Yesterday We Marched, But Today We Wait

SAN JOSE - Sylvia Rodriguez and Claudia Rizo are friends, both have come from Jalisco, Mexico, and both are illegal immigrants. Months after they marched and shouted “Si, Se Puede!” (Yes, we can!) they have grown discouraged about their prospects for becoming legal citizens in the United States.

Both Sylvia, 35, and Claudia, 34, have young children. They’ve worked odd jobs, and are taking English classes together.

Claudia, a petite curly-haired woman has been here for 15 years. She says she never planned to stay. She wanted to work and save enough money to buy a business back in Mexico. But when she did return to Mexico, she realized her life was in America. So she came back.

Before the mass mobilizations where millions in dozens of cities across the United States, Claudia had hoped for amnesty because there was a lot of talk that after 10 years of residence, illegal immigrants would qualify for amnesty. All that talk came to a halt after 911.

Although they joined the marches in San Jose, both Sylvia and Claudia now worry that their efforts were fruitless. “Now the [government] doesn’t want to even give us [drivers’] licenses,” says Claudia. She feels the immigrant rights movement has weakened and grown cold.

Sylvia also has been here for 15 years, almost half of her life. She first came here at the age of 15 from Jilquilpan, Jalisco, to be able to provide financial help for her impoverished family. Back in Mexico they didn’t even have a house to live in. Since she was so young, she was unable to find work until she added 3 years to her real age in her paperwork.

Originally, she hoped to work for two years and buy a home for her mother and return to live in Mexico. It didn’t exactly happen that way. Two years later she was back in Mexico with only $200 in her pocket. She came back to the United States because her mother owed money to a lot of people back home. There was no way out of their situation, even though her family members were working from dawn until 7 pm picking tomatoes and cucumbers for $1 a day. “That’s why people come here,” she says.


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