My Travel Story by José

My travel story

by José

When I was fourteen years old I was going to leave my family and I didn’t know when I was returning to my home country.  I was really distressed.  I went to say good bye to my grandmother and some cousins.  When I was leaving my grandmother’s house she told me, “ Let me escort you to your mom’s house, since this is the last time I’m going to see you.”  We walked to my house and when we got there my mom’s eyes were red.  I knew she was crying but she didn’t want me to notice. It was time for me to leave,  my mother was crying very hard. It really perceive me to see her cry that much.  She was crying so much that she fainted.  My grandmother told me, “Leave now or else she wont let you go when she wakes up.”  I felt really bad leaving her like that. It was very painful for me.  I turned and commence my walk to the taxi.  I was on my way to Coatzacoalcos where I was going to get the bus that was going to take me to Mexico City.

After fifteen hours in the bus I finally arrived to Mexico City.  It was kind of scary to be surrounded with people from all over the Country, especially because I was only fourteen years old and some guy could just besiege me.  Many guys were asking questions like, “ Are you going to the other side?” I kind of knew this was going to happen.  The people in Mexico City weren’t really affable and I was intimidated because of that.  I was glad to go to the terminal.

I got in the bus after waiting for twelve hours in the terminal.  It was so strange that I was the only person that  was on the bus and the driver started to drive.  I was starting to feel afraid.  After some hours of driving the driver made a sudden stop just in the middle of the freeway.  I couldn't believe that the bus got full in a few minutes.  I noticed that the people weren’t from Mexico.  They were immigrants from Guatemala and other countries of South America that were also comming to the U.S. After some hour of driving the immigration officers of Mexico halted us.  They started to ask us questions like,  “Where are you from and where are you guys going?”  They even asked me to sing the national anthem.  Fortunately I could answer all of their questions.  But I felt bad for the other people that couldn't, because they were from Guatemala.  They asked one of them to go outside of the bus, I could see from the window and listen what was happening outside.  The soldiers were asking him for a fix to let him go with no problems all the way to the border.  Then the Coyote got in to the bus, really angry asking everybody to give him seven thousand pesos because he wanted us to pay the fix, I was scared because the coyote was going crazy on us.  Fortunately he ended up paying the fix.  For most of us we had somebody who was going to pay for us when we were in the U.S.  After a long drive We entered to Sonora City.

We arrived in Sonora City, Mexico, the border with Phoenix, Arizona. I stayed in a  Hotel called La Alameda.   I stayed there for a few days until I got my turn to try to cross the border.  I could see the desert from the hotel, but I didn’t really see the end of it.  I talked to my mom when I was at the hotel. I called her to let her know that I was okay and that I was already there at the hotel waiting for my turn to cross the border.  She didn’t sound too happy about it.  I could hear that her voice was really sad.  I hung up on her because I didn’t want to hear her cry again.  I was waiting for a call from the coyote who was going to guide me in the desert.

I remember that It was midnight and we were in the desert waiting for the drug dealers to cross with their drugs first, or else they were going to kill us.  At least that is what the coyote told us.  It was very cold there, I was wearing only jeans and a shirt.  I thought the desert was hot.  I couldn’t  believe how cold it was, I even saw snow in some places.  My  toes were hurting really bad and my nose was really red and sensitive. My ears hurted too.  This was the worst night I ever had.  There were twelve of us there suffering the cold.   I had never been so cold in my whole life.  The coyote said that we were going to spend the night there, because the immigration officers of the U.S were there looking for people trying to cross the border.  I remember that I walked for four nights with out eating a lot or drinking water.  After walking for a long time we got to the out skirts of Arizona.

There was a men who was going to take us to Phoenix, Arizona . He was waiting for us in a truck so  He could take us to a house where some people waited for weeks so that when they made a trip to the north of the US they could send some of us. I just waited two weeks there and finally they took me to Madison,Tennessee.

coyote = is a person who guides people in the border of Mexico to cross to the U.S illegally.

fix = bribe