Interview with Amanda Sosa
Introduction:
On November 26th, 2021, I interviewed my mom, Amanda. This interview was conducted at home during Thanksgiving break. Because I was staying with my mom for break, I did not have to schedule a specific time. My mom has talked to me about her past before so there were some things mentioned that I already knew. However, she does not talk about the immigration process or what happened when she crossed the border at all. I am sure these topics are a little more sensitive and make her sad sometimes because she misses Mexico, so I understand why these topics do not always come up. That is why I found this project to be the perfect opportunity to find out more about her past as an immigrant. Because I know this can be a little bit of a touchy subject, I called my mom to ask her how she felt about this project and if she would be interested in being interviewed. I made it very clear that she did not have to participate if she was not comfortable. Since I am her daughter, I knew she would say yes even if she did not want to which is why I told her I could interview another family member if she did not want to participate. Ultimately, my mom was extremely excited that I was interested in this topic and wanted to get to know more about her past, so she said yes.
Summary
My mom was born on July 30th, 1962. She was born in Mexico, specifically Tasquillo, Hidalgo. Before moving to the U.S., she lived a very poor life where she had to take care of all her younger siblings after her mom died when she was 11 years old. She immigrated to the United States in 1988 when she was 22 years old. That means she has resided in the U.S. for 37 years, over half her life. Originally, my mom planned on attending college in Mexico but finances prevented her from doing that because she did not have enough money to pay for her tuition. Her sister told her that she should go to the U.S. with her to make money to be able to go to school. Initially, she was hesitant to leave Mexico, claiming, “if I’m gonna go to the United States, and I’m gonna sell chewing gum, I’d rather do it [in Mexico]” (18:22). Ultimately, she decides to go to the U.S. with her sister, brother, and brother-in-law for 2 years to make money for college and then go back to the United States. They went to Texas where they worked a few different jobs. In the first year that she was in the U.S., my mom met my dad which is why she never went back to Mexico permanently. Eventually, they moved to Virginia because my dad was not working under “workman’s” anymore (37:18). They moved to Alexandria, Virginia because one of my dad’s siblings lived there. Eventually, they were able to buy a house together and settle in Virginia because my mom finally had a steady, consistent job that offered health insurance. My mom has lived in Virginia ever since. These experiences my mom had as an immigrant encompass so many different aspects and phenomena discussed in this sociology of immigration class.
Analysis
One of the first things I asked my mom about was what made her migrate from Mexico to the U.S—the push and pull factors. The biggest pull factors were that she needed money to go to college and her siblings were going. If her siblings had not been leaving for Texas, it is possible that she would not have left Mexico. Her original plan was to go to the U.S. for two years and then come back. A lot of immigrants make a plan like that, but that is not normally what ends up happening. This was the case with my mom. She thought she “was gonna work very hard, then [she] was gonna make a lot of money. And in two years, [she] was gonna go back home and… [she] was gonna register [herself] in college” (1:01:06). Ultimately, that is not what happened. Shortly after arriving in the U.S., she met my dad which influenced her decision to stay. I would argue that this is a delayed pull factor in a way because it had an effect on her decision to stay in the U.S. when her original plan was to go back to Mexico. Some push factors my mom articulated to me was the lack of resources and money she experienced in Mexico and the fact that her mom was no longer alive. When I asked her if she regretted coming to the U.S., she said “that if [her] mom was alive when [she] got older, probably… no hubiera venido aquí (she wouldn’t have come here)” (1:04:44).
The cost-benefit calculation is something that many people use when immigrating to other countries. Initially, my mom did not even want to move to the U.S. She did not see the point in moving to another country to work a job that she could also work in Mexico. Additionally, she knew crossing the Mexico-Texas border would be dangerous. My mom crossed the border through the Rio Grande by the Cuidad Acuña in Coahuila. She said that the ”river was very dangerous at night [and] when [they] saw people [they] needed to hide and be quiet because… usually men raped the women that were crossing” (22:35). Despite knowing how dangerous crossing could be, I think the reason that she decided that the benefits outweighed the costs was because she was with people that had networks in the U.S. and because they had crossed the border before so they were experienced. My mom also knew she was not going to be able to make enough money in Mexico to go to school, and education has always been her main priority.
Touching back on networks, migration is an inherently social process. Having migrant networks reduces the costs and risks of settlement because they help immigrants be knowledgeable about where to go to be able to sustain themselves. My mom’s move to Texas was influenced my migrant networks. Her sister had been to Texas before. Oakwood, Texas to be specific. Since her sister had been there before, she was able to develop relationships with other people and get an understanding of what was to be expected in the U.S. It was hard for my mom to find a job, but her sister was able to help her through her connections. She “was working for these people in this ranch… the people in this ranch, they were owners of oil wells in Texas. And so [one of them] had a brother… [that] was looking for someone to take care of [his wife]” (30:21). Additionally, when my mom moved from Texas to Virginia, it was because of the networks my dad had in Virginia. One of my dad’s older sisters lived in Alexandria which is why then ended up moving there. They even “rented an apartment at the same apartment complex where they were living, but in an area where the cheaper apartments were” (39:17). These examples show the importance of social networks when leaving one’s home country. Without them, my mom would have had a hard time finding a somewhat decent job when she first got here and my parents would not have known where to go when my dad was looking for work. They had people that they could rely on or fall back on when they needed support. Even when they were moving within the U.S. this was important because they were going to a new state that they did not know a lot about or how they were going to be welcomed in the community. Having social networks helps with that.
When my mom was telling me about the first job she got in the U.S., I immediately thought of the segmented labor market theory. This job was a part of the secondary sector which consisted of being poorly paid, low prestige, and few mobility opportunities. My mom’s job was to clean someone’s house. She was supposed to get paid $8 a day for that. She worked there from the end of February until April but “these rich people… never paid [them] a single penny” (27:54). When my mom’s brother went to go get her from the ranch, he told her “they were never gonna pay [them] because if they wanted to pay [them], they could have paid [them] every week” (28:50). This is a great example of undocumented people being exploited for their labor. Not only was getting paid $8 a day to clean a house not enough, but my mom was not even paid for her months of work. My mom had limited rights in this situation because she was undocumented and did not know English very well. These rich people took advantage of her because they knew she could not do anything in fear of being deported back to Mexico. My mom is an example of an immigrant satisfying the demand of secondary sector jobs. There was also the issue of not speaking the language. When my mom went to her next job taking care of a woman that was dying of cancer, she was tested on her English. She told her future employers that she did not speak it very well but that she understood it. This is an example of struggles that immigrant workers face when moving to a new country where there are other languages spoken. There is a language barrier that may cause immigrants to get taken advantage of because they may not be able to communicate fully.
