Dreams in Secret Shoes
This story is about how my family and I immigrated to the United States. I decided to write a story on my family and how we came to the United States, because not everyone who knows my family and I know that much about our journey to the United States. I would consider this story one of our families most posed sad treasures. I think this because my family went through a lot to get where we are now.First of all I would like to talk about the history of El Salvador. In 1976, the first war would begin; The farmers of El Salvador wanted the lands that they lived in, to be theirs. The government of El Salvador promised them that they would give the lands to the farmers, but they never did.
Since the government didn't give the lands to the farmers, the farmers started a big commotion. They started fights with people and killed people. This is when FMLN came in; FMLN stands for (F)frente farabundo, (M)marti para, (L) la liberacion, (N)nacional. This means (F) front for the (N) national (L) liberation. This also stands for Che Garava; Che Garava was a communist who was trying to spread communism throughout Centeral America.
This made the government make curfews for El Salvador. They first made it if you were out of your house after 6:00 o'clock PM they would shoot you. Then they made another curfew that was if you were out of your house after 10:00 o'clock PM they would also kill you. The Military would also be on guard at all times of the day.
My mom my dad my brother and sisters were in Tierra Blanca El Salvador on 1982, visiting my moms family and they were driving back home. They were told that FMLN was digging a hole in the middle of the ground.
Everyone going that way had to stop because the military had to fix the hole. My dad was walking around and said "a saber que están haciendo esos cheros (batos)". That means, "who knows what those guys are doing?"
A military official grabbed my dad by the neck and said "What did you just say"? The official took my dad behind a wall.
A lady that was in the truck saw my dad and the officials behind the wall and told my mom. My mom got out off the truck and ran to my dad, the official was about to kill my dad. The official told my mom to leave my mom said "no" the official pushed her away and she still didn't move. The official gave my dad back to my mom.
It was just a second before my mom asked my dad, were is your cedula? My dad said that the official took it away. My mom and dad walked back to the official. The official said he lost the cedula my mom said that she would not leave until he gave her the cedula, the official gave the cedula back to my mom.
At that time Ronald Reagan was president of the United States he sent soldiers and weapons to help the government of El Salvador with the war against FMLN. FMLN would also receive help (weapons) form Cuba and USSR (Soviet Union).
Another law they had made was if you were stopped or seen without your Cedula (Identification Card), and if the military caught you without it they would kill you. They would kill you because FMLN didn't have a cedula and this was so because they never wanted to be identified.
This war went on for 14 years, as it ended a conclusion was made that 164,000 people died not counting the ones that had disappeared. This is mostly why my mother wanted us to move to the United States.
So that we could be a family again with my dad and brother who already lived here in the United States. On December 21, 1991 at four o'clock in the afternoon my family started our journey to the United States. From Usulutan (a city in El Salvador) we rode to a bus and taxi to the capital of El Salvador. We arrived at San Salvador at 9:oopm we slept in a hotel for the night.
On December 22, my family and I rode a bus to Guatemala we arrived at Guatemala around 5:00pm and rented a room in a hotel. That same night at 9:00pm we tried to cross the river of Guatemala and on our way there, there was a dead man under a tree we turned back to the hotel because there were too many police officers.
The next day at 10:00am we went back to the river of Guatemala we crossed the river by sitting on top of tires that had wood on top. We arrived at Tapachula and bought tickets to ride another bus that would take us to the capitol of Mexico.
We had driven three miles and were stopped to check and see if we were Mexican citizens since we were Salvadorian we had no Mexican papers. The Federales of Mexico got us off the bus they ripped our tickets and put us in jail.
When we were in jail the officers tried to make a deal with my mom. They said "if you give us $2,000 we will leave you in Mexico, if you give us what you have, we will leave you in Guatemala, or if you don't give us anything, we will charge you with fraud and leave your kids on the streets to die." Since my mom didn't have $2,000, my mom gave them what we had and the Federales left us in Guatemala.
The next day we woke up in Guatemala with no money. Luckily my brother had hid money in his shoes and a secret pocket in his jeans.
With that money we ate chicken and went to bed. The next day my mom was in the hotel lobby crying because we had no money and nowhere to go. A tall dark-skinned man was standing out side of his room, and was watching my mom cry. He came over and asked her, " Can I help you?" my mom told him, " no one can help me."
The man said that he might be able to help her so my mom told him our problem. He said that if we could pay him an amount of money he could get us back to Mexico. My mom accepted, and called my dad in California. She asked him to send us money, my dad sent us the money and so we were on our way to Mexico.
On December 25th we arrived in Mexico. We went to a house, which we were going to spend Christmas and New Year's Eve in. That morning my mom said to Senior, the man who brought us to Mexico, if he and his wife could give my mom her ring back which was the one that his wife, Professor, had taken away when my mom was praying.
They didn't give it back so my older brother said, "If you don't give us the ring we won't pay you the rest of the money." They got mad and started arguing. They said, "Since you don't want to pay us, we are going to take one of your kids away."
They took my brother, Andres away and put him in their car. The owner of the house, Don Juan, said, "If you don't give her her son back I will call the cops and tell them how you are illegally crossing immigrants over the border."
The man quickly took my brother out of the car and argued with Don Juan all day. They left us in Don Juan's house and we never heard of them again. We spent 13 days in Mexico.
On January 7, 1992 a taxi took us to the bus stop which would take us to the bus terminal. At the bus terminal there was a man, Eloy, who would take us to San Diego. Eloy recognized us because Don Juan told him to look for five females and a boy dressed in a Spiderman jacket. At four in the morning Eloy took us to his house. At his house we slept and in the afternoon he would take us across the boarder. We crossed the boarder and all of us except Eloy were sent to jail. In jail my mom told the guard that I was choking because of all the smoke.
He spoke a little Spanish. He asked her if she had signed the papers he was holding. My mom said yes even though she had not really signed them. He then started calling out my sisters one by one. He told my mom that their names were pretty and really laughed at my sister Heidy's name. Then he called my brother out.
Then the police took us to Tijuana. In Tijuana Eloy was waiting for us. He took us back to his house. That same night we crossed the boarder again. There were guard dogs really close to us but they didn't find us. A taxi came and took us to a Coyote's house. A Coyote is a person who helps immigrants who have just crossed the boarder get to Los Angeles.
We ate there and slept for a few hours. A van came to pick us; it took us to another hidden house where another car was waiting for us. They gave us a bottle for me and cookies and crackers for my brother and sisters. There was also another man who had been inside the hidden house, who was going to travel with us to another house.
The driver put my brother in the front seat with him. He put my mom and the other man under a car seat. He put my sisters and me in the car trunk. On our way there my mom was praying. And while she was praying she heard my sisters singing gospel songs.
Every few minutes my brother would ask my mom how she was doing, she would stick her hand down and touch the seat to show my brother that she was okay.
We arrived at a house we could stay at until it was time to leave again. The owner of the house was named Maria. She had a son who was a drug addict. While Maria was trying to call my dad her son tried to take it away to buy drugs.
His mom said, "Please don't take it, this is the only way we can connect with this lady's husband." The son gave her the phone back and left. The next day my father called and said that he was in LA at a gas station waiting for us.
So a person drove us to the gas station. We got out; my sister saw my dad and ran to hug him. This was the first time I met my dad. My mom was happy that we had made it safely reunited with my father.
When we got to Oakland we rented a room for nine people for a while then we moved Alameda for a while later we moved to Richmond for a few years and then we ended up in the same place we started except this time my parents bought the house next to the house with the room we rented. And this is my story of how my family came to the United States.
by Erica
Young Writers Camp, Oakland
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