I came to the USA as an immigrant wife.
I walked into a church in Monterrey, Mexico in the morning. I presided a small cocktail party at noon all decked in an extravagant dress.
I said my farewells to my parents, siblings and friends and by 3:00 pm my husband and I left for the Mariano
Escobedo airport.
Still in heavy makeup I arrived to Phoenix, Arizona at 10:00 pm, ready to put my life in a different route and live new experiences. Suddenly it felt like a gamble.
This was the beginning of my life in the United States of America.
My knowledge of the language and customs was more theoretical that practical. Never before that day had I the money to travel beyond a couple of quick trips to shop at the border. At that time my plans were to polish my English and at the completion of my husband Master’s degree, go back to Mexico. I would never imagined that 18 years later I would be still living here and my husband and I would be American Citizens , or that my sons would be Mexican- American, Chicanos.
I would never imagined that I would be fighting to change immigration laws in my adopted country.
My plans at the beginning never involved in bring leadership or notoriety in my life. My plans were to lay low, convinced of my own inadequacies….but life is full of surprises.
For years I followed passively the drama that every day unfolds in the USA. The deaths of those who try to cross the desert, the working conditions of the undocumented, the abuses they have to endure.
Those immigrant stories upset my conscience but I did not see any possibility to do anything about it even it felt really unfair. What can one do to alleviate the negative effect of socio-economic forces, social phenomena??
In time my husband started entering other social realities outside our life. Everything started when he gave his time as a mentor and guidance to high school students in the West-Central Phoenix corridor. He wanted to give the students the message that there were Hispanic engineers working in nice companies and that they also could aspire to a professional life through education. He went to a High School were the majority of the student population is Hispanic and all low income. But then realized an awful truth: “No matter how dedicated, smart and industrious these students are, they are condemned to menial jobs in the underground economy because of their lack of legal status”.
Even more frightening, he realized this young people, having immigrated undocumented as children had no legal standing and were legally vulnerable.
Through his experiences I started to understand the reality of immigrants with less fortune than us. Those who needed to come to this country in desperation to seek a better life and in many cases brought their little ones with them.
These smuggled little human beings were now the High School kids that my husband was encountering.
Those kids crossed the border undocumented at more or less the same time we did and started a new life along with us. Our immigrant lives started to interconnect
The truth is that in previous years these young people would have been able to fix their immigration situation, but not anymore. The laws have been modified and the country have closed the doors to most sometime ago,
The implications of being undocumented are difficult to imagine to those who do not know them. Besides it is easier to believe this country is incapable of treating people, young lives, the way it does.
Without a Social Security Number they cannot work legally and now they cannot attain financial support to go into Higher Education, are exposed to mistreatment, detention, incarceration, deportation to a country many do not remember. Blackmail, Sexual exploitation, human rights abuses may be present at any moment. This young people are condemned to a life with limited aspirations and to live in the shadows of the society that educated them. It is a modernized, sanitized version of slavery.
In this negative environment only a legislative proposal known as the DREAM Act could only open the doors to legalize this youth.
The lack of persons who have the time to speak for them (with the exception of the wonderful mentors we have found along the way) took my husband and I to raise our voices, and in my case, dedicate most of my working time to advocate for the DREAM Act.
From the immigrant wife living on the suburbs I became an activist with goals, and priorities. My main interest is focused on the young immigrants without opportunities and legally vulnerable.
How can I found purpose in mundane –middle class activities if one of these bright students can be literally taken out of the streets, incarcerated mistreated for maybe weeks, months and later deported to a country they do not know if their immigration status is discovered? How the most powerful government on earth can thrown young lives into homelessness??
Now, almost 20 years after I came to this country I’m working to change the society where I live so these young beautiful lives are accepted for who they are, for the content of their character.
To me is ironic that I, an immigrant, am fighting for the soul of this country, for its reputation as the leader of human rights, when still feel so inadequate. However I assume the responsibility with humility and passion. This is a big challenge to anyone but especially for an immigrant wife.
