1. Dulce Galindo
Dr. Wilson
COM 360
3/17/15
Mi Familia.
We don't get to choose who is part of our family, we are just blessed with them and
sometimes we would like to choose them. There are moments that you get annoyed of them, that
you wish you were born into different families, but one thing is always true. Your family will
always be there for you no matter what, they will always love you. The moment I started
working on this tree, I went into it with the mentality that I wanted to know more about why my
family did the things they did and what led them to us moving here. In this paper I will focus
more of my dad's side which will end with the story of why my parents decided to move here.
Talking to my dad's family was not hard, I know most of them. The only issue is that my
dad does not know who his real father is, because he has never met him. He grew up with a
stepfather that treated him like he was his child. Every time I ask my dad if he ever wonders who
his real dad is, he always answers me with an of course. But that he loves his stepfather very
much and that he sees him as his real dad. I myself always wonder who my real grandfather is, if
he was any bothers, if I have my more cousins, aunts and uncles. I wish I could have found out
more info about my other grandfather, but the only issue is that no one in the family knows his
name. My grandmother has never told anyone, not even her own husband. My dad told me the
story of how one day his uncle, the brother of his real dad, came up to him and told him who he
was. He gave him a number and told him to keep in touch. My grandma as soon as she found
out, threw the paper away and told him to forget about it.

2. My dad's family begins with my great grandma called Trinidad Gonzales, she was born in
Artiaga, Michoacan. She had 8 children, my grandmother Monica Gonzales being the oldest.
While I was searching information about her by asking my family, a story came up. A story so
shocking, the story says that my great grandmother married a twin but when they killed her
husband she ended up marrying the other twin. They say that half of her children were from the
other twin, this story is something that has not been proven true of course. It's a myth that has
been in my family for years but no one wants to ask my great grandmother if it's true or not.
After my grandmother comes my aunt Aida Gonzales, she was the first one that came to
the United States. In interviewed her and asked her why she did it? Was she scared? Does she
ever regret it? The first thing she told me was that she did it for her children, she always wanted
the best for her 4 children and if coming to the USA was the answer then she would do it. She
crossed the dessert through Arizona and arrived here in May of 1999. She began working as a
cleaning lady in a hotel, and started saving up so that she could send money to her children back
home. My aunt told me that unfortunately she was not there watching her kids grow up, that the
only thing she regrets is not being there for them. Now a day all of her children are here with her,
they all saved up money and came to the USA. She now gets to see her children every day and
also all of her grandchildren.
After my aunt decided to move here, 2 of her brothers decided to also make the journey
in search of a better life. Raul Gonzales and Gonzalo Gonzales, crossed through the Arizona
dessert and asked for rides until they arrived in GA. Both of them had families back home and
both of them knew that doing this would benefit both of their families. Years have passed and
now only one of the two brothers stills lives here with his family. My uncle Gonzalo decided to
go back to Mexico to visit their mother in the year 2011 because she was very sick, he stayed

3. over there until 2012. In May of 2012 he tried crossing again, this time with his wife. By the
second week of May the family received the news that my uncle had died crossing the dessert
and the cause of his dead was from dehydration. The whole family was devastated, my uncle
Gonzalo was very loved. My dad was devastated, he loved my uncle very much and he saw him
as a father figure.
After I interviewed my aunt, I decided to interview my father and asked him why he
decided to move here. I was there when my dad said good bye to my mother, my sister and I. I
missed him very much in that 2 years I did not get to see him, but I never really truly knew why
he decided to make the hard journey. He said that the main reason why he decided to move here,
was because of my sister and I. He knew that he wanted us to grow up in an environment that
would benefit us in the long run and it would help us be better persons. He knew that staying
there in the tiny town of Tierra Colorada, would not prepare us for the future and it would rather
set us back in time. At that moment, tears started rolling down my face. My dad had down the
most dangerous thing anyone can do, which is cross a dessert jus for my sister and I. He had
gone days without water and food, just so that we could be better. The second reason why he
decided to make the journey is because one of my mom's family members had actually stolen all
the money they had saved up. He told me that my uncle Agusto Valle, uncle to my mom, told
them about a great business that he was planning to invest on and he wanted my parents to do so
too. My parents were not convinced at all, but soon little by little they were. They believed that
since he was family nothing bad could happen, because he only wanted the best for them. Little
did they know that my uncle was just planning on stealing the money and not actually investing
it. My parents lost everything, and at that moment they decided what has now been our lives for
11 years. I still remember the day my dad left very clearly, and it a memories that I will never

