Illegal immigrant realizes the importance of legal immigration Heavy panting, hushed whispers, and hurried footsteps are the only sounds a group of women hear as they dash across the dessert toward the United States' border. After hearing a loud noise fast approaching, a spotlight illuminates the group and allows the border patrol to send the trespassers back home. Immigration reform is a highly debated topic but looking through the eyes of an immigrant shows the dedicate a lot of them have towards bettering their own lives. In 1982, Elvia Quinoñez and her friends try several times to cross the American border before she finally succeeded. Speaking through a thick Guatemalan accent, Quinoñez begins her story by saying, "I just saw that …show more content…
With determination, Quinoñez traveled to Mexico to try to cross the border illegally. Each time she tried to cross the dessert, border patrol stopped her and sent her back. "I tried to cross the dessert a couple of times and the helicopters of immigration got us in the middle of the night and sent us back to Mexican. I didn't speak English very well, but I know they called someone on the ground and they got us and sent us back to Mexico," Quinoñez recounted. Even facing failure, Quinoñez did not give up hope. After speaking with her cousin, they arranged a way to travel across the border unnoticed. Quinoñez met someone that would take her across while she hid the trunk of the car. Fortunately for her, Quinoñez survived the cramped space and made it to the United States. After arriving, Quinoñez set out to get a job and begin her career. She started by working in a hospital with her uncle to make enough money to support …show more content…
According to Buccho, he had never seen a more beautiful woman in his life. They married soon afterwards and now have several children. "I got married and my husband was a citizen, but I didn't get my paperwork in until probably 2 years after I got married," Quinoñez said as she explained the process of becoming an American citizen. "It wasn't hard to become citizen and the process is probably the same now. What helped me was that I was already married, and I had family here, so it wasn't that bad," continued Quinoñez. Having lived in the United States for years now, Quinoñez says that she appreciates how people are less concerned about your personal business. This is a quite a change from her home country, but she does miss her family and friends. She tries to visit them as often as she can and talks to them on the phone frequently. "I don't think it's fair for the people that already live here because they are already working and doing all the stuff that the law requires of them. There are a lot of people that come just to use the system. It's not fair for future immigrants or the people who are already here," said Quinoñez when asked about the current immigration
Enrique, someone who has hands on experience with this, went to the United States to find his mother and start a new life with her. Enrique was very sad leaving his old life behind. He had a girlfriend, Maria Isabel, whom he loved very much and later he found that Maria Isabel was pregnant with their daughter. Enrique knew that he left Honduras for a reason and he knew he had to deal with missing experiences such as his daughter’s important moments.Enrique accepted the obstacles he had to overcome by remembering that in Honduras his life was for the worse. In Honduras, money was scarce, life was sad, and his family depended on him to send money back to them by working in the United States.
Many of the people trying to cross the border were not given same luck. Their efforts to leave the situations they are in only cause them a different kind of pain. The lack of safety for these people was astonishing. As Jessie was, I was impressed by Anazulda’s description of living there and the realistic depiction of how it was to live there. As Natalie put, I also loved the realistic writing that Anazulda brought to this piece. She did not try to ease the tone or make it lighter than the reality of the situations. She brought the realness of what happened there to life in her writing, which I greatly admire. The imagery that Brooke points out from Borderlands from page 2 is such a clear image of being trapped within a place you cannot escape from. While I had not thought of the curtains in such a way, I understand the reasoning behind it. Curtains are supposed to provide privacy, shelter from the outside world. Yet, these steel curtains are prisons, keeping those near them from getting away. As Jessie pointed out, the United States is governed to protect the rights of each American citizen, including each of us. Nevertheless, Anazulda and many others who try to cross the border can be subjected to the rules of those who live near the borders and not the laws of the United States that are in place to protect them. I did not think about the call for unity as Natalie described until I read her essay. While she does not make light of the situations caused in the United States, she does leave this impression of hope that we can fix this. We can make it so these borders are less of walls that divide us, and we can make the journey in our country a less terrible and horrifying
Through Julia Alvarez’s persistent use of the Spanish language inserted with her writing, she expresses the cultural connection she, her characters, and other immigrants hold on
Through the view of a young girl, this story really captures what it’s like to feel like immigration is the only option for a family. In the story, set in the 1960’s, Anita lives in the Dominican Republic, a country with a dictator named el jefe. One day at school, Anita’s cousin is called out of class, and Anita is asked to go with. She finds out that her
I thought that Diane Guerrero who is an American actress speech about her family’s deportation was interesting. She recently appeared on an immigration themed of Chelsea handler’s talk show. Guerrero is the citizen daughter of immigrant parents. Guerrero mentioned how her family was taken away from her when she was just 14 years old. “Not a single person at any level of government took any note of me. No one checked to see if i had a place to live or food to eat, and at 14, i found myself basically on my own”, Guerrero added. Luckily, Guerrero had good friends to help her. She told handler how her family try to become legal but there were no sign or help. Her parents lost their money to scammers who they believed to be a lawyer. When her family’s
Moving to the U.S was challenging for an immigrant.” Don’t be afraid to start over.” These words are true to any immigrant who is moving to a new place. Esperanza had many challenges when she was moving to California. The first challenge she faced was Esperanza did not know how to do daily chores, because she had always had servants. The second challenge was the dust storms caused mama to become sick with Valley Fever. The third challenge was Esperanza had to go work in the fields to take care of mama. Esperanza had many challenges as an immigrant, but these were the most challenging ones.
