Maria del Carmen- Translation of Transcripts
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INTERVIEW: MARIA DEL CARMEN (1ST PART) (TRANSLATION
February 1st, 2020
Richie: If you want, I don’t know if you already had something in mind , you can discuss your childhood, something closer to the present… any memory you would like to talk about?
Maria: For me to begin with… when I was in Guatemala?
Farah: Yes! From your childhood, something nice
Richie: Yes, because (to Farah) Maria was telling me that her life-story was a sad one, that telling it might trouble her to talk about
Farah: and she just met us!
Richie: Yes yes, it’s something difficult. So (to Maria) if you have a nice memory you would rather begin with?
Maria: um… a nice memory? No.
R: No?
M: no. I mean, when I was a girl… I’ll start at about 12 years old. I would clean tables.
F: At a restaurant?
M: something like that. And after that…
F: Could you tell us more about the restaurant you worked at? The kind of patrons you’d serve, the type of food, and so on?
M: It was a smaller bar, with a couple of tables.
F: Was it guatemalan food? From which region?
M: Yes… but I can’t remember it well … oh I don’t know, it’s difficult
F/R: it’s ok!
F: Do you remember what city or town you’re from? The mountains or the coast?
M: It was in the mountains, yes, a town.
R: Was it chilly?
M: Yes, high in the mountains.
F: Did you have friends, or siblings?
M: Yes, we are six siblings.
F: Were you a middle child, oldest, youngest?
M: I was second to last. And between my sister, my brother… there are four of us that don’t know how to read.
F: How did you spend your time if you weren’t at school?
M: My father… at about age four, he left for seven years, and came back at around the time I was 11 or 12.
F: So how did you and your siblings raise each other?
M: My brother worked for us… but now he’s dead (sobbing)
F: I’m sorry. How did he lose his life?
M: It was my father who hit him… and he died of his injuries. With a large stick or blunt object, I don’t know… So… he (her brother) would go to work, to plant maize and potatoes… and he would bring us food, potatoes or… to survive.
F: from what he planted.
M: Yes… and so, it was many years that he worked for us. And then my father returned, and… well… (our digression) it was recently that he passed away, about five months ago. But in our childhood, it was not nice. We had to go sleep in the mountain at five oclock, every afternoon. We had to prepare our food and blankets because our father came to beat our mother.
F: So you were fleeing?
M: Yes, every afternoon we would have to go sleep in the mountains. And at 5am and 6am we would return to our home.
F: and during that time, from morning to when you had to leave, what happened?
R: How did you spend your days, from morning to evening?
M: Well, my mother would go who knows were, and she would leave us at home. We would cook food, like beans, potatoes, whatever we have on hand and we would eat. With my oldest sister and other sisters.
F: So cooking… would you sew or do other craftworks?
M: No… I imagine we would play in the house. Then when I turned 19… (more sobbing)
I traveled to the U.S.
F: At any moment Maria you can stop, if you don’t want to continue.
R: You don’t have to continue, we can talk about something else.
M: It’s just horrible
F: Can I ask why you wanted to talk to us?
- Because… Perhaps it can be worth something. Like… some people think that migrants come to do harm, but most of them have very sad stories to tell. That’s why —
F: You think your story can —
M: That’s why I came to talk to you. At 19 I told my mom I was going to travel to the U.S.
F: That was an idea from where? Was it a longtime dream?
M: I decided for myself. Ehm… for example: I am well one moment, never thinking I would travel to the U.S., and in the next I’m packing my bags to leave!
R: From one day to another!
M: Yes (laughs)
F: Did something motivate you to make this move? To think the U.S. would be better for you?
M: I decided to come because my mom became… a harsh (belligerent) person. I don’t know… people, when they suffer hardship, become …. I don't know, harder.
F: Like you become resentful
M: That. So my mother became that way, hard to talk to. So I didn’t have a mother that would say “here’s some advice, lets talk about it”. She just didn’t listen anymore. It was impossible to communicate with her. Sometimes she would lock the house up and we couldn’t use our food, almost every day it was worse and it was difficult to live with her. I was one of those people that decided to leave for the United States.