Assimilation is a huge topic that is discussed in regards to immigrants. The ultimate outcome is immigrants assimilating to U.S. culture, where there is convergence to the norm. When I asked my mom if she considered herself American or Mexican, she did not know how to answer that question. She said “sometimes [she] feels the connection here. But sometimes [she does not] … sometimes you just don’t feel that you belong” (52:27). She also feels that she has lost some of her connection to Mexico. The Mexicans do not see her as Mexican anymore, and the Americans do not see her as American. The video from the movie Selena that was shown in class represents this ambiguous state perfectly. My mom feels like she has “lost the connection…because when you go back home, after you have been away for a couple years, the people you left are not there anymore” (50:55). She has integrated herself into U.S. culture so well that she feels that she has lost her connection to Mexico. One way that she stays connected to her Mexican culture is food. After my sister and I were born, my mom did not miss her homeland as much. When she does, she likes to “cook [her] own food because that’s how [she] remembers home” (49:32). She set down her roots in the U.S. which ultimately resulted in a great loss of connection. Having two U.S. born children also contributed to her assimilation because we were surrounded by American children where we picked up their mannerisms and brought them home with us.
My mom naturalized in 1995. She was able to do this through the 14th amendment. She applied for a work permit in 1987 and obtain her temporary residency around 1987 as well. Ultimately, she had to cross two borders—the external territorial one at the Mexico-Texas border and the internal one which was citizenship. It took my mom about 7 years to become a citizen after immigrating to the U.S. Becoming a citizen allowed my mom to go back to Mexico more frequent but because she felt a loss of connection, she did not go back that often. She was fortunate enough to not have to be undocumented for too long. For example, one of my uncles just recently obtained his permanent residency and he has been in the U.S. for over 20 years. I am sure the time period when my mom immigrated made it slightly easier for her. She left Mexico way before 9/11 happened so immigration was not as harsh as they were after the terrorist attack happened.
Conclusion
Looking back on and reflecting on the interview, there are some topics I wish I had focused on more. If I could go back, I would ask my mom what would have happened if her siblings were not leaving for the U.S. I am curious about whether she would have ever left Mexico if it was not for her siblings convincing her to. I also wish I would have focused on the type of role having children had on her assimilation and connection to Mexico. By the time my older sister was born, my mom had been living in the U.S. for almost 10 years, but I know children can have an effect on how integrated parents feel because of their children’s dual culture. Overall, I could tell how difficult it was to talk about some of the topics brought up, especially because her family is so scattered all over the U.S. and Mexico but I appreciate that she took the time to talk to me. This interview helped me understand my mom a lot more and I now have a greater appreciation for what she went through as an immigrant.
Kassee 0:01
Okay, so I am here, interviewing my mom, Amanda. So, guess we’ll just get started with the first question. Where did you immigrate from?
Amanda 0:14
From Mexico.
Kassee 0:15
Okay. Could you say specifically were from Mexico?
Amanda 0:18
Tasquillo, Hidalgo. Mexico
Kassee 0:20
Okay and what was your life like before when you lived in Mexico?
Amanda 0:27
It was a very poor life. My mom died when I was 11 years old. And when my mom died, I had four smaller siblings that I had to take care of.
And so my dad was not there all the time. And so, I had to learn how to take care of my siblings.
And I went to when my mom died, I was in fourth grade. And so I was able to go into middle school. I registered myself for middle school, my dad couldn’t register me. So I had to ask a friend of my mom to come with me. So I could start Middle School. The principal from the from the school he was he was a nice person, and he allowed my my my mom’s friend to register their me in school so that’s when I started. Then after that, when I finished middle school, I wanted to I wanted to go to um high school. But there was no money to pay for the for the registration for high school. So was at home for two years. I could I was not able to go to school. So for two years, I was so always thinking, trying to figure out how to how to start high school and little by little I started to put money together. So the second year after I finished high school, I decided that I was gonna start. No, at the second year, after I finished middle school, I decided that I was gonna start high school. And so I had some money saved to pay for the registration for high school. And so when I started high school, I didn’t know how I was going to do to pay for for my actual school, because when you in Mexico when you are in high school already, or mostly all the school is you have to pay for is not like here in the United States that you automatically transfer from, from one level to the next level. And you don’t have to pay any money but except your school supplies but but out there, you’ve had to buy your your, your tuition.
Kassee 3:05
So the first like 12 years of school, they’re not universal, like not everyone has access to that.
Amanda 3:12
No.
Kassee 3:13
Okay. Okay. So you said you were finally able to get the money together. for that.
Amanda 3:25
I was able to put money for one semester. This was in 1981. So, and that’s all I had, I didn’t know what I was going to do. But I really wanted to go to school. So I I use was able to put that money together for one semester, which was 800 pesos. And when I started, and since that same teachers that were my teachers in middle school, the same teachers then by then they used to teach in the evening in the high school. And so they knew me from school. So they know that I was a good student. So one of my teachers when I, it was because school starts in September. So in October my literature teacher, universal, universal-literatura, y mi maestro de literatura universal, he called me into his classroom, he told me that there are gonna be the census that almost every country has every ten years. And so they, they, they were gonna pay students to do the census. And this the census, we’re gonna start in the in October, to end in December. And they were they were going to invite the students that were good students that had good good grades. So my my teacher from liiteratura universal. I don’t know how to say literatura universal.
Kassee 5:07
It’s okay.
Amanda 5:08
He called me. And he told me that, that there was this opportunity for me to work. It was about eight weeks or something like that. And we were gonna be we’re gonna be paid. But unfortunately, I had to go to I had to work. I said, Yes. So I started to do the census for 10 years. And so I had to get up very early in the morning, Monday through Friday, I had to get up very, very early in the morning, at four o’clock in the morning. So I could make it to the the the rural areas where we had to go and interview people to ask them about, you know, you have a chicken? How many cows do you have? How many children do you own your house? Things like that. That’s how the census were about. And it was very hard for me. I had to since it was far away, I had to travel, I had to travel like an hour and a half in public transportation. And so I would leave my house at around 5:45 in the morning. Yeah, 5:45 in the morning, to catch the bus and so to get to the place that I had to go to work, it was at eight o’clock in the morning. So we had to go out there in the country all day long with being hungry, thirsty, the only thing I had for me to take was money to pay for transportation, but no money to buy any food. So my dad would get up very early in the morning, and he will make me sandwiches made of beans and eggs and that’s what I would they would take with me. And when I need to drink water, I would ask the people that we were interviewing, I would ask them if they could give me some water. So and I had to come back on time to go to school. Because my classes were from 4pm to 10pm. At night. And one of the agreements with this the school did with the students is that when they were going to give us the opportunity, and this was for students that were low income. So the agreement was that we will come back from work, we were allowed. Instead of getting at school at four o’clock, which is when the school started, they told us that we could be at school at seven o’clock PM. So be in school from 7pm to 10pm. But get the notes from the previous classes and, and do the homework and everything for that class. So that’s how and so the teachers knew that we were not in class because we were traveling by bus coming back to the school and coming from work. And so a lot of times I didn’t, I didn’t, most of the time, I didn’t eat until I got home. And I got home until 11 o’clock at night. Because the school was over at 10 o’clock. And I had to walk like two miles from home, from school to my house. In the middle of the dark by myself
Kassee 8:31
Was there no transportation at that time?
