My Arrival

The day came; I remember it being gloomy and very confusing. My mother packed our things, and we left everything behind. I knew things were not going right for my family. My dad had crossed over months ago after the great draught, and my mother worked selling cantaloupes. She would often take us along; she said people would buy if they saw she was in need.

We crossed over, changed into new clothes and picked up our mom who walked all night in the dessert.

Days passed without going back, but there were no questions made from my sisters or me,it was obvious there was no return, and we would have to adjust to our new life in the states.

My parents picked a quiet little town to live in and rented a house that we grew to love. Our school was just a few blocks away which made it easy on my mom to take us.

My first day of school was nothing that I had hoped it would be. I was the only Hispanic student in the class and no one else spoke Spanish. I felt alone and wanted to leave. There was one little girl I remember, she was so blonde and had huge blue eyes; she befriended me even though we couldn’t communicate.

Back at home I was not shy at all, I was very outgoing and fun to be around with, so my grandma and mom tell me. Once I moved to the states I became shy and afraid of everything.

There was a teacher who came and took me out of class for about 30 minutes a day. She was my ESL teacher, spoke no Spanish but was very sweet to me and kind. The rest of the day I sat on my chair, drew on my paper and raised my hand when the teacher would want the class to settle down. I often got confused between the hand signal and when the class was answering questions, the teacher would tell me to put it down, so I would and from embaressment my head would go down as well.