Five Years Later
“We had to walk for a long time… Mexico is desert too and that’s super hot. It’s [very] difficult when you are small and a kid,” senior Jose Fernando Miralda said. Miralda and his family walked by foot through Guatemala and Mexico to eventually arrive in the states.
“We didn’t get to say goodbye to anybody,” senior Camila Acuna Cortez said. “Like, 75% of our stuff was still back home. We just had our luggage, and it was kind of like we had to start all over.”
Perry students Camila Acuna Cortez and Jose Fernando Miralda both moved to the US about six years ago, Miralda in 2020 and Acuna Cortez in 2019. Acuna Cortez and Miralda both began school at Perry Meridian Middle School upon arriving.
Miralda said, “We [left] Honduras and we had to cross Guatemala and had to go through all of Mexico,” His heart-ache remained with him beyond the journey by foot through Central and North America. “Leaving our country [was] super sad, coming here and meeting new people [was] kind of difficult,” he said.
Miralda’s father had been here in 2010, and prior to being granted entry into the U.S. Miralda, his sister and his mother were deported to Mexico. In 2020, Miralda and his sister were granted entry; they were later followed by his mother.
For Acuna Cortez, the change came suddenly. “It was out of nowhere and in the moment when me and my brother said ‘yes’ to it [moving]. I don’t think either of us realized the depth of that,” Acuna Cortez said. “We kind of went along with [immigrating to the U.S.] because we always loved coming here and in our head it was like this ideal dream.”
Acuna Cortez had been asked by her parents if her and her brother would be willing to remain in the states and not return to Venezuela from their summer visit with family in Texas. “The situation wasn’t really ideal back home, so being here would give us more opportunities to be educated and just a safer home,” she said.
Through the struggles, Acuna believed it was going to be worth it, though. “At the same time, I think we also all knew that like, it would be better for us,” she said.
Shortly after making Perry Township their new home, the 2020 the pandemic that impacted the world halted many crucial developments for Acuna Cortez.
“COVID hit around March that year,” she said.
COVID was formative for Acuna Cortez. “It’s shaped the way I function because I didn’t have a normal experience[…] I had to push myself to work harder because I think during COVID a lot of the expectations from teachers and stuff like that went down,” she said.
Though Miralda was not as directly impacted by COVID, having arrived later, around November 2020, he felt the weight of not being able to talk to his classmates very easily. “When I went to school [in the US] it was [very] difficult because we couldn’t have any kind of communication with other kids,” said Miralda.
Since, another five years have passed, and another major event has changed the lives of many immigrants. In the middle of the Trump administration’s changes in immigration policy, many people’s lives have changed.
“My mom is not scared because she is here legal[ly]… [but] my dad has to be more careful when he is like driving, he doesn’t want to get caught,” Miralda said. “He wants to do everything right because if he does something wrong they could call the police… and maybe he’d get deported.”
Miralda’s family is exercising extra caution in day to day life to ensure that there is no unforeseen legal trouble. Overall though, Miralda still feels safe here in the U.S.
“We feel comfortable here. We like the United States,” he said.
“I think my family, they were more nervous about it, but I think ever since some things have settled down, and we’ve been able to realize that we’re okay,” said Acuna.
Though there have not been major changes or disruptions in Acuna’s life, she has a message for the world.
“People need to realize that such a drastic change in the middle of your life can really impact everything… [It was] not easy for us to have moved here… It’s all due to our effort and hard work that we have gotten here,” said Acuna.
