My Journey

By: Yadira Briseno

In January of 1990 Maria (my grandma) made the choice that she wanted to come to the United States.Just like most journeys hers was difficult it involved getting caught multiple times, but luckily for her she wasn’t the one getting caught it was her kids, although it wasn’t her it was still difficult. But if you look around this are the struggle that a undocumented person goes thorugh if they want to come to the United States.

According to brookings.edu “The estimated number of undocumented immigrants living in the USA range from 10.5 million to 12 million.”

Just like most immigrants my grandma wanted to come to the United States for a better life.She wanted her 7 kids to have a better education and a better life, and she was willing to do everything to bring all 7 kids to the USA.

Her first daughter was the one that got caught multiple times by immigraton, she’s the oldest. In this story we will call her Yanneth for safety purposes.

The first time that she crossed was when she was 15 years old and she was also pregnant with her first child. She passed over the dessert with her older brother Alex. He is the second child, he was about 17 years old when he tried passing.

When Yanneth got caught by border patrol her brother Alex was scared since she was pregnant so he let himself get caught too so she wouldn’t be alone. He did this all 4 times that she got caught.

One memory that Yanneth remembers from crossing is when she got caught the fourth time.She remembers someone yelling “La migra corran [translation: Immigration run.]”

She remembers running as fast as she could, but her belly wouldn’t let her. She remembers perfectly how she got caught by immigration that day.

“Me aventaron al suelo, a pesar que yo les dije que estaba embarazada [translation: They threw me to the ground even though I told them that I was pregnant.]”

When her brother saw what they were doing to her he stopped running and let himself get caught so they wouldn't do anything to her.

Although they got caught many times they never lost faith “Yo creo que lo que me daba fuerza era mi niña [translation: I think what gave me strength was my daughter.]”

After the last time she got caught she wanted to give up but my grandma wanted her to keep going.

So she decided to pass one last time but this time my grandma didn't want her to pass from the desert because she was too far along and she was afraid that something was going to happen to the baby, so they decided to pass her from the border.

“Las personas que me pasaron me hicieron memorizar un montón de cosas que immigration me iba a preguntar [Translation: The people that were gonna pass me made me memorize a bunch of things that immigration was going to ask.]”

“Ellos me pasaron en un carro yo estaba vestida diferente, ellos me dijeron que no me pusiera nerviosa porque iban a sospechar [translation: They passed me in a car I was dressed different, they told not to get nervous because they were going to suspect something.]”

When they finally crossed the border she felt like a weight was lifted off her shoulders, she felt like after everything that she went through it was finally worth it at the end. All of those times when she was hungry, and tired it all paid off because she got what she wanted which was to have her kid to be born in the USA.

She knew that if her daughter was born in the USA she was going to have a better future.

When my grandma heard the news that my aunt had finally crossed she felt so happy and relieved she felt like all of her worries were finally paid off.

My mom was the second child that crossed to the USA, in this story we're gonna name her Lilian her journey was way simpler than my aunts, she passed in her first try.

When Lilian crossed she was about 5 years old, she crossed to the USA in 1990, it was one of her relatives who crossed her.

“I was sitting in a car with my uncle and my aunt they had made me memorize everything that was in passport just incase immigraton asked.”

“I passed with my cousin's passport when we were about the same age so my uncle let me use hers.”

When she arrived in the USA the first place that she went to was Chuck E. Cheese she said they would go almost every weekend.

“I liked it here in San Jose it looked different than what I was used to over in Mexico, the houses looked very different over here the houses were way bigger.”

It took about 5 years for all 7 kids to be in the USA, Yanneth was the last one to cross to the USA which was in 1994, three months later she had her kid. My grandma paid around $10,000 in total for all of her kids to cross to the USA.

“Ahorita eso no es mucho dinero para mucha personas pero para mi en aquel momento era mucho dinero para mi, yo me acuerdo que duró tiempo para juntar ese dinero [translation: Right now that might not be a lot of money for some people but for me back then it was, I remember that it took me a very long time to get all of the money that was needed.]”

Just like my grandma there's a lot of people that go through this, but at the end of the day what these undocumneted people want is just a better life, but sometimes that’s too much to ask.