Cristela Alonso

And then she eventually became a cook at another restaurant, at a Mexican restaurant.

So she started working nights.

The dinner shift.

And then she realized that she needed more money.

So she started working double shifts.

So she worked double shifts for years and she would make about $150 a week.

Oh, that was her pay.

You don't.

It was really hard.

The way to survive is a lot of rice and beans.

You ate the same thing over and over again.

A lot of times where we didn't have any utilities, any electricity, you kind of made do with that.

A lot of times we didn't have hot water.

First of all, in the diner, we had this extension cord.

Yeah, we were squatting in this abandoned diner on the main street of my little hometown, San Juan, Texas.

It's Nebraska Street.

And this little diner, we had neighbors.

There was a little house next to this diner.

And my mom used to use an extension cord.

They would let her use an extension cord for a fee, like she would pay the neighbors a little bit to borrow some electricity.