She is married with six children, the youngest an eighth grader at Oak Grove Middle School. She owns a home, land, pays taxes and provides professional cleaning services for homeowners and five separate businesses in Hattiesburg. Her oldest son served honorably in the U.S. Marine Corps. In her spare time, Maria is a proud and doting grandparent and helps her husband in his landscape business. While life is busy and the hours are long, Maria does not mind. She is an American citizen and grateful to be in this country.
More than thirty years ago, Maria and her sister were Mexican citizens, living in Jalisco, in the southern part of the country. The sisters had no money, no opportunity, and little hope. They wanted a chance to work and prosper, and the only path to a living wage was across the Rio Grande, known to Mexicans as Rio Bravo. At 14 years old, Maria was vulnerable and at risk for becoming another victim in an impoverished third world. So, she mustered enough courage and money to travel to the border with her teenage sister and locate a coyote, the name for a person who smuggles persons across the U.S.-Mexican border.
Words cannot express the fear and anxiety these young girls endured, not knowing if they might be killed or captured by human traffickers or drown in the deep waters and fast currents of the Rio Grande. Determined to not turn back, the sisters met their contact at the water’s edge and separately climbed aboard a small makeshift rubber tube. Maria’s sister went first, in the dead of night, floating on the raft while the coyote paddled with his hands and arms across the flow of the cold water. Maria saw her sister disappear in the night, blindly trusting that her guide would return. He did, and in the moonlight, Maria began her journey to Texas. They found shelter and food and located relatives who help them assimilate into society. Maria enrolled in school, began working part-time, and tirelessly practiced learning English. She graduated and began full-time employment as a housekeeper. With patience and much effort, she secured a Green Card, which allowed her to live and work in the United States on a permanent basis.
By chance, Maria had relatives in the Hattiesburg area, and she relocated here over 20 years ago. She bought an old mobile home with a rotten floor and began cleaning houses to support her kids. Years passed and after more paperwork and persistence, Maria drove to Gulfport where she raised her hand and swore her allegiance to the USA, becoming an American citizen.
When I recently asked Maria about her experience, her eyes filled with tears. She is a fiercely patriotic person, but as a Mexican immigrant, she is often reminded that she is not welcomed by all and sometimes is viewed with suspicion and distrust. Maria does not take for granted her freedom, rights, and privileges. She works hard day and night, providing for her family, and helps many immigrants who are not so fortunate. These persons live and work among and around us, many in low-wage manual labor jobs, such as construction, landscaping, and roofing. They are trying to have a better life and reaching for the ultimate goal, walking out from the shadows and into the light of America, described by President Ronald Reagan so aptly as a bright shining city on a hill whose beacon light guides freedom-loving people everywhere.
Clark Hicks is a lawyer who lives in Hattiesburg. His email is clark@hicksattorneys.com.
