Living the American dream

Its 4 O’ Clock in the morning when the alarm rings, Piedad’s ride will be coming by 5am, this gives her an hour to leave food ready for her children and get ready for work. By six, she will be arriving for her first shift at the IBM Factory in Palatine, Illinois, a suburb outside Chicago.

“Life for an illegal Mexican in United States can be rough”, says Piedad Morfin Martinez, now a 73 year-old woman.  She moved to United States when she was  23 years old, back in the early sixities. At 7-months pregnant, she had her two and five year-old daughters, one in each hand. “It was the Nogales border”, she remembers.  After a long day they finally arrived to Tucson, Arizona. They still had a 35 hour bus ride ahead, Chicago was the destination. “My comadre was waiting for us”, she said.   

There are many reasons for a person to migrate, in the case of most Mexicans there is only one reason: lack of opportunities.  Every year there are half a million Mexicans that try to migrate to the United States, hoping to have a better life for them and their family.  Like Piedad there are many Mexicans struggling on there.  

Unfortunately, illegal  immigration has been a problem for years and will continue.  

Jacqueline Barbosa Morfin is an international business student from ITESM University in Guadalajara, Mexico.