Life in La Mira was basically perfect for my mother as well as for her six sisters and four brothers. She loved to go to the beach with her friends and just hang out with them especially on Sundays. Then one day her dad got really sick and they needed to check what he had. Later on they figured out that he had a tumor in his head and that the medications to try to cure it or help it were really expensive. They didn’t have the money to pay for them so one of her sisters had the idea to bring my mom and one of her sisters to the US with her in order for them to work in the US. In a few weeks she had everything ready and set up for them to go to the US. My mom was only 16 at the time and leaving her mother and father was the hardest thing she would do in her entire life.
They went to the US by walking and my mom says that it was really difficult. They stopped by an aunt’s house in order to get a rest for a while before crossing into the US. The thing that was hard for her was that she was leaving behind everything she once knew and loved in Michoacán. She already had one sister in the US that could help them but the 3 other sisters she had were left behind with her parents. The biggest thing she couldn’t believe was that out of everyone, they chose her, the youngest, in order to go to the US and help her father with their economic problem.
Once they got there the hardest thing for her was contacting her sister who was already here in the US. None of them had any phones or any idea about how one could get one or borrow one. One friend they later made was the one who helped them use his phone to contact their sister. Afterwards everything went well. She remembers that the food here was way different than the food that her mother made at home. One very helpful person in her life was actually her sister who helped her get through the sad times she had in the US…. like when she found out that her father died. Another obstacle she faced was the new language. When she was got into a relationship with my father, he helped her with the homework that she got from English classes. Overall she had a lot of help in her life here in the US.
Today my mom is the most caring person I have ever known. My mom has told me that she never wanted to come to the US but she says it was worth it because of me. She also says that she would like to go back to live in Mexico but she can’t because she always wants to be by my side. As for her friends, she is only in contact with one friend from her childhood. Overall the change here hasn’t been all that difficult for her. She says that it is worth all the trouble to get here to the US and all the other trouble in being here because she told me that everything she did led up to me being here on Earth she would do again, if she could, in order for me to be here by her side.