Overview:
Guerillas in Colombia held much power in the late 20th century as political guerrillas morphed into narco-traficantes [drug traffickers], in some cases in order to raise money for their political battles.The growing drug economy escalated the conflict within Colombia between guerillas, the government, and paramilitaries.
The violence that emerged from these conflicts in the 1980s and 1990s was immense with over 25,000 violent deaths a year. In fact, the war contributed to the leading cause of death for men and the second leading cause of death for women. The violence had economic impacts. In fact, the greatest recession in Colombia since the aftermath of the global depression in the 1930s, began in the 1990s.
The violence and economic recession resulted in a total of 1.1 million Colombians leaving for other countries between 1996 and 2003.
Since the mid 1980s it has become increasing difficult to enter the country through the Mexican border and into the United States. The Immigration Reform Act of 1986 increased enforcement on controlling illegal immigration mainly going after employers who hired illegal immigrants, and there was an increase in Border Patrol enforcement; however, current undocumented immigrants were granted opportunities to obtain citizenship in the US. Since 2005, the process become more difficult with the authorization of a fence across the border as well as the criminalization of illegally entering immigrants into the countries. Before then Mexican coyotes had a prosperous business transporting people across Mexico and into the US, with thousands of people being aided by coyotes at the time.
The Colombian conflict has recently subsided. In 2016 Juan Manuel Santos, the president at the time, ended the 50 year long war with a peace agreement.
Biography
I interviewed my mother, Natalia J. Ramirez (NR), about Immigration, who was born in Medellin, Colombia in 1976 during a time of increased crime and instability in the country. She left Colombia with her mother when she was 7 to come to the US. She returned to Colombia at the age of 14 and proceeded to finish High School. She returned to the US for college in the US for a bachelor’s degree in Education. She lived in Mexico for a short time and married and had a son, Steven. Her husband died a few years later. She remarried and had another son, me. She is now divorced (2015) and a single mother. She occasionally goes back to Colombia just to visit/check up on her mother.
Santiago Vasquez 0:06
Alright so I guess to start off, is, can you describe what that household was like when you were a kid back in Colombia?
NR 0:16
It was a little different. Because I was a child who only was being raised by my mom. And it was we were located, like really low income family. And my mom was a secretary. And she didn’t make a whole lot to make ends met.
Santiago Vasquez 0:56
Make ends meet.
NR 0:56
Meet. And, yeah, it was, it was an interesting, not interesting, but it was sad at times, because we didn’t really have a lot to eat. And it was difficult. And most times, my dad was not the most responsible parent. So my mom was the only one the head of the household. And that was it.
Santiago Vasquez 1:24
So basically, single mother only child, what happened to your dad when was…
NR 1:32
My parents got divorced when I was two, and my dad wasn’t happy with a divorce, so he made my mom’s life a little difficult. And he was very irresponsible, too. So he just wasn’t around much.
Santiago Vasquez 1:52
Okay. How would you describe the like, early education system in your back in Colombia?
NR 2:02
Um so when I started kindergarten, I, I realize I had a lot of challenges. And I realized I had a like. I didn’t know that I had a learning disability. But education for me was very hard. And then I was at a private school. And I was I got held back in kindergarten. My mom didn’t know what was going on. And then we ended up just moving to another school. And I kind of fell through the cracks, and I didn’t get the help that I needed. At that age.
Santiago Vasquez 2:59
Gotcha. How would you like compare, I guess, like the quality of education between like, Colombia, and like the US.
NR 3:13
Colombia has a very high standards. educational system. And it was very difficult.
Santiago Vasquez 3:25
Hmm.
NR 3:26
We had more subjects our hours were longer. So it was a lot better, I think. Yeah, I just realized it was like, there were more subjects, even at kindergarten level.
Santiago Vasquez 3:49
Interesting like what kind of subjects?
NR 3:53
like religion, and there was art. They were even languages. Like, like, I think it was, yeah, it was there was Spanish even though we were learning Spanish. I mean, we were in a Spanish school, you still had to learn Spanish. And there was another language added. So even PE, we had to meet. Just like whatever was asked, we had to do. Even our I remember being like our notebooks didn’t couldn’t, writing couldn’t go beyond the margins. It was very, very strict. And because there was a Catholic school, if our writing was not up to their standards, they would rip off the pages and we had to start all over. So education was just Just at a higher standard than it was when I moved to the States.
Santiago Vasquez 5:05
I got you. And since you’re in Colombia during the 80s, right,
NR 5:10
Yes, I moved to New York City in 1984.
Santiago Vasquez 5:18
How would you describe like, I guess, the social unrest in Colombia before you left.
NR 5:24
Umm say that again.
Santiago Vasquez 5:29
Like the social unrest, any like, because what led you to leave the country
NR 5:37
the unemployment was high, the economy was struggling. My mom was a single mom. So she really wanted a better life for herself and for myself. And she was in a we already had a relative who had moved to the States, so she wanted a better life for herself. So we ended up making that Oh, we didn’t, my mom made the decision.
Santiago Vasquez 6:09
Because like, this is also like, during the time of like, I guess the guerrilla organizations and like, the, like growing drug economy, like cartels, I wasn’t sure, like, had any effect?
