I was worried. My brothers and I had been waiting for two hours for my mom to arrive. We were supposed to meet her an hour after school, at 5pm, in the bus station. She hadn’t arrived, and she hadn’t called us either. It was October 22nd, 2010.

At about 8:30pm my dad called my brother on the cell phone. He said that my mamma had been detained at the border station when she tried to come back into the USA, and that they wouldn’t be able to go back into “the land of the opportunity.” My dad also told my bother that we would have to go back to Mexico as soon as we got all the stuff from the apartment we were renting.

I migrated to the United States to pursue the “American Dream.” My dad had to stay in Mexico City, the place where I was born, so he could send the money to us. We eventually sold chocolates for a dollar and candy apples for three dollars to have some money to sustain our living there.

When my family and I arrived to USA requesting the student VISA to the school district, they told us that we did not need it as long as we lived in there. So we rented an apartment to show them that we were going to live there and they let us in. We of coursed supposed this was legal since the own school district was telling us to do it that way. What we did not know is that we were committing a federal crime by doing that.

I had been living in McAllen, TX for one year. I was a great student at my school [all my classes were advanced and I joined a lot of clubs, including community service clubs]. Until “La Migra,” as we Mexicans call the immigration authorities, caught us.

This is how it happened. My mom had had to go to Mexico City to visit my grandma who was very sick. When she tried to come back to the USA she’d do it as a tourist, since we only had the tourist VISA. When crossing the border, immigration authorities found on her purse a public’s library card, and American public library, a card they only give you if you’re residing in the USA. Of course when they saw it they knew that she wasn’t a tourist, and they detained her for 4 hours at the border station. They questioned her. They threatened her. At last they finally broke her VISA and sent her back to Mexico. When my dad called us to tell us what had happened I felt as if my whole world had stopped. I noticed everybody else’s world kept spinning, but mine had definitely stopped. My life, my friends, my school was already in the USA, and just like that one day I would have to go back to my own country without even saying bye to my friends and teachers.

The following day, October 23rd, my brothers and I went to our respective schools to turn back the books they had lent us, and to withdraw from school. When my English teacher heard what had just happened to me and my brothers and that we would have to go back to Mexico he invited us to stay in his house with his family until something could be done about it.

We lived with them for about week and a half, when we realized that we wouldn’t be able to stay longer. So we went back to Mexico where we finally met with our parents.

During a year without school in Mexico I realized that if I was going to do something right in this life it wouldn’t be for a country that has just lied to my family and me. It wouldn’t be for I country that had just mistreated my mom. If I was going to do something right it would be for my country.

I was thinking about pursuing a “Mexican Dream” in which people would have the opportunity of receive good education, have a job, and wouldn’t need to migrate to the United States or any other country to find these opportunities.

When I started attending school in Mexico my brothers and me started fighting to achieve this Mexican Dream. We ran for the office of the student council at the school and we got elected. During this year we have been implementing a series of programs that promote the interest in science and technology, reading, environmental conservation, community service and so on.

Now we are fighting to achieve our Mexican Dream.