Linda: My Migration Story

Linda is an active gardener that takes extreme pride in her roses, and other plants. In one of my first interactions with Linda she gifted me a bag of nopales (prickly pear cactus) for consumption. I think that is probably one of the oddest gifts, and at first I did not understand. 

When I pull into Linda's driveway, I am met by her daughter, Mayra. Mayra is actually my friend that volunteered her mother to share her story with me. 

Linda's house is fruitful, with many shrubs, potted plants, and rose bushes. 

Linda is from Nayarit, Mexico. Nayarit is about a 22 hour drive from Surprise, Arizona, Linda's current place of residence. Nayarit is a developing tourist spot. 

I found work in the fields picking grapes. It was very hard work, but nothing that was not doable. I had to work hard for a better life. This is what I wanted for me and my daughter. This hard work was for me and her. I met a woman on the fields, and she helped a lot. She was the person I would talk to the most. We became really close. She told me she knew of a man that was recently widowed, had six kids, and needed someone to help him keep things tidy around the house. At first I thought he needed someone like a nanny or something. I did not pay much attention to this story of this man. Soon I was to migrate to California for the season. 

When I was in California I received a letter from my the man my friend had mentioned to me before I left Arizona. I guess she talked to him about me, and he wanted to offer me a job. I considered it for a while, but we sent a couple more letters before I made up my mind about accepting the offer. He explained that my duties included doing the shopping and cleaning, but most of all to care for the children. 

¡Estos niños estaban sucios y piojosos! (These kids were dirty and had lice!) Some of them had not learned proper hygiene after using the bathroom. It was hard to accept at first, but I sympathized with them. They had just lost their mother in a car accident. Taking care of six children was a lot to handle. But I did it. I would bathe them, clothe them, feed them, and taught them manners. I remember some of them would steal my money and use it to buy candy at the store, and when they did not have my stolen money they would steal from the store! This had to stop, so I would begin to purposely leave money lying around the house. When the money went missing, I would punish everyone not just the thief. After a few punishments they began to tattle on each other, but soon money never went missing anymore. I knew my tactics had worked. 

I worked for the many for a few years. It was a hard job, but I loved the kids so much it just became part of my life. I think by then I was also feeling lonely. I had not considered dating until the gentleman that came every so often to sell household products like curtains, asked me on a date. I asked the man I was working with if I could have a night off, and he promptly replied NO! Me sorprendi (I was stunned). He told me to no longer speak to the the gentleman because if he found out he was coming around, then he would shoot him. I thought he was crazy. But the man I was working with had developed feelings for me. At first I found this strange because he was in 50s and I was just in my 20s. 

As my marriage was crumbling, my husband got extremely ill as consequence of his diabetes. Because he had fathered all my children, I felt like I had to be with him through this time. So I stuck it out. I was there when he lost his limbs. I bathed him, and clothed him. In a sense I felt like I had yet another child. Through this time he changed a lot, and he was ready to let me go. And when he passed, he told me he would be okay with me moving on. I kind of just brushed that off. I was not in love in neither of my two marriages. But I learned a lot from these experiences. 

Yo soy la madre de 12 hijos, sea que los haya dado a mí misma o no. He perdido uno a una tragedia. Y he pasado por un matrimonio fracasado, y otro con momentos altos y bajos (I am the mother of 12 children, whether I gave birth to them myself or not. I have lost one to a tragedy. And I have been through a failed marriage, and one with highs and lows). When I decided to look into becoming a citizen, I was scared. I had some run ins with the law, and that stopped me from doing after my second marriage. But this time I set those fears aside. I thought I would do it for my children. They asked me over and over do it. I see how important it is for them, and if it is something I can do to make them happy then I will do it. 

