It was 4:00 pm in the mid of August of 1985 the day was so hot that you can even cook an egg on the ground. Her big brown eyes blinked every second like a clock “tick tock,” of how nervous she was. She was holding her three year old son on her right arm and with her left holding her belly. Her husband was next to her by her side, while she hid her four months pregnancy under a wide flowering dress. She was next in line to cross the border line between Mexico and the United States. Her husband excited, “Rose are you ready for the American dream we hope for,” she looked at him and smiled and replayed “I hope is worth what were living behind.” The officer asks if they had legal documents or passports, then they searched their suit cases and asked Rose if she was pregnant she said, “NO.” Finally they were on the United States territory theirs was no going back; she just wanted her new unborn baby girl to be born on that land for a better future.

      For the first three years Rose and her husband Francisco and her children lived in three different homes with her husband relatives. It was the hardest and frustration time she had ever lived in her life. Her husband relatives would boss her around and tell her what to do, they would say, “make us some food, wash our clothes, clean the house, take care of our children when we go out, if you want to lived here you need to work.” She will always cry every night, thinking about what was she doing their, and she stop and remembered that her daughter Yesenia was the reason.

      Francisco found a job in Morgan Hill, California as a chief in a Mexican restaurant, Yesenia (Yessi) and her brother Angle who they are four years apart would go to an elementary school near their new home. It was ranch fill with beautiful brown horses and a lot of bright green tress with soft dirt that when it rain the ground would smell so good, that it just made someone want to eat the wet dirt . While Rose stayed home all day as a house wife, keeping their home very neat also she would plant some vegetables and fruits for survival. So when her family would come back she would have dinner ready and would pay more attention to them. There they lived with no electricity, Francisco had to buy gas every day to keep in the flam on the gas lamp, also they didn't have any water because the house didn't have any pipes, and Francisco had to bring big water jugs every morning from his work. By that time Yessi was already nine she will get tried of seeing how her father would do some much work to keep them alive.

      Later Yessi started middle school; she was twelve years old by that time they live in a barn new apartment “it was way better then living at that ranch” she would say. Yessi was a straight A student and a while behave daughter she never cause any problems any where, she was always nice, sweet, and innocent. She didn't care about no one, she only cared about herself so she wanted to do something with her life, and she thought “I going to start working right now so I can get ahead on my future, so everyone would be proud of me.” One year pasted by she was working in a Taco place, that smell so good; it seem that the whole neighborhood was cooking a BBQ in their back yard, it made customers eat their three times a day. She would make a lot of tips but enough pay. But she didn't care, Yessi was progressing and that's all it matter to her, she loved it, it helped her to learn in the workforce at a young age.

      She worked at the restaurant for three years, she was about to turn fifteen and her parents were planning a fifteen party for her. That in her Mexican culture they would celebrate it only if you past three things, not having a boyfriend, no bad grades, and not dressing to expose. Before the big party that it's almost like a wedding “expected without a broom,” she quit working so she could concentrate on graduating from ninth grade and follow up to high school. Her first year of high school she took a break from working; she trade it with having fun with her new friends and enjoying school. But that only lasted a while, she had to get back to studying for her written test and her drivers test, her father would push her to practice her driving everyday after school, if she messed up she had to do it over again, she responded, “I felt like I was in training camp.” The last two years of high school were the best, Yessi went out to school dances, volunteer in clubs, skip class with her friends and checked out cute guys. At that same time she worked in a couple of part time jobs, she would quit from one job and jump to another if she hated it, “it was a lot of fun” she would yell.

      After Yessi graduated from high school and right away planning for college with no rest “I felt like a robot were, I didn't even eat or go to the bathroom” she thought. She was so confuse and undecided over her major, she had plans to become a chief like her dad, or a veterinary because she liked animals “but I'm afraid of needles,” she says or maybe a real state agent, she wanted something to keep her busy. While all this was happening her mother Rose would be working cleaning rich houses and making up to $300 dollars a day, her father still worked as a chief and her “darling brother” (Angel) would be racing in his Honda civil cross town thinking that his in the “Fast in the Furies” movie. Angel didn't care about his future or career, his dad will always give him money like if he was still a kid, and he didn't have a job. But his fun ended when his girlfriend got pregnant she was only eighteen and had a beautiful baby boy, now his six.

      The second year of college Yessi decide she wanted to open a business some day, so she started taking business and accounting classing so she could have more education and the learning experience. She was very excited bring her hopes up thinking about opening an Income Tax Service for her career. She would say “so when I get married I will have extra money for myself and for my children even later for my grandchildren even for my retirement.” That would be a great bless in her life.

      Now Yessi has one more semester to go and she is doing really well, she is concentrating in all four classes 100%, she even cut her own hours so she can have more time to study. The next step is San Jose State University, she plans to graduate from their to get her Bachelors Degree so she can get a good career and get pay a lot of money, “so I wouldn't have to work like a dummy any more” she says.

      Yessi life has been really rough, and pushing from her parents, they don't understand the meaning of going to school and the afford of time driving to school and spending time on homework and the hard working skills she has to put in. Her parent's just think about having parties, drinking, having her paying for half of the house bills. Treating her if she like was five, like if she didn't know anything about life, well she just know the good parts of life because the bad ones she ignore them, “ pretending she's deaf”. Her brother just plans to have kids, he already has three boys and she doesn't wanted to end up like him, maybe in a couple of years. Her mother only works babysitting Yessi's two year old god daughter and her three grandchildren, were Yessi hopes she'll get their one day but not in fifty more years. Now her father works at a mushroom factory were he doesn't like it because it's very dirty and cold all the time, he hates it with passion but he has no were else to go because he doesn't speak any English and that is a disadvantage for him.

      Yessi has suffer though out her life and she is still suffering right now, she started to work in a young age and that had pull her back from living her life like a regular kid. She always wanted to have more in her life and to be better at all times, she will always be despaired and selfish with anyone. She never says sorry or regret if she ever made a mistake, her life is what it is and it's been hard, almost how her mother lived with her father relatives, bossing her around. It seems that the economy is bossing her around I think that's the reason why she's always broke (by getting paid so little). But that doesn't matter to her; she still has her health and her five senses working. She realized that paying her bills and working is worthless, one thing is first “school” this opportunity shouldn't be stopped for anything.

       Yessi lost some of her child hood, by not having a good environmental home, she  lost her teenage years by working at a young age, she has lost some consecration time from school thinking that “I wanted to get paid more“, knowing she will get paid triple in a couple of years. It's not her parents fault she has lived how she lived, her parents also suffer bring her hiding in her mothers belly lying to the officer that her mother wasn't pregnant or if the officer found out he would sent her back to Mexico, then Yessi wouldn't be born in the United States and then she wouldn't know what I have learn now. My life is a mystery a puzzle I tell myself “why me.” I as a human being I have to putting these small pieces all together, my stories from our child hood has showed me the true of were I was at is were I could be if I don't do anything about it. I need to prepared my self for the future or for what ever is coming, I need to be strong and more open minded with anyone who approaches me. “But if I had a second chance to live just to change my life, I would do it.” 

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