A Cross-Border Mother and Child Reunion

They came across the border (with papers) to New Haven from a small Mexican state to see their children for the first time in a decade — and, in the case of Remedios Zamora Mendieta (pictured), to meet her grandchildren.

The ten women came from Tlaxcala, Mexico, armed with visas for a long-awaited visit with their family members who came to the U.S. without documents. They came also to present their culture to an American audience with a dancing event this Sunday in Fair Haven.

In the process, they shed light on conditions back home and why children like theirs are making the risky move to communities like New Haven.

p(clear).The trip was facilitated by the local grassroots pro-immigrant group, Unidad Latina en Accion..

“Sadness and pain” were what Lorenza Rodriguez Mendoza (pictured) said she and the others felt at the long separation, “because our family members left to come here and for so long we didn’t hear from them. We were very worried. But God and luck were with them, and we were finally able to speak to them.” The families have been in phone contact ever since. Upon seeing her daughter, and kissing her, Rodriguez said she felt happy.
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Francisca Morales Rosete (pictured), who has six children working in the U.S., including New Haven, described life in her town. “We live in the country. There are many poor people who don’t have the resources to send their kids to school. We lack so much. That’s why so many of our children come to the U.S., because there’s not enough to survive at home. There’s no work. Our kids walk around in huaraches , not good shoes. Sometimes our kids don’t have school books, which are very expensive. At home we live on beans and corn tortillas, with a little salsa — three times a day the same food.”

One of the impacts of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has been to flood Mexico with cheap tortillas, which has driven tens of thousands of peasants off their land and into cities — or across the border in search of a job that can help support their families.

http://www.newhavenindependent.org/archives/2008/10/a_trip_across_t.php