4. forget. It's a memory that always brings me sadness, and it makes me think of all of the things
that happen those two years my dad was gone.
Not seeing my dad for two years shaped the way I think about life, it mature me and it
made me be the person I am today. Every night we would talk to my dad on the phone and every
night we would cry because we missed my dad. I did not care about what the other kids my age
cared about, like having boyfriends or having the newest things. The only thing I wanted my dad
and being able to hug him and tell him how much I loved him. My mother, sister and I moved
here in April of 2003, and we were welcomed by my father waiting for us in a gas station after
the guy who helped us cross the border dropped us off. My dad did not look like my dad, in
front of me stood a very skinny, very sunburn guy who at first I did not recognize. I was scared
to hug this stranger, but as soon as I heard my name being said through his lips I recognize that
voice that I had been hearing on the phone over the past two years. That stranger standing there
was my dad, the person I was longing to see over the past two years.
The moment I started interviewing my family and asking them why they decided to move
here, I knew I was very lucky to have a family like I do. The reason my family is here is because
of their family, each one of them made the decided because they wanted a better life for their
families. I also learned a lot about why I am the way I am and how my family has affected that.
From a very age I had to grow up quickly, I had to learn the cold reality of being separated from
a loved one. I had to learn that I need to help around the house because there was only one
parent instead of two, I had to learn that there was no room for any childish things like whining
and crying because those would only make things worse. I went through a situation that not a lot
of kids my age had to do, I crossed here illegally. This is something that I have always said its
nothing shameful to say because it is not like I killed someone or I robbed someone. The only

5. reason why I moved here, was to be with my dad. My parents of course wanted to do the correct
thing at first, my mom wanted to us to come here with visas, My mother and I drove to Mexico,
city early in the morning and stood outside the Consul of Mexico, in the freezing cold that is of
3am so that we could apply for them. My mom brought all the paper work that we had and when
it came to our turn, we were turned away because they needed my dad's signature. My dad was
already here in the United States and saying that would defiantly cause issues for him.
This caused us to go to the second option, which is crossing illegally. I first tried crossing
through the Arizona Dessert, in our journey it accompanied us my mothers friends and his 9 year
old son. We first arrived at the house of the Coyote, a person that you paid to help you cross the
dessert, which was full with other families. My mother and Elizabeth, her friend, were going to
cross though the dessert in the morning, while the kids had to learn lines and pretend that we
were citizens of the USA and were just going back home. We had to learn the identities and lives
of other kids who were born in the USA. It was the most terrifying experience, we had to be
separated from my mom and we had to spend the night with strangers. My dad of course found
out about t and decided that we should try another option, so we went to Yuma, Arizona. We
arrived at Hotel where families that were waiting to be crossed lived. We were treated so nicely
and we were fed, given a room to ourselves and most important we were not separated. We
crossed that morning, a morning that changed my whole life. We crossed a river and then we
were told to hide in a cave, and then we spent a week in California in the house of strangers
eating eggs for a whole week. We then travel all over the USA dropping people that crossed with
us until we finally arrived in Georgia Those days made me the women I am today.
The moment I set foot in American territory, I knew that my life was going to change.
My life was never going to be like the one of my friends back at home, I would have to learn a

6. new language. Accommodate to a new culture and begin a new life in a new place. All of this I
own to my family and I thank my family for this also. Thanks to my family moving here, my
sister and I have learned a new language, have learned new things, and we are succeeding in
school. Thanks to my family moving here, I became stronger and more independent because I
knew that if I did not I would fail. I would fail in anything I tried to do because I would have not
had the confidence that I know have since I crossed with my mother and my sister.
This project has helped me learn a little bit more about my family and the reason why
they moved here. It has also helped me learn new things about my roots that I did not know, for
example whether or not my great grandma actually had kids with the twin of her husband. Its
something that we will probably never find out because I know my great grandma will keep that
with her forever. One thing is for sure though, in my family there are many secrets and rumors.
Some that are spoken of in the annual family Christmas dinner and some that are only spoken
behind closed doors.
Like I said at the beginning of the paper, we don't get to choose who our family is. We
are blessed with it, whether we like it or not. Not every family is perfect, they all fight, they all
have rumors, they all spread gossip about each other. There have been months when family
members from my dad side have gone without speaking to each other because of an issue. There
has been years were don't celebrate Christmas with each other because one spoke bad about the
other one. One thing that is sure, is that at the end of the day we come back to each other. At the
end of the day the family always reunites and becomes one. Family will always be there, your
family will always be your family whether you like it or not. I might not have been able to find
more information about my ancestors because of factors like my dad not knowing who his real
dad is or my mother parents dying when she was young so she has no information about them

7. what so ever. I am glad I did talk to my aunt and uncles and my father about their story of what
they are here, of why they left everything they knew to move here. It has given me a new sense
of appreciation towards my family and it's something that I will never forget.