Amanda 8:34
No, never. No, so. So when I got home every night, I had to do my homework until maybe one or two o’clock in the morning. Do homework and get up at four o’clock in the morning. So I could get ready to go to work the next day. And so this was from I think it was from the 23rd of October. We were until under the impression that we were going to be working until the 15th of December. So that’s how the contract was. But so the last the actually the job that we did it ended up on the 8th of December. On the 8th of December and when they when they call us for the last time that we went to work on the 8 of December. I, they told us to go to the to the main government building a government it was a government building. And they told us to go up to the second floor. We didn’t know what it was for. It was they told us it was a meeting. So when we got there, what they had for us is our checks.
Kassee 9:49
Oh, okay.
Amanda 9:49
They paid us from October the 23rd I think to December the 8th and I was very excited I was very happy and I I think they pay me 15,000 pesos.
Kassee 10:03
Okay, so that’s like?
Amanda 10:05
15,000 pesos.
Kassee 10:06
What would that be in US dollars? Do you know?
Amanda 10:09
I don’t even remember. It was, by then the dollar was like, like $12, 12 pesos or something like
Kassee 10:18
Okay so a US dollar was like 12 pesos?
Amanda 10:18
Yeah, yeah.
Kassee 10:19
Okay.
Amanda 10:20
And so with that money, the first thing that I did, it was wintertime and it was it was very cold because he gets very cold and because you don’t have air conditioning or you don’t have heaters in your house it’s always calling in your house and you get sick and everything. So when they paid us with the money that I got, I went and I got 4 cobijas, 4-
Kassee 10:45
Blankets.
Amanda 10:46
4 blankets. One blanket for each of my, all of my siblings that were at home, including my dad. And for myself, I got me a pair of shoes that had there was fur inside And a pair of denim pants. And so I made sure that I got the I got the blankets, because I knew how cold it was gonna be in the winter and I got my shoes, and I got me my denim pants.
Kassee 11:18
You said lenning pants?
Amanda 11:20
Yeah, de mezclilla.
Kassee 11:22
Oh, denim pants.
Amanda 11:22
Yeah.
Kassee 11:22
Gotcha.
Amanda 11:23
Yeah. And so with that money that I got paid, I went in and put it in the bank. And it was time to start to pay for the second semester of high school. It was my first year of high school then it was three years. So I went and paid my semester already. Right there. Maybe I paid like in the middle of December. Oh, and then this this thing. I never remember that anymore. But that Christmas with the money that I got paid I, I was excited. And so I got a nice dinner for my for my siblings. And I remember I made pancakes for the for Christmas. You’re gonna make me cry. Yeah.
Kassee 12:12
Okay.
Amanda 12:13
And so, so the money I put it the money that I had left, I put it in the bank to pay for all the rest of the semesters that I needed to pay for school.
Kassee 12:23
Gotcha.
Amanda 12:24
And that’s how I paid the school.
Kassee 12:25
Okay.
Amanda 12:25
So but in the meantime, you know, I I always had to take care of my siblings, I had to make sure that they went to school and everything. So I had to cook like every mom has a child that you have to go for your children. So I I had to cook for them. Make sure that when they came back from school, there was food for them to eat. Because when they came back from school, I was almost ready. I used to leave. I used to leave home at 3:30 to the school at four o’clock. Because school was again from 4 to 10PM
Kassee 13:02
Right. Okay, so.
Amanda 13:03
Those were my struggles for high school.
Kassee 13:05
Gotcha. So it seems like you lived a pretty stressful childhood and stuff like that.
Amanda 13:11
Oh. I now that I think about it. It was it might was stressful. But I never thought that was stressful. I knew that I had to take care of my siblings and nobody was gonna do it for me.
Kassee 13:28
Right.
Amanda 13:28
So I never thought of it like it was a big a big effort or that I was making or that. Oh, how was going, and I don’t remember I don’t ever remember being sad about it. Instead of it I just I just, I just worked. I just did whatever I needed to do so I can take care of them. And so you know, I my purpose was all the time to go to school and have a degree one day but I was I was not able to do all the all that stuff. When I was done, my sister had left Mexico. And she had she was a single mother so she had two children and she asked me if I could take care of my siblings, of her children. And that when I finished high school when when I finished she asked me if I could take care of them and when when I when she, when I was ready to go to college. She was gonna send me money for me to start college
Kassee 14:33
Right.
Amanda 14:34
But I went and apply for I went to apply to in Polytechnico en la cuidad de Pachuca. It a very, very prestigious school. But not every might, not everybody makes it to the school. And so and because it’s a government school, and it’s a it, it has a lot of demand. So I went and did an admission, took an admissions test, and I passed the test. But when it was time for me, for me to start the school, my sister that had left to the United States. And let me her her children that I was taking care of. My, my sister never send me any money for me to start school. So when this, it was time to start school, I, I just this the classes started on August 15th. And my sister had not sent me any money yet for me so I could start school. So she said money on the 17th of September.
Kassee 15:49
Oh at that point, it was too late.
Amanda 15:51
It was too late.
Kassee 15:51
Right.
Amanda 15:52
So for some reason, my sister came back right away, almost like she came back in November. And my sister came and told me. And I was very upset with her. She told me that, that well I told her that it was her fault that I couldn’t start school school and that she she had offered to help me but she never sent me the money and everything and when she sent it that it was late. So she told me to go and apply again. But I, I, I didn’t think it was possible. Possible. But still I tried and I went, but when I went the day before, students had taken the the Admission Test already. So I went to talk to the dean at school. And I asked him, I asked them if, I thought that maybe because I passed the admission test in the previous semester, I thought maybe they will accept me accept me into the school. So when I asked, I asked for, for some kind of interview with him, so I could talk to him. It took me like, I got there, like at nine o’clock in the morning, because I had to travel by bus and the three hours from home. And so it took me like three hours for him to be able to see me in his office. And when he saw me, and I explained to him that I had taken the exam in the last semester, but because of lack of finance, financial resources, I was not able to start school. And so I was hoping that they would allow me into the school. I was I thought that will work out. But he told me “senorita you know, this is a very prestigious school and if you lost your chance the last semester, then you might want to wait until the next admissions test, which is going to be in either March or April”. So I came home very sad. And I told my, I was mad at my sister and I and she she says what happened? What did they say? I said well, he says that I lost my chance. I could have taken advantage of it. But since I didn’t do it, I had to wait. So my sister told me, my sister said, Look, we are gonna go back to the US you can come with us. She was gonna go back with her husband. She was gonna come back and because they had come illegal. So she was gonna come back the same way. And so she told me that if I wanted to come with her. And I told her no, thank you. If I’m gonna go to the United States, and I’m gonna sell chewing gum, I’d rather to sell chewing gum here. And not there, I told her. But my sister told me the expectations from people, when they come from another country, they feel they think that this is their dream land. That here you’re gonna sweep the dollars with the broom. And it’s not like that. So my sister told me that if I came with her that I was gonna be able to get a job. Because I really wanted to go to college, or to go to college. And so she told me well look if you come with us, you, you will be able to save your money, then you can come back and so forth. And I said, no, I’m not, I’m staying here. I’m not gonna go there. So I didn’t want to be like, because I was always in school. When I was not in school, I was always in my house because I was not able to if there. Unfortunately, you just can’t say I’m gonna work half the time and then gonna go to school full time that is not like that.
Kassee 19:28
Yeah, you can’t do part time.
