After A Year, A Family Again!!

Anyone that knows me well, knows my feelings on the hot topic of immigration. I despise the Minutemen for one, and secondly I think Mexico needs to fix Mexico, where the real problem lies. There is a reason so many people go through such high risks to cross the borders illegally. There, I said it, so you might not want to continue to read this. When I was in college I majored in Sociology and minored in American Studies. I spent a great deal of time on the Cocopah Indian Reservation that is near the Mexican border in Arizona. I saw then the poverty that the little Indian children lived in as I spent a summer living with them. Cardboard houses, dirt floors, no heat and temperatures reaching 115 plus in the summer months. Our country should be ashamed of itself. Prejudice and social injustice disturbs me very much. And now, with the immigration thing being such a popular subject and every Hispanic person, whether born here or not, is often scrutinized because of the color of their skin, I wonder what our country has become? It's sad, it's wrong, and there never seems to be a "face" on those that try to do the right thing and become a US citizen. No one ever talks about families with kids and jobs being ripped apart for over a year as either mom or dad is sent back to Mexico to wait, and wait till they can be re-united with their loved ones here again legally.

One of "my" kids, as I call my extended CR "family", has spent the past year waiting for Victor, her husband, to come home and be with her and their little girl, Josalyn. I've known Yesi since she was nine years old. She use to come in the store and hang around while her older sister Carol worked. I've watched Yesi grow-up into a remarkable, strong young woman, wife, and mother, and one of the most courageous people I know at such a young age. I've seen the tears in her eyes and felt the pain in her heart as Yesi has taken Josalyn back to Mexico to stay with her dad for a few months so she could work more and make up for the lost income in Victor's absence. It isn't easy being so young, and having your family torn apart. But I admire the strength and courage that Victor has shown in his desire to make his stay in this country legal.

After a year, the little family will be re-united next week. Victor is coming home to his wife and baby girl. And as you look at Josalyn's little princess face above, it's nice to know that this Halloween she will be with both her mom and dad as a family again. If I had one wish for the world, it would be for people to see people just as that, "people" who experience the same joys and heartbreaks in life regardless of color, race, sexuality and all the other prejudicial tags that people are labeled with. The love a parent has for a child is the same in any color or same sex relationship. I hope some day our world and those in it will take a step forward and get over themselves and open their hearts to others. The world would be a much more wonderful place to live in. Welcome home Victor, I've missed you!