My grandfather Jesus Lamas was born in 1905. He is my mother's father. He lived in the town Jocotepec located Jalisco, Mexico. His father died when he was two years of age. At the age of five his mother and his five siblings crossed the border in Juarez to El Paso, Texas. My grandfather was deported several times back to Mexico, while living in Texas. His older sister was living in Oxnard, California so in 1920 at the age of fifteen he decided that would be a safer place to live. Every time he crossed the border after being deported back to Mexico, he would pay two cents to re-enter The United States. 
Oxnard is where he and his future wife Jovita Gonzalez met. He was twenty-five and she was fifteen. They had a short courtship and were soon married. They welcomed their first child Virginia soon after they were married. My grandparents had a total of thirteen children. During their early years of marriage, they would travel all over northern California looking for work. They frequently went in the winter to Bakersfield, California to pick cotton. In the spring they often went to San Jose for work picking various fruits and vegetables. They would often pack up their station wagon with their six children they had at the time and move to other locations for work. They eventually settled in Oxnard where may grandfather worked in the sugar and my grandmother continued picking food for a living. My grandfather was a talented musician who wrote music. 

– Michelle Aguilar

Relationship:  Im/migrant Im/migrant