HDFS 474 Final Project
Alejandro, 39
Alejandro "Alex" Salazar is a 39 year old father of two. He is the husband of Rosa Salazar. Alex is from Mexico City, Mexico and came to the U.S. 15 years ago. However, he has been living in Canada for the last three and a half years since he has been unable to return to the U.S. since visiting his mother in Mexico.
When Alex was 24, he heard friends talking about immigrating to the U.S. Not knowing much about it, he spent a few weeks thinking it over with his then girlfriend, Rosa. Their families were mostly comfortable living in Mexico but Alex and Rosa agreed that they would have more opportunities in the U.S. than they would in Mexico. As I mentioned in Rosa's vignette, the two crossed the border together in the middle of the night with a coyote and a group of men also moving to the United States. Alex said that he worried about the fact that Rosa was the only woman, he feared that she would be sexually assaulted and possibly taken from Alex. He said he wanted to do everything he could to protect Rosa, even if it cost him his life. Alex's worries were very warranted seeing that "women die in larger concentrations at the border-fronteir" compared to men (Pickering and Cochrane 2012).
After walking for hours, they rested and eventually landed in Arizona for a few days. They traveled to Illinois with via busses and trains with the little cash they had brought with them. They first stayed with Rosa's friends and quickly found work, saved up for an apartment, and a car and after three years, prepared for the birth of their first child in their own home. Alex and Rosa were living out their American dream, but Alex was homesick. He had no family members living in the U.S., much less any friends from home. To this day, Alex has no family members living in the U.S. besides his wife and daughters.
When I asked him what he liked about living in the U.S., he responded with: "everything." He said that he had no idea what opportunities were going to be available when he came to the U.S., but quickly realized that he could "be whatever he wanted to be" as someone living in the U.S. He said that as long as you are patient and willing to work hard, it is possible to have the things most people set out to have: the big house, a nice car, and a comfortable lifestyle. Even though he loved living in the U.S., the only thing he says he disliked is that he was unable to visit family when he wanted, and that his daughters have never met their grandparents.
Alex was a hard-worker at my father's company, working his way up in the rankings where he quickly became a crew supervisor and my father's right hand man. Rosa and the girls would spend Saturdays at our house with my stepmom and I while the boys were working.
About 4 years ago, Alex's mother suddenly fell ill and Alex flew to Mexico to be with her, knowing he may not return to the U.S. after. He didn't want to leave his daughters and wife, but he knew it may have been his last chance to see his mother. Alex saw his mother through her illness and was ready to return to the U.S. but was met with failed attempts, one after another. He knew he didn't have time to wait around in Mexico, his family depended on his income. Alex then decided to move to Canada, temporarily.
Alex has been living in Canada since February of 2014, involuntarily. Although he was able to see his mother and other family members, he says that leaving the U.S. has been his biggest regret. He hasn't seen his wife or daughters in almost four years which has been unbelievably difficult for him. He wishes he could be there to see his girls turn into young women, and teach them about growing up and prevent them from "ever dating a boy...EVER," which he was only slightly joking about. He calls everyday to talk to Rosa and the girls to make sure they know he loves and misses them.
Something I didn't expect to hear is that living in Canada is much more difficult than living in the U.S. He said that there are plenty of job opportunities in the U.S. unlike in Canada. When he hears that Mexican immigrants are "stealing jobs in the U.S." he says that it just simply is not true, there are plenty of jobs available.
Currently, Alex has a good job in Canada, but that's the only positive thing about living there. He says everyone keeps a close eye on you if you're a suspected illegal immigrant. The government makes it difficult to switch jobs and even go see a doctor because of all of the paperwork it requires. He pays an enormous amount of money in taxes.
He mentioned that he didn't face much discrimination in the U.S., and can only recall a few times he truly felt discriminated against. One time when driving the truck for my father's company, he was next to someone at a stoplight that screamed racist slurs and obscenities at him for no reason. Alex says that he takes this all with a grain of salt and doesn't let it bother him too much. However, he says that the racism and discrimination in Canada is even worse, and that Mexicans are treated extremely poorly by employers, retail workers, and even strangers on the street. However, Alex tries to ignore what he hears because he knows he is a decent person, trying to work hard to give his daughters the life they deserve.
Alex and Rosa have never attempted to become citizens, but they hoped that in the time that they had been in the U.S., legislation would change and they would somehow luck into becoming citizens. At the moment, Alex is waiting to hear back from Canadian immigration about his permanent resident application. If all goes well with that, he will apply to become a naturalized citizen in three years. The plan is for Rosa and the girls to move to Canada, but Alex doesn't want his daughters to deal with the discrimination there. He would rather move back to America and risk deportation again than have his daughters move to Canada. Alex said he knows he and Rosa could handle it, but his daughters are U.S. citizens and would still be discriminated against because of the color of their skin. He is very conflicted about the idea of them reuniting as a family in Canada.
As of this moment, Alex has no plans to go back to Mexico because of how difficult it has made his life since returning in 2014. However, he says that when the girls have graduated from college and are stable enough to support themselves, he would like to return to Mexico with Rosa.
Citation:
Pickering, S., & Cochrane, B. (2012). Irregular border-crossing deaths and gender: Where, how and why women die crossing borders. Theoretical Criminology,17(1), 27-48.