Amanda 19:30
No, you can’t. So my sister convincted, talked to me a lot of times, how easy would it be for me to come and work and save some money and come back to school. But it didn’t it didn’t happen that way. So my plan was to come for two years and save up the money and come back to college. And the but I was never never able to come back.
Kassee 19:58
So that being said. Obviously, I know you said like, at first that you were like, no, I won’t go to the US.
Amanda 20:05
No.
Kassee 20:06
But you’re here. How old were you when you came?
Amanda 20:10
I was 22.
Kassee 20:11
You were 22. And so aside from coming to try and get money so that you could go back to Mexico and continue school, was there anything else that made you decide to leave?
Amanda 20:23
I met your dad.
Kassee 20:25
You met Papi? Okay, when, do you know what year you met him?
Amanda 20:31
In 1985.
Kassee 20:32
And you said you immigrated in, in 85. So you met him, like the year that you left Mexico? Um, so your intention was originally to go back to Mexico? And you said it was like, what two years that you were going to be here and then work and then go back to Mexico? Um, did you know anyone here in the US when you first came?
Amanda 21:02
I knew people that were here but now that you know, like, I knew where they lived or anything. I didn’t know, didn’t.
Kassee 21:10
Okay.
Amanda 21:11
I came with my sister. My sister was coming to the same place that she was before. This she was in in this small town called Oakwood in Texas
Kassee 21:25
In Texas.
Amanda 21:25
Oakwood, Texas. And so she, this was in a ranch where she was working and so she was coming back to the same place where she worked when she left.
Kassee 21:37
So she had crossed the border multiple times?
Amanda 21:40
No, this was only the second time.
Kassee 21:42
So it’s more than once is what I mean. Okay. Um, was there like a plan? When you got there you just kind of just kind of left and you just were winging it didn’t really know what you were doing. Can you? I guess like explain kind of like what happened when you first got here?
Amanda 22:02
When I got here, I well, we walked. I crossed the river by swimming.
Kassee 22:12
El Rio Grande?
Amanda 22:13
I swam, yeah. I swam the Rio Grande. By Cuidad Acuna en Coahuila. It took us a night for us to cross. We came in the afternoon. And we tried to close the river at night, but we couldn’t. The river was very dangerous. You could see through the light of the moon, you could see the silhouettes, las siluetas, of the people that were crossing. We were hiding behind the bushes. Because I was with my brother, my sister, and her husband.
Kassee 22:58
So you were with Joaquina? Which brother, tio Romo?
Amanda 23:03
Max. Chimino.
Kassee 23:04
Okay.
Amanda 23:05
Yeah. And so my brother in law said that if we saw people crossing the river river, we needed to hide because when we saw people we needed to hide and be quiet because the if if there were men, ususally men raped the women that were crossing. So we were we were hiding behind the bushes. And I remember seeing people. I remember seeing las, las, las siluetas of people crossing the river and I was like, it looked very easy. So we waited until the morning. And so we, in the morning, we tried to cross the river. It was extremely cold. It was like the night it was the night of February 11 of 85. And so we couldn’t cross, but I didn’t want to I used to scare off. I didn’t want to touch the ground. And when I tried to touch the ground every time my body would, se induia.
Kassee 24:24
Okay, you would sink?
Amanda 24:25
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And it was very scary man. I thought that you know the the lama? Como se llama?
Kassee 24:34
Sand?
Amanda 24:35
No, hierbas.
Kassee 24:37
Seaweed?
Amanda 24:38
Yeah, we like seaweed. Like weeds, the weed. The weeds.
Kassee 24:40
Just like the weeds, and stuff like that. Okay.
Amanda 24:42
Yeah. I thought the weeds were snakes. And I was very scared. So I decided to swim and to cross the river, so I swam the river.
Kassee 24:54
So you didn’t like walk through it? You swam?
Amanda 24:56
See what happened when I was in, when I was at home? I’m at home we had there’s plenty of manatiales. Lugares que tienen agua caliente. So there is plenty of public pools where we where, we where at home like El Tzindeje [incoherent]. Todo eso. So, so I knew how to how to swim. And there was the river also so, so because I knew how to swim, so I crossed, I crossed the river by swimming. And then when we swam, after we crossed the river, we walked through the mountains for nine days, eight days, nine days, and we got to a ranch on the 18th of February, and we cross on the 9th. The river. We cross the river.
Kassee 25:52
Okay.
Amanda 25:53
And so, we got this ranch and this guy. His name was Larry. These guys spoke Spanish. So he had gone to he has he went to the he studied at the Universidad Nacional Auronoma de Mexico. UNAM, that’s the abbreviation. So he spoke Spanish, and he offered us offered us a job. So we worked there cleaning his house. And then he took me from, this was in Sonora, Texas. And then he took me and my brother to to San Angelo work his grandma lived. So we went to San Angelo, to clean to work in this house where they were they paid us $8 a day. I mean, yeah, $8 a day to work there to clean their house. And they had a big ranch. These were people that were very, very rich. And, so we stay there for a little bit, but since my brother had brother had come already, when my sister came the first time, so my brother was not happy there. So he wanted to leave. So he let me once. I mean, he let me there. He didn’t tell me. So when he when he left, and I was very scared. I didn’t know where he was. And I was crying all the time. And I just, I just didn’t know where to look for him. What happened is that he had left there. And I don’t know how he did it. But he came all the way to Oakwood, Texas where my sister and her husband were in. So my sister, and her husband and my brother went to bring me to from San Angelo. So they brought me back to Oakwood, Texas.
Kassee 27:38
So you’re like, basically, you were done working at the ranch at that point, like you left? Did you go back to work after that? Or no?
Amanda 27:45
No, I never said that I was leaving. They didn’t know that. We just left in the middle of the night.
Kassee 27:50
Gotcha.
Amanda 27:52
With no money. Oh, by the way, thtey never paid us not a single penny. They were gonna pay this $8 a day. And we got there at the end of February. And we, I, Chimino y yo. Chimino and I were there until, until it was like April. And the lady. These rich people told me that they were gonna pay me, pay us and then they never paid us any money at all
Kassee 28:21
Okay, that’s kind of wack.
Amanda 28:24
Yeah. Yeah. So they had like, you know.
Kassee 28:26
They had a ton of money. They couldn’t pay you?
Amanda 28:29
So we left, when we left and I and I didn’t want to leave. I, when my brother came looking for me in the middle of the night. He told me let’s go and I said no, they have not paid us. They, we were gonna be paid $8 a day. And we have been here like it was like 60 days. I don’t know how many days already? And he’s no he says don’t worry. They’re not gonna never they are never gonna pay us because if they wanted to pay us, they could have paid us every week. Yeah. And we had to be working Monday through Sunday.
Kassee 29:01
So every single day. Gotcha. So you said you were originally in Texas. And you were, what was the first place you were in again, with the ranch?
Amanda 29:13
San Angelo.
Kassee 29:14
And then you went to? What was the other place?
Amanda 29:19
No. The first place that we got was Sonora, Texas. And the guy from this ranch in Sonora, Texas. His grandma lived in San Angelo. So he took my brother and me to help his grandma
Kassee 29:31
And then after that, where did she go?
