Photostories by Humans of St. Louis
Erika and Alison
Villa del Carbón, Mexico and St. Louis, Missouri, USA
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“Have you already told her about what it’s like in your hometown and where you come from?”
“She tells me that she sees the news and the reports. We saw a movie about how immigrants from Mexico come here. How an immigrant gets here is very sad. She asked me, ‘Mama, how did you come?’ And I talked about it with her. ‘And you all suffered over there, mama? You didn’t have water? You didn’t have food?’ She started to put all of this together. And I’d say, ‘Yes, that was almost everything that we went through.’ ‘But, mama, why do people come from there to here? Don’t they have anything to eat in your country?’ She thinks about a lot of things. She is an intelligent girl that is starting to connect all that. She was shocked by all the people in the movie, and she said, ‘Mama, then all of the people here have come over here that way?’ I tell her, ‘Not all of them. Some, perhaps, have a visa, a passport, and then they can travel and come here.’ And she asked me, ‘Mama, when are you going to go to Mexico?’ ‘I don’t know, daughter. Maybe one day we’ll go to Mexico. What if I send you for vacation?’ And she said, ‘No, mama. If you don’t go with me, I’m not going.’”
“She tells me that she sees the news and the reports. We saw a movie about how immigrants from Mexico come here. How an immigrant gets here is very sad. She asked me, ‘Mama, how did you come?’ And I talked about it with her. ‘And you all suffered over there, mama? You didn’t have water? You didn’t have food?’ She started to put all of this together. And I’d say, ‘Yes, that was almost everything that we went through.’ ‘But, mama, why do people come from there to here? Don’t they have anything to eat in your country?’ She thinks about a lot of things. She is an intelligent girl that is starting to connect all that. She was shocked by all the people in the movie, and she said, ‘Mama, then all of the people here have come over here that way?’ I tell her, ‘Not all of them. Some, perhaps, have a visa, a passport, and then they can travel and come here.’ And she asked me, ‘Mama, when are you going to go to Mexico?’ ‘I don’t know, daughter. Maybe one day we’ll go to Mexico. What if I send you for vacation?’ And she said, ‘No, mama. If you don’t go with me, I’m not going.’”
Alison smiles as she rides her bike next to her house while Erika watches from behind.
Alison: “Can I ride my bike to the black car all the way up to the stop sign?”
Erika: “Okay, pero be careful. Ali, not in the street. Stay on this line. You know better. She was born here. And I am from a part of Mexico called Villa del Carbón. She is seven years old, she speaks two languages, and now she knows how to read. Thanks to God, she qualified and entered in an after school program that gives extra classes in the afternoon. They are 45 minutes long and they are daily. So, at 4:30 in the afternoon I pick her up. It’s true, she is teaching me. I have learned. I feel like when I met the people who work at MICA, I didn’t speak much. Nothing more than, ‘Hi. How are you?’ But now, with her, I have already learned more words. She has told me, ‘Mama, they don’t say it like this. They say it like this.’ I cried when the school spoke with me and told me, ‘Alison already knows the ABC’s perfectly well. Alison already knows how to count and she knows how to say her numbers from zero to 100.’ I am shocked with how my daughter has progressed with everything. I’m like, ‘Wow!’ Thanks to the teachers and the little support that I help her with here in the afternoons. But, yes, she has taught me many new words. And look, she knows she should stay within that line.”
Erika: “Okay, pero be careful. Ali, not in the street. Stay on this line. You know better. She was born here. And I am from a part of Mexico called Villa del Carbón. She is seven years old, she speaks two languages, and now she knows how to read. Thanks to God, she qualified and entered in an after school program that gives extra classes in the afternoon. They are 45 minutes long and they are daily. So, at 4:30 in the afternoon I pick her up. It’s true, she is teaching me. I have learned. I feel like when I met the people who work at MICA, I didn’t speak much. Nothing more than, ‘Hi. How are you?’ But now, with her, I have already learned more words. She has told me, ‘Mama, they don’t say it like this. They say it like this.’ I cried when the school spoke with me and told me, ‘Alison already knows the ABC’s perfectly well. Alison already knows how to count and she knows how to say her numbers from zero to 100.’ I am shocked with how my daughter has progressed with everything. I’m like, ‘Wow!’ Thanks to the teachers and the little support that I help her with here in the afternoons. But, yes, she has taught me many new words. And look, she knows she should stay within that line.”
Erika and Alison pose together in their neighborhood.
