ipl-logo

Personal Narrative: Are You Guys All American Citizens

1056 Words5 Pages

“Are you guys all American Citizens”, I watched as my friend Randy and my French girlfriend Charlotte and I all lied and said yes. This is the story of how I crossed the border illegally with a guy I just meet and my girlfriend. The year is 1987 and I’m 30 years old, Im writing this journal so in 30 years these stories can be pasted down to my children the their kids. I’m leaving my home town to travel the world, I don’t know where I’m going or how I’m going to get their but I guess that’s what will make it an excursion. I’ve been traveling for a few days now; I have only a big dark green traveler’s back pack with enough money to get me from to town to town. My only source of income will be selling handmade jewelry in artisan markets. …show more content…

i meet people that lived in a commune in central California, I stayed there for a few weeks while I started to plan to save up to and move to Europe. A guy at the commune asked me if I wanted to stay with him in his teepee up in the mountains of sacramento so I took him up on his offer. Living in a teepee was strange and interesting at the same time, but I left after a few weeks not to overstay my visit.
“Are you guys all American Citizens”, I watched as my friend Randy and my French girlfriend Charlotte and I all lied and said yes. This is the story of how I crossed the border illegally with a guy I just meet and my girlfriend. The year is 1987 and I’m 30 years old, Im writing this journal so in 30 years these stories can be pasted down to my children the their kids. I’m leaving my home town to travel the world, I don’t know where I’m going or how I’m going to get their but I guess that’s what will make it an excursion. I’ve been traveling for a few days now; I have only a big dark green traveler’s back pack with enough money to get me from to town to town. My only source of income will be selling handmade jewelry in artisan markets. I’m about 5’7, tan skin tone; I have dreads and a hippie

Show More
Related
1118 Words | 5 Pages

The house they were waiting in was compromised, and the immigrants then were taken into the custody of law enforcement for their statements. Jose recalls that he was, “Kindly led to a desk where a blond officer sits. In a Spanish that impresses me, he asks me my full name and place and date of birth, whether I have tried crossing before and if I’ll try again afterward. I say no to both, and I don’t remember if he either makes me sign a document or takes my fingerprints” (6). This interaction that Jose had with law enforcement was nothing like what he had expected it to be like.

Read More
1267 Words | 6 Pages

According to Hernandez, “ Mexicans in the borderlands, regardless of immigration of citizenship status, were subject to high levels of suspicion, surveillance, and state violence as border patrol officers aggressively policed not only the U.S and Mexico border but also Mexican communities and work sites” (Hernandez Pg. 2). In her book, Hernandez tells the story of how Mexican immigrant workers became

Read More
1306 Words | 6 Pages

When I was a child, around 11 years old, I lived in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. My parents were recently divorced and moved into separate houses. My mother had trouble paying rent on her own, so she started putting out ads for a roommate. The first person to move in was a man named Marco, an illegal alien from Mexico. Recently, while at Marine Corps PT, I met a DACA recipient who attempted to join the Airforce and was now trying to join the Marine Corps.

Read More
1430 Words | 6 Pages

and Mexico by providing a wealth of information on many different aspects on it. This book was written to cater to a wide and differing audience by providing so much information for different people to pick up on. This information can make it difficult to read the full book, but the author’s purpose is not for everyone to read the full book and comprehend everything. Her book allows for very detailed information to be available on everything imaginable that a person could want to know about the border. This lets people pick and choose the important information to them that they would like to read about and retain.

Read More
932 Words | 4 Pages

“The Border Patrol State” was written in 1994 by Leslie Marmon Silko. At this time she was living in Tucson, AZ, one of the Border States. Silko writes from a Laguna Pueblo Native American background, mostly writing about the Native American people. She was born right on the outside of the reservation so she was influenced both by her Indian culture and the culture of Albuquerque. This article was published in Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit: Essays on Native American Life Today, a collection of short stories and articles that talk about her life as a Native American and the racism she has faced.

Read More
483 Words | 2 Pages

In The Divide, author Matt Taibbi conveyed to the reader the daily experiences in which illegal immigrants must undergo in order to remain in the United States. Because local law enforcement and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) started rapidly increasing the number of deported immigrants, local businesses that depended on the immigrant workforce felt dramatic effects. Even though business production slowed, ICE continued deporting illegal immigrants. Additionally, Our justice system realized the injustice of 287(g). According to the American Immigration Council, all local law enforcement were given the power to arrest, interrogate, or deport illegal immigrants, much like ICE officers.

