Immigration Experience

1. Immigration Experience Crossing Borders: Life Before, During, and After By: Marybella Barrios

2. Interviewee: Mario Ramirez

3. Jalisco, Mexico • Mario was born in Jaliso, Mexico on September 7, 1972.

4. Jalisco, Mexico • Jalisco is mostly known for there mariachis, which are Mexican folk band music.

6. Crossing Borders: Life Before • Mario has 13 other siblings, but growing up he lived with only 3 of his youngest siblings and his mother. • Out of the 3 siblings that lived with him, he was the oldest. • Mario lived in the town of Lagos de Moreno in Jalisco, Mexico.

7. Continue… • Mario grew up having a single parent and being the oldest of his 3 siblings he had to take responsibility at a very young age. Most women in Mexico at this time hardly worked and the father would be the one supporting the family. In Mario’s case he had no father figure around and his mother could not obtain a job because she had to stay home and raise her 4 sons. • Mario first started working at the age of 11 selling candy, chicles (gum), and other small things around his town trying to make as much money as he could to help his mother and brothers get by. • Mario soon had to drop out of school during his 8th grade year after being unable to handle both working full time and keeping up with school. Even though this occurred Mario kept a positive attitude and still enjoyed doing other activities after the working day was done that included, playing soccer, going swimming, and spending time with family or friends at the “jardin principal,” which was like a downtown area in his city. “Starting to work as a kid was very hard, but it didn’t mean I had to give up my whole childhood for it.”

8. Lagos de Moreno Town of Lagos de Moreno Jardin Principal (Plaza “downtown”)

9. Favorite Celebration in Jalisco, Mexico • Mario’s favorite tradition or activity took place each year on August where the whole town would come out to celebrate “La Asuncion de la Virgen Maria,” which is a church tradition that celebrates the arrival of the Virgin Mary in heaven.

10. Crossing Borders: During; Journey to America • At age 16, with his mother’s blessing, Mario decided to cross the border into the United States for economical and work relation reasons. • Mario crossed the border 2 times. • First time was in 1989; according to Mario it was “very easy,” he had a friend that helped him find a “coyote.” It cost $350 and only took him half an hour to get to Arizona and from there he relocated to Utah where he found a job fast and easily in a construction site earning a salary of $10 per hour. Only after 10 months though, Mario returned to Mexico because “[he] did not like [America] at all, [he] had the same routine, eat, work, sleep… no fun without family, and [he] did not like Americas’ customs.” • After returning to Mexico, Mario started a family with his childhood friend/neighbor Irma Ramirez. They got married at age 19 and had 2 children after; Mario then decided to cross the border once again after being laid off from work 6 years later in 1995. • This time “it was very hard to find the ‘coyote’ and [was] much more expensive,” but fortunately since he had been laid off from work he had been compensated and with that money he made his journey to the U.S. He did not know though that the “coyote” he found was unexperienced, “we walked for 3 days and 2 nights until we finally noticed that we were walking in circles and just voluntarily turned ourselves in to ‘la migra’ to take us back.” Mario did not give up, he tried again and succeeded crossing the border.

12. Crossing Borders: After; Life in America • Mario found work once again in construction. He saved enough money to bring his wife and 2 children. Irma, Mario’s wife, decided to come to America so her sons could grow up with their father, “I did not want my children to be without a father like so many others [children in Mexico] who I know their mothers’ husbands have also come to America.” • Irma’s parents did not want her to migrate to America, but she did so for her and her children. Unfortunately, Irma had a harder time crossing the border. It took her 3 tries until she finally made it her third time with a 14 year old boy who was a “coyote” guiding them, which was pretty unbelievable, only 14 years old and he was helping people cross over to the U.S. • In the end, Irma made it to Arizona and from there Mario brought them to Utah so they could start their life here together with their children.

13. Irma and Mario with their son Sergio. Irma and Mario now at a “quinceanera,” (15 party)

14. Continue… • Mario thought that after coming to America and with his wife that they would just save up money and return to Mexico, but after living in Utah for a while they had 3 more sons and could no longer do that. They had to move into a bigger home and started paying more and more bills. • He tried bringing his mother, but she wished to leave her home in Jalisco, so he just continued to send her money. Irma has repeatedly tried to obtain visas for her parents, but has not yet accomplished to do so. • Mario and Irma have now lived in West Valley for 15 years. Today, Irma is working in Mary-Kay selling cosmetics and skin care products. Mario works in construction still and they both enjoy their work very much. • Their 5 sons, Mario 20, Sergio 19, Eduardo 13, Fernando 9, and Emanuel 6, all live with them and are going to school. Their 2 oldest sons migrated with Irma when they were 4 and 6 years old, so they do not have papers either, but are attending school with the help of the Dream Act.

15. Mario’s and Irma’s second oldest son’s, Sergio, graduation from high school along with their 4 other sons.

16. Family portrait

17. Crossing Borders: Challenges • Living in America the hardest challenge for both Mario and his wife was the language. • They also did not like or could not get use to the fact that there were not as much Hispanic grocery stores back then where they could buy supplies to cook their own cultural dishes. Costillas de Res Popular Jalisco dish: Sopes

18. Activities/Hobbies • Mario and his wife are a part of a church group called Prevencion y Rescate. They help families in crisis and also do a lot of volunteer work in homeless shelters and help those who have trouble with drugs and alcohol. • On their days off from work, Mario and Irma spend time with their children barbecuing, going to church, or just hanging out at their house. • Mario now knows how to read and write in English, but still has a lot of trouble speaking it. “My tongue won’t let me say the English words, but I love how my children know the language so they can help us when we [can’t] get our words out to other people.”

19. Accomplishments • “I believe I have accomplished a lot.” Mario came to America to find a better life not only for himself, but for his family and has come to do just that. He has a “good job, good home, and good kids.” • Some future goals are to finish raising his kids and see them all go to college, obtain visas for him and his wife to visit Irma’s family, and they hope for the Immigration Reform Policy to pass so they can have a chance to receive papers. • After living in Utah for 15 years Mario has grown to love it. Him and his wife enjoy the winter more than the summer because of the snow and also like how there is not as much traffic as there is in Mexico. Mario loves America now and only wishes to visit Mexico once in a while, but his home is now here.

20. The thing I learned the most from interviewing Mario is that there are so many people out there that have it so much harder than I do and it just makes me more thankful to have been born in the U.S because I have so much more advantages than those who are undocumented. I also grew to admire those who have no papers because most of them have so much determination to do better and become more successful even after all the struggle they have to go through from crossing the border to living in America and having to learn new ways of living.