The Trip to America


Ever had the fear of losing someone close? That’s the fear Carmen had for many years. November 12, 1986, that’s the day Carmen’s husband came to the United States. Carmen was born and raised in the US. Here she has lived all her life and here she met her current husband, Julio. Julio, on the other hand, wasn’t born in the US; he came to America as an immigrant in 1986 and met Carmen shortly after.

Something she always feared was losing Julio. She knew that since he was illegal, at any time he could be deported back to the Dominican Republic, which is the place he was originally from. Many times she asked herself if marriage was the solution to her problem and fear, yet at the time the 23 year old didn’t feel like she was ready to be married to Julio. In her opinion she was too young, had just met him, and wasn’t sure if he was the right man for her.

One day Julio told Carmen he had to go back to the Dominican Republic because his mom was very sick, so sick she could die any minute. By this time Carmen and Julio had already been going out for about a year. She had even said she was ready to marry him. Hearing this news about him having to leave for an unknown period of time, not only made her very sad, but also worried her. Since Julio was still not legal in the US, he had to take a boat back to the Dominican Republican. Those boat rides were very dangerous because of the bad weather and the boat size. These boats were so small you would think only about 25 people would fit in them, yet about 50 people were packed in these boats. She knew there was a huge possibility that he could die on his way there or on his way back to the US. About 3 months had passed; the love of her life had already left. She had spent those 3 months depressed. She wasn’t eating right, wasn’t paying as much attention to her job as she should’ve been, and she isolated herself from others. Carmen had always been a strong person, who always was happy and loved to have fun. Once the love of her life left, everyone knew something had changed in her because of her strange actions and behavior. Carmen was starting to think something may have happened to Julio because she hadn’t heard from him. Until one day she received a call from a strange number she had never seen before. It was Julio, they spoke for hours about his return, and she was so relieved to know he was okay.

Two months passed and Julio returned to America. As soon as he got back, Julio and Carmen got married. Shortly after, baby Jaylianni, their first daughter, was born. A year or so after that, Julio became a US citizen. Therefore, his wife no longer had to worry about him getting deported. Now if he needed to fly back to his country he could do like everyone else on a plane, which is less dangerous. Since then they have been living happily and together. Everyone always has fears in their lives, but there comes a time when all you can do is try to overcome those fears and hope for the best.