Immigration--Nico

Long before I was born and even before my parents were born, my grandmother Alicia decided to take the chance on immigration for the sake of love and leaving behind her life in Guadalajara, Jalisco in Mexico. This is the story of my grandmother’s experience coming to the United States, specifically to Southern California.
My grandma came from a very well off family in her home city of Guadalajara. Her father was a dentist who provided for her, her mother and her two siblings like a traditional mexican household at the time. Once she turned 16 years old, she met my grandfather at a gathering through mutual family friends in March of 1957. My grandfather Gilberto was visiting from California when the two fell in love and eventually got married that April. The question then arose: where would they live, in Mexico or California. My grandmother than made the brave decision to pick up her life and move it to Southern California with my grandfather.
The two newlyweds, with little money, gathered some supplies such as bread, meat, peanut butter, and water, packed up my grandfather’s small car, and ,over the course of a week, drove from Guadalajara to the Tijuana border to get into California. Keeping in mind, the couple expected to make a quick trip over the border to Chino, California where they would reside, however, what they did not realize was the week following their wedding and also their trek to the border was the Holy Week which is a prominent holiday in Mexico as citizens in Mexico predominantly follow the Catholic faith. While this does not seem to connect to their experience at the border, the border was in fact closed from Holy Thursday through Easter Monday. Unluckily, they arrived at the border on Thursday and were already very low on the already miniscule amount of supplies they packed.
For the next five days, my grandparents were able to ration their low amount of supplies. On top of that, they were forced to sleep in their car for the entire duration of their halt at the

border. In the meantime, the two decided to find cheap entertainment as they had little to no money left to pass the time. Throughout all this, my grandmother, coming from a stable household in Mexico, wondered what life she would lead coming into the United States.
My grandfather was a first generation United states citizen and my grandmother was able to gain the equivalent of a visa after being married to my grandfather who was a citizen.
As the couple crossed the border and finally arrived to Chino California, everything came as a culture shock to my abuelita. As opposed to homes in Mexico which had long corridors and large rooms, the house they were going to be living in was a one bedroom, one bathroom home. While this was a large change for her, she had even bigger issues to deal with in her new life. On top of the living situation, my grandma had to deal with my grandfather’s eight sisters, which were now her eight sister in laws who did not accept her as their brother’s wife as they wanted him to be with an American citizen. Over time, my grandmother was able to gain their trust and win them over. Another issue she had to overcome was the difference between economic and social standards between California and the United States. My grandmother, much like most citizens in Mexico, grew up with maids and cooks to cater to the families however, in Chino, my grandmother had to clean and cook for my grandfather as he was the “breadwinner” of the family and she was the “stay at home wife”. On top of these challenges, cultural differences were a prominent task to get used to as well when comparing Mexico’s unicultural country to the multicultural country of America and even California alone which was prevalent through her interactions with multiple religions, nationalities, and lifestyles. While these setbacks were challenging, the main issue she had to deal with was the language barrier. Before arriving to the United States, my grandmother spoke little to no english. Through all these struggles and more, my grandmother was committed to embracing the American lifestyle by first learning english. All

these thing were overcome by her while having three children within 22 months of each other within her first few years of her American life.
Fast forward to later in her life, my grandmother and grandfather, who came from a poverty, were able to move to a larger home in Ontario to raise my tios and my dad. Also they were able to put their five children through universities in the United States. My grandmother, who was able to learn english fluently, became a teacher’s aide for an elementary school near their home in Ontario and eventually was able to become an ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher to help students who were going through the same hardships she went through when first arriving to California.
I went to school this past Thursday knowing that I wanted to write about my grandmother’s immigration experience, when little did I know she past away that morning, October 18 after battling cancer for many years. Her sacrifices and challenges when arriving to the US and even throughout her life will live on through generations of my family.