When my twin daughters were born 11 years ago, their mother and I employed several women part-time to help us as we hopscotched across Los Angeles to and from our jobs. The woman who stayed on the longest, was from Oaxaca. Her name, like that of one of the indigenous characters in Roma, is Adela, and she has lived in this country for more than 29 years without returning to her village for fear that she’d never be able to make it back across a border that became ever more militarized. She made the calculation that millions of others in her situation have made: If she were trapped on the other side, what then would become of her four daughters born and raised in the United States? Today, two of them are college graduates and one is still in school. But staying here led to an inevitable price for Adela. Last year, her mother died back home. They had not seen each other, had not kissed or embraced, in decades. Their goodbyes were over a cellphone.
Source: latimes.com – Los Angeles Times