Paula Guzman,
U.S.Citizen Married to an Aspiring U.S. Citizen
I was born
in Sparks, Nevada and graduated from Sparks High School. I moved to Oregon in
Nov.,1994, where a few months later I met my husband and the father of my
daughters, Ramiro,
who was born in Mexico. Rachel was born in Reno and Angelica was born in
Oregon.
Ramiro
retired after working for the Mexican Army for 22 years. He would go for months at a time into
remote mountains to capture the drug cartel. He didn't work for the U.S.
but what he did benefited the U.S.
Ramiro came to the US on
a Tourist Visa. Then he worked hard on farms and his bosses asked him to return
each year.
In 1995 after he and
others completed their seasonal work on a Christmas tree farm, the owner of the
farm called the immigration authorities and Ramiro was detained. The judge said
that Ramiro had to leave the country by Nov. 1996 or be deported. Ramiro had to
be out of the US for 10 years before he could reapply for a Green Card.
It was
difficult for me and the girls to move to Mexico, but we did, to be with him
and keep our family together. It was hard for us in Mexico. There was a lot of
violence. We heard gunshots and grenades at night. We would sleep on the floor
in the room furthest from the street so we wouldn’t be hit by bullets.
Many of our friends and
neighbors were murdered by the drug cartels. They would hang people from the
bridges, and cut up dead people and display the body parts to scare everyone.
Even our pastor’s son was kidnapped and held for ransom.
After 10 years of waiting
in Mexico, my daughters and I came back to the US in 2011 so they could have a
good education and we wouldn’t be around all the violence.
I wonder every day if I
made the right decision. Ramiro’s papers still have not been approved. He is
still waiting. He has filed all the documents, but the immigration system is broken.
My girls and I miss him
terribly. We are often sad and try not to cry all the time.
Rachel had been
planning for her Baptism & 15th Birthday "Quince AƱos" since she was 9. She even
designed her dress. But we didn’t have the big party because her dad wasn’t
here with us.