Liliana Araujo Flores
Fall 2022
“The first thing that we did when we got here was go to Austin. My mom’s sisters were there and all my cousins I didn’t see all the time were there and we celebrated my birthday the following day.”
“My name is Karla Muñoz. I’m 26 years old, and I was born in San Luis Potosi.”
“The 6 years I was in Mexico, I was born there, and it was a little small. I lived with my grandma and my mother and there’s a lot of things that I enjoyed when I was living there but I don’t really remember, because I was still under 6 years old.”
When she was one, her mother decided to move to the United States to give her a better life. Then, when she was almost seven, she was told she was also going to have to move to the United States.
“Whenever you’re younger, you don’t really understand why some parents do that and why they come here to give you a better life, a better education. So it was very hard because I was so used to me being with my grandma since my mom did come over here to the US when I was a one year old, so I really didn’t have that connection with her as much as I had with my grandma.
For 7 years old, it was very scary, something different. Obviously I wanted to stay over there with my grandma but I couldn’t because I had to come over here with my mom.”
At this point, Karla had only ever lived in San Luis Potosi, Mexico. This was her home, along with her grandma. When she was told the news, she felt “sad cuz I would leave my grandma behind and my grandma raised me before my mom came for me.” She feared her grandma was going to be “lonely” as it was just the two of them.
“My mom decided to bring me to the United States to give me a better education and a better life since Mexico is, especially where we’re from, it’s very corrupt.”
In terms of crossing, for Karla it was “very easy because I was younger and it was different times. It’s not like now that it’s getting harder for people to cross over here, thinking that over here is better or just to travel. But for me, my experience, I mean I was younger, so I don’t really remember. I think I remember that it wasn’t as bad.”
Still, she mentions that she was “scared. Because I was younger, I didn’t know what I was doing. Even though I was with my mom, it was still scary because they ask you all these questions and it’s a risk.”
Karla arrived to the United States on August 9, 2003, just a day before her birthday.
“The first thing that we did when we got here was go to Austin. My mom’s sisters were there and all my cousins I didn’t see all the time were there and we celebrated my birthday the following day.”
It was “exciting, different.I was a little bit relieved. I mean obviously they’re in Austin and we’re in Houston so it’s a little bit hard. I mean it’s just at the moment where you have your family, but it’s different whenever you get back. We’re way far.”
Karla had a very special connection with her grandmother growing up. Still, it was very hard to keep in touch with her now that she was in the United States.
“Mostly, Mexico is very poor. It is very hard to get signal or even to get the phone to work over there so it’s less communication. Obviously I couldn’t go to Mexico to visit her since I don’t have papers. I mean it was hard for her to come over here too because she was older and it was a little bit harder to bring her over here.”
At this time, Karla did not have papers due to them being “ in the process of getting my biological father to sign a paper to give full custody to my mom so my mom can fix my papers with my stepdad.” As a result, she could not visit her grandmother.
It was hard for Karla to get used to living in the United States.
“It was very hard, very hard because [my mom and I], we didn’t have that relationship me and my grandma had. I know it was very hard for both of us to adjust to be with my mom all the time compared to only the summers, or if on vacation, or whenever she could go over there. I didn’t know my stepdad. He was a complete stranger so I really didn’t ever see him like a dad or anything.
Our relationship was never the best either because I mean it’s like when somebody is a stranger and then they try to put these boundaries and stuff and those roles are kinda hard because like I just met you. I don’t even know who you are exactly.”
“I had to repeat second grade twice because I didn’t know English. I would get bullied because I didn’t know English. The teachers were treating me differently because I didn’t know it because it was harder for me to understand.”
While initially the newness of the situation made her distance herself, she mentions that over time, she “built that wall with my mom and my step dad that’s been there since I was little where it’s like yes, you’re my mom, and you my step dad but it was never that close relationship I had with my grandma. It was not the same.”
With her home life not going well, school was not much better.
“I had to repeat second grade twice because I didn’t know English. I would get bullied because I didn’t know English. The teachers were treating me differently because I didn’t know it because it was harder for me to understand. And to go from Mexico and here it is very different compared to over there.