Amanda 29:33
So after that will my brother left and I would get that I was very scared and didn’t know what he was and everything. So my brother came in the middle of the night once. I don’t know how long but maybe it was like two weeks. He just left so he can go get my sisters so so they could come and get me. Because we were there, we were told that we were gonna get paid $8 a day and they never paid us a single penny.
Kassee 29:59
Yeah,but I’m just kinda like where in Texas? Did you go after that?
Amanda 30:02
Oh, Oakwood, Texas. Okay.
Kassee 30:04
Yeah, you had already said it, but I couldn’t remember because there’s like multiple places.
Amanda 30:07
O-A-K-W-O-O-D.
Kassee 30:08
Okay and when you got there, did you find a job?
Amanda 30:16
Yeah, my, it was hard for me to find a job. I didn’t know what I was going to do. My sister was working for these people in this ranch. And so the owner of this ranch, he was he’s, he, the people in this ranch, they were owners of oil wells in Texas. And so he had a brother. This was the was the Lee family. And so his brother, Mr. Lee, his wife, her name was Faith Lee. So Mrs. Lee had cancer. And Mrs. Lee was gonna died. And so Mr. Lee was looking for someone to take care of Mrs. Mrs. Lee. But they were looking for a young person. A person that did not have that not have any children that did not have a husband. So they can take so that person could take care of their, of her, 24/7. So, Mr. Lee, the brother told my sister that his brother was looking for for a person to take care of his sister in law. And so my sister came in told me, okay, and so my sister took me to this house. And when I got there, they asked me the first thing they asked me if have a, had a husband. And I said, no, I just came from from home. And I’m single, I never had been married before. And then they asked me, they, they said, so do you speak English? And I said, and I said, Yes, I don’t. I don’t speak a lot of English, but I understand. I can read. So, so she wanted to give me a test. And she sees she asked me the you know, what is a chip?
Kassee 32:18
Like potato chips?
Amanda 32:21
Well she was asking, I didn’t know what she was asking me. But she was asking me if I knew what a chip was. For me a chip was like, you know, like loose pieces of wood chips. Like, what you use to start a fire.
Kassee 32:35
Like spliters of wood?
Amanda 32:35
Uh huh, yeah yeah
Kassee 32:36
Gotcha.
Amanda 32:37
That’s what a chip for me was. But she was asking me about, about if I knew what a chip was, it was potato chips, was what she was asking me for. And I said well a chip is this. And I show her a piece of wood.
Kassee 32:55
A piece of wood?
Amanda 32:57
And she says no this and she took a bag out that was oh, yeah, those those well it says chip right there. But those are, I know those are chips.
Kassee 33:04
Right, okay.
Amanda 33:05
Yeah, so I was confused.
Kassee 33:09
So you were you were originally in Texas? We live in Virginia. So how did you end up in Virginia?
Amanda 33:18
So, after after I, I met this family and I worked for them and everything. Mrs. Faith passed away. She died in September. And so after that, I, Mr. Lee wanted to marry me. He was he was 56 years old. And he wanted to marry me. And I told him no, I don’t I don’t want to marry. I will not I will not marry anyone older than me. And so and so he and I asked him if he could he please could bring me to Austin, Texas where my my my cousin was living. I had a cousin that live there. So he told me but I didn’t know since I didn’t understand a lot of the English but I but I couldn’t communicate a lot. So there was a lady. Her name was Margarita. Margarita had been living in in Monterrey, Mexico, so she spoke Spanish. So Mr. Lee called Margarita. He told her that he wanted to marry me and I told, I told Margarita to tell him thank you, but I didn’t I would not want to marry someone that was older than me. And instead I asked I told her that. I told him that I wanted to leave. I didn’t feel safe there. So and he told me don’t worry about it. I’m gonna bring you to Austin. I will bring you. I will bring you on Saturday. So he he took the trip. He took me in his car and he dropped dropped me off with my my my my cousin was living. So I ended up working in carwash, I learned how to how to wash cars and everything. And so that’s how I met Jose. Through his sister.
Kassee 35:10
Which sister?
Amanda 35:11
Consuelo.
Kassee 35:11
Consuelo? Okay, okay.
Amanda 35:17
But you asked me how I came to Virginia.
Kassee 35:19
Right. Yeah like how did you end up in Virginia?
Amanda 35:23
Well, when I met when I met Jose, he he was not working. He had injured his back. He used to work for a paving company. In Texas, in Austin. Called Olnos. So when he was working for Olnos, he hurt his back. Removing hardened chapapote.
Kassee 35:53
Chapapote?
Amanda 35:56
Como se llama? Concreto. [incoherent]. Pavement.
Kassee 36:00
Pavement. Okay.
Amanda 36:01
Yeah. So I met him there. When he just did he used to come and pick up his sister. And so his sister and I were working together. And that’s how I met Jose. So when I met Jose, we started to go out together. And then I was dating with him. And so I started to go to school with Jose at night. He will come and pick me up to take English as a Second, English as a Second Language classes. And that’s how I met. So Jose and I then decided to, to live together. But because Jose was not paid under any workman’s anymore, so he had to leave Texas. So he came to Virginia. And so he had to find a job here. So that’s how I ended up coming. But I didn’t want to come.
Kassee 36:49
You didn’t want to come? You liked to Texas?
Amanda 36:52
I thought that if I left Texas, then I was gonna be far away from my house.
Kassee 36:57
Too far away from Mexico?
Amanda 36:58
Yeah. And I didn’t want to be.
Kassee 37:01
Right. Because when you’re in Texas, you’re kind of just like on the other side of the border. But when you’re in Virginia, you’re a little further north, still south, but still further north.
Amanda 37:09
Yeah, when we left Texas, Jose had not been working. He was working under workman’s when I met him, so he was living with his family and everything. So because I’d been working at this carwash, all this time, and I used to in the job, the car wash was you know, the clean the cars, vacuum, the cars and everything. And when you clean the cars in the in the in all of the stuff that comes out of the cars, a lot of a lot of people just drop coins, on the on the on the floor of their cars. So all these coins every night that that I washed, wash cars and everything. So I had to I had to clean the vacuums. And I had to go through the all the dirt and dirty water and everything, and all of the money came out and it was on the ground. So I would pick up all those coins. So when I when I every night, when I came from work, at the room that I was renting. I had a towel on the ground, and on that towel, I would just drop all the coins that I was. So I’d have like a big pile of coins.
Kassee 38:19
Right.
Amanda 38:20
And Jose had not been working for for for a long time. So that money that I had there, I cashed it. And I put together like 200 pesos and that’s how, $200 and that’s the money we used to pay for gas to come here.
Kassee 38:39
To get to Virginia.
Amanda 38:41
I got $1,000 and I brought them with me. Jose didn’t have a penny and so that those $1,000 that I brought, those are the that was the money that we had to pay for them paying for the rent of an apartment in Alexandria.
Kassee 38:55
Alexandria? Is there a reason why you had to come to Virginia or like did he know people in Virginia or?
Amanda 39:01
His sister was in, his sister had been living in Hampton.
Kassee 39:07
Which sister was this?
Amanda 39:08
Rosalda.
Kassee 39:10
Okay.
