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Success Stories

I Came to America

by Javier Lares

I am Javier Lares from Mexico. I am a man who tries to be better and better. I don't like staying in the same place. When people don't study, we have to work in different jobs where there is no progress. Trying to progress is really hard. Working in different jobs is hard when you cannot advance.

I remember twelve years ago when I left Mexico. Some people had come from Houston to Mexico, and they said over there in the USA it is easy to make a lot of money. Well...I arrived in Houston with many wishes to work. I worked hard, and I found that it is not easy to make money. The people who said that it is easy to make money in the USA did not tell the truth.

I saw that here you have many opportunities to progress, but you have to work very hard. Now, I also know that it is necessary to study. Some people on my job are bilingual and they make easy money. If not, you have to work too hard.

We were working for a contractor and lots of people have many years working with this contractor and this company. They don't try to study or to speak English. I decided that I don't like that for me because I have my family, in Texas and in Mexico. I like to send my family in Mexico some money every month.

With this contractor, I never had a chance to do anything. I remember when we were working from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. I did have a chance to do anything except work and work. Then in one year, I became a bricklayer. Then two years later, a person offered me more money if I would go to work with him. He was another contractor whose name was Pascual, but his job was not here in Houston. His job was in Austin, and he told me that if I knew other workers, I should tell him. I had a friend who was married. He took his wife, and he went to Austin, too.

We arrived at his apartment, and this new boss man had more workers in his apartment. Well, the next day we started to work and this job was better. I had a little free time to start to study English. I bought books.

Pascual started to make a lot of money. He had a lot of workers and he started to give me a lot of responsibility on the job. Well I appreciated him because he saw that I was a good worker.

However, when I tried to get work for myself, he didn't like that. He became excited and he didn't pay me anything for the last week. He just threw me a few dollars and some change. I picked them up, and the Pascual told me, "If you don't want to work with me, get your things and go to another place. I give you one hour to get out of here." "You, too.", he told my friend and his wife. Can you imagine what time it was? 8 p.m. We went to a hotel that night, and the next day, I found a job by myself for my friend and me. That was better. We had a little more money and I knew it was time for me to learn to speak English. I will never forget that time.

If you try to speak English, you can know more people. You can make more friends. Three months later, when everything was perfect on my new job, Pascual, who was angry with me, reported me to Immigration, and they sent me back to Mexico. I know Pascual reported me because before he told me to get out from his apartment, he told me, "I brought you over here, and I'm going to get you out of Austin!" Why did he do that? He is a Mexican person like me. Do you believe that? But that was ok; I was happy because I had not seen my family in three years. I was happy to be with my family again, and I found the person who was to become my wife. My wife-to-be gave me a reason to look ahead until I felt strong enough to go back to the USA.

One year later, we came back to USA, but not to Austin. We arrived in Houston; I say "we" because now it is my wife and me. Then I was lucky because I found work in a good company, my work schedule is from 6 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. This gave me enough time to start to study.

One year later I decided to get a house, and now I have had my home for three years. I have a family, a beautiful family, and I have a good life. I'm here trying to make progress, and my wife and I are studying together. We are enrolled in classes at the elementary school; we have a good teacher who is patient with all of us. She explains things very well, and she encourages us to study on our own. My speaking and writing have improved very much.