Eloisa was born in Mexico City, but lived in Zacatecas City, located in north central Mexico. Zacatecas holds a special place in her heart, but she doesn’t miss it as much now because most of her family left. She came to America in her early 20s because her brother lived in Houston, and she was visiting him for a week. She decided to stay in Texas for 6 more months on a visa because she loved Texas so much, then renewed her visa. She met her husband in Texas, and he was from New York, but also immigrated as he was Italian. He was the one who helped her gain her American citizenship, which was her most special moment for her in the United States. She loves the United States more than her home country and vehemently disagrees with anyone who thinks coming illegally is okay.
The hardest part about coming to America for Eloisa was the language. It was so difficult for her, but she really wanted to speak English. She didn’t go to school for English in Mexico or the United States, she just picked it up by watching and reading things in America. It was hard for her to teach her kids as well because when they started learning English, she couldn’t help them that much with spelling and learning. Family was very important to her in Mexico as well, and they would always get together and have meals, and share stuff with each other. The familial culture was different here, as well as the food. She also didn’t have any family here in America for her to lean on. It wasn’t a change that hampered her life in America, but it made her want to go back to Mexico at times.
She didn’t experience much discrimination in Texas, but had one experience to share in North Carolina. A man walked up to her at a light and started yelling at her about how bad she was driving and how she should “go back to her country”. Eloisa said “I don’t have problems with you, God bless you, don’t hate others” and the man got mad and left. She said aside from this one incident, she hasn’t really faced much discrimination in the U.S.
Today, Eloisa has her own housekeeping business that she participates in part time and works in the cafeteria at St. Mary Magdalene. She has two children, one is a computer programmer and her other one is a commercial real estate agent. She is truly happy with what America has given to her.
