It was early in the morning when I had gotten up to go do my chores. Mother was already cooking Tortilla Hispaniola, something she never did unless there was a special occasion. I went outside and felt the light crisp breeze hit my face and could smell the special dish my mother was preparing. I washed the clothes , mopped what little of a “house” we had, and was getting prepared to go out to the market to see if I could bargain something so we could have another weeks supply of food. I was lacing up my old, rugged boots when mother called me into the back room. “ Tengo una sorpresa para ti” or “ I have a surprise for you”, she said in excitement. She said in a low whisper “ We are leaving these retched slums in Madrid, so we can have a better life not only for you, but for your future.” with a gasp of excitement, I fell to the newly cleaned floor and began crying. Not just tears, but tears of joy. I Francesca Cue`llar , age 15, from the slums of Madrid, was going to America . I had so much joy inside of my heart. It was the best gift I had ever received. I didn 't want to take it for granted. I knew that mother had to have been saving this money for years. We barely had anything and my mother was giving me a whole new …show more content…
I was separated from mother and was asked “ is this your mother?” , “ what are your reasons for coming here?”, and if I had been arrested. I was soon joined by mother and we started back up on the long process. We walked what seemed like forever when we started seeing people being pulled over and I heard one man tell his family that they would be detained. I noticed that three children had the letter 'L ' and immediately I turned to mother and erased the letter off of her ragged dress. She gave a look of surprise , but before saying anything a man stopped us. He inspected us quickly for a chalk mark and didn 't notice that I had erased mothers. With a sigh of relief,