El Sueño Americano

Her journey to the United States was through El Rio Grande; she speaks of how when her group got to the river she faltered because she didn’t know how to swim and wasn’t sure if she would make it across. It was pitch black, the sun had gone down and it was time to cross. She stepped into the cold water, grabbed onto the belt loop of the man in front of her and held on for dear life. The current was strong, constantly pushing at her trying to carry her away, and the water was deep, it was as if the water was trying to swallow her whole. She tells me in a grave voice that not everyone made it through but luckily most did. She recalls how her group was a mix of mothers, kids, and young men. She talks about how at one point they were stuffed into this truck with many other people and due to the tight space, there wasn’t much room to get comfortable.  

She ended up getting caught by the border patrol and had to go to court but was released on bail that her brothers helped pay. My mom already had family here, so she was able to make her own little community and didn’t feel as alienated as some people may. Even now I hear of other people who have nothing and no one to go to when they arrive. Sometimes there isn’t someone to help get assimilated with everything, but luckily other people in the community are sometimes willing to help, everyone remembers when they first got here and how hard it is without someone to help.  

My mom’s story is just one among countless people who come here facing hardships along the way in hopes of a better life. It’s thanks to my mom’s sacrifice and bravery that my sisters and I were able to be born here granting us many opportunities that we may have not had in Guatemala. Sometimes when people think of the word “immigrant,” they believe bad portrayals that “they are here to steal jobs or that they are drug dealers” or whatever it is those people say but the reality is that sometimes they are just ordinary people wanting a better life. There are many dangers that migrants have to face such as the environment (the desert or river), dehydration, getting left behind or lost, and others, so the least we can do is treat them better when they get here. I hope this story will motivate or help people realize that some of the immigrant regulations need to be changed and children shouldn’t be separated from their mothers or locked in cages.