Cristela Alonso

You know, absolutely.

So it was this thing where, you know, she became the first woman in her family to leave her husband.

You never left your husband.

You didn't divorce.

You didn't separate.

You stuck through and you dealt with it.

And she decided to leave him with her.

I mean, this woman had like a second grade education, couldn't speak the language here.

And she decided that that was better than staying married to my dad.

They had been coming back and forth from the U.S.

and Mexico.

So they would come here and then they'd go back to Mexico.

They were trying to establish a life here, but then they would go back.

for a couple years.

It's one of those, it's really off and on.

That's the thing that I think is one of those perspectives in immigration that we don't talk about enough, is immigrants come to this country mostly...

out of a need.

It's in search of this opportunity that they don't have at home.

But if my parents could have made it happen, if they could have had a decent life, they would have stayed in their home.

They would have stayed in Mexico.