Migrating to America

Part 1

I am a Mexican national and lived the early years of my life in el paraje de la Mora, Milpa Alta, until the start of the Mexican revolution in 1910. As a result of the Mexican revolution, the very first wave of Mexicans started to migrate from their homeland and I was among them. There were a myriad of 'push' and 'pull' factors that forced to migrate from Mexico and also helped me to choose America as my destination.

The years that followed the Mexican revolution were marred by adversity and crippling conditions for people like me who were poor as well as powerless. Poverty, political repression and unemployment were common and these were the leading push factors that forced me to flee from my motherland and seek safe refuge in the United States.

In a bid to keep in tow with the global drive for industrialization, the Mexican dictator of the time, PorfirioDíaz, was determined to build a strong and stable economy (Zu´n~iga&Herna´ndez-Leo´n, 2006). The policies introduced by Díaz were harsh as they snatched away large swathes of land from me and other poor peasants who were barely able to arrange for bread two times a day. The snatched lands were awarded to large landowners.

For three years, I was subjected to humiliation as I was forced into servitude by a landowner who made me labor as a sharecropper on the land that was rightfully mine. I eventually learned not to protest after being beaten up a couple of times. In addition, I was given as little as ten to twenty-five cents at the end of a hard day's labor. It was clear that Diaz's harsh land reforms were a plain attempt to oppress the poor and please the wealthy (Hanel, 2009).

I decided to seek a home and a livelihood in Nageezi located in the Southwestern state of New Mexico as I had learned through hearsay of a substantial increase in the demand for labor in the region. The increased demand was mainly because Southwestern states were planning to expand railroads, agriculture and mining. After settling in Nageezi, I was glad to see that there was very good accessibility to jobs and labor was well paid when compared with the 10 to 15 cents a day which I was earning in my own country (Borjas, 2007).

Migrating to the United Stated has been the most important decision of my life. At ...