My Abuelita, Abuelito and myself at 1-year-old.

My Grandma’s Voyage

My family’s migration story to the United States begins with my grandma’s story. My paternal grandmother migrated to the United States in 1972 from Guatemala City. They lived a comfortable lifestyle back in Guatemala. They had their basic necessities and owned their own home but lived paycheck to paycheck. My grandma was a housewife and her husband (my biological grandfather) owned some property that he would rent out to people. My grandma decided to migrate to the United States with my dad when he was 2 years old and his older brother when he was 5. There were several factors that led her to decide to leave the only country she had ever known. She wanted a better life for herself and her children away from a life of domestic abuse and alcoholism that she faced back home with my biological grandfather. She did not want her children to be exposed to that type of lifestyle any longer so one day she packed up, took my dad and uncle and left without looking back for many years. Another factor that led her to her decision was the war and political corruption that was going on in the country. According to my dad, because the Guerillas were causing so much havoc in the Mayan countryside a lot of people were migrating to the capital. This was constraining the job market and it was making it difficult for people to be able to find jobs and maintain their families. There was a lot of poverty and homelessness because the civil war was creating negative effects on the housing market, economy and overall was causing people to be scared and worried at all times. Therefore, my grandma left to the United States hoping to achieve the “American Dream.”

 Left to right: My uncle, my dad, my uncle (top right) and my aunt.

The voyage to the United States was a long, hard and dangerous one, especially with 2 young children. My grandma was 25 years old at the time that she made her journey. Making it a much more dangerous voyage for her considering she was a young female with two young children. My grandma has since passed away so this a recount of the story from what my dad can recall. When they left Guatemala, they went on a bus that brought them all through Mexico. Upon arriving in Mexico, they were met with a coyote that helped them cross the border by foot. The coyote walked them through the desert and to San Diego, California. In San Diego, my grandma had already known people there and so she had a small network to begin to form her life there. They stayed in San Diego for a couple of years and my grandma met my step-grandfather. They moved as a family to Utah because California was becoming dangerous to raise a family. They settled in Utah for a couple of years but left when my grandmother got stopped by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Fortunately, they did not deport her or send her to jail and they let her go. However, it was a scary moment for my family and they decided to leave and move to Lynn, Massachusetts which is where we reside now.

Eventually, my grandparents and my dad assimilated into American culture and they learned English, they obtained their US citizenship, they worked, and they raised their family in Massachusetts. Their life in the United States was much better economically with my grandma working as a nurse and my grandfather as a machinist. However, they spent many years not being able to go back to their home country.