Amanda 39:10
Yeah, they have been living in Hampton and everything and they had by this they already had moved from Hampton to Alexandria.
Kassee 39:17
Okay.
Amanda 39:17
And so that’s how we ended up in Alexandria and we rented an apartment at the same apartment complex where they were living, but in another area where the cheaper apartments were.
Kassee 39:31
When did you apply for citizenship?
Amanda 39:38
Before I can here.
Kassee 39:39
You applied before you came to Virginia?
Amanda 39:42
Yeah.
Kassee 39:42
Okay. So when did you what you do remember what year it was when you moved to Virginia?
Amanda 39:50
I apply for my work permit. This was in in September. No, it was not October or November of 2000. of 1987.
Kassee 40:10
So you’d been here for about two years, by then. Okay. So you apply for your work permit first? And then do you apply for citizenship after that? Or? I’m not familiar with the process.
Amanda 40:23
First you have when you, back then you would be given a work permit. I think it was six months. And then after you get, it was like nine months or something like that. And after you get that permit, you get you are given a, a temporary residence.
Kassee 40:46
Temporary, okay.
Amanda 40:47
Yeah, so I got a temportary residence for about a year and a half. So when I had that temporary, that that temporary residence, I was here in Virginia already. So when I had this temporary residence, I already immigration sent me a letter telling me that I could apply. That my temporary residence was going to expire. And if I wanted to apply for my, for my for my, for another permanent residence. So when I got my permanent residence, I was given all the documents. Right there, they will give you everything if you wanted to apply for citizenship, when your five years came. After you got the permanent, permanent residence. Okay. So I filled out all the paperwork, the application and everything right there. So when, when they gave me when it was time for me to become a citizen, they just sent me the application like, like six months before. Not the application, but the application was already done, but the the paperwork to confirm that I was I wanted to become a citizen. So they sent me so I, I sent back the confirmation for me that I was gonna take my residence, my citizenship, because otherwise, what was gonna happen. Every, I don’t know. I don’t know how often they give you that, that that card expires of the permanent residence. So so. But when they instead of instead of me waiting, it was like, probably like I don’t remember when did I get my residence but I took my citizenship in 1990 in October of 1994, 95.
Kassee 42:56
So that was from the time that you got your temporary residency to when you got your citizenship, that was what?
Amanda 43:05
95.
Kassee 43:07
I mean, what was like the timespan of that? Would that have been like eight years?
Amanda 43:16
No. less than less than that.
Kassee 43:19
Didn’t you say you got your temporary residency in 87? And you got your citizenship in 95?
Amanda 43:30
Something like that.
Kassee 43:31
That’d be about eight years. Yeah. So overall, it took about eight years. And you had been here since 85. So you had been undocumented for about 10 years. Right?
Amanda 43:43
Something like that. Well, no, because you you once you get your work permit, you’re not undocumented.
Kassee 43:49
Oh, okay. Gotcha, gotcha. So you were here as a non citizen for about 10 years. Okay. Um, while you were undocumented, so before your temporary residency, were you? Were you like, were you scared?
Amanda 44:09
All the time? Even after.
Kassee 44:11
Did you feel like you missed out on certain resources? Because you were undocumented? So for example, like health care?
Amanda 44:20
Yeah.
Kassee 44:20
Um, if you ever got sick, like, what would you do in those cases? Like if you ever had to go to the doctor?
Amanda 44:33
Your only options were either to go to any clinic in a walk in clinic or to the emergency room to the hospital.
Kassee 44:45
Okay.
Amanda 44:45
Do you want to drink water?
Kassee 44:47
Yeah, sorry. It’s just acting up a little bit, right now. So you felt scared?
Amanda 44:55
Yeah.
Kassee 44:56
Like if you ever saw cop or anything like a cop car. Or something.
Amanda 45:03
Uh, I was not scared of that. I never felt that I was committing a crime. But I was scared of people.
Kassee 45:14
Like people’s reactions?
Amanda 45:16
No, I always have been very cautious about people. In every sense. I don’t trust people a lot. And so I didn’t feel safe with be around people. Even today, I just don’t feel safe a lot of times
Kassee 45:34
When you first came to the US, like when you were first in Texas and stuff like that, did you feel like the community was welcoming of undocumented people?
Amanda 45:47
To be honest with you, I’m not sure because where ever I lived, there were only Hispanic people.
Kassee 45:55
Okay.
Amanda 45:55
So I now I got, since I was able to communicate with people more than other people. So the Americans that I came across with, they were nice people.
Kassee 46:11
So it might be like that, where you were at was a more immigrant friendly area.
Amanda 46:16
See what again, because I’ve always been very cautious. I never wanted to be with people that like, people, that smoke, people who drank, people like that. I never wanted to read with those kinds. So I always tried to keep myself as safe as possible anywhere I went. But I was but I missed a lot of stuff. Music, I really was missing my music. I always felt very sad because my memories, you know, you know, you don’t adapt you just you come because you have to but you do them and never adapt. You’re in the back of your brain. You always are thinking about your your people. You’re, my dad, my siblings. The music. The food. Your Sundays.
Kassee 46:33
So you missed it.
Amanda 47:06
The weekend. Everything. I was always sad.
Kassee 47:11
Right. How did you keep in contact with your family in Mexico? Was it difficult?
Amanda 47:18
Yeah. It was very hard because if you if when by phone, you have to call a public phone back there. They call it un casetta, un cajita. Where there is a public phone and you call and there is an operator there. And so the operator answers the phone, you call in you tell the operator can you please take a message to my house and just keep in consideration that the house was not close by. You have to, the person had to send the message with someone like like six miles from the, where la casetta was. And so this person had to go to the person’s house. And they would charged to just bring the message and they, they would say okay. Amanda is gonna call tomorrow at two o’clock in the afternoon. So, this my well, whoever my sister, whoever had to be there at two o’clock the next day. So so so when I call they were there, so my sister was waiting outside de la casetta, when so I will call in when I called and if the line was busy, I had to wait. And then when I was finally able to make it through then they will tell my sister or my sibling, or whoever that was there, this phone call was for you. They knew that who was gonna be calling
Kassee 48:49
Yeah, cuz like it’s kind of like kind of had to like schedule it almost like in a way. That makes sense.
Amanda 48:55
The other way that came in communicated was with was by writing letters.
Kassee 49:00
Right. Make sense. I mean, it was like the 80s 90s back then like letters were pretty common. So you mentioned that you felt like you never really adapted to the culture. Do you feel like you still haven’t adapted to the culture?
Amanda 49:23
Not all the way but at least I don’t miss it as much as I used to miss it.
Kassee 49:30
Right. I mean, you’ve been here for over half your life now.
Amanda 49:32
Well after after you guys were born then my my brain my mind got occupied with you guys right so I forgot about all the stuff that I left behind. I still miss it. I still think about it. I you know I like when it’s Christmas time when it’s you know dia del la Independencia. When it’s, you know, all those those because we used to celebrate, you know, all our civic holidays. They were, there was always a good celebration, and I miss the food. That’s why I always like to cook my own food because that’s how I remember home.
