hounding. My own paternal grandmother also crossed the border with Italy on foot, across mountains, and she lost the baby she was carrying during this long journey (perhaps she came across the grandmothers of Mr Ciotti and Mr Estrosi at the time, who knows?) she hired herself out like a beast of burden to pull the carts. I remember her wearing a leather strap across her torso… As for my mother, she was German, my sister was born in a Gestapo jail, they were both liberated by the Americans; That blood is half the blood that flows through the veins of my two sons, who you had arrested on Thursday, the other half is pure Breton blood and Bretons are stubborn and they’re not scared of storms.
They may not be French right through to their core – or to the stump of their tree as the saying goes in French (and isn’t the stump what’s left of a tree once it’s dead?) – but they have deep, living roots in this country, which is their country and which they love.
Perhaps this will help you understand… we were a foster family for 25 years. Cedric was 5 and Morgan 7 when the first children arrived. They shared their toys, their meals, their home, their parents with 15 neglected children, from all backgrounds, some had been beaten or raped.
So when Cedric tells you that the children he sees on our lanes and roads in the Roya are his brothers and sisters, he is not lying to you. And when he calls the children’s social services so strongly into question, it’s because he knows how they operate.
We have four children because they agreed to two of those children becoming part of our family, they are their sister and their brother now and we are very proud of it!
So, when you and all the others call him a smuggler or a people trafficker, you should know that this is the man you are dealing with!
Yours respectfully,
Mama Herrou
