Traveling To El Norte Analysis

The Struggles of Traveling to "el Norte" As Californians, we are all immigrants to this beautiful state which provides hope and new opportunities for all of us who started from somewhere different. For my family, our journey began during 1980s in the beautiful Michoacán, Mexico. There, as described by my father (Luis), the land is exempt from any flaws. In the small town of Acuitzeramo where he grew up, beauty is enriched in the landscape; however, my grandfather knew he needed to take his family ( 5 children including my Dad) to "El Norte" (U.S.). It needed to be immediately since the family was already burdened with poverty as they could not even afford to eat tortillas for breakfast. Although my father loved his mother country, he and his

My father did not know this as he was overwhelmed by the busy city of Tijuana which caused him to become overly-attached to his mother. While in the city, my father was taken to his Tia's house where his mother was crying uncontrollably. Frightened by his mother's crying, my dad became extremely anxious in which his parents took him to the store. There, they bought him his favorite gum and apple juice. Going back to his Tia's house he suddenly became very sleepy. The next thing he knew... my seven-year-old father woke up in complete darkness. As he reached his hands to touch the ceiling, he realized he was in the enclosed trunk of a truck. Crying for his mother, he heard a man's voice from the darkness telling him "¡Cállate Cabrón!" From there he stayed at a strangers house, got picked up by another couple, and later reunited with his parents whom he thought sold him. Though the trip to America ended and he was in El Norte, this trauma would live with my father for the rest of his

My father worked in the strawberry fields, which is a terrible job that pays little and causes great pain and aches in the body, when he turned 14. At the age of 17 when my father found out my grandpa had a brain disease, he got a second job at a restaurant. Since my dad worked from 4 a.m. to 5-6 p.m. in the fields and 7 p.m. to midnight in the restaurant to support his family, he could not longer attend high school and dropped out. As he got older, he got extremely good at fixing things, so he began working in air-conditioning and quit the two jobs. He married my mother at 22 and his first son at 23. Grief struck the family when my Grandfather died as my dad described as 'the worst day of my life' despite experiencing past