00:01
¿A dónde y cuándo te nacistes? (Where and when were you born)
00:04
Veracruz, México. Cuando en 10 de junio de 1979 (Veracruz, Mexico. On June 10th, 1979)
00:13
¿Cómo fue tu niñez? (What was your childhood like)
00:16
Fue muy hermosa. Pues estaba con mi mamá cuando vivía con mi mamá. (It was very beautiful. Well, I was with my mom when I lived with my mom.)
00:30
¿Cuándo empezaste a emigrar? (When did you immigrate)
00:36
Fue como en diciembre. De 1998
00:48
¿Y cómo fue el proceso o la ruta? (What was the process or route you took)
00:51
Que fue por el desierto. De AM de México. De Sonora para Estados Unidos.
(We crossed the desert in the morning from Mexico. From Sonora to the United States.)
01:04
¿Qué familia o amigos dejastes?
(What family or friends did you leave?)
01:07
Dejé a mi mamá. A mi hermano y a mis amigos de escuela.
(I left my mom. My brother and my school friends.)
01:15 Si tenías una compañía o alguien que te ayudaba como emocional comunicando. Social, asi.
(If you had a companion or someone who helped you emotionally, communicating, socially, like that.)
Como persona a que te ayudaba? Cómo a hablar en inglés, pues si te daba alguien así, una compañía que te ayudaba a ir a lugares o te ayudaba con tu comunicación con otras personas aquí.
(Is there anyone who helped you. Like, help you speak English? Well, if someone like that gave you company, it could help you go places or help you with your communication with other people here?)
01:45
Pues por lo general siempre me ayudaban. O sea, me traducian cuando necesitaba, pues traducción
siempre uamavan [sic] a alguien o por personas que traducir como si se nos especial para traducir.
(Well, they usually always helped me. I mean, they translated for me when I needed it, because they always called someone or people to translate, as if they were specially trained to translate.)
02:05
Si, ok. Y cómo te impacta? ¿Cómo? ¿Cómo te impacta todo? ¿Qué te pasó? Emigrando. Viniendo aquí, Todos.
(Yes, okay. And how does it affect you? How? How does it all affect you? What happened to you? Emigrating. Coming here, everyone.)
02:22
Pues fue. Es difícil porque dejas a tu familia. Pues vienes a este país a ha. Con un propósito de trabajar y salir adelante.Pero pues pasan los años, supuestamente bienes, pero son por unos años y pasa el tiempo y ya llevo muchos años en este país.
(Well, it happened. It's difficult because you leave your family. Well, you come to this country with the purpose of working and getting ahead. But as the years go by, supposedly good things come along, but they only last for a few years, and time passes, and I've been in this country for many years now.)
02:50
¿Cómo es tu vida ahorita?
(What is your life like now)
02:51
Ahora pues, pues estoy trabajando. Pues bien. uhmm Por lo pronto estoy, estoy bien, pues económicamente con mis hijos.
(Well, now I'm working. Good. For the time being, I'm doing well financially– with my children)
03:12
¿Te afecta tu vida social o personal? Todo lo que te ha pasado.
(How does it affect your social or personal life? Everything that's happened to you.)
03:20
Pues en una parte pues me duele como haber dejado a mi madre en México. Es lo único que me ha afectado. (Well, in one way, it hurts to have left my mother in Mexico. That's the only thing that has affected me.)
00:09
Now, what is your general relationship like with each of your parents?
00:22
Well, with a lot of kids like my age or who came from similar upbringings, there's a lot of divorce and a lot of breaking up
00:29
My parents personally were never married, but they did break up when I was really young. So I don't really even remember much of them when they were together, but I do still do see my father and at times.
The relationship can be harsh. He doesn't usually pay enough for me and my child support, which I feel like he should really pay attention to, because I'm his son and it's hard. But, I understand he's also an immigrant and he still doesn't have that money to actually give me at times. And it's difficult because we're both struggling now.
01:16
And now l just mostly live with my mother. My mother I. It's a lot of ups and downs. When I was younger I didn't like how she pushed me. I, I felt pressured and overwhelmed and stressed even as a kid
01:35
But I come to understand now that it wasn't out of like, malice or anything. It was more just her trying to protect me. I, I love her a lot. I love her to death. She’s my mother and I love her so much. And it just, it, it can hurt. But I understand that she’s struggling and she still wants to live.
