Cristela Alonso

So for the first 10 years, it was a lot of us trying to protect her when we were in public.

How did you do that?

Well, you know, in the border town that I grew up in, in McAllen, Texas, it's a border town.

So you had border patrol agents out in public, you know, just kind of living amongst you because they were working near the border.

So if we went out to eat and there was one of them there, my mom would have us, you know, either try to make some noise, pretend that we're throwing a tantrum so that she has to take us out of the building immediately to protect her.

And we would have to play along because we wanted to make sure that she was safe.

How worried were you at the time?

I was terrified.

You always wanted to make sure that you did your job well enough to where you were hoping that your mother wouldn't be taken away from you.

And I was an American citizen.

And it's weird.

to have that much power as a little kid and that much stress.

And I think that's why, with what is happening now, living in Los Angeles and seeing the ICE raids, it reminds me of me being a child trying to protect my mother.

And I had forgotten

What has it been like for you recently in L.A.?

You ask yourself, you live in the United States and you live in Los Angeles, one of the biggest cities in the country, and it's happening here.

So there was a moment of disbelief.

And then once you realize that it was happening, I personally started remembering the immigration sweeps that happened in the 80s in my hometown, where a lot of times immigrants

You would not see your friends anymore because their parents had been deported.

Their immigration raid came and like just deported people at a factory, at a company, what have you.