The long road from Mexico to Minnesota was filled with danger
With rising tensions around immigration in Minnesota and the United States, many stories are left unheard. All stories have more than one perspective, even immigrant stories. In a diverse community, it is common to meet people with different backgrounds and stories. Many immigrants have faced injustice and have been taken advantage of due to their legal status. The Talon wanted to hear their stories and share them with Minnehaha Academy readers, hoping to deepen understanding of the current challenges faces Minneapolis and St. Paul.
[Larissa Moraga conducted interviews in Spanish. Click here to read this story in Spanish.]
Noemi Flores is an immigrant from Mexico who, like many, came to the U.S. in search of a better life but also a better future for her daughter. When her daughter was seven years old, she decided to leave her home and cross the US border. This expedition was just the beginning of a great journey.
To enter the US she had to use the help of a Coyote. Coyotes are people who help others cross the southern US border as long as they get a payment in return. This trip consisted of long bus rides and long, painful walks.
“I remember losing a shoe. I had rocks and glass buried in my feet,” said Noemi. The first time they tried crossing did not go according to plan. “My daughter was crying, telling me she did not want to try again,” Noemi said. “I promised her that if we failed to cross this time, we would go back home. We were waiting for the right time to cross in the cold November weather from 3 a.m. to 10 a.m. I was so scared. Scared that the men we were with would do something to my daughter or to me. We would sleep on glass. My daughter slept with her head resting on a tire.”
After sleepless nights and painful days, Noemi and her daughter finally made it to Minnesota. When she arrived, she had no one to go to.
“The people who received us had never told us that we could go to a laundromat,” Noemi said. “I washed our clothes in the bathroom, and there I would hang them so they would dry. They never gave me a house key. I got a job, but I was afraid of the woman who gave me a place to sleep. My daughter had not started school yet, and I was scared to leave her with this woman, and that she would do something to my daughter while I was at work.”
This home was the first of many homes that Noemi would live in, but definitely not the worst. The next house Noemi lived in seemed like a great place. The family she lived with had a son. Noemi hoped that her daughter would be able to have a friend. Everything seemed to go well until Noemi learned that the family would starve her daughter and eat all of her groceries.
“I would have to take her with me to the store and have her eat whatever she wanted to eat there because they would not let her eat back home,” she said.
This continued until Noemi was able to rent her own room in a family’s basement.
“One of the sons of the family that owned the house would steal my money while I was gone,” she said. “The rest of her sons would try to touch my daughter. They wanted to abuse my daughter. In tears, I would leave her as I went to work. I would warn her to be careful. I had to work. She would tell me to go to work and not worry. She would tell me, ‘Mom, I will get married to a virgin’ at the age of nine, with three men in the house. I was not aware that the law would defend us.”
Five years later, Noemi was finally able to rent her own apartment. As her daughter grew, she found a sense of independence.
“When my daughter was in middle school at 13 years old, she started working at McDonald’s,” Noemi said. “At the age of 15, my daughter bought her first car. Since that moment, my daughter started to buy her own things and help me with the bills.”
After this, Noemi entered a relationship that was very damaging. She was pregnant with a second child, and her partner provoked a miscarriage. She had no one to turn to for help. After all the things that Noemi and her daughter endured as immigrants, all the abuse, being taken advantage of, and hardship, she is glad to be where she is today. Her daughter is now a mother and has a husband who loves her and treats her with respect. After 30 years, Noemi continues to work at McDonald’s with loyalty.
“I don’t regret a single thing that I faced because of the opportunities and happiness my daughter has today,” Noemi said. “The only thing that I regret is living through all of that without Christ.”
Noemi claims to be at peace with current tensions around immigration in her community, although it can be stressful at times, not knowing exactly what is going to happen next.
