He told me showing me quince pesos (which was .700 of a U.S. dollar), “ You see this, this was just enough to buy one piece of bread and feed it among all of us, it wasn’t enough”.
My father is a father of three children, my brother David, My sister Diana, and me. My father has four brothers and four sisters and was born in San Jose de Chila, Michoacan, Mexico, and is now 38. He was the third to last child my grandparents had. As my father told me many stories about the fun times they had in Mexico, his stories brought me to his world. I could visualize him doing all the stuff he told me which were from his childhood. His first story was about how he played in a soccer team and how he needed to balance work and soccer because his father didn’t let him play, to a story of when there was an earthquake that impacted Mexico in 1985, and finally to a sad story the day he found out that his best friend was shot dead next to his father. But the story I want to know was the time he had immigrated here in the United States.
My father has left his homeland Mexico because of two reasons, the first reason was that he wanted to get a job opportunity so he can get money to provide himself and his future family, and the second reason was because I was coming along the way. My father was 20 years old when he first immigrated to the U.S. along with my mom (who was pregnant and 19). After everything he went through he had finally decided to emigrate from Mexico and immigrate into the United states. On a poor ranch my father had to work a lot with his family to get earnings to pay for the rent and pay for food. It wasn’t enough to feed his brothers and sisters. He told me showing me quince pesos (which was .700 of a U.S. dollar), “ You see this, this was just enough to buy one piece of bread and feed it among all of us, it wasn’t enough”. My father told me when he was young my grandparents and some of my uncles came to the U.S. to work and take their earnings to get the things they had wanted. After my dad found out he was going to have a son everything had changed.
When my parents left Mexico he had mentioned that he came with his older brother and his wife who was pregnant. They left their home in November 23 leaving their younger brother and sister (who both later came in the year 2003) and two animals that he loved which was a cat named “Cat” and a donkey named “Rayo” which meant bolt (which was also his transportation). He had only brought pictures of them. He said that there was no struggle when he came and a few days later they had made it into the United States. After my parents had arrived they had decided to move in with my father’s older brother and his wife.
My father didn’t like it that much here. He thought there was too much violence and he didn’t understand the English language. Finally, I was born January 12, 2001. At that moment my father had moved in East Palo Alto. He never liked it (until now) because there was a lot of violence and many drug dealing. He said that his other brother was walking along Pulgas Ave. and that a group of men had jumped him and took some of his belongings. His whole family was scared to live in East Palo Alto. He said there were too many gangs in this city that a gangster was eating in a restaurant and another gang made a drive by and killed him. He wasn’t there but it was on the news. He didn’t like it here because he also didn’t understand the language. The words he only knew were only profanity. He knew those words because of my two naughty cousins. They were troublemakers and after they had done something they had started cursing everyone out and sticking out their middle fingers at them too. But once my father tried to go to night school, he and another man didn’t last 2 weeks, he thought it didn’t help him understand the english language.
My father now wishes that one day he’ll move back to Mexico when it is more peaceful because now there are too much drug cartel and to much murdering there. He said that he will move when Mexico evolves, when there is more jobs, less violence, and when there is an actual leader that will help the country grow because the government system there is corrupt (even though they are living in a democratic system). He said that the government are only running the country just for the money and really don’t help out with their problems. He said the only candidate that wanted to change Mexico was assassinated and Mexico was the same. He believes Mexico can soon change. But for now this is his home.