Comic: Starting new family traditions can ease the stress of the holidays

Illustration of a family in a car and postcards

(Julio Salgado / For De Los)

By Julio Salgado

Dec. 12, 2023 2:25 PM PT

Holidays with your immigrant families don’t have to be stressful anymore. That is, if you’re willing to stray away from tradition just a tiny bit and start your own way of celebrating.

Oh the holidays! A chance for family gatherings, delicious food and old family drama

Once we moved to the U.S. our passports expired - only family members with visas were able to visit us

When family would visit us in the U.S., it meant a bunch of cousins, aunts and uncles packed in our one-bedroom

When I was a kid I loved it, but as I got older, I knew that these lovely visits created some parental stress.

I always wished we were the ones traveling somewhere during the holidays

But like most immigrant families living paycheck to paycheck, family vacations didn't happen

When I finally moved away from home in my 20s, I was the one visiting my parents for the holidays

Once I started making a little more coins I started a new tradition with the whole family: an annual road trip!

Because we're still undocumented we keep these holiday family trips to just California

I hope one day I can take my parents on a vacation to Mexico. For now we have a tradition that doesn't involve a green card!

Julio Salgado (@juliosalgado83) is a digital illustrator based in Long Beach.

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