In my family, the majority of the women work as cleaners. I have been taught to clean thoroughly and even helped my grandma clean houses whenever I had the chance to. Cleaning other people’s homes was always fun and exciting for me, but I never understood how important of a job it was and still is for my family. My grandma, Esperanza Ramirez, came to the United States in 1975 with my dad at the age of 26. She was told growing up that education was unnecessary and so she decided to quit school at a young age. Living on her own at the age of thirteen she began cleaning houses to sustain herself. At age twenty-four with very elementary education and now with a son of her own, my grandma felt pushed to move away from her life of poverty in Mexico. She sought a place where she would be able to find more job opportunities to give my dad a better life than they had in Mexico, and so she was pulled to the United States. Another pull factor that led my grandma to the U.S. was family. She was able to live with family members in California until she was able to support herself and my dad financially. With the support she would be receiving from family, my grandma was further compelled to move to California. She was able to attain a variety of jobs such as factory work, gardening, and house cleaning. Because of the better pay and opportunities that the U.S. provided my dad, and the rest of my family is now living a life that we couldn’t have been able to attain in Mexico.

– Belen Medina

Relationship:  Grandchild of im/migrant Grandchild of im/migrant