Right off the bat I decided an interview would be best to open up to my Service Project.
The interview that I did was between me, my husband and my husband’s grandma.
I needed my husband to translate because although I know a lot of spanish, It’s not perfect and my understanding of it isn’t as great as I’d like it to be.
To give a little background, his grandma had immigrated here quite a while ago. She couldn’t exactly remember if it was 20 or a little more years ago. His grandma didn’t want me to write down her name, and when asked what I should write she said she wanted to be called Daisy. I couldn’t help but laugh a little, his grandma is NOT a daisy.
She’s more of a bulldozer, a very strong woman with 4 grown up children who all have children! She loves her grandkids, who all but one who was recently born to her second oldest daughter is in America. Daisy works. She works every day, at a hotel downtown, which is NOT light work to say the least.
When I asked her how she feels about America she said optimistic. Now mind you, this woman has just celebrated her 65th birthday and is well within the retirement age. She owns her house and drives a truck, yet things are still difficult for her.
She is not a permanent resident.
Daisy had found solace in her oldest child, who was born here and able to give her a work permit that allows her to do a few things other than work such as drive and maintain her house.
I asked her how she feels about her children and she told me she tries not to worry about the 2 who are in Mexico, one of which is my husbands mother. They were both deported a few years back for getting pulled over on a trip with their families back from Duluth. My husband, illegal at the time, was not able to see his mother at the jail holding cell she was put in for a week and was not able to visit her in Mexico until he filed for his visa last year.
Daisy say’s that she knows her kids were raised right and that although times are difficult in Mexico, My husbands mom makes about 50$ a week working 6 days a week, she believes that they are strong.
Daisy gets up, helping one of my husbands cousins make a tortilla on the stove behind her.
“Hey grandma” another one says.
“Oh mi hijo, hola como estas?” She questions. These two kids are now in her custody, their mother is the other of the two who have been deported.
Life is difficult for them, they began struggling in school ever since their mother has left but they try, Daisy says, they’re trying their best to succeed without a mom or a dad. Their dad, who has never been to America, is still in Mexico.
Daisy loves America, she loves the jobs that are available and doesn’t complain about her $10 she makes an hour. She loves America, it holds safety for her grandchildren and safety for her.
U.S and Mexico Border Issues 