I
was only six years old, and already saw the world was so cold. I didn't
know what I was doing, I didn't think it was wrong. I came into this
country doing no harm.
Though
I spent three days and nights without my mom. I had no worries I was
with my aunt and cousins. Ten of us, sharing one room and going from
motel to motel each night. Then came a day, one day where my aunt took
me with a man, I was taken to a house. I was alone. There was a lady with a kid. I was with a stranger for two nights.
That lady told me I'm no longer me, I'm someone else named Mixtri.
She took me to a store that day and made me cover my face with a hat,
she handed me to someone else with my face still covered. The next day I
woke up in a new house, they fed me and then asked my name. I kept
quiet. She said I couldn’t eat or do anything until I learned my name.
She locked me in a room crying my eyes out.She would spank me until I
got it right. I was alone for three more nights.
The
last night she took me away, we drove and drove for hours. Then we
stopped and she told me to close my eyes and sleep. But what kid would
sleep, when they are with a stranger driving somewhere they’ve never
seen before. She said if someone asks my name to give the fake name and
if I didn't I would never see my mom again. I hid my eyes under the seatbelt, terrified it
was late at night we stopped at a toll. Then came a man next to the
car, wearing a green uniform , big, tall, light brown hair, and blue
eyes. He spoke with a heavy accent. He let us go through not questioning who I was.
We
drove farther and longer. We came to a small blue house in the middle
of the night. I was left with another lady. She took me to a room and
put me to sleep in a bed. When I woke up she said "Do you know where you
are?" I replied "Mexico". She said "No your in California in the United
States!" I didn’t know what was so important about it. She fed me and
let me play with her kids. I call came in and she asked me what was my
name I said "Mixtri" then she said "What is your real name?" I kept saying Mixtri. She handed me the phone saying there's someone that wants to talk to me. My
aunt was on the other line, and I was so happy to hear her voice, she
told me I don’t have to pretend I'm someone else, that I'm safe. I asked
about my mom and she didn’t answer. She called for three more days and I
kept asking about my mom and I would get the same reply every time, "She's not here".
Thirteen
days with out my mom and the last day she showed up, she came where I
was at. She came with my cousins and I was so happy to see her. My mom
thanked the lady for taking good care of me and we left. We had a long
drive and when I woke up I was in Iowa. It was 5 in the morning and we
got off and went inside a big white house.
Years passed by and soon I understood what I was.
I had to keep quiet of what me and my mom where.
Now every morning I wake up with fear,
Fear that one day I will come home and my mom wont be there.
Fear that one day my sister will be taken away to a foster home.