 Three years ago, I started the process again. I studied night and day with Mayra going over presidents and important dates in American history. I did not think I would remember all I was going over when I took the test. But in my late 60s, I still have some knowledge. I am a citizen now, and I am married once more. I think life does not stop going. It does not wait. My kids are older, and they know I love them. I do everything for them. And I think this marriage was something that came at a time when I needed to start something new in my life. I can now say I am in loving marriage. My hopes for the future are for all my children to be successful. For them to live their lives as they wish. 

As our interview comes to a close, Linda and her family invite me to break bread with them. We enjoy a lovely conversation, and as I excuse myself from the table and start to pick up my plate (as a good guest), Mayra tells me I should not continue to do what I am about to do. Almost on cue Linda interjects, and tells me to put the plate down! She tells me this is her home, and she will pick up. There are many questions that run through my head. But I obey. And as they walk me to my car Linda runs back behind a bush. She comes with a plotted plant, what we call a maceta, in Spanish. "Para tu mamá (for your mom)," she tells me. We share a hug, and a thank you. 

The manner in which Linda describes her admittance into the country is nonchalant. While I do not discredit her story, this is one statement that is difficult for me to understand. In 1965, the United States signed to limit how many migrants were allowed to enter from each country. In many ways this act was a disadvantage for migrants of European nations, Mexico, Canada, and other developed or developing countries. The act of 1965 actually made it easier for migrants of underdeveloped countries to come into the United States. According to Muzaffar Chishti, Faye Hipsman, and Isabel Ball in “Fifty Years On, the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act Continues to Reshape the United States” state “a cap of 120,000 visas for immigrants from the Western Hemisphere.” Even so, Linda describes her journey as easy, while the policy statements show otherwise.

In Voyages: From Tongan Villages to American Suburbs, by Cathy A. Small, she describes how people of the Tongan Village have an easier experience and lesser wait time than others to become a citizen. Through the act of 1965, relatives were given priority. Smalls writes, “Like other voluntary migrants to this country, their very first order of business was to bring over family. Other Tongons migrated along the paths set up by their relatives - called chain migration...sponsoring their brothers and sisters” (63).

When Linda tells me about how she wanted to come to the United States, she tells me she grew up poor selling prickly pear cacti, and that the United States had far better opportunities for the same job. This is a valid point, but one that would not be highlighted until Bill Clinton would come into presidency and sign NAFTA. However, she does allude to future problems of globalization and unequal financial opportunities. While the development of a country is supposed to create jobs opportunity for its people, it also has other effects, such as the displacement of its people. In Illegal People: How Globalization Creates Migration and Criminalizes Immigrants, David Bacon states, “Ejidatarios who could no longer survive as farm workers found jobs as farm workers in California” (60). Linda tells her mom the wage she was making in Nayarit could no longer sustain them, and therefor the best thing for her was to do the same work across the border.

Further evidence of the displacement of people happens in border towns. Linda claims she came to the United States through San Luis, Arizona. San Luis is located right below Yuma. Again, Linda does not come across the border after the introduction of NAFTA she alludes to future concepts and areas that will become imperative for future migrants. Miriam Davidson describes the development of border town in her book, Lives on the Line, as temporary solutions to an economic problem. “Since the very beginning, the U.S. and Mexican governments had held out maquiladoras as the long-term solution to unemployment and poverty in Mexico. But as long as maquiladoras jobs paid so little that people couldn’t afford a minimal standard of living, poverty and the resulting illegal immigration would continue” (148). Maquiladoras were American factories set in border towns. Once people realized the working conditions were not good, and the pay was not moving them out of poverty, these towns became places of entry for migrants.

One intriguing point of interest is Linda and her first husband’s failed promise to come to the United States. In a Warren Lehrer and Judith Sloan’s interviews with migrants in, Crossing the BLVD: Strangers, Neighbors, Aliens in a New America, a similar struggle exists between married couple. Marianna and Miguel have a disagreement about whether or not they should migrate to the U.S., and it is through Marianna’s persistence, after a physical altercation, that they cross the border (204). This is an interesting correlation of the strong will of women to migrate.