Personal Narrative: Becoming An Immigrant

“Oye! Muchacho! Te puedo hacer unas preguntas?” a border patrol officer asked me on the street, and of course seeing he is an officer I reply, “Si.” This officer (I can’t remember his name) wasn’t very tall, but wasn’t short either, but I assumed he was Hispanic because he was tan and had black hair—but he had an accent with his Spanish…like it was his second language he learned after English. The officer asked me, “Hablas íngles?” which I replied to with, “Yeah?” I found it annoying that he assumed I only spoke Spanish, but I suppose the stereotype is that people with brown skin speak Spanish. He continued to ask me questions, such as if I was a U.S. Citizen, which I replied “yes” to, and he asked me what steps I took to become a citizen… …show more content…
There is a huge age gap between my parents—about 15 years difference—but they married regardless. In Mexico, getting married at a young age was normal, and that’s what my mom did. My dad came to California illegally at first to work on his immigration status when he was 15; he stayed there for a couple of years and obtained his citizenship. My father went to his homeland very often, and around the age of 30 he met my mother in Oaxaca, who was 15 at the time. They dated for about a year exchanging letters from the U.S. to Mexico, and when my mom was 16—she got married. A while after they got married, my father applied for a Visa for my mom so she could come to the U.S. and work on her citizenship. They worked together on getting her citizenship in California—and she got it. My parents weren’t happy with California, it was too crowded and they were looking for a smaller area where they could raise a family. My father had some friends in Washington (Oroville) that he knew and they were able to get him a job there. My parents moved to Washington where they would settle down, and at age 17 my mother got pregnant with my older sister and they decided to buy a home there. 5 years later, my mother had me, and they decided to purchase a bigger home which is the home I spent 19 years in before I moved to …show more content…
Within the U.S., situations and opportunities were the main factor of why my parents ended up in Washington State. My parents endured a harsh life—something I haven’t experienced—but what that officer showed me is that the type of life you lived doesn’t matter, our bodies are walking proof that people are different, and we make assumptions because of that. Yes… I’m brown, I am Mexican/Latino/Hispanic, but that’s obvious because to some people my skin defines me, but they will never know much more than what is seen on my body. People—like that officer—will never know how hard life is, the struggles people face, and why we do the things we do. Immigration is a major choice we get influenced to do, and people like Trump won’t understand that either. My skin color can indicate where my origins are from, but it will never indicate the struggles my family and I have gone through; my skin color will not indicate my citizenship status, and my skin color will never define the language I speak because I can speak English, even though my skin color tells others I should know Spanish, but people fail to realize that I can know both perfectly—it’s all about that stereotype of brown skin. I am brown, and I am here working at the opportunity my parents gave me—that is getting a degree and living a better life than they

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