I didn’t have friends, I didn’t have people that I knew close to me, or like for example, like if i was in school and I needed help for homework, I couldn’t ask my mom cuz she didn’t know English either. My stepfather didn’t know English either. A little bit, but he couldn’t help me with homework. I mean, I think I needed that, from at least a cousin or an aunt, to help me but since they were far away, it was very hard for me to adjust myself and then to have somebody here and you know, like help me and stuff.”
While she struggled with academics, she also struggled with something that left her feeling more down, especially with the response she received.
“I had a really hard time in school for a couple of years. And it’s like they never believed in that, like in bullying and people making fun just because you come from other places and you don’t know their language or you don’t have the same things they do.
They see you as lower than them. So it was very hard for my mom and my stepdad to see that, to understand that… to understand how I felt coming over here, or how I was feeling when I was growing up here. ”
They would say “that I was just being dramatic, that I was just making excuses because I didn’t want to be here. They would make it seem like I was problematic, that I was just making stuff up because I didn’t want to be here.”
As the years passed, things got better.
“I think I kind of stopped having trouble when I was in the seventh grade because I started taking English classes, and in seventh and ninth grade I had teachers that took the time to help me and I started meeting friends so it was getting easier for me to adjust and understand and speak English a little bit better.”
With this, she recommends that teachers and students “actually take the time to talk and understand. I mean it’s not something easy, to just come from another place and not knowing anything and instead of repeating grades, they could have taken the time to explain things a little bit better and to be more patient, because I was just a kid.”
As a kid, all Karla wished was for things to go back to how they were, back to when she was still living in Mexico with her grandma. Now, as an adult and mother, her opinion over being here, in the United States, has changed.
“I have my own family, my own kid so I know that in the United States it’s good to be over here because over there in Mexico, it’s a lot of poverty. You suffer more. it’s harder for you to get medical help. The government doesn’t give you the help you get over here. Education: if you don’t have the money over there, you can’t study or progress or make a living without being very wealthy over there. And here you get more help. You get help for education and stuff like that.”
Karla had to work hard to receive the education she has now, harder than most.
“I have had to work a lot on my education, my English, everything, to be accepted by people in my school, classmates. It’s really hard when you don’t know anything here. So think now, and these past few years have been better. People accept more that there’s people that dont know.
But when I came, it was really hard. Now I am currently a dental assistant, a registered dental assistant, and I am planning in the future to be a general dentist, so that has opened a lot of doors for me, being here, because they do help a lot financially and with education, they give you the opportunity to to study and be someone here.”
Still, it was not education what changed her mentality about living in the United States; it was motherhood.
“Once you start having your own kids you want the best for them. So it’s a lot with that, like I want my kid to succeed, to be someone. I have always told my kid not to look at people as lower because we all have struggles, it doesn’t matter where you come from. We’re here to succeed in life, to be someone, to provide for our families. If you’re from a different country, it doesn’t matter. We’re here to do stuff for our kids, our family, and to succeed in life.”
Teaching her culture to her kid has always been something very important to her. However, she still keeps in mind that her kid was born here, in the United States.
“Culture from here and over there in Mexico, we celebrate all of them because he was born here. I want him to get to know where I come from and where his dad comes from and have that experience to get to know other things celebrated over there that are very different compared to here.”
“We’re here to succeed in life, to be someone, to provide for our families. If you’re from a different country, it doesn’t matter. We’re here to do stuff for our kids, our family, and to succeed in life.”
Although she thinks the United States has become more welcoming to immigrants over the years, she still thinks there are some that continue seeing immigrants as lower.
“I think it’s harder for some people. When I was here, I mean the hardest part was not knowing English to communicate with someone or even have friends. I think now people are a little bit more welcoming, but there’s still people that see us as lower just because we’re coming from some other place, people that are actually born here and are from here.
People think that we’re here to take the jobs, their education, when we’re just trying to have that education to better ourselves and our families. People should start giving other people opportunities to educate themselves and succeed in life, and that we’re not here to take their jobs or their education. All that we’re trying to do is feed our families.”
“It’s scary, but it’s worth it. In the end, all the hard work pays off.”