Journal of Hose Hernandez

Journal of Jose Hernandez

I am writing this journal for my son and daughter, I want them to always remember where they came from and how the Hernandez family came to the United States to better their lives.

My name is Jose Hernandez, my family and I have come to the United States in search of work. We have come here from a small town outside of Piedras Negras, Mexico. It lines the border of Texas. We live in a small two bedroom apartment in Karnes City, Texas. There is seven of us; myself, my son, daughter, two brothers, and their children. My daughter being the oldest of the children watches all the other children while the adults in the house search for work.

On several occasions we have found work that lasts only days at a time and for very little pay. But it is still more than what we would make in Mexico. It seems that the American people have higher standards and refuse to work when wages are small. If there is work out there and money to be made, I do not understand why the Americans refuse to work even if the pay is very little. All the extra money that we make we send back to our families in Mexico so they can survive.

The main problem that we face here in the United States is that we are here illegally. If one of us gets caught the most likely all of us will be shipped back to Mexico and face trying to get across the border to the United States, which happened shortly after we arrived.

We were lucky and “as demand for labor increased recruiters for the railroad companies and agriculture fanned out to the southwestern states and border cities in northern Mexico and enlisted many Mexicans eager to find work and a better life in the United States” (Compean, n.d.). During the Great Depression Mexican migration slowed but it did not stop completely.

When World War II ended, the demand of work increased again and we traveled north to Idaho to toil orchards and fields in Pocatello. “This time the federal government also joined the effort by entering into an agreement with Mexico to import Mexican contract workers, who became known as braceros, to harvest the crops in the Pacific Northwest and other regions of the country,” (Compean, n.d.) which was great news for my family. The rest of the Hernandez clan crossed the border and we were all reunited.

We were not able to live among all people. We were segregated from the majority of the community. I believe they just do not think that we belong in their country. We “were few in number and lived in considerable isolation from other ethnic counterparts in the Southwest” (Compean, n.d.). Although there were not many of us, as time passes, our numbers are going and our religious and cultural observations encourage