Translatated excerpts from personal interviews

Oaxaca - Summer '08

A woman in her late 60s and her son in his early 40s

Mujer: I have 3 sons in the US
Son: one that has not seen my mother in many years
Mujer: thirteen years
Son: It has been thirteen years since I have seen my brother
Mujer: We talk, but since he doesn’t have his papers he is not able to come here. We are his parents and my husband is still alive, but my son is far away.
Son: He has been gone for 13 years. He left when he was twenty two years old
Mujer: We talk, we talk by phone every Saturday, every Monday and he calls every Friday .

Mujer: He has a wife and a son. Well, now I don’t know when he can come. He doesn’t have papers. It is difficult for him  to come and then go back.

Son: Its not difficult to obtain a passport. With the passport, you pay and you get the passport.  The visa, that is what takes much more.

Mujer: We don’t know what kind of work he does. Since we are here, we don’t know what kind of work he does.

Son: Maybe they are used to the situation so are not so afraid of being there without papers. And maybe if at some point they are deported, well, they can come back here and that wouldn’t be a problem. But because they are doing honest work there, well they are happy there.

Son: There is another brother, he came back home three years ago, but he went back north again. His wife and grown daughters are there.  But, none of them have their papers. Sometimes they are sick when they are there.  My brother had an accident in his work so he came home so we could take care of him. He wasn’t getting better there so he came back here.
Mujer: But he came home to get better here.
Son: Here the family can look after the person that is sick. Yes, well and in the US they are alone.  Everyone works. Everyone leaves the house to work every day. The wife works, the husband works then the sick person is left alone. Well, here, when someone is sick we can take care of them for many days without a problem because the work is here in the house.  Sometimes we use herbs to heal here. So he needed to come home so he could recover.

 

Son: Minimum wage in Mexico is $4.50 per day. We can charge a little more because we make higher quality work.

Son: In Mitla, for example an assistant bricklayer can earn between $12 and $14 dollars a day. When they go to the US can earn this per hour.  They say it is a lot of money there, but also the expenses are higher in the US.

 

Son: I wish that they could save some money and come home, start a business and to do something here in the town. I wish they could be here with their families, that they could be happy here and not so stressed by being in the US.

Older woman – 83 years old

My daughter is in the US. She is working…. I don’t know where. One of my sons and his wife are there too.

It has been five years since I saw my son.

Like everyone,  they went because they didn’t have any money because here, there is no work, there is no work. It was better that they left to find work there.

Twelve years ago, twelve years ago the other girl left. She was the last. My little grand daughter went far away to the US……. She was here with me for a while but it was better that she went there because here… there is no work.

There are days where there is work and there are days when there is no work. My other son is working as a driver in Mexico City. And it is the same with him there.  There are days when there are no trips. And his wife is sick now…..

I can not go visit them. I would be too afraid. I am old.  I am 83 years old. I can’t walk very far, one would get tired from walking like that.

Maybe he could come, but who knows when, I don’t know when he could think of coming.  Hopefully he can get his papers so he could come to Oaxaca and then go back again. But who knows if he can get his papers

I think about how they are there. I want to see if they are well that they are not sick. One thinks about that.

They say everything is fine but because they are far away, it is not the same as talking to them in person and seeing how they are and how it might be there.

21 year old woman

We are just the four of us, my sister, my parents and me but the three of them are in the US.  Since they left four years ago, they haven’t come back at all.

More than anything, they went to earn money, so I could go to the University and so they could finish building their house here. I will be graduating in the spring,  so they will be returning in a few months. They want to be able to stay here after that because it is such a sacrifice for them to be away from their home, family and friends.

There are many people here that have to go to other Mexican states, so that they can start a business. If we stay in our own community, well really, you can’t do anything. Here we don’t have a way to overcome the poverty. You have to leave to sell clothes, as an artisan in other states or leave the country  - that is the only way that you can survive

 

Well right now I am finishing up my final year at the University.  I only need another year. It is really interesting.  It doesn’t feel so hard for me because I am busy all day with school, and with my volunteer service and on the weekends I clean the house, wash clothes -  so I am absorbed in work. … so I don’t have time to feel sad about the situation.

 

But there are a lot of people here who are left alone when their family goes north.  They  just stay home and they don’t have something to focus on,  like I have with my school.   They become very depressed. But for me, I don’t have time to think about it.

 

Yes, It would have been harder if they were not working in the US.  I wouldn’t have been able to finish school.  I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to make my life better because I would have had to work to help feed the family. But since they went to the US,  they have given me the opportunity for a higher level of education.  They are covering my expenses for school, and my living expenses… everything.  So  I am taken care of by them, at least until I finish school  So for me it hasn’t been so bad..

 

My dad does everything.  He can do any type of work…. in a garden….. in construction…. in everything.  And my mom is working now as a housekeeper in a hotel.

 I wish that they wouldn’t have to face so much prejudice.  At times in their work they are not treated well. But, really, they are there to be earning a living. They are not doing anything wrong.  They are there to work.

It is very hard to get papers to work legally, so the fact that they are undocumented doesn’t mean  that they should be treated badly.  Workers are being rounded up for no reason. Sometimes they are put in jail, they are deported or they are forced to sign documents that puts them in detention and they are locked up for even more time.

I don’t understand why they are detained for crimes…. They aren’t committing any crime.  They are simply trying to overcome an economic situation that they can not overcome here.  They just want to work. It is nothing more than that.                           

A woman in her mid 40s

If they could work here, they wouldn’t leave. Here, there are days when there is work and there are days when there is no work.  Sometimes there is work here, but it doesn’t last long enough to get by.   So they left to make a better life for themselves.  They went north to where the work is so they could make enough money to live.

 

I have nephews who went to the US 8 years ago without papers. They are doing alright but they have not come back since they left.  They say they are afraid, because they have to keep to themselves so much. They can not come and go freely. They have to live in fear that someone will discover them.  They feel trapped like they are in jail. I wonder how I would feel if I lived like that.

It is a difficult situation. As  Mexicans we feel bad for the other Mexicans who are in the US.  We wonder how can they  treat them like this? The people don’t go for a fight, they go to work, as a way to survive.

But it is because of  basic needs that they go. They have to accept  how it is there because there is not much work here.  One has to endure, there is no other way.  The thing is that they earn money, that they have  work. When they are there, they have to work. They have expenses every day.

People from the US come here and no one says anything. Everyone is welcome in Mexico. No one says “why do they come  or says that they should go away.  They don’t have to worry that they will be detained..  They come here because they want to see Oaxaca, to see what is Mexico like. Everyone is welcome in Mexico. To me, we are all human, we are the same even though our color is different.

 

And while they are gone, the families suffer because they can’t see each other for many years. They can only talk on the phone.  They want to come back to Mexico to visit but then there is no way for them to return to the US.

They say when they cross the border, they don’t bring anything. They just go. They may put on a sweater but nothing more because when you cross you cross running so the Migra won’t catch you.  They can’t carry anything, they can’t bring drugs. They run from the Migra so they can cross. How are they going to carry drugs, if they can barely carry their poor souls.   they  just run and look out so the Migra won’t get them. They carry nothing, not even a bottle of water.

And when they go,  they stay for a very long time…. while their children grow up.  Once they are gone, they can not be here to spend time and enjoy their families. It is heartbreaking.