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Maria's Story
My name is Maria Luna, my maiden name was Maria Rodriguez and I was born in El Zape, Durango in 1955.
In the year 1970 at the age of 15 I moved to the city of Chihuahua to live with my older sister Ines.
Maria (left) and Ines (right) We lived there for three years and in September of 1973, Ines and I decided to make the journey to the United States after meeting some Catholic priest who said they could guarantee our safe passage and a place to stay once we were in the U.S. We initially crossed the border in El Paso, Texas where the priest provided us a room in their church in which Ines and I lived for the next three months. After those three months the priest helped us again by funding our journey to Aurora, Illinois (A small city about 40 miles south of Chicago) by way of train. I lived in Aurora for many years and met and married your father, had you and your brother and sister. Finally, in 1991 we moved to Phoenix and then to Glendale in 1995, I’ve lived here since then. My journey was very easy compared to that of so many other people, we had help from people who were trustworthy and also, we had practically our entire family waiting for us in Chicago. Also things were just simpler back then, I mean yes you had border patrol to worry about and such things but there were no Minute Men and the dangers weren’t as deadly as they seem to be now. Things were just easier, and you see, several of my siblings had reached the U.S. before me, a total of five of them actually. It was because of my siblings that my life in Mexico had been so good before I left. You see, I could easily say that I came to the U.S. because I was poor and looking for a good life just like everyone else who was leaving, but the truth was that we were not poor. With five siblings working in the U.S. before me we always had money being sent from someone and my life in Mexico was not too hard, and in fact, I came to the U.S. more out of curiosity than anything else. Like so many Mexican immigrants before me I never intended to stay here my whole life. Most people back then wanted to work in the U.S. and fund the building of their homes back in Mexico.
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