Jose Angel Lombera: Immigrant Stories

My father, José Ángel Lombera Sánchez, was born on September 6, 1983. He was named after one of his brothers that had passed away two years after he was born. My dad lived in a small pueblo named Arteaga, Michoacán. Like most of his people in his pueblo, poverty was a big problem. His mother and father were, and still are to this day, hard workers. But unfortunately, what they were making at that time for a family of nine was not enough, so he had to drop out and start providing for his family. The first person that migrated from his family to the United States was his older sister, Marta. She had gotten married, so she moved with her husband. After a few months, three more of his sisters migrated to the United States for a better life. Later, his mother also migrated with his little sister, and my father went two months without seeing her. Lastly, my father, his brother, which is my uncle, and his father, which is my grandpa, migrated. Quote, End quote, my father states. My father was told not to pack a lot, but to bring a lot of water and food. They got on a bus to a place close to Tijuana, which is close to the border, and were told that they have to walk three days in the desert. The trip ended up being two days longer. There was no real explanation for this, but my dad believes that the coyote, a.k.a. the smuggler, got lost. They ran out of food and water, but they ended up making it to the United States. My father states that on his journey, he saw and heard a lot of things that not any kid should have to go through. For example, he saw so many people getting left behind and would hear women get raped at night by these smugglers. It's heartbreaking, but people go through this type of thing every day. Arriving to the United States was hard to adjust to at first because his first language was Spanish, so it was frustrating for him to understand. And especially with the learning disability my father has, things were just a thousand times harder. But with time and commitment, my father did big things. My father now owns his own construction business, and we're financially stable thanks to his hard work and dedication. Life in the United States and Mexico are two very different things. Polices aren't as important as they are here. And there's so many things that aren't allowed over here, over here, but are allowed over there. For example, riding in the back of a truck. It took my father a while to adjust to the new rules, but eventually caught on to them. He went to Sequoia High School, but eventually he came to the conclusion that school wasn't for him. So he started to work in construction, and after a few years of putting in work, he became his own boss. I'm proud of what my father has become and the amount of work he has put into his future.