Embedded Files
Gina sitting in Luis's house in 2001
Introduction
Introduction
For my MeSearch Project, I decided to research my mom. I chose my mom as she was and still is my role model growing up, with surviving a difficult life and choosing to sacrifice herself so her kids can have the life they deserve. I have always wanted to hear my mom's immigration journey and I was finally able to. For this product, I interviewed both my mom and my grandma in order to go in depth in my mom's whole life from her childhood to her current lifestyle. I researched the earthquake of 1985 in Mexico City, as it happened in her country and had no prior knowledge of the incident. I learned about the hardships she had to go through in leaving her family behind and entering an unknown country, especially alone and pregnant. She took priority of her family, rejecting schoolwork in order to take care of her siblings and support her mom in her time, consuming job. Through this product, I was able to find out my mom's school interests in baseball and basketball.
A Brief Biography
A Brief Biography
Gina Clemente was born on May 10, 1979 to Angelina Peralta and Antonio Clemente in Nezahualcoyotl. In her childhood, the Clemente’s lived in a rented home in Coloñia Maravillas where she was adored by neighbors and others. Her family were in a lower income status of the country, where they grew their own crops and rarely ate meat; as if they were vegetarians. Mealtimes were often started with a prayer and ate foods such as herbs, corn, purslane. With her younger siblings, Rosa Angela Clemente, Diana Clemente, and Antonio Clemente, life every day was a struggle. As the oldest of 4 siblings, all the responsibility rested on her shoulders. While money was scarce and her parents worked endlessly and tirelessly, she was left with taking care of her younger sisters.
Gina soon met a man, Luis, and they fell in love. He was her boyfriend for 2 years until they decided to get married at the age of 24 at a church. Soon, she was pregnant with a girl. She decided to leave her whole family behind and headed into an adventure of risks for her future family. She traveled alone, pregnant, and walked for two days non-stop to America. She had to deal with ICE, and blisters, and unkown certainties on her journey in order to survive crossing the border from Mexico to the U.S.
The city of Nezahualcoyotl in Mexico
Gina at a trip for Luis's work
Gina with her Elementary School Teacher
How does your individual family member's story help you understand the American Dream?
Gina’s views of the American Dream is a way to be ahead of people, in which you are able to buy a house in your home country, buy your own car, start a business. There are many possibilities where you are able to achieve “American life”. With this, there are many disadvantages to this, in where you're separated from your family, or your kids as some parents are forced to leave their kids behind to support them. Many years go by with no physical contact with your family members and are not able to see your kids grow, losing their childhood. A parent sacrifices their life for their kid in their home country so they can get the education the parents were never able to receive. In America, the money is worth more than in Gina’s home country, where the pay is extremely low. She struggled throughout her adulthood in order to allow me to have the education she never received. For this, she shows me the sacrifices parents have to make for their family, she fled her country to pursue the American Dream and although she does not think she has achieved it, she shows us that if we are willing to make sacrifices, then lower income families have a chance to pursue a dream that does not need to define them by their background.
Excerpt from Family Narrative Essay
Excerpt from Family Narrative Essay
"By then, she had given up, she was tired, been caught and held up and it was more days than she anticipated. But she had to keep going, for her future family, and so, she started at the beginning. As Gina described “I don’t want to go, I called my husband and told him that I’m going home, I’m extremely tired, it’s been a month waiting to pass and then migration catching me, I want to go back to Mexico”.
Gina and her husband Luis; Their wedding day
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