F: But why not the capital?
M: Because if I just left for the capital, one day I would still have to return to her.
F: So you never wanted to see her again?
M: Yes. So I told her that I was leaving for the U.S. But she didn’t believe me. So I told her if she wanted to accompany me to a bus terminal, she could. She said no, and was brooding for a while. So I left with my suitcase and she followed me on foot. When a bus stopped to pick me up, she followed me aboard; she had followed me to the bus terminal.
F: Do you know from where you were coming from?
R: What area, what region? Do you remember?
M: Yes, it was very far from the border with Mexico. So I came on a bus from Quetzaltenango, in Chela. So I got on that bus and said my goodbyes with her and that she would take care of herself, but she still didn’t believe I would leave. So I came.
F: Do you have any cousins or family besides your siblings and parents?
M: No. No aunts or uncles.
F: So you didn’t know anybody?
M: No. So I got on the bus and I spent 3-4 hours on it.
F: Where did the bus leave you after 3-4 hours?
M: We were many. It left us at la Mesilla. I don’t know which town we passed through in Mexico. There was a place where they loaded us on those things… like a truck… something that carries cargo. (trains) Those that travel through the north. So we got on, and there was about 3000 of us in one car.
F: Wow! And did you have to pay something.
M: Yes, 15,000 dollars for the trip, each one. There are several options.
F: How did you find the money?
M: (laughs)
F: I’m just impressed!
M: Well I believe in God. It was a beautiful, because of a young man I met. Where I was working, there I met him a couple of times.
F: Where did he work?
M: In my hometown. And he came to Miami. And I got in contact with him over the phone, and asked if he could receive me, and he agreed. And so now I have two daughters with him, and it is very beautiful. He is a good person with a good heart. So it was very nice for me.
F: Wow, almost miraculous!
M: So when I left from Guatemala, the coyote didn’t ask for anything. It was assumed I would give a down payment to him of about $2000, but it was miraculous because that man never asked for a dime of that money.
F: But why?
M: Someone else recommended me to him. So it was like a miracle to me because he asked nothing of me, and since I only brought $700.
R: Did he ever explain why he never charged you anything?
M: He never did, and I was surprised. So when I entered — well he didn’t ask anything of me, but people say that they (coyotes) violate women. But at that time, God was with me, and nothing happened to me — Nothing, nothing. When we arrived in the desert —
F: Which desert?
M: I think in… Altar (city) Sonora. I started to walk.
R: So in the north of Mexico.
M: Yes. Walking with a group of ten people.
F: Did you make any friends in the group?
M: Yes. I have a friend who traveled with me the same year who’s in Los Angeles. It’s been nine years for us both.
R/F: How nice!
M: So… well, ask me more (laughs)
F: So you were on feet traveling for how many days?
M: 3 days and 3 nights
F: And how did you sleep?
M: beneath a tree.
F: There were trees in the desert?
M: Some, not many.
F: What kind?
M: Small trees, (she mimes a size). There were wild grasses (zacate) that the coyote yanked out and covered us with while we were sleeping.
R: So the border patrol couldn’t see you. How did you all feel during this?
M: I felt terrible, with so much fear. At the same time, you gain strength knowing that there’s a new life ahead of you. So you have to soldier on.
F: Yeah, you have to have faith.
M: So I crossed… I walked 3 days and 3 nights, six in total (sic)
F: What did you eat?
M: We brought stuff in a suitcase.
F: Like snacks?
M: oh no… they were terrible things (laughs)
R/F: (laughs)
M: hard and stale tortillas, you had to swallow them with water. Canned food.
F: Like what?
M: only one can of beans, and some… what do you call it... canned tuna?
R: Yes, it is gross to have that out of a can
M: (laughs) I swallowed it by force.
F: Of course, you needed the calories! I can’t imagine. So did you wake up at first dawn? With the sun?
M: Yes, we woke up — we started walking from 5 or 6 am
R: Of course, because you walked almost the entire night too?
M: yes.
F: So was it really hot?
M: It was. At one time, we were going up a… what do you call it… an incline?
R: Yes, like a small mountain, a hill.
