How do you feel about seeing yourself here in this picture?
Oh I am very happy. I’m happy that I’m in good health. The pain in my foot is going away and I’ll be able to start moving. I’m very happy that I was able to talk to my family and they are going to help me, they are sending me the help that I need so that I can cross, so things are good. So I am really happy now.
¿Cómo te sientes de verte en esta foto?
So what are you going to do now?
I don’t know. If I stay here, well, that would be better, but it would be turning my back on my kids. And I cannot do that, because they’re my life. But if I try to go back and they catch me and they keep me in detention for a year, well, I don’t want that either, because then I won’t be able to be with my kids either. So I don’t know, I don’t know what I’m going to do.
These are my friends. Since we are all Mexicans we support each other, even though we don’t know each other well. We know we are in the same boat, we have the same goals. This one I know has her children in the US and she’s trying to cross because of them. We are women and we are mothers and we are Mexican, and that unites us. I was really happy to be able to take a picture for them and to see their smile, after all these terrible things that we’ve been going through.
This bus has a superhero drawn on it. When I saw it, I thought of my son. When you are a kid, you believe in superheroes and everything they do. I was thinking that we have to be strong, because superheroes don’t exist. They don’t exist. We are on our own. We have to have our own goals.
My own goal is to be with my kids. If I were a superhero, I would go flying all the way to my kids, but I can’t. That’s why I took the picture, because of that super hero.
Here is a picture of the cemetery.
Not the basketball court?
I think I know almost everybody here at Casa Latina, but if I want to point out the real friends, it’s three or four. We all know each other, we all share the space, but each one has their own group. I think you end up going to those with whom there’s more trust or where you have more things to share. But I think everybody shares a beer.
This is a picture I have in my wallet. She is my daughter. She is the only one I have a picture of and I always carry it in my wallet. I have two more daughters. When I’m sad I will pull out the picture and I look at it, and then I get calmer. I call them and we talk, I tell them “I’m OK, it’s all good here.” They’re in California now and they give me the strength to keep on struggling to move forward to improve my life. I send them money for school and for their shoes when I can. I wish I had more to send them more.
This is a picture of this family’s place. They came here as poor migrants. This woman was looking for a job such as cleaning houses, and doing any other labor work. Also, her husband is very humble too. They both came from Mexico. He dreams of doing something where he can see his kids, where he can feed his kids, and where he can do what he loves, which is commerce.
Well, I’m from over there… but, we’re here for many different reasons, some in search of a better life, others we are here for from our families. I have a son that I can’t leave. I have him in a hospital due to an accident that he had, so I cannot go and leave him behind. If it was not for that I would have never left my children and my family, but my son was already here in the US and then he had an accident. That is why I am here.
I advocate for the rights of immigrants in this country. I travel around the country to do demonstrations, marches and carry the voice of the people with whom I work. I’m in the same situation as many of them. Why do I do this? I have the strength to keep on struggling for myself and my own rights. It is not the same to be fighting for immigrants if you are in the same situation. For this reason, you will fight harder.