May 31, 2006 in City

Iraq’s smaller civilians focus of mom’s exhibit

• Print
• Email
• Share

Photo courtesy of Steve Higuera photo

Sgt. Steve Higuera, of the Washington Army National Guard, poses with Iraqi children. His mother, Jane Higuera, of Spokane, has created displays of the photos her son took of children while in Iraq in 2005.
(Full-size photo)

In the photos, Jane Higuera noticed the missing teeth in the mouths of some of the Iraqi children. She knew which ones were missing because of baby teeth falling out. And which teeth were missing because of accidents or poor dental hygiene.

Jane noticed the hair of the little girls in the photos, hair like tiny bird’s nests. Jane knows well the ways of children. She is 70, mother to seven children, four boys and three girls, now grown and ranging in age from 30 to 46.

In winter 2003, as rumor of war chattered through our nation, Jane marched against it in downtown Spokane. She knew that young military men and women – children not all that long ago – would be sent there and that some would die, and they have died – more than 2,400, now.

She knew that innocent Iraqi children would be killed in the war, and they have been killed, in horrible ways. The news in recent days tells of an alleged massacre of Iraqi civilians, including children, by Marines.

Jane hated the thought of war. But then her son Steve, the sixth of her seven children, ended up in Iraq in March 2004, part of his commitment to the Washington Army National Guard.

“I had to move myself from being drastically against the war to sending my son over to the war zone,” she said.

Jane pondered how she and her husband could “follow the news and not lose our marbles.” Jane searched for a place of soft to settle during her son’s tour in Iraq. And when her son e-mailed two photos of the children of Iraq, Jane began to find a way to that softer, saner place.

Jane remained against the war during her son’s year there, remains against it today, but once her son, safe at home, showed her the rest of the children’s photos, she shifted her energies toward the children of Iraq.

Jane has enlarged the children’s photos her son took in the war zone, and she has displayed them in four places – the libraries in Airway Heights and Cheney, at Sunset Elementary School in Airway Heights, and at Unitarian Universalist Church, 4340 W. Fort George Wright Drive, in Spokane.

I met up with Jane at the church last week. She is a handsome woman with that tethered-to-reality quality possessed by women who have successfully raised large families to adulthood. Little can faze her, this veteran of sleepless nights when her children were babies, this veteran of teen-years skirmishes when her children were adolescents.

The photos line a wall where Unitarian children gather for Sunday lessons. Tracing the children’s faces with her fingers, Jane showed me her favorites.

In one photo, four children stand in a field. A razor wire separates them from the U.S. military compound. A fifth child sits at their feet, his arms and face raised upward in the universal gesture used by children to point out something interesting in the sky.

Two of the boys have similar ears; they are probably brothers. Perhaps their mother noted the ear similarities, the way Jane and mothers everywhere track how family genes express themselves in their children’s features.

Steve Higuera is still in the Washington Army National Guard, living near Fort Lewis. He is a reserved 37-year-old man who gave his mother permission to share the photos, but he doesn’t say much about it – to her or to anyone else.

Jane does not tell you what conclusions to draw from the photos. This veteran mom understands how to provide experiences to people, then get out of their way and let them learn in their own ways.

Experiencing the photos brought home to me one truth. Children – ours and theirs – are dying in Iraq all the time still. Think about it too much, and you could lose your marbles.

No comments on this story so far. Add yours!