Me and Pablo have been friends since we were little kids who are currently living in Tijuana. We both work on a ranch where we take care of the crops. We both have hopes of finally making the big trip to the north. We have dreams of finding a good job to buy a nice house, car, and maybe even get married and start a family.

Our motivation to make the trip to the north came from the bad conditions were currently live in. The roof of our house is leaks when it rains. We have no running water we have to go to a nearby river to get it. We dream that in the north we can have a house that doesn't leak when it rains and has running water. Tomorrow we are going to be meeting with a coyote named Pancho who is going to help us make the trip.

The next morning me and Pablo went to the bar where we were suppose to meet Pancho. When we go there we as the bartender “Do you know where Pancho is?” He pointed to a man sitting by himself at a table we walked towards him. As we got closer I got a better view of Pancho. He looked like he was in his mid forties he had a big beer belly and didn't look like he could run ten feet. I thought to myself this is the man who is going to help us cross? We both sat down at the table and said “Hello are Juan and Pablo its good to finally meet you.” Pancho shook our hands and said to us “Its good to finally meet you two.” We sat for around and hour and talked about how much it was going to cost and how were were going to cross. After we we were done talking we left to our house to get ready for the trip. We were going the leaving at the break of dawn and we were going to be making the trip on foot through the desert.

We both ended up getting about two hours of sleep before it was time to go. When it was time we got out things and headed to meet up with Pancho at the start of the desert. When we got there he was sitting on top of a rock when he saw us he smiled and said to “Lets go its time.” I lost track of time my feet were throbbing the heat was unbearable it was like being a turkey inside of an oven being baked alive. I looked over at Pablo he wasn't doing any better. His face was red like a tomato from the suns extreme heat his face was covered in sweat. We both looked towards Pacho we couldn't believe it he was walking like the heat was nothing.  i thought how to myself how can this fat man walk so much without getting tired. After what seemed like an eternity Pancho turned around and said to us “ We’re here boys!” All of sudden we didn't even feel tired anymore we were both really excited to finally be in the north. Pancho said to us “ I will take you to a friend who can give you both work.” We both said to him “Thank you so much for all your help.”

It has been a few months since we arrived to this foreign country. It has not been easy for use here we face discrimination for having dark skin and and not being able to speak English. Our dreams of buying a house is far from coming true. We work in a meat packing factory where we only get paid 8 dollars an hour which is barely enough to survive in this country. Our dream was to buy a house but were barely managing to rent a small one bedroom apartment with very little food to eat. Sometimes I think to myself was it really worth coming to the U.S.