In the beginning....

This long, narrow territory is considered the agricultural capital of Mexico. Sinaloa is the number one producer of vegetables and the second leading producer of cereal in the nation.

State Website: www.sinaloa.gob.mx 

My name is Ricardo Nava Garcia, and I was born in Cosala, Sinaloa. I am the youngest of twelve kids. To put it nicely, Mexico has never and will in no way be a good place to raise a family. The people who survive in Mexico are those who have inherited land or money, or those in the corrupt government system. In the summer of 1976, I had a wife and son who I was supporting in a small house. I was making 19 pesos a day picking vegetables and corn. I had no rent to pay, but we needed to buy food and electricity. I would also cut down timber to provide fire for cooking and for heat. In comparison, the dollar at the time was worth 12.50 pesos and food was becoming a high expense. I decided to migrate into the United States in search of a better life.

My older brother was already living in the States, as well as other cousins and uncles. He told me to take a bus to Tijuana and I would come in contact with a coyote he recommended. When I meet with the coyote, he assisted me and 15 other immigrants to the desert in hopes of making it into the United States.

Since 1994, the government has made it harder for illegal immigrants to cross through the California part of the U.S.-Mexico border.  "Operation Gatekeeper" was the new plan to shift the remaining traffic of Mexican's crossing the border eastward, where the Border Patrol believed it enjoyed a strategic advantage on immigrants. However, since its insert, deaths have increased 500% due to migrants crossing over mountains and through harsh desert conditions.

We left at sundown and crossed the desert for twelve hours. We each carried two gallons of water as we were warned of possible dehydration. All I kept thinking about was my family back home, and how much more opportunity would be available in the United States.  The coyote charged me $300 US dollars, but he did not receive the money until I successfully crossed the border. He led me to Paramount, California, where my brother and cousin had money waiting for the coyote.

According to Ricardo, coyotes now charge anywhere from $1,500 to $2,500 to cross the border.

 While in Paramount, I found work quickly at a plastic factory. They did not ask for my papers to work in the U.S. nor did they ask for a social security number. As I expected, I was paid a lot more than in Mexico. My hourly wage was $2.10 an hour and I was working 45-hour weeks. I then moved to a rim factory where my wages went up to $2.60 while working nights. After about three months, I sent my wife a letter to ask her to bring the family to California. She did not a have telephone at home, so a letter was the only form of communication. When she and my 1 year old son crossed, the coyote only charged them $175. The price difference was due to the fact that they had been provided with a fake identification that belonged to cousins of ours who were U.S. citizens. As we “moved up” in the world, we found ourselves living on a nephew’s couch for about two months before we got our own place. Rent was $175 a month and my wife and I were both making anywhere from $110 to $125 weekly. We never could have made this type of money in Mexico.

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