Kassee 49:51
Right. Do you? Well, you said that you don’t miss it as much anymore. Because you kind of got preoccupied with like me and Laly. You set down your roots, and kind of just, I guess developed your own life in a way. Away from Mexico. Do you feel like you’ve lost that connection to Mexico?
Amanda 50:47
Yeah.
Kassee 50:48
Completely, or it’s just it’s not just as prominent anymore?
Amanda 50:55
I lost the connection, yes, because when you go back home, after you have been away for a couple years, the people that you left are not there anymore. And the people that are there, they’re they have their own lifes and everything. Right. So you just don’t have that connection anymore. And it feels sad. Yeah, I when I came back for the first time, I was very excited. And I was thinking I’m gonna see my friends and I gonna do. It didn’t happen. They got married already. They had their own lives. You know that people anymore. They don’t look at you the same way. And that’s one of the hard parts that. One of the parts that really hurts me a lot is that when you go home, they don’t see you. I feel they don’t see me as me being Mexican anymore.
Kassee 51:51
Yeah. I mean, that’s how I feel when we go too. I feel like they look at me and they don’t look at, they’ll think of me as Mexican. That being said, do you feel American? Like, would you label yourself as an American? Or will you always label yourself as a Mexican despite feeling that loss of connection?
Amanda 52:13
I don’t know how to answer that question.
Kassee 52:15
Do you like feel like you’re kind of like in in like, ambiguous state where you just don’t really know. Like?
Amanda 52:25
To be honest, you know, sotimes I feel the connection here. But sometimes I don’t, right. Sometimes I feel that I just don’t, I just I mean, of course now I am able to come in communicate with people better than I used to. But it’s like, sometimes you just don’t feel that you belong,
Kassee 52:55
Right. Sorry. Yeah, so something that we’ve been learning that we’ve learned in class is people that come to the US at a young age, they, so like dreamers, for example. They don’t like really have that connection to their homeland, because they’ve been in the US their whole entire lives. And obviously, that’s not you, because you lived all of your childhood in Mexico. But you did come at a really young age to the point that you’ve been here for over 30 years. So I feel like that can relate to you in a way just because you’ve spent so much time in America, while still having spent like a decent amount of Mexico. So it’s kind of hard to like juggle it. Um, you said that the first time you went back to Mexico, you were like really excited. And then it didn’t like pan out the way you wanted it to. Do you remember what year that was?
Amanda 53:54
88.
Kassee 53:55
88. So you had been here for three years. And so only three years, and you already didn’t feel like welcome? Were there, I know you said that, originally, you only plan to come for a little bit, save some money and then go back, two years. Once that plan changed a little bit, because you met Papi and stuff like that. Did you have any long term goals? Because obviously at that point, I’m sure you knew that you were probably going to stay here for a while, or like maybe anticipated that you would stay for a while.
Amanda 54:41
So my goal was always to go to school and to learn and that was always in the back of my brain. I didn’t have a specific goal. I’m going to do this and this and this. Within all my possibilities and everything, I always tried to go to school and learn as much as I could. And I wanted to I wanted to finish a degree. But and, you know, marrying was was one of the factors that made me just to, for me to, you know, the desire for me to go to school because I knew that I was gonna be here already. And so I was not gonna be all like, you know, be I was not gonna be, like, settling myself settling down, and not thinking about my future, right? I never. When I came I when I came here, besides taking care of Mrs. Lee, until she passed away. I used to clean offices, I worked very hard. I worked two different jobs every time. So I didn’t want for that to be my life. Although I don’t, I don’t feel that I got there. Because all of, all other things came in it came after that. But those are things that are not that were not under my control. But for me, my my purpose was to have a degree to go to school and have a degree and finish school some way. And so I just I don’t know. I just don’t feel that. What was your question?
Kassee 56:39
Did you have any long term goals?
Amanda 56:40
Yeah. So I just didn’t. I’m not the kind of person that is going to be planning on going to do this, or I’m going to do that. I just think things and I just to do them. And I tried to be as as positive and as as consistent with what I do. But unfortunately, the last seven years of my life, have been difficult, and I don’t think I will be able to ever go back to school and finish what I wanted to do.
Kassee 57:13
Right? Well, I feel like at this point the past almost nine years. Right?
Amanda 57:21
Seven, in 2013 to now.
Kassee 57:26
That’s about eight years. That’s eight years, it’ll be eight years in March. When you went to school, because I know that you went to NOVA for a little while. And then you went again, when I was little, when I was like seven. The first time you started? Did you find it difficult because you were learning in your second language?
Amanda 57:49
Very difficult.
Kassee 57:50
It was really hard?
Amanda 57:53
Mhm.
Kassee 57:54
How, you mentioned that you did English as a second language, like took English as second language classes. Aside from that, was there anything else that you did? Because I mean, you have really, I mean, obviously, you’ve been in the US for a really long time now. So you have very good English, but your accent isn’t that heavy anymore. So I just I’m curious as to like, what other things you could have done to continue to practice your English aside from obviously just being in the country? Like I didn’t you say that you? You’ve told me before that. You watch what was like Mr. Rogers.
Amanda 58:28
Mr. Rogers Neighborhood.
Kassee 58:29
Mr. Rogers Neighborhood. That’s how you learned English as well.
Amanda 58:32
That’s how that’s how I learned to pronounce. Everything that I saw, I everything that I saw, that I’d read. I could understand at least 70%. But I couldn’t pronounce. So when I when I, when I came to Virginia, to when we were in Alexandria, we couldn’t afford to have like cable and things like that. So we never had just, just a signal that you could get on the TV. But when we came to Manassas by then they introduced Comcast. And i remember they came, the Comcast people came door to door offering their services, their cable services. Because before that I used to I used to watch Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood and also I used to watch Miami Vice.
Kassee 59:35
Miami Vice?
Amanda 59:35
Miami Vice was it was it was a serious on TV. That was by antena and also a there was another series called Motor She Wrote.
Kassee 59:49
Motor She Wrote?
Amanda 59:51
That’s what I used to watch. And so and I never watched Spanish.
Kassee 59:56
No?
Amanda 59:57
There was no there was no Spanish Spanish TV. So when we when Congress came around, then they this when I started to watch Univision, but I never had that. But I watched it only for the news and to have the connection with Mexico because Univision had the news for Mexico. All the news from Mexico, you could. So that was my connection. But I did not only watch Spanish, I watched English most of the time.
Kassee 1:00:28
So TV had like, an impact or like an effect on you being able to learn English and it helped. Okay, that makes sense.
Amanda 1:00:35
But if the show this show that really, really, really helped me a lot with Mr. Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, and I’m telling you I watched Miami Vice and that show Motor She Wrote.
Kassee 1:00:51
Um, when you first got here, did you? Did the US kind of, like meet the expectations that you had? No? What type of expectations did you come in with?
Amanda 1:01:06
My expectations, were that when I came I was gonna work very hard, then I was gonna make a lot of money. And in two years, I was gonna go back home, and I’m gonna go was gonna register me, myself in college, and I was gonna go back with the money in my hand, and I was gonna be able to pay off for all my school that I wanted to do, and so on. None of that happened.
Kassee 1:01:33
So you came in with the American Dream concept. And that didn’t.