NR 6:22
Yes. Where we lived because we were low income we really weren’t as affected by I mean, we were just poor. So it doesn’t really, you’re not going to get kidnapped, you’re not going to get robbed because we live in in with like, kind of like with the bad guys in a way. But yes, still, violence, corruption. I remember living in a any really small apartment and had kind of like a gate. It was kind of like a fence to windows. So not fence, but it had like, kind of like rods in the windows. And it was still like you’re still even though you were in a low income. This? I mean, you still could get robbed.
Santiago Vasquez 7:30
Yeah.
NR 7:31
So there were certain times in at night that you couldn’t go out.
Santiago Vasquez 7:34
Hmm, um, yeah, how was the actual like, process of like immigrating to the US.
NR 7:45
So back in the 80s. There was still a lot of possibilities, or it wasn’t as hard as it is to cross the border. My mom and I ended up she hired a company that would help people from South America and Central America across the border. So that’s how my mom and I came to the United States as Unfortunately, my mom’s economic status didn’t qualified her to get a visa. So we had to, we had to go the second option, which was hiring a company that would get us through the border, and then make it to the United States and then start the process of
Santiago Vasquez 8:47
Acquiring like citizenship.
NR 8:49
Pretty much yes.
Santiago Vasquez 8:50
How long did it take? because like what was the actual like like?
NR 8:59
So the process was us flying to Mexico City. We would stay in Mexico City for about a week or two, then get it arranged to which would they were, they’re called the groups are called coyotes, which is a group that would actually transport you through the desert. And they would be in motorcycles. So it was two people per motorcycle, like, plus the driver. So my mom and I got into so after two weeks of staying in home in like arranging the whole process. We just had to wait until they told us it was the time to travel and so we would cross the entire desert through a motorcycle. Yeah, It was an it wasn’t a scary, I think it was scary. And we were very lucky. But it’s not as the kind of business that it is now. Now it’s more dangerous, not recommended at all.
Santiago Vasquez 10:19
I see umm other than that how like, or the like language barriers your grandma like faced? If any.
NR 10:36
When we arrived in the States?
Santiago Vasquez 10:38
Yeah
NR 10:40
Well, it was very difficult. For both of us. I knew there was like, it was really hard to learn. For me, it was very difficult to learn a second language, when I was still struggling with my first language. My mom as well, she was hard for her to go to school and learn the English language when she had to provide. So I think that’s what happens to a lot of immigrants. They just they have to produce. And it’s very difficult to produce, or like, have a job and go to school to learn the English language. My mom found it extremely difficult. And she did attempted to go to school, but it was really hard for her because my mom as well had she never finished high school or middle school.
Santiago Vasquez 11:41
Okay, so I got, um, and how would you describe your, I guess, perspective on Colombia after coming back from the US? Did it change? Or is it the same?
NR 11:57
It really, it’s kind of better. But the government struggles still, like, there’s still a lot of setbacks, because, for instance, the guerrillas, this is a situation that’s been going on for over 50 years.
Santiago Vasquez 12:22
Yeah.
NR 12:23
And there’s still no control over the groups. So it’s, it’s, it’s an ongoing situation. And there’s still a lot of corruption. And we still have, even if they capture, like the leaders of cartels, there’s always someone following, like, in mind to be the next leader. So it’s an ongoing situation. It’s not gonna end I feel.
Santiago Vasquez 12:59
It’s not gonna end and do you think is getting better, at least?
NR 13:06
I think so I think because Colombia gets a lot of support, to extradite, a lot of the leaders that get captured to the United States, to not keep them in Colombia has been helpful for them to just to have a little bit more control over the cartels. There’s a couple of like, leaders who have been captured and are in the States. So that has helped to kind of control the cartels. The, the bigger situation is the actual guerrillas, because they do so much harm to like small towns and and they are the ones that are the ones who are in charge, are they they take over the kind of like the kidnapping portion of it.
Santiago Vasquez 14:07
So human trafficking?
NR 14:09
Now it’s more I think what kind of like it’s more about drugs, selling drugs to other countries. I think that’s the problem. The majority of the problems is transporting, using women, people to transport drugs to to other countries. So kind of like we produce it in Colombia. But other countries, other people like in the United States are the buyers.
Santiago Vasquez 14:46
Gotcha. Alright, that’s pretty much the entire interview. Thanks Ma.
NR 14:53
You’re very welcome, Santiago.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
Bibliography:
DeSipio, Louis, and la Garza, Rodolfo O. de. U. S. Immigration in the Twenty-First Century : Making Americans, Remaking America, Taylor & Francis Group, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/jmu/detail.action?docID=1771956 (Links to an external site.).
Behdad, Ali. “Introduction: Nation and Immigration.” A Forgetful Nation: On Immigration and Cultural Identity in the United States, Duke University Press, 2005, pp. 1–22, https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv11cw3nf.4 (Links to an external site.).
LeGRAND, CATHERINE C. “THE COLOMBIAN CRISIS IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE.” Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies / Revue Canadienne Des Études Latino-Américaines et Caraïbes, vol. 28, no. 55/56, [Taylor & Francis, Ltd., Canadian Association of Latin American and Caribbean Studies], 2003, pp. 165–209, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41800188 (Links to an external site.).