Licensing

Mothers Journey to America

By Kevin R.

Whenever we think about moving to another country we tend to think about not seeing our native home or if we will ever see our family who stayed there ever again.  My mother who emigrated from Mexico went through that emotional rollercoaster at the age of 18.  She brought along many items to remember her home but her most important is an old bible with brittle paper that she received at the age of 11.  She’s a wonderful woman and went through all the trouble to get here for a purpose, but I won’t tell you, not just yet.

My mother’s story of traveling to the U.S. Went something like this, she decided to move to America at the age of 18 and began her farewells to her family.  She also agreed to meet her boyfriend, who is now my father, in the U.S and they went through different routes to get to America.  She went over to a program called Bisa to receive a passport and now needed to get to an airport.  One or two weeks later she arrived at Guadalajara by bus and then took a car ride to Tijuana.  Finally they arrived at an airport and reunited with her lover and settled in Los Angeles.

Throughout the time she went through all that she kept one item close to her and actually helped her when she was in doubt.  It was the Bible and at the time it wasn’t as old, she kept it new, despite the fact that she got it at age 11.  She received it at a religious community college and has kept it close to her when she went through doubt or hard times.  As she told me it was like having a friend there comforting and told stories that she loved to read.  As time passes the book grows older and is now much more brittle.  It’s found in the living room open and to this day gathers dust but lives long.

Now if you were wondering what the purpose of her leaving her home and family for a land she didn’t had a clue of, it was because she did it for us.  She did it for the children that she had such as my brothers, sisters, and me so we can have a better opportunity at life.  She risked it all so we can have a better lifestyle, better opportunities, and better education.  This obviously was heartwarming to me and made me happy but I’d never guess she came here for us.

Migrating from your home land to a new country can be an emotional challenge such as my mother has faced.  My mother had a purpose on migrating to the U.S and one of her reasons was to give her children a better opportunity at life than she could have had.  While migrating to the U.S. she kept her bible which was received during her childhood close to her and read it whenever she was in doubt.  Her experience in general was easy and simple but throughout her time traveling she felt homesick already and knew that she would miss her native country.