My mom came to the United States from Mexico when she was twenty years old. She paid a smuggler a thousand dollars and traveled thousands of miles in a desert with a group of strangers. My mom and the group she was with walked for a day and a half through a desert and when they got tired, they had to stop to sleep in the mountains. They all risked their lives for a chance to come to the United States. The push factors for her were poverty and unemployment. She did not have a job that paid her enough to survive and provide for her family. The pull factors for her were the chance at more opportunities and better jobs. Everyone has always seen the United States as the land of opportunity, so they leave everything they know to come here. The Chinese were one of the many groups of people that left their homes and families to come to the United States. Families were separated for just a chance at living a better life. My mom left behind my oldest sister , Brenda , with her grandparents in Mexico for the few years of her life. This damaged their relationship for a while, but eventually Brenda finally understood the reason that my mom did this was so that she had a chance at building a better life for her and her family.

– Annmarie Sandoval

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