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Kenzie Stokes

Jackie Burr, Instructor

English 2010, Section 3

5 March 2019

Searching for Freedom

It was the day Oscar Rodriguez had been waiting for. He and his mother were finally

going to America, the Land of Opportunity and Dreams. His mother told him he would be able to

go and get an education and fulfill whatever dreams he dreamed. Oscar and his mother currently

live in San Salvador, El Salvador, this city is riddle with gang crime and is very dangerous for

anyone not apart of a gang, especially women and children. Oscar is 10 years old living alone

with his mother. He is an only child, his father was killed 3 months ago after refusing to join

MS-13, the biggest gang in El Salvador. Oscar had stopped going to school months ago due to

the gangs that were overrunning his city. On his way to school some of the kids get stopped by

gangs and recruited, if they refuse the gang members will murder them.

The way to America is a very hard one to travel, especially if one is doing it illegally. El

Salvador is located in Central America. The country borders Honduras, Guatemala, and the

Pacific Ocean. It is 1454 miles from San Salvador to McAllen, Texes; the place Oscar and his

mother plan to cross over to America. It would take 452 hours to walk to Texas if they didn't

stop at all, which is impossible. Oscar's mother told him they wouldn't be walking the whole way

but rather, taking trains, and hitching rides.

They leave at night, the easiest time to sneak out when the gang members have passed

out from drinking too much. They pack everything they can carry, a few outfits, a pair of shoes,
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underwear, water, and food. Oscars journey to America was filled with fear at every turn. He

didn't know if the next person they came across would be a normal person, or a gang member out

for blood.

After 15 days of travel Oscar and his mother finally reach the border, they joined up with

a group who had plans to cross the border that night. Crossing the Mexican-American border is

one of the hardest parts of the journey. There are fences and security guards all lining the border,

this makes crossing seem impossible. That night the group started across the heavily secure

border everyone made it across except Oscar, his mother, and one other little girl. Oscar had

never been as scared as he was in that moment, he'd heard stories of people crossing the border

and being separated from their parents and being sent to prisons. The border patrol searched all

three of them and soon after the patrol took Oscar and started to put him into the back of a truck.

Oscar let out a cry, screaming, and begging to stay with his mother. His mother was doing the

same thing. The guards hurried to load all three of them into separate trucks all going in different

directions. Oscar tried to fight against the guards, pleading to let him go and be with his mother

again. He had already lost so much, his father, his home, his friends, his school. He couldn't lose

his mother too.

After a few hours the truck finally jerked to a stop and they pulled open the truck door

letting Oscar get off. He ran out hoping that they finally agreed to let him see his mother again,

instead he was greeted with a huge grey building surrounded by a chain linked fence with barbed

wire lining the top. Oscar was frozen in fear, this is what he was dreading, this building was

where the horror stories originated from, and now he would be going inside. The guards said

something in English, which Oscar did not understand, but then followed behind them in fear of
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what would happen to him if he didn’t. As Oscar entered the building he was greeted with a giant

mural of who he recognised as the Current President, Donald Trump with the American flag

behind him. Off to the side read the words, “Sometimes by losing a battle you find a new way to

win the war.” Oscar repeated these lines over and over in his head, he had no idea how those

words related to his situation but he knew they were important. The guards led Oscar to a private

room where doctors ran a few health tests on him then gave him back over to the guards. They

led Oscar to a room with what looked like a giant cage in the middle. Inside he saw many boys,

some younger than him and some older, all laying on the floor wrapped in shiny blankets. Oscar

was terrified, his mother was gone, he was alone in a new country with people who spoke a

language he didn't know, about to be locked away for who knows how long.

Oscar's story is one of thousands, in 2018 about 13,000 kids were reported to be staying

in detention centers. This number will continue to rise as people flee from their unsafe countries.

They think they are coming to a safer life where in reality people who work for the Trump

Administration lock them up with no hope in sight.