Read More
938 Words | 4 Pages

In November of 1990, Nancy Yanes’s life changed when she was finally immigrating to America. Nancy, an immigrant from Sayopango, El Salvador, arrived to the US only knowing a few of her family members, with no understanding of the language, and didn’t have any money to support herself on her own. Nancy left behind a life of poverty and crime-ridden neighborhoods to reunite with her parents and younger brother. Nancy Yanes’ mother, Rosina Guerrero had to leave her children behind and come to America illegally. It took her 8-9 years to be able to get the legal document to bring her two children; Nancy and her sister, into the U.S. Rosina believed “a small sacrifice now would mean a huge benefit later.”

Read More
645 Words | 3 Pages

The heartwrenching exposé delves into the realities behind people’s compulsion to make the deadly trip from Central America to the United States while emphasizing the numerous challenges that undocumented immigrants face,

Read More
912 Words | 4 Pages

Many people felt unsafe and insecure about their home country. This fear and paranoia caused numerous changes and disagreements across the United States. For instance, “During the three hour-ordeal, I’d been made to feel like an unwanted outsider, as if I were guilty of some heinous crime and now it was my responsibility to prove my innocence” (Khan 558). Because of American Canadian Border Officials fear, victimization occurred. The fear and paranoia installed inside of them led to an unnecessary interrogation.

Read More
322 Words | 2 Pages

I am not white, but I am not Mexican either. I am, however, a first generation Mexican American with parents from San Luis Potosi, Mexico. Perhaps I do not know what it is like to cross the border that refrains me from being Mexican, or the color of my skin that refrains me from being white, but my own personal experiences make me the Mexican American that I am today. Growing up I celebrated the Fourth of July with fireworks, and the Day of the Virgin of Guadalupe with matlachines.

Read More
218 Words | 1 Pages

Upon meeting me, not many people know that I am a first generation American. However, they are usually interested in the orgin of my last name. I am in fact Ukranian. Both my parents and my older sister were born in Ukraine. They immigrated to America in 1992 because of religious persecution that they were facing.

Read More
693 Words | 3 Pages

Immigration is a very broad topic, taking into consideration all of the emotional aspects it also provokes for the group of minorities that fall into this category in the United States. Although America is the home of a range of diversity, many still wish that their hopes of completing their “American dream” does not end soon. The Deferred Act for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) is shortly coming to a complete end. This privilege of having the act gives many the opportunity to be considered a citizen and have most of the benefits that this act offers. But there are still immigrants, like Jose Antonio Vargas, out there who “even though I think of myself as an American and consider America my country, my country doesn’t think of me as one of its own.”

Read More
508 Words | 3 Pages

Like millions of other young adults in the United States right now, I also migrated to the United States when I was quite young. I left my home in Caracas, Venezuela in the summer of 2006. I remember Venezuela fondly; the coastal breeze, the rich smell of the soil, the friendly "Hello" and "Goodbye" exchanged in elevators and waiting rooms, and most importantly the pastry shops that lined the streets and tantalized me with glazed and shiny delicacies and fresh gelato. In July of 2006, I boarded an airplane and arrived at the "land of promises. " The mammoth of a building that was the Hartsfield-Jackson airport in Atlanta was terrifying, it must have been more than ten times the size of the Aeropuerto Francisco de Miranda in Caracas.

Read More
553 Words | 3 Pages

As a teenager moving to a new country with a different culture, different language, and being thousands of miles away from everyone I grew up with was not an easy change, however, that was precisely what I did in January of 2013 when I came to the United States with my father. My whole world changed since, and shaped my way of thinking. From learning English, adjusting to a new culture, experiencing my first snow and finding my way in my new country, my life has been an exciting adventure. My parents brought me to America almost 5 years ago to have a better life, and to get a better education.

Read More
1493 Words | 6 Pages

Across the Wire: Poverty, Violence, and Corruption Numerous people are ignorant of the horrors the people on the Mexican side of the boarder are forced to endure on a daily basis. In Luis Alberto Urrea’s Across the Wire, he gives his personal experiences while he volunteers on the Mexican side of the border. Individuals attempting to cross the border, do so with hopes of better lives and opportunities, because most are unemployed and live under impoverished conditions. Many are unsuccessful in their attempts at crossing the border, and as a result they are sent back.

Read More

More about Personal Narrative: Are You Guys All American Citizens

Related Topics

Open Document