Amnesty Means Dreams Can Be Fulfilled

There was a time when life in Mexico was very good for me, and I did not think about moving to the United States. I had married a widow with four children, and my wife and I had started a small, profitable jewelry business.

Today I am thankful to be living in San Diego, and my family and I look forward to being a part of the amnesty program when it goes into effect later this year.

For us, amnesty will mean no longer being afraid when we see an Immigration and Naturalization Service van. It will mean big things, like being able to buy a house, and smaller things, such as taking my children to Disneyland.

I left Mexico City on the first step of my journey to the United States on Sept. 15, 1978, although the events that led to it began long before that.

To earn our living, I would travel from Mexico City to Cancun offering silver jewelry for sale to foreign tourists. I earned an average of 1,000 pesos a day at a time when the minimum daily salary was only 200 pesos. We were very happy and were expecting our first child.

But four months before the baby was born, everything changed. The permits to sell jewelry on the beaches of Cancun were suspended. I moved to Valladolid, Yucatan, to try to sell the jewelry near the ruins of Chichen Itza.

However, that, too, did not last, as the owners of the stores at the entrance of the ruins complained to the authorities about our selling, and the permits to sell were again suspended.

When I returned to Mexico City, I had very little money. But my son was born, so I organized a party, a Mexican custom.

A friend who had worked for many years in the United States persuaded me to go there to seek work. The night we crossed the border at Tecate was so dark that I will never forget it. We walked 12 hours to get to the ranch where my friend worked.

The next day, the ranch owners helped me get work at another ranch. But after working for 15 days, immigration officials came around while I was trimming trees, and I was deported to Tijuana.

There I paid a “coyote” $50 to take me back across the border. I was able to land a cleaning job in an upholstery shop, where the owner let me sleep under the tables.During the first year I was here, I had several jobs.

I got up the courage to apply for a Social Security card, and since then I have always paid my taxes to the IRS. I have never been on welfare or applied for unemployment benefits.

Eventually I got a job in an electronics shop and was promoted to salesman. That paid more money than I had been making before, and I was able to send for my family. My wife and 8-month-old son arrived on April 30, 1979, the same day as the Day of the Child celebration in Mexico.

Later, three of my wife’s children came to the United States, and two have graduated from high school in San Diego. Five years ago, my wife gave birth to our daughter at UC San Diego Medical Center.

My wife and I love this country, and now, with the amnesty, we will have the opportunity to fulfill all our dreams. We know this is a country where any dream can come true if you have the determination to achieve it.

For us, the amnesty will mean that my wife can get a job, that my son can go to college, that we will no longer have to fear being deported.

Today I have a good job, managing a store. I make enough money to afford to buy a house.

But I have not done so out of uncertainty over our being able to stay here. When that uncertainty is removed, perhaps my family and I will actually be able to own our own home.

I am thankful for all those people who have made the amnesty program possible. My thanks also goes to the Chicano Federation, which is helping me and others become oriented to what is going on with the law.

On the other hand, I am concerned that the law could work against some other people who have not been in this country long enough to qualify for amnesty. Many of them have married and had children here who are American citizens. These people face deportation to their homelands, and their future may be bleak. I hope there is a way to avoid this kind of injustice.

For the most part, immigrants like me anxiously await the new INS requirements coming this year. I know that we are undocumented immigrants, but we also are human beings in search of a better life, and this is the biggest opportunity of all.