Success Stories

Sharing My Life in Two Worlds

My name is Salvador. I am from Mexico; my state is Guanajuato, Mexico. I was born in a little community. I studied in school when I was a little boy. The teachers could not help too much. I will tell you why. It is because they had to walk about seven miles to the bus stop to come to school, and sometimes they arrived very late.

When I was young I had a lot of dreams about learning. I remember when I woke up I talked to my mother. She felt happy. She said you will probably learn a lot in the future. We had a hard life. Mother became sick and separated from my father. We decided to move to Leon, a city in Guanajuato. I remember every change in my life. I started to work when I was seventeen years old. It was hard for me. My mother needed money for food. I was working construction with my brother. I told him, “This work is too heavy for us.”

He said, “Sorry, but this job is the best for us because we didn’t have the opportunity to go to school.” Two weeks later, I moved to another job, kind of like housekeeping. When I was working at my new job, I went back and studied in the high school again. It’s so difficult to work and study at the same time. Why did I study? I studied because I wanted to learn the Catholic religion. I enjoyed my life in my country but my sister went to Mexico to visit our family. She was in the United States she asked me, “Salvador, do you want to go with me to the United States?“ I said, “Wait, I’m not ready to go with you.” It was very hard to decide to move here. But I knew I had to change my life.

I felt so bad when I first came. Everything was so different: the people, the food, the city, and the houses. I thought about my family my friends in Mexico. I missed my Mexican food and my band every day. I came to the United States on Friday March 14, 1999. On the weekend, we went to visit many places around Northern California. In California, my sister Emma said, “Look! This country is different and better.” But in my mind, I thought that it was different but not better. I shared my thoughts with my brother in law and my niece and nephew but not my sister. On Monday, I walked with my brother in law and one person said, “Good Morning.” I did not answer because I did not understand what the person said. Later I found out that it was “buenas dias” in English. I felt sad. So, I went back home. I told my sister what happened on the street. She said, “Well, you have to go to school and learn English because it’s good for you.” I started school in June of 1999 in California. When I went to school, I didn’t learn a lot. I can’t tell you why I felt that way, but when I moved to Austin, Texas, in 2002, I started school at La Fuente. And I can’t believe how much I learned. Two weeks ago, a friend said, “You speak too much English!” I told him, “Yes, I do because I have very good teachers in my school. They work hard with the students to help them learn English well.” This is my story of success because I know that I am able to speak in two languages and I am able to share my life in two worlds.