My grandfather's patina gold watch on the left was carried over with him when he immigrated to America from Mexico when he was 15 years old in 1962. The story involving this artifact occurred a little more than four decades before I was born, and it belonged to my grandfather's father before being passed down to him. My grandfather's parents and grandfather himself grew up in Guanajuato, Mexico. My grandfather and his brothers decided to go from Guanajuato, Mexico, to the United States of America to be closer to his mother, who had come to the United States of America in 1954 to work and accompany her on the journey to a better life than they had in Mexico. My grandfather's father gave him this Lord Elgin gold watch as a parting gift to remember him while his father stayed in Mexico. My grandfather wore this gold watch for the two days it took him to go from Guanajuato to Tijuana, then from Tijuana to East Los Angeles. My grandfather and his brothers took a bus for two days to Tijuana, where the border sits, where my grandfather's mother awaited to drive them to East Los Angeles, where his mother and the rest of the family lived. My grandfather had this gold watch on him the entire time it took to get from Guanajuato to East Los Angeles, which he describes as one of the most valuable things he had as a remembrance of his parents when both lived in different countries, reminding him of them. This watch remains one of the many memories of my grandpa’s journey from Mexico to America to get to where he is now. 

– Anthony Ramos

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