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  • Nathaly Moreira
  • Los Angeles
  • UNITED STATES, 02-17-1988
  • 16
Nathaly Moreira 11/12/09 Period 2/3 Coming to America: My Mom’s Story Seventeen years have passed since my mom immigrated to America. She still remembers her first day in America like it was yesterday. My mom’s name is Siria Del Carmen Campos. My mother immigrated from El Salvador during the 1980s during El Salvador’s civil war. As a result of the civil war the country’s economy was terrible condition. My mother was only eighteen years old, but she needed to work because her family needed the money to survive. She shared how at the age of seven years old, she worked, cooked, and sold food in the town market. My mom only attended school one year because my grandmother could not afford the tuition. My grandmother was a single mom and had to work to support my mom and my two aunts. My mom wanted to help my grandmother. She stared selling refreshments in the town market. Selling refreshments only helped a little and my mom decided to come to America where she had heard one can earn more money. In order to get the money to pay for the coyote she had to sell her refreshment stand and use her saving. My mom left El Salvador on February 17, 1988. She said bye to my grandmother in the house instead of the bus station because she did not wanted to see her mother cry. She did not want to leave her mom, but she wanted my grandmother to have a better life. My mother met other people who had agreed to immigrate to the United States at the bus station. Once in the Capital the group bought bus tickets to Guatemala. When the group arrived to Guatemala they asked for a permit to visit the local church and market. After two days the group swam across the Tecuman River, which is located between Guatemala and Mexico. The coyote was not a good person and tried to rape my mom and some of the other ladies in the group, but the others prevented that attacks. My mom was really scared because she did not know people in Guatemala or the country. As they entered Mexico the coyote asked my mom and the rest of the people for the payment. The group paid the coyote, but he ran away with the money and left them there in the middle of Mexico with no resources or plan to reach the United States. Luckily in the group there was a person that had previously immigrated to the United States and knew enough to figure out a plan to reach their destination. The group took a taxi and arrived in Veracruz, Mexico where they worked in a banana farm for a few days. One of the workers suggested to hide within the banana crates in the truck for their ride to Mexico City. Once in Mexico City the group stayed in a hotel over night and in the morning they took the train to a bus station that would take them to Tijuana. They stayed in a Hotel named Cinco Estrellas. Throughout these experiences my mother was very scared and prayed every night things would turn out well. The following day rain began to pour and the group met their new coyote who made them cross the boarder in the rain. My mom said she was really cold and she had very little to eat. They were all wet and the desert was full of mud. Throughout the whole journey my mother experienced hunger and feared that the worst would happen. The group arrived in San Diego they got a car that brought them all the way to Los Angeles. They arrived in Los Angeles on March 1, 1988. My mother while crossing the border lost all her family members phone numbers and had to go live with people she did not know. My mom was only eighteen years old and had to get a fake I.D in order to work. The lady where my mom lived did not treat her well and charged her rent three days later without having a job to pay for expenses. The ladies made my mom clean, cook, and take care of the kids and paid her nothing. She also told her not to go out because the police could deport her, my mom would only go to school to pick up the children. She felt alone with no one else to connect or feel at home. She did not know where to find her family members. My mom did not know many people and for four months she looked for my aunt. Finally, after four months my aunt found out where my mom worked. My aunt went looking for her and found her and took her with her. After that my mom found a decent paying job in a factory. This made my mom happy because she was able to send money to my grandmother and aunts. Looking back my mom says the sacrifices and dangers she experienced are all worth it because she provided a better life for my grandmother and cousins. My mother paid my cousin’s school tuition, which would guarantee a better life for them in the future. My mother is also very thankful that she began her family in the Unites States, where her children have enough and are not surrounded with the dangers of a Civil War like in her homeland.