When I was a little girl, I wondered why my family and I had to cross a thing called “the border” every now and then to visit my father’s relatives.
Family time in Mexico. Photo courtesy of María Leal / ElNuevo Sol.
EL NUEVO SOL
As a little girl, growing up in Los Angeles, everything seemed perfect for the most part. I remember that when I was about 6 or 7 years old I would always go on long drives with my family to visit other family members in Mexico. It was then when I became curious and wondered why my family and I had to cross a thing called “the border” every now and then to visit my father’s relatives. I also questioned why we went to visit them, but they never came to visit us. Sometimes I wanted to stay longer and my parents wouldn’t allow me because they said I had to go to school and that we were far from home.
At first I thought this was simply the way things were supposed to be. Later, though, I learned that most of my friends had relatives that visited them from other parts of Mexico and the U.S and that I wasn’t the only one going through the same confusion. So I wanted to know why and asked my dad to clarify things for me. He told me that there were many families experiencing the same things.
Now that I am older, I did some research and realized we are part of a larger group of families with transnational ties but with some of the members unable to come to the U.S. for several reasons.
I always wondered what my dad and his family thought about this and how they face the difficulties of this situation. In this video, I try to show my family’s experience and how my relatives in Mexico manage to keep a strong family connection despite the fact that they cannot come to visit us. Also, I want to know how they feel about this situation imposed by an artificial but tangible border.
Tags: Familias transnacionales María Leal Martha Escobar transnational families