It was typical for the men to travel to the north first in order to find a job and set up the life for his family. In the town of San Geronimo, 85% of all men over the age of 15 had left the village in search of work in other parts of Mexico and in the United States. The men would make the trip alone and would send the money that they had made to their wives and children back in the village. The trip to the North was long and very dangerous. For the men who entered the country illegally, the trip could even be deadly. For the men who did have some money, they would hire a “coyote,” a man who would help them cross the border for a price. Sometimes coyotes were legitimate people who sought to help others, while...
Affected by my family, my background, and everything around me, I was born in a family who is the first generation to get here. My grandmother, and my parents, along with some other relatives, moved here in search of better opportunities, like those from other countries for the same idea. They started out fresh but had a hard time to get started, when I was little, I assumed it had to be somewhat easy, but for people who do not know English it is like starting from scratch, but they did well, they’ve made it.
When they finally arrived in the U.S., Andreu believed smuggling back into the U.S. would have been her only concern, but she was wrong. Andreu couldn't do certain things due to the fact that she was undocumented. She struggled for a while, but then the Congress passed the amnesty law of 1987. And her future of no success ended up bright and the doors that were once closed, opened up. She then came to realize that she is not any different than anyone else and she fits in with both, the illegal immigrants and the "real" Americans.
Martinez, Demetria. 2002. “Solidarity”. Border Women: Writing from la Frontera.. Castillo, Debra A & María Socorro Tabuenca Córdoba. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 168- 188.
America is a nation consisting of many immigrants: it has its gates opened to the world. These immigrants transition smoothly and slowly from settlement, to assimilation then citizenship. These immigrants are first admitted lawfully as permanent residents before they naturalize to become full citizens. In her book “Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America”, the historian Mae Ngai draws our attention to the history of immigration and citizenship in America. Her book examines an understudied period of immigration regulation between 1924 and 1965.
My mother is an outspoken woman. In her tiny appearance lies an extraordinary fortitude story. Bravery is a virtue that not a lot of people possess, but my mother has proven her courageousness. Before my mother gave birth to me, she lived in San Luis Potosí, Mexico. Her family lived in poverty, and every bit of food was valued and cherished at their table. It’s hard to tell whether my mother’s decision to migrate to the United States was an act of courage or impatience. She certainly had no bright future at home, her parents could barely afford used clothes from the town’s thrift shop. She certainly wanted to find a way to turn her life around and provide the needs for her family, so she decided to come to “The land of opportunities.”
Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/La Frontera challenges how we think about identity and presents borders as psychological, social and cultural terrains that we both inhabit, and that inhabit us. Her strong sense of history and the telling of her own narrative give Chicanos a human identity independent from the hegemonic white American narrative that posits them as nonhuman and other. She works to give a face to Chicanos and a choice. In her words, she wants to give Chicanas the ability, “To choose whether they want to be completely assimilated, whether they want to be border people, or whether they want to be isolationists” (234). Her work separates the oppression of Chicana women from the narrative of the oppression of all women. She opens a
Fortunately, contrary to what we had originally thought we were one of the few lucky ones. Our family stayed together and as immigrants, we continue to struggle through the many negative stigmas. This is not the ending to our story but simply a story of new beginnings in a foreign country. As my parents say frequently “America is the land of opportunity” and this is an opportunity I will hold tightly and never let
We hear Immigrant stories all the time, but not always in a nine-year-old’s perspective. Green, written by Sefi Atta, is a story told by a nine-year-old girl and shares the process her parents are go through becoming United States citizens. In my paper, I will focus on how the nine-year-old narrator’s perspective on the naturalization process.