M: Yes. In that moment I never thought… maybe my luggage was heavy… I was falling, and it almost took me back. I was going to fall backwards. But there was a young man who saved me by grabbing me, and another grabbing him.
F: Wow. It was just that hard!
R: So that was one of your more frightening events of the trip. Were there others?
F: Perhaps Maria would like to take a look at Keisha’s drawings?
(Manuel explains the progress we’ve made on the drawing to Maria)
END OF PART 1
(starting again @ 34:50, from R’s last question)
MDC: It was the worst that could have happened in my life. I walked six days. It turns out that when the truck arrived to pick us up in Arizona — after an hour or half an hour, the police shows up and we are stopped. Not immigration officers but the police force. And they took me to jail
R: Wow. So you were together with the rest of the group. Did they take just you or everybody else?
MDC: They took me along with four others. But my friend had already left us in another group to Los Angeles. So they detained me there for five hours with my hands tied, with my feet tied, and in an orange jumpsuit. It was the worst that could have happened. And they sent me to the immigration police station.
F: Did you have a translator?
MDC: Yes. They told me I would stay there and would board a plane back to my country. But GOd is so great… I was crying for five hours straight almost (laughs). And they told me to pick my bed out in the barracks, and as I was doing that they called my name, and told me I was being deported to Mexico.
F: And what did you say?
MDC: I said that was fine. It was the best thing that could have happened, because I could try again. So I returned.
F: Did you have your husband’s phone number memorized?
MDC: Yes I had it written down. So I was sent back to Altar.
F: And your friend who was in LA. Did she arrive alright?
MDC: Yes. So when I arrived in the afternoon after being deported, a few days passed before I tried again.
R: How many days?
MDC: That was… five hours in the jail, and then —-
F: Im sorry, but how was it that they got you across the border? By plane?
MDC: They take you down there, they walk you all the way to the border.
F: How long is that walk?
MDC: about an hour. They leave you at the checkpoint and then they’re gone. But I had the cell number of the coyote, another one in Mexico. In case anyone comes back.
F: Did you have to pay again?
(Interrupts to ask if this is all anonymous. We reassure her that it is, and not to fret.)
MDC: So after a few days my legs and feet were full of spines and plant debris.
F: It came through your pants?
MDC: yes.
F: Wow. So did you have to pay again?
MDC: That’s why the cost soared to $15k. So I passed a second time and I was almost caught on the border.
F: How did you escape?
MDC: I was asleep under a tree. I went to turn on my side, and spotted border agents in the distance. So I get up to run because I know where we were going. They grabbed almost everybody else who didn’t
R: So you woke up and realized the situation!
MDC: Yes, they were walking around with green uniforms on. That’s how I knew it was them.
I passed over a woman. She was there sleeping next to me, but didn’t wake up.
F: She didn’t?!
MDC: No! So I jump over her (laughs) and I felt that my foot touched something — the poor woman, I imagine. So the coyote and another young man managed to escape. I was the only one with those men.
F: So you went with them and what happened?
MDC: We returned to Altar once again. Spent a day there. There was an old woman who pulled out all the spines and thorns lodged in my legs. I convalesced a little bit.
F: Who was this woman?
MDC: I don’t know. Maybe she came from another group. I just talked to her, and she was a good samaritan. I spent a week there in the town, at someone’s home. Then I tried again, by car.
F: Instead of by foot?
MDC: I walked only 15 minutes this time (laughs). Then, we all mounted a truck(?), and we all had to hold on tight — there was a young boy, maybe 3 or 4, carried by his mother.
R: How was everybody holding on?
MDC: Everybody was standing up, and those at the rear needed a handhold, something to grip, or they would be left behind. And so we traveled, and in an hour we were in Arizona again.
F: Is that were your husband was?
MDC: No, he’s in Miami. At 6:30 I arrived in Arizona, and at 7pm we were on the way to LA.
F: WHy to LA?
MDC: They asked: “Who wants to leave right now”? I raised my hand. So they took us to Los Angeles.
F: Did you meet your friend there?
MDC: No, she was with her brother.
F: So how did you get here from LA?
