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My name is Carlos Santiago Hernandez, I am from El Salvador. I came to the United Status in 1978 when I was 21 years old. I came to Los Angeles through Tijuana Mexico and I didn’t have any relatives living in this country.
I left El Salvador with a Visa to Tijuana Mexico from there I cross the border illegally to Los Angeles. When I got to Los Angeles I had to find a place to stay and a job. Once I got settle I found another job, picking grapes in the city of Fresno, they didn’t offer a steady place to be, but I accepted anyways and I went with a contractor.
The job was temporary the idea was to work and save, so I would be able to get back to Los Angeles. I worked there for 8 months. With the money that I saved I rented an apartment and I started to look for a job in factories. I was lucky I found a job in one of them and everything got better.
Between 1980 and 1981 I was living with who is now my ex-wife. Around that time there were also a lot of Immigration sweeps and I was in a lot of risk to get caught. During the period of Ronald Reagan we got the chance of an amnesty. It gave all the illegal aliens to become legal residents of the United States. Luckily I was one of the thousands if not millions that at this point are Citizens of this country. After Ronald Reagan approved the amnesty I got my permanent residency between 1986 and 1987. The requirements were that you had to proof that you have worked in the fields, proof of address for that time and of course bunch of other papers that I was able to put together and that way became a legal resident.
My dream finale came true and after fighting against a lot of barriers in my journey I gave the chance to my ex-wife to become a resident which by the way now is a citizen too. There were a lot of years of sacrifices, cold, hungry and sadness, but thank God I became a Citizen of the United States.
I hope that this story can help people, who are being in the same Journey. I Carlos Hernandez invite you to become American Citizen that will be the only way that our voice can be heard.
Sincerely,
Carlos Hernandez