“Why return when my children and grandchildren are here?”, my grandmother stated as she reminisced about her home in Mexico that she departed from 35 years ago. My grandmother immigrated to New York City in 1989 with two children in tow, just a year before my mother was born. After I was born, a surprise to many in the family, she accepted me with open arms as one of her own. My baptism occurred in 2009, a mutual agreement between my grandmother and parents, with many printouts capturing this event. I grew up in my grandmother's home until I was 10, surrounded by the imagery of ‘La Virgen de Guadalupe’, to which my grandmother would pray under. She would teach me how to pray for my loved ones as well, something we would do together on occasional nights. Although I grew up blessing myself and my grandmother when we went separate ways, wishing for each other's safety and wellbeing throughout the days apart, I did not grow up with a strong attachment to catholicism itself but the connection it brought me to my family. My grandmother values religion because of the belief that there is a god out there protecting her loved ones although she does not actively practice it as of late. My grandmother, Juana Cacique, came to America and established a home and family for herself to escape the one she once had in Mexico, and now she can’t imagine a life anywhere else. 

– Celine

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