Amanda 1:01:41
No, because how I was gonna be able to meet this, those expectations when I was getting paid first, when I came I was, they were paying me $8 a day, but they never paid me. I worked for them seven days a week, from seven o’clock in the morning until eight o’clock at night. And they never paid us a single penny for what we made. And that’s what my brother left. When he left when he left me. But I didn’t know he was planning to do that. So so then when I started to work for a, an hourly salary, a payment, they they are they used to pay you $3.25 an hour. And I had to work 60 hours a week, and I never never got paid overtime. So my check was $180 a week.
Kassee 1:02:40
Gotcha. Yeah.
Amanda 1:02:42
And my rent, my rent was my rent was $100 a month of rent. A slept, like the space were Misty is to this little space and I had una cobija. And I would sleep on the ground where two girls were sleeping. And they charged me $100 to sleep on the on the ground.
Kassee 1:03:12
So I know that there is the, not stereotypical, but the idea that when people come to the US, and they’re kind of like working and you know, obviously they don’t get paid a lot. There’ll be six, seven people to a room type of thing because they can’t afford to pay rent. Did you ever experience that like where you’ve shared a room with multiple people?
Amanda 1:03:39
Where I slept was, this was a family that this was a people that had a couple, that had children. And so in that room. The room where I slept, the two girls slept also and they had only always had the TV on. So I had to sleep on, and it was like four o’clock in the morning and they were watching TV.
Kassee 1:04:08
So you did have to share a room with a couple people, two isn’t too many as opposed like what’s that? Like? Sometimes it’s like 20 people in the house because they just kind of like sleep on top of each other basically because that’s the only like thing that they can afford to do. Do you regret it?
Amanda 1:04:26
To come here? Oh, sometimes I do wish that I could have that that, I think that if my mom was alive when I got older, probably yo no hubiera venido aqui. I feel that that if my mom was alive, she’d my had sent me to college and everything in so I regret that my mom was not alive. Because I had to take care of all my siblings, it didn’t matter if I was smart or if I had good intentions or anything, none of that mattered you have to do on your own and you have to take care of yourself or whoever else you need to take care of. And that’s what I, that’s what I did. I regretted it. But also, but I never got, I felt sad not to be at home. But but, but I never thought it was my fault. Or I never felt guilty for not doing what I needed to do. I always knew that I needed to make an effort for everything that I needed to do. And that’s how I did it all the time. Now that I’m here, is just like, you know, I got I got a custom. My pets have helped me a lot. Yeah. Especially after you guys live to college. So you know, it’s a lot easier for me to be by myself. It used to not be like that. But now I’m accustomed now.
Kassee 1:06:25
Is there anything that you would have, like looking back on it anything that you would have done differently when coming over here?
Amanda 1:06:31
Probably not.
Kassee 1:06:33
You wouldn’t have like stayed in Texas.
Amanda 1:06:35
Oh, no, no, no, no, I went back to Texas, in, Laly was two years old. And Laly was born in 96.
Kassee 1:06:46
So it was 98
Amanda 1:06:47
So we went back 10 years later. And I didn’t like it.
Kassee 1:06:53
No?
Amanda 1:06:55
I didn’t like it. Because I didn’t like to be around a lot of people.
Kassee 1:07:02
It’s a very popular area.
Amanda 1:07:03
I didn’t like the environment.
Kassee 1:07:06
Well, that being said, we now live in a very populated area. Because NOVA is very densely populated. So if you could have done anything differently, would you have not settled in Northern Virginia?
Amanda 1:07:21
Yeah.
Kassee 1:07:21
Yeah. Is there somewhere else that you would have gone?
Amanda 1:07:25
When we just came here, we wanted to live in Harrisonburg.
Kassee 1:07:30
So where, where I live. Sorry. Did you know anyone in Harrisonburg when you were moving?
Amanda 1:07:43
To papa, he knew people in Harrisonburg.
Kassee 1:07:51
Okay. It’s really acting up right now. So you said papi knew people in Harrisonburg?
Amanda 1:08:05
Yeah.
Kassee 1:08:08
What was like the ultimate like deciding factor of like coming to this area? Cuz I know you said like, tia Rosa lived there. But if he knew people that lived in Harrisonburg to like what?
Amanda 1:08:19
We bought a house.
Kassee 1:08:20
Okay.
Amanda 1:08:21
We bought a house. So we already had settled at the place that we were. I had a job. I had medical insurance.
Kassee 1:08:31
Was that when you worked at the hospital?
Amanda 1:08:33
Yeah. Yeah. And also the hospital would pay you medical tuition reimbursement if you were a student. If you studied business, English or or anything medical field related. So, the hospital will pay you $1,800 per semester. For for, for tuition reimbursement, and you were a part time worker, you would get paid $800. Yeah. They, they only require for you to bring your your grades. So, like you brought your receipts from books, you brought your receipts for tuition, and they will give you, you would give it bring it to human resources and they would send you a check with the money the money that you spent. Up to either, actually it was not $800 or $1200 or $1800. If you were part time, you got paid $1200 of the tuition reimbursement per semester? No, per year per year, not semester yeah. Or $1,800 per year if you worked full time.
Kassee 1:10:01
I meant to ask you this earlier, but I forgot. Because you went to school two different times, right? There was like the time when you first almost got your associates. And then there was a time when I was young. Right?
Amanda 1:10:14
After I almost did my associates, when Laly was was about two years old, I went to Strayer University And then I went to National Louis University.
Kassee 1:10:27
But then you didn’t finish though, right?
Amanda 1:10:29
No.
Kassee 1:10:30
And then, when I was, I think it was I was seven. That’s when you started going again, trying to finish.
Amanda 1:10:35
To National Louis.
Kassee 1:10:37
Did you feel like it was easier like language wise, the second time that it was the first time? Because I mean, obviously, you had been in the US a lot longer at that point.
Amanda 1:10:46
It was easier.
Kassee 1:10:47
Because it had been what? You said that Laly was 2 the first time and I was 7, which means that Laly was 11. So it had been 9 years at that point in between, like the two times that you were learning in English. Second time was easier.
Amanda 1:11:02
Yeah. It was a lot easier.
Kassee 1:11:05
That makes sense.
Amanda 1:11:06
Yeah. My, my thoughts were my were more more. I was more confident on putting stuff together,
Kassee 1:11:18
Right? Yeah, cuz I mean, you’ve always been a smart person. It’s just like, whether or not you can articulate that or not. I can like, get it out with that proper language.
Amanda 1:11:27
Well, not anymore. After I got the strole, I just, I just it’s not easy for me to put my thoughts together and everything.
Kassee 1:11:35
Yeah, I mean, that’s definitely true. But you are still able to get your point across. You’re still able to form your sentences together a lot better than I’m sure you had been able to at the very beginning when you first started to use English.
Amanda 1:11:49
Oh, yeah.
Kassee 1:11:50
Consistently. I’m trying to think if there’s anything else I have on here. Um, I asked you that already. I think I I mean, I think I kind of got everything. Is there anything else that you want to add?
Amanda 1:12:13
I don’t know what do you what do you want me to add?
Kassee 1:12:16
I mean, do you do you? I don’t know. That’s all I had. Well, then we’re done, I guess. Okay. Thank you.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
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