Danny Rosas-Salas

English 2010

Dr. Haslam

January 26, 2022

A Journey With a Stranger

According to the Pew Research Center they say, “The nation’s unauthorized population

grew rapidly between 1990 and 2007, reaching a peak of 12.2 million. Since then, the population

declined to 10.5 million in 2017,”. This memoir will be going over the story of one out of the

million of undocumented immgrants that come to the United States.

In 1999, I was in Nogales, Mexico trying to enter the U.S. because I wanted to see my

mother who was in Utah. I was released by the border portal after being caught trying to cross

the border, and I met a woman in the lobby of a motel that I stayed at. She was in her mid forties,

average size, and had light brown skin. As I was talking to her she asked me if I could

accompany her to a place that would help her get into America. I decided to go with her because

I didn’t have anything else.

We arrived at a small poor house that was located in Canea, Mexico, and for a couple of

days we stayed in a room filled with other people. After five days, everybody in the room had to

cross the border in the desert during the middle of the night. As we walked for hours through the

desert there were multiple puddles, and our feet would get wet as we stepped in them. The

woman got exhausted and was not able to walk as much, so I helped her throughout the rest of

the walk until we arrived under a tree. Then we had to wait a couple of hours until a van would

transport us to Phoenix.
 The van arrived, and the driver was filling it up with the people that were walking with

us. The driver approached the woman and told her, “ Is he with you?”

“Yes, he is my nephew,” the woman said.

“He can’t come with us, the van is already full.”

“I can’t leave without him.”

“ What I can have him do is wait for a second van that will come and pick up another

group.”

“Like I said before I will not leave without my nephew. I will not go if he is not coming

along.”

The driver finally agreed to take me. I was able to go in the back of the van, but there

were people laying down on their backs. I had to lay on top of them because there was no more

room left, and that was one of the most uncomfortable experiences that I had in my life. As I

later found out the second van never arrived because the van got pulled over, and got caught

carrying other people.

After two hours the van arrived in Phoenix, and for the night we stayed in an apartment.

At the apartment a guy would bring food and other necessities for the people that were staying at

the apartment, and he brought pizza for us to eat. We called all of our families to come pick us up

the next day, and the woman told me that her son was going to pick her up. I woke up the next

day, and she was gone without saying a goodbye. Later that day me and the guy, who brought us

food, joined me to meet my mother, so that I could have her pick me up. Before we left he told

me that he did not pay for his trip to come over to the United States, and I decided to pay for his

trip. I also saw that he had torn and dirty shoes, so I decided to give him the shoes that I had on

as well.
 Till this day I’m really thankful for the woman, and I would sometimes think that she was

an angel that was meant to help me get to where I needed to be. If it was not for her I would not

be where I am right now.

Word Count: 665

 Citations

Budiman, Abby, et al. “Immigrants in America: Key Charts and Facts.” Pew Research Center's

Hispanic Trends Project, Pew Research Center, 1 Oct. 2020,

https://www.pewresearch.org/hispanic/2020/08/20/facts-on-u-s-immigrants/.