Itzel

  I was born in Jalisco, Mexico. At the age of 7, my mom began to tell me that we would move to “El Norte” or the North, the U.S. as it was referred to in Mexico. Preparations were made I as a little girl, I only overheard conversations about my aunt coming to get us. One day, we left an we took an airplane to a city near the border. The plan was for my mom, my younger sister who was 3years old at the time, and I to cross the border. I clearly remember when we got there. A man led us in the night and I remember the tall, dark “fence”. My mom realized it would be hard for my sister and I to jump across so we had to separate. My aunt told us to go with her instead and we crossed the border with her and a white lady, passing as my aunt’s daughters. My mom went back and had to jump across through the desert. Those were the hardest days of my lives because I did not know where my mom was or if she would make it across safely to be able to see her again. When we met with her, my cousin picked us up and we arrived in Oakland, California where I grew up before moving to Berkeley to start my college education here at UC Berkeley.