“Why did you come here to Missouri?”
Erika: “Well, to raise myself up. To do something to benefit us there in Mexico. For example, I come from a very humble family, from a small house with two rooms in which seven people lived. Well, we are seven brothers and sisters, then imagine the oldest is always the one that helped the littlest ones or helped their parents or had to go work to help their parents economically. So, one always thinks, ‘We have to go. We have to leave our country to improve.’ Because in my country, there really is no work. There is no economy. If you don’t have your studies, you don’t have a good job. Sometimes you finish school, but what good is it if there is no work? So, it’s a lot of things. And here, no. Here, I have noticed that people ages 65 or 45 are still working. In Mexico, no. In Mexico, they are already 40 years old and they stop working. Here is a country that has many opportunities.”
“How old were you when you came to the U.S.?”
"When I came, I was going to turn 19. I came to work and try my best. Help my parents a little with the house and other things. Yes, time flew. Now I am 30. I had brothers and sisters here but some left. We were together here in Missouri, but one of them went back to Mexico. He had gotten a work visa. They gave it to him. But, what happened? He came and went every year and the third year he came here, they didn’t give him the visa. He was allegedly told at the border that his visa was not approved. He couldn’t do anything. He had to get a lawyer, and it was a lot of money, and he said, 'It's money that I'm not going to get back.' Another one of my brothers left because he left his wife back in Mexico and she wanted him to come back, too. Now I just have a sister here, she is married, and she is living off of Page. She comes to see me and I go to see her. With my parents, we just communicate on the phone. And now with videochat. So Alison only knows her grandparents by phone."
“What else has she asked you?”
Erika: “She asks me a lot about her papa. We went to therapy and the psychologist said, ‘You should always tell her the truth. She’s little now, but kids are very intelligent and catch everything. They hear one thing, and they ask the next day what’s going on. So you should never lie to them because one day she’s going to call you on it. She’s going to tell you, ‘Mama, why did you tell me that this was green when it is blue?’ Depending on the age, children will understand. Children nowadays are very intelligent. They think about things a lot. They get on the Internet. They see one thing, they see another. They have a computer in their heads. So, right now it isn’t very difficult to share my past with her. Before, yes. But now I can tell her and talk with her. Clearly, not everything because she is still a little young. But, yes, certain things. When she asks me, ‘And my papa?’ I told her, ‘I don’t know where he is, but I think that he’s in Mexico.’ ‘And why doesn’t he come here?’ She thinks that her papa is my brother or that he is my dad, because we talk a lot on the phone. Now I feel more confident opening things up and telling her these things. Because before, I didn’t even feel comfortable saying those things, and she was very young, practically a baby.”
Erika: “Well, to raise myself up. To do something to benefit us there in Mexico. For example, I come from a very humble family, from a small house with two rooms in which seven people lived. Well, we are seven brothers and sisters, then imagine the oldest is always the one that helped the littlest ones or helped their parents or had to go work to help their parents economically. So, one always thinks, ‘We have to go. We have to leave our country to improve.’ Because in my country, there really is no work. There is no economy. If you don’t have your studies, you don’t have a good job. Sometimes you finish school, but what good is it if there is no work? So, it’s a lot of things. And here, no. Here, I have noticed that people ages 65 or 45 are still working. In Mexico, no. In Mexico, they are already 40 years old and they stop working. Here is a country that has many opportunities.”
“How old were you when you came to the U.S.?”
"When I came, I was going to turn 19. I came to work and try my best. Help my parents a little with the house and other things. Yes, time flew. Now I am 30. I had brothers and sisters here but some left. We were together here in Missouri, but one of them went back to Mexico. He had gotten a work visa. They gave it to him. But, what happened? He came and went every year and the third year he came here, they didn’t give him the visa. He was allegedly told at the border that his visa was not approved. He couldn’t do anything. He had to get a lawyer, and it was a lot of money, and he said, 'It's money that I'm not going to get back.' Another one of my brothers left because he left his wife back in Mexico and she wanted him to come back, too. Now I just have a sister here, she is married, and she is living off of Page. She comes to see me and I go to see her. With my parents, we just communicate on the phone. And now with videochat. So Alison only knows her grandparents by phone."
“What else has she asked you?”