MDC: It was someone else who brought us by car. It was a man whom I’d never met, and I was so fearful that my whole body was numbed.
R: And you were alone?
MDC: Yes. I would ask him “Where are we mister”? And he would say “We’re almost there”
F: So it was many days, no?
MDC: it took me a week to get here to South Florida.
R: And about how much did you drive per day?
MDC: he would say: “here we’re eating” or “we’re staying here”... but really, he was a good man, even though I felt uncomfortable with him!
(small interruption. We ask if she’ll be returning next week. )
MDC: He was dropping off other people in other states. But from Atlanta to here I came alone. He went through Chicago… all those states.
R: Did you know where the other people were from?
MDC: Salvadorans, Hondurans, Guatemalans. No mexicans, though.
F: I wanted to ask: in your city, was there a local dialect? Or did they speak Spanish?
MDC: It had its dialect.
F: Do you remember the name of the dialect?
MDC: Mam.
F: Do you teach it to your kids?
MDC: I try to teach it.
R: So Spanish is your second language?
MDC: Yes. Because my mother would punish us, saying: “Learn Spanish, because that’s the most important thing!” That’s why we learned.
R: So your mom taught you.
MDC: Yes, and I learned from the time I started working.
(interruption. Talk about the journey and how far she’s come)
R: So once arrived here, your husband was waiting?
MDC: Well, he was more like a friend at first, remember. I had had nothing to do with him at first, so we were still just friends for five months. But he was the only person I knew.
F: Did he introduce you to people?
MDC: Yes, to Hondurans, (unintelligible)
F: So did you start to have friends eventually?
MDC: No. Because we lived in an area with mostly gringos, who only spoke English. On 280th street.
F: Can I leave my number with you, by the way?
R: If you need anything, or have any questions.
MDC: Sure.
(Pause)
R: So how do you feel about tonight?
MDC: Wow, I was afraid of crying because it’s such sadness.
F: Do you miss Guatemala?
MDC: Can I say no? It’s so terrible. I know it’s not the fault of the city or where I’m from, it’s because of a father or a mother, a family. It’s been hard here, not knowing how to read.
F: Are you taking classes now?
MDC: No, because I’m working now. And taking Linda to music classes two times a week.
F: Do you want to learn? Or are you too busy.
MDC: Busy. For me, it’s important to leave something of me in her. It’s a priority for me.
(INTERRUPTION. Grey brings us dessert)
MDC: I really wanted to tell this story. At the same time, there are some feelings that don’t go away. (Unintelligible) a child of 8 years old (Linda?). So it gets more complicated, when your story repeats with the child. So she is repeating the same story as us. The rancor is planted in your heart. My sisters are living the same thing I lived.
R: would you like the maps to show your kids your story?
MDC: yes I would love that. I’m the kind of person that’s hard. I resemble my mother a lot. I don’t speak to her often. She’s a hard person. A child doesn’t deserve that kind of mother.
R: you want to be a different kind of mother to your children?
Mdc: that’s what I’ve tried. Linda is eight, and I want her to have a good life. Teaching her what I can, do she can go to college.
F: does she ask about her Grandma? I imagine it’s difficult to talk about.
MDC: she does and it is. My husband tells me not to tell her because it might make her cry. She always says how much she would like to have a Grandmother. It affects me because I’ve seen her cry about it.
R: it’s difficult, yes.
(Pause)
MDC: Linda is warning good grades, she’s talkative and a hard worker. And Genesis is three years old.
F: and do they get along?
MDC: yes, they’re inseparable.
F: what do you do for work? Or we can leave it for next time!
MDC (laughs) yes.
R: what will you do tonight when you get home?
MDC: first I’ll take a bath, then go o to dinner. The best restaurants are Mexican.
R: what’s your favorite food?
MDC: tacos! But also enchiladas
R: is it the same as Guatemalan food or something different?
MDC: different, food from the harvest.
R: do you meet other friends or family?
MDC: no, he has no family here either. But we’re always looking for places to go and have fun.
(Skip. General conversation)
MDC: Linda is very talkative, to the point that her teachers tell me to get her to cut it out!
(Skip. Basic conversation, chatter. Farewells, departure.)