In 1995, after a couple of years in Mexico, her mother heard that one of Rosalinda\u2019s brothers was getting into trouble in the States and decided that she needed to live closer to him. Rosalinda wanted to stay, but her mother ignored her pleas, saying, \u201cPack your bag, because tomorrow we\u2019re leaving early.\u201d It took them three attempts before they were able to sneak across the border, with the help of smugglers, who drove them to San Bernardino. During the ride, one of the men groped Rosalinda, who was fourteen. \u201cThere was nothing I could do\u2014I couldn\u2019t scream or anything,\u201d Rosalinda said, wiping away tears. \u201cI just had to stay silent. After that, I told my mother, \u2018You do whatever you want, but I am _never_crossing again. That\u2019s it, I\u2019m finished.\u2019\u00a0\u201d Two years later, as a high schooler in San Bernardino, she met Manuel and became pregnant with Jos\u00e9.<\/p>\n
As a couple, Rosalinda and Manuel had sometimes contemplated returning to Mexico. But only once, more than fifteen years ago, did they come close, after a particularly humiliating experience of trying to sign up their young children for Medicaid. Rosalinda told me, \u201cThe woman who worked there made me feel so bad that I came back sobbing, and I said, \u2018I don\u2019t want to live in this country anymore.\u2019\u00a0\u201d But when she and Manuel asked Jos\u00e9, who was twelve at the time, if he wanted to move to Mexico, he begged them to keep the family in America. \u201cAnd they respected my wishes,\u201d Jos\u00e9 told me, recalling the conversation. \u201cThey listened.\u201d<\/p>\n
About half of the Garc\u00edas\u2019 extended family now lived in Southern California. The other half, in Mexico, Rosalinda knew largely by name only. Until recently, she and her husband had a vibrant social life in San Bernardino. For many years, she regularly attended an evangelical church, and she still went to exercise classes with friends she\u2019d made there. Manuel, for all his shyness, had been a regular on a recreational baseball team.<\/p>\n
Rosalinda hadn\u2019t forgotten her youthful promise to never cross the border again. It felt surreal to be returning to Mexico, which, after her three decades in America, seemed like a construction of her imagination. \u201cWe are afraid, because we\u2019re moving to a place that we don\u2019t remember,\u201d she told me, sighing. \u201cI guess that\u2019s just how it goes.\u201d<\/p>\n
On weekends, the family liked to unwind at a nearby R.V. park and private campground where they had been members for years. There were campsites for tents and trailers, rental cabins, barbecue grills, two lakes, and three swimming pools. It had long been Rosalinda\u2019s favorite place, and now it had the additional appeal of being private property. \u201cIt\u2019s all fenced in, so it\u2019s one of the few places outdoors where ICE can\u2019t just show up,\u201d Jos\u00e9 explained. Last spring, when the raids in San Bernardino hit their peak, Rosalinda camped there for two weeks. \u201cI slept in a tent close to the showers so that I would be more comfortable,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
One Saturday afternoon, Rosalinda, Ana, Jos\u00e9, Irene, and I piled into their black Tahoe and drove to the campground. In the car, Rosalinda wanted me to listen to one of her favorite norte\u00f1os\u2014a type of Mexican folk song that heavily features the accordion. \u201cIt\u2019s the one I\u2019m going to listen to when I leave the United States,\u201d she explained. The song was called \u201cEl Mojado Acaudalado,\u201d or \u201cThe Wealthy Wetback,\u201d reclaiming a slur that dates from the early twentieth century and refers to Mexican immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally by crossing the Rio Grande. The song\u2019s narrator is a migrant who has saved up money while working in the U.S. and is finally returning to his homeland. Rosalinda sang along to every word:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 1995, after a couple of years in Mexico, her mother heard that one of Rosalinda\u2019s brothers was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":113563,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,35891,60886,30425,35892,60887],"class_list":{"0":"post-113562","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-california-headlines","10":"tag-california-news","11":"tag-inverted","12":"tag-letter-from-san-bernardino","13":"tag-magazine","14":"tag-onecolumnnarrow","15":"tag-textbelowcenterfullbleednocontributor"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113562\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}