USA

Separated by a border for decades, parents and children reunite at last

José Antonio Rodríguez held a bouquet of flowers in his trembling hands.

It has been about a quarter century since he left his family behind in Mexico to look for a job in California. He hadn’t seen his family once all these years.

They stayed in the best possible way as possible, but the letters took months to cross the limit, and his father was never one for phone calls. Visits were impossible: José was undocumented and his family had no visas to the USA

Now, after years of separation, they were about to come together again. And José’s stomach was on the nodes.

When he left the house, he was a 20 -year -old young man full of skinny and ambition. Now he was 44 years old, thicker in the middle, his hair is examining the temples.

Does his family know him? Would he know them? What would they think about his life?

José was prepared for this moment and spent weeks, cleaning the trailer in the Internal Empire from top to bottom and cleaned the weeds from the garden. He took the couch in his family and took new pillows to put it in his bed.

Finally, the moment was almost here.

70 -year -old Gerardo Villarreal Salazar met with his 17 -year -old grandson Alejandro Rojas.

39 -year -old Leobardo Arellano, 70 -year -old father José Manuel Arellano Cardona reunites 24 years later.

The authorities in Zacatecas, Mexico, helped his mother and father to apply for documents that allow Mexican citizens to allow Mexican citizens to enter the US for temporary visits as part of a new program that brought their elderly parents to the United States of the United States. Many of the visa applications were rejected, but theirs were approved.

They had packaged their suitcases with local desserts and traveled by a 24 -hour bus and four other parents of US immigrants. Every minute, they would be withdrawn at the Eastern Los Angeles Event Hall, where José was waiting with other immigrants who haven’t seen their families for decades.

José, wearing a gray polo shirt and new jeans, always thought about it. In the Christmas season, lonely nights where his mother missed the taste of his food. He could always use his father’s advice.

His plan was to stay home to stay in the United States for a few years, to save some money and to start his life.

But life doesn’t expect. Before he knew, decades have passed and José had built community and career in California in the field of carpentry.

Juan Mascorro is singing for families who come together again.

He sent tens of thousands of dollars to Mexico: to finance the improvements in parents’ home to buy a machine for the family butcher store. His contractor’s brother sent his money to build a two -bedroom house with José hoping to retire one day.

His mother, who likes to talk on the phone, informed him about all the work in the city. Construction of a new bridge. Marriages, births, deaths and divorces. As drug cartels, he brought the battles of violence to Zacatecas.

And then one day, a close tragedy. José’s father, cheerful, strong, always cracking jokes, doctors said he failed a heart with a heart. He stood there for six months on the verge of death.

But he lived. And when he went out, he declared that he wanted to see his eldest son.

A person has a framed work of art showing the states of California and Zacatecas.

One -third of people born in Zacatecas in the US migration is very common, and there is an agency that is responsible for joining the needs of Zacatecanos, who lives abroad. It helps elderly Mexicans to get a visa to visit the family north of the border for years.

The state tried to obtain a visa of approximately 25 people this year. However, the United States, which is now ruled by a president who worsened immigrants, approved only six of them.

Horacio Zapata, a childhood friend who migrated to the United States for 30 years, has reached the Zapata. Horacio’s father also applied for a visa, but did not cut.

Horacio was Crestfalad. A few years ago, his mother died in Mexico. He had spent his life working to get rid of poverty and then had no chance to say goodbye. He often thought about what he would give him to embrace him. Everything. He would give everything.

He and his wife came with José to provide moral support. His voice put his arm around his friend, whose nerves swing with nerves.

48 -year -old Horacio Zapata hoped that his father could visit Los Angeles, but a visa request was rejected.

The East was normally active, full of fruit, flower and Tacos Hawing sellers. But in the afternoon of this hot August, the streets were scary, as the streets went out of the event hall to deposit José’s parents and other elderly travelers.

Since the federal agents landed for California, gardeners, daily workers and car washing workers collectively, the inhabitants of the migrant heavy pockets often remained inside.

Thought passed José’s mind: What if immigrant agents raided the re -merger event? But there was no way to miss him.

Suddenly, the Director of Zacatecas Hometown Federation Assns. South California, who came together again, asked José to rise. Slowly, his family came in.

Of course they recognized each other. The first thought: how small they both looked.

José Antonio Rodríguez and his mother Juana Contreras Sánchez wiped their tears from their eyes after they reunited.

José embraced his mother. He gave him flowers. And then he held his father tightly.

This is a miracle, his father whispered. He asked for this from the virgin.

His father, who was on his heart, was tired of his long journey. They all bought a seat. His father put his head on the table and cried. José looked down, smelled, pulled his shirt to wipe his tears.

A Mariachi singer made a few songs very loudly. Food plates appeared. José and his family mostly chose quietly.

At the next table, 70 -year -old José Manuel Arellano Cardona, his middle -aged son Muchachito – Little boy.

In the coming days, José and his family would relax to each other’s company, go shopping, and join the church. Most evenings, midnight they would continue to talk.