A childhood well represented. A family together. 

As any representation that you could take while looking at it, it might be just a picture. But it is the only picture in which my grandmother and great-grandmother appear together. Two generations in one photograph. Together.

Now we are all separate, since I left them behind in El Salvador. I still remember the sheer sadness on my grandmother’s face as I was leaving for the United States. She handed me this picture, and since then I have kept it as the most precious gift that I have ever received. It reminds me of such wonderful times that I had back in El Salvador. 

I am instantly transported back to the mango tree, and I laugh when I remember accidentally dropping them onto my sister’s head. I vividly remember playing soccer with my uncles and breaking a picture and a jug and receiving “La Chancla,” and I love being able to tap into these memories whenever I miss my country.

Sometimes, after a long day, I look at this photo. It occasionally makes me cry and want to go back to El Salvador to be with my grandmother and my great-grandmother once more. It also reminds me that my grandmother believed that I could be anything that I want to be, so I work hard to chase my dreams and make them come true. But my biggest dream is that I just want to be with them again.

– EC

Relationship:  Im/migrant Im/migrant