Erika: “She asks me a lot about her papa. We went to therapy and the psychologist said, ‘You should always tell her the truth. She’s little now, but kids are very intelligent and catch everything. They hear one thing, and they ask the next day what’s going on. So you should never lie to them because one day she’s going to call you on it. She’s going to tell you, ‘Mama, why did you tell me that this was green when it is blue?’ Depending on the age, children will understand. Children nowadays are very intelligent. They think about things a lot. They get on the Internet. They see one thing, they see another. They have a computer in their heads. So, right now it isn’t very difficult to share my past with her. Before, yes. But now I can tell her and talk with her. Clearly, not everything because she is still a little young. But, yes, certain things. When she asks me, ‘And my papa?’ I told her, ‘I don’t know where he is, but I think that he’s in Mexico.’ ‘And why doesn’t he come here?’ She thinks that her papa is my brother or that he is my dad, because we talk a lot on the phone. Now I feel more confident opening things up and telling her these things. Because before, I didn’t even feel comfortable saying those things, and she was very young, practically a baby.”
Alison hugs Erika, who is sitting on their front porch.
Alison and Erika look into the camera while sitting on their front porch.
“If you could say something to a lot of people, what would you like them to know about you?”
Erika: “I would tell them that life goes on. You must face it to progress tomorrow. I believe that here is a country with many opportunities. All of the benefits that she has that they’ve given her here at school…support, trust, security…that almost isn’t there in Mexico. Or if it is there, you have to pay a significant amount of money for it that you might not have. And as a mama, well, you want the best for your children. There are times when I said, ‘Yes, I don’t have it. But I want to better myself, I want my child to progress, and I want us to move forward.’”
Erika: “I would tell them that life goes on. You must face it to progress tomorrow. I believe that here is a country with many opportunities. All of the benefits that she has that they’ve given her here at school…support, trust, security…that almost isn’t there in Mexico. Or if it is there, you have to pay a significant amount of money for it that you might not have. And as a mama, well, you want the best for your children. There are times when I said, ‘Yes, I don’t have it. But I want to better myself, I want my child to progress, and I want us to move forward.’”
Erika has her arm around Alison as the two sit on a couch in their living room.
“How did you hear about the MICA Project?”
Erika: “I went to the court in Clayton and they spoke to me about it. We got in touch, we did a lot of things, and they helped me. We’re still in touch. I thank God because I feel like this program was an angel for me. I’m so thankful. Seriously, I don’t have enough to really thank them for everything. I have told them that and they tell me, ‘There’s no reason to thank us, Erica. On the contrary. We are here to help you.’ Well, we’ll see now what happens. God first.”
Erika: “I went to the court in Clayton and they spoke to me about it. We got in touch, we did a lot of things, and they helped me. We’re still in touch. I thank God because I feel like this program was an angel for me. I’m so thankful. Seriously, I don’t have enough to really thank them for everything. I have told them that and they tell me, ‘There’s no reason to thank us, Erica. On the contrary. We are here to help you.’ Well, we’ll see now what happens. God first.”
Erika and Alison smile at the camera together while Alison holds a pet chihuahua in her arms.
“What is your biggest fear about everything?”
Erika: “Well, right now with what the President says, you see that it was heard in the news a few months ago that he was going to deport people, even parents although they had children here, he didn’t care. So I think if the kids are born here, they have more of a right to be here. Maybe not us, right? We can go. But, them?”
“What do you need more than anything to be 100% at ease now?”
Erika: “What I most want is a visa to go to Mexico, and be able to go back and forth. I have a stable job, thanks to God. I don’t make that much money, but yes I have a good job. I don’t complain. I am healthy and that’s the most important. I have my daughter, which is another treasure. I look at her and I get more excited to see her as she is, how she is growing, and that each day she learns something new. I am shocked. But, I would say that what I most want is to go to Mexico, go to see my parents, and come back here again.”
Erika: “Well, right now with what the President says, you see that it was heard in the news a few months ago that he was going to deport people, even parents although they had children here, he didn’t care. So I think if the kids are born here, they have more of a right to be here. Maybe not us, right? We can go. But, them?”
“What do you need more than anything to be 100% at ease now?”
Erika: “What I most want is a visa to go to Mexico, and be able to go back and forth. I have a stable job, thanks to God. I don’t make that much money, but yes I have a good job. I don’t complain. I am healthy and that’s the most important. I have my daughter, which is another treasure. I look at her and I get more excited to see her as she is, how she is growing, and that each day she learns something new. I am shocked. But, I would say that what I most want is to go to Mexico, go to see my parents, and come back here again.”