On July 28, 1990, three people huddled against one another as the song Por Tú Maldito Amor played in the background. It was Inocencio Camano’s birthday fortieth birthday, all the reason to celebrate! Having lived in New York for merely four months they attempted to adjust. Lilia Camano crosses the border in order to reunite with her spouse (Inocencio). Bringing along her nine-year-old daughter Erika Camano Camacho. Being an immigrant child has various difficulties. While my mother reflects on the photo she remarks, “Now that I am forty, I feel like I don’t belong anywhere. I don’t belong here because I wasn’t born here, I was raised here, but I still longed to go to México.” Through being an outcast by society my mother learned the importance of work. Assisting her father to clean buildings along with babysitting multiple children when she arrived from school. Always maintaining excellent grades. As my grandmother rested her hand on our kitchen table, which once was a flimsy cardboard box, she thinks. Hesitantly she begins to speak, “It brings me both happiness and sadness looking at this photograph because I was able to reunite with my partner. . . yet at the same time it saddens me because I left my parents behind in México.” Brave appropriately describes my grandmother. Crossing the border to an uncertain future with only a bag with two sets of clothing. Since the journey was going to be arduous she needed to be resilient, if not she would be left to die.

– IGC

Relationship:  Child of im/migrant Child of im/migrant