The dream on the other side--Matthew

 When in a situation of hardship, uncertainty, and danger any person would want to escape it. For my mother and her parents living in Mexico was that hardship and once given the hope of opportunity and more importantly, better life in the form of living in the United States of America getting there was not an option but the only way to survive. However, getting to America would be some of the most difficult and harrowing experiences that my family would ever face. 

The plan for a better life was set into motion but for the entire family to get to America it would become more complicated than anticipated. My Grandfather wished to take his wife and seven-year-old daughter with him but he knew that if he got to America he would have no job, money, or food for himself and especially for two other people. Therefore the hard decision was made that he would venture into a country where he did not have any experience, knowledge, or capability to speak the same language as the people there by himself. My mother and her family all lived in a secluded village in Jalisco where they grew corn and raised chickens for a living. In order for my Grandfather to get to California, which is where they intended to enter America, he would have to take the train to Baja California which was a 3-day journey. Before going he called his nephew in California for assistance in obtaining a coyote to help him get across the border while his nephew was going to pick him up on the other side. My grandfather got to Baja California and proceeded to cross the border with the coyote that his nephew contacted. They slipped past the border patrol and proceeded to walk in the pitch-black desert until they reached a town where His nephew was ready to pick him up and drove him to La Puente. His journey across the border was successful but the hardships were yet to come. 

My Grandmother and mother were contacted about my grandfather making it to America and so they prepared as they waited for the message about my grandfather ready for his family to come to America which would eventually come three months later. My mom and her mother both planned to use the same exact plan that her father used but the coyote they hired said that my mother could not go with them because the desert was too harsh for a child to be walking in as well as being at risk of accidentally alerting the border patrol. My grandmother was ready to stay in Mexico until they were able to find a way to cross the border together. Unfortunately, many more coyotes said the same thing so a new plan was created where my mother would cross the border with her aunt and pretend to be one of her two daughters that were citizens while my grandmother went the way my grandfather went. 

My grandmother’s first attempt was one of the most terrifying experiences she went through. Everything was going according to plan, they slipped past border patrol and were in the desert. My grandmother said it was almost pitch black, moonlight and starlight were the only light sources able to guide them safely. It was dead silent in the desert; the only things she could hear were the other people the coyote took talking to and her feet stepping across the dry soil cracking every time she walked. she could feel no wind on her face and it gave her a very ominous feeling in her stomach. Suddenly everything changed as the entire group could hear a helicopter in the distance as everyone began to scatter in every direction. She began running as well but was so terrified that she was not paying attention to where she was running and ended up tripping and falling. The chopper only got louder and louder as she began crying. The dead wind was gone as what felt like a hurricane was blowing loose sand and small rocks everywhere making it hard for my grandmother to breathe. She quickly got up coughing as she could hear sirens from the helicopter and began running until the blinding spotlight from the helicopter shined onto her. She said she simply just stopped running and looked up in fear as the helicopter passed by and border patrol cars were heading in her direction on the horizon. My grandmother was sent back to Mexico and was forced to hurry and try again for that dream across the border that her soon-to-be eight-year-old daughter was already trying to venture into all by herself. My Grandmother luckily on her second attempt was able to get across the border but had no idea where her beloved daughter was. My mother had the easiest time getting across the border. Her aunt planned to just drive across the border with her husband while pretending my mother was her daughter. This was because her aunt was an American citizen and my mother was the exact age of one of her daughters. 

My mother however was terrified of being alone without her parents and scared from all the stories she heard of what the border patrol did to people trying to cross illegally. She worried about if she would ever see her parents again, or if she would be abandoned in a foreign country to fend for herself. Her aunt could see how nervous her niece was and decided she would cross the border at night where my mother could pretend she was asleep and not have to worry about talking to any of the border patrol agents. They all successfully got to America where her aunt drove her all the way to La Puente where she was dropped off at a house where both her parents were desperately waiting for her and overjoyed to see their daughter. This was the story of my mother and her family crossing the border to get to America. Hope and promise of a better life gave my mother and her family the perseverance to struggle through hardships and uncertainty in order to get to the dream on the other side. 

P.S. this is doesn't even include the story of my grandfather being deported when my mother was like nine and I don’t even want to get into the can of worms which is my dad's side of the family which also crossed the border except instead of there being one child on my mom’s side there were five children younger than my mother when they crossed on my dad's side. They all made it by the way.