The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill | UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication
Bookmark this on Delicious |
Share on Facebook |
Stumble It!
"What do I want for the future of my kids? I want everything." -Jorge Martinez
Every year Jorge Martinez, 37, leaves his family in Mexico and travels to North Carolina for work. He sends money home to his wife so his children will have a better life and access to education in Mexico. When Martinez leaves Mexico his children never know how long their dad will be gone.
They don't care if they die along the road," Martinez said. "It's worth it."
The story of the Martinez family is one of thousands. According to the CIA Factbook, less than four percent of the Mexican population is unemployed, but 25 percent are underemployed creating a struggle for the working class. Forty percent of Mexicans live below the poverty line.
Martinez feels that the separation allows his family a better life made possible by finding employment in the U.S. He says he can make $13 an hour in the U.S. compared to $1.25 an hour locally.
In a struggle for basic necessities such as food and medicine-sons, daughters and wives continue to wait on the opposite side of the border. The separation of family takes an emotional toll on the minds and hearts of children, such as 14-year-old Jorge Martinez Jr. who says he gets sad sometimes and wishes he could live in North Carolina with his dad.
Jorge's sister Pati, 16, hopes to become a doctor one day. She said the money to pay for further high school and college is only possible by their dad going to work in the U.S.
Martinez is lucky, he has working papers that allow him to fly from Celaya, Mexico to Raleigh, N.C. each year. But with the dream to escape poverty and create a new life in one of the world's richest nations, hundreds of other immigrants die each year in the attempt to cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally. Since 1995 the yearly border crossing death toll has doubled. According to the U.S. Border Patrol, 472 deaths occurred from heat exposure, dehydration and drowning in 2005.
"They don't care if they die along the road," Martinez said. "It's worth it."
Martinez says it is getting harder every year to secure papers. One day, he says, "No more. I won't be able to go to the U.S."