WHAT: An immigration story that has kindness, connection, and pizza at its core.
WHO: San Antonio tow-truck driver Armando Colunga, 3 police detectives, and 54 immigrants who had been traveling in the back of an eighteen-wheeler.
WHY IT’S GREAT: The news has, frankly, been pretty depressing for a while now. But amid stories of family separation and coyotes smuggling people across the border in inhumane conditions, Armando Colunga felt the urge to do something kind for 54 people he heard about on the news who had been discovered in the back of a semi truck. He got in his tow truck, drove by a Little Caesars, and brought them seven pizzas.
According to KDVR, when Colunga arrived, stack of pies in hand, he was concerned that police might not let him through to feed the men—who, he’d learn, had been traveling without food but had been given water by authorities. The detectives on the scene, however, ushered him past the yellow crime tape and introduced him to a firefighter who helped ensure that everyone got to eat. He told the network that the detectives explained that he didn’t have to stop by with food. He said it wasn’t the point. “No, I didn’t have to, but they’re my people,” he told reporters, explaining that while he’s Mexican American, his definition of “my people” is expansive. “If they were black or African people or white people coming from London . . . I would have done the same thing.”
The topic of immigration is heated and includes a lot of inflamed rhetoric. But ultimately, it’s a topic that is about humans, many of whom have endured a brutal journey to get here. Whatever you think of the policy around our border, acknowledging our shared humanity—and that we are better versions of ourselves when we meet our fellow man with kindness, generosity, and pizza—is an American ideal worth celebrating.