02:02
What are your feelings and outlook on them coming here?
02:06
I don’t know much about my father immigrating here. I know, 1 know, he was happy in Honduras, where he is from. But i don't understand why he moved here. It could have been a lot. I understand that Hispanic countries like that are very poor in nature. And maybe he just wanted to settle and work hard. That's what i feel like he wanted to.
02:38
I feel awful for my mother. Really. She didn't say much in her interview, but she never wanted to come here. She wanted to be a lab technician, a medical lab technician. And her window period of getting help for getting a college. Help was out. So she couldn't take that opportunity, and then said she was basically forced to move to America. She even wanted to live a remotely successful life.
03:14 She was born in a really small, really, really small town in, uh, in Mexico. Where she said Veracruz, lived on the side of just this beautiful river. I've seen it. It 's beautiful there. Really. Like she said. They didn’t have floors. They didn't have refrigerators, shopping markets. It was. But she still described it as pretty, which I really do respect.
03:44
And I feel like. I don't know. I wish 1 could change it for her because she struggled a lot throughout the years. And I don't mean to say that my father didn't either. I just don't know much about him.
04:02
Is there any type of language or cultural barrier between you and your parents?
04:05
Personally, I don't know about a lot of Honduran culture, but I do know a lot about
Mexican culture. And I'm proud to say that l am Hispanic, that I am at least half Mexican. But at times I can feel a little disconnected. I struggle with my vocabulary. I can speak well. I have an accent still, even if it’s not as noticeable when I'm speaking English. But, I still can tell that I'm not. I'm not a full Hispanic. I almost feel like if I went to Mexico, l'd be ridiculed for being a “guero”, for being almost too Americanized.
04:55
In what ways do they need help from you to communicate or navigate here?
04:58
My mother has lived here for years. She understands and can navigate well, but at times she still struggles with communication. So sometimes I stand by and help her communicate. My father learned English very quickly. As he married his first wife. He just needs help with directions at times and grammatically, but he can speak pretty well. It took them years to learn, though. Even after being here for over 20.
05:32
What challenges (education, location, finance, etc.) do you think would be different if your situation was different?
05:40
Well, a lot definitely. In those three areas, especially. I went to not the best schools. It was really rough. The education was really bad. It, it made me really rebel. And I didn't get a good education from it, because I just rebelled at the time because that's.. I just felt like it was useless, because I was this gifted kid. I learned everything really quickly and I felt like I was being held back. Not by myself, but by the education that I was given. And I couldn't get any better. I couldn't just waltz into some really good private school and ask him to enroll me, because 1 can't afford that. I couldn't get into better classes. I couldn't do anything about that.
I feel like my location is fine enough. I live in a pretty big area, you know, it's safe at times here. It's still dangerous. I mean, personally, I have experienced it myself. I saw my cousin die. I saw my cousin get shot by a bunch of, uh, like, supposed gang members. It was a nasty shootout where they just shot random apartments and he was hit in the crossfire. I saw him die. I saw his dead body, and it's, it's a, it's a face I never forget.
07:13 So I definitely feel like, you know,if, if we were well off, maybe, maybe it would be different. But other than that, I, I don't know what else. I'm sorry. It's, it's still a touchy subject.
07:30 Even after the years. Financially, we've struggled ever, ever since I could even remember. I mean, me and my mother have been through it all. l've. I've had to heat up water using the stove, like taking energy from outside outlets, turning on a little, little stove top like the single burner, boiling water on it and using it to shower because that's all I had. I remember having to sleep with no heater in the in the winter. I, I, I remember not having other covers or sleeping on the floor when I first came back to where l live now. I remember a lot, We still struggle and we, we still fear going homeless. We still fear going hungry. I remember every part of it vividly. I remember crying and telling my friends, “ I’ll never see you again”, because l might just be homeless. I might just, I might just be gone. I might have no home to go. I might not have any domicile to write in my school report. I might not have anywhere to live at. To write in my school report. I might not have anywhere to be for it at live at. I remember telling them that as a kid
09:03 If I if if I, if if my mother had the opportunity to get better jobs. I feel like I wouldn’t have to face my friends and tell them how bad I'm struggling in life. That's it.