Once arriving at the Hernandez family home, we were received with joyful hugs from Rocopio, his wife and a shy embrace from his youngest son. As we started chatting, they would not stop talking about the fruit and vegetables and point out each one growing in every inch of their humble garden. Cantaloupes, chilies, corn, pumpkins and many other plants. A big pumpkin was lying out in the sun by the house from the last harvest. Rocopio explained how the earth was unusually fertile for the dry elevated environment of the Colonias of Tijuana. Springs of water spread out under the hill in which they lived on, making the earth damp enough for the plantation to grow smoothly.
“They would tell me ‘Old man! we have been to every house around here and no one has a garden like yours!’” Rocopio said as he explained how the neighbors would be amazed by the garden they had.
The Hernandez family received a house from Homes of Hope about a year ago. The family shone of joy and spoke of the gratitude for the house. Rocopio told us they will live there until they die.
“Well, it will not be for long, so then I wish to pass it on to our children”. Rocopio is around 60 years old. With his wife, they have, apart from the youngest child, 4 adult children with some with their own families. He talks about what their home means for them. An eternal blessing, a place in which they can live comfortably and live in permanently after a life of constant moving in the United States before being deported. In addition, life in Mexico after deportation was a life of struggling to put food on the table.
“I’m from the South, Michoacan, but I met my lovely wife when I came here to Tijuana at the age of 29 . We left in 1994 for the United States. During those days, I still had all my teeth!”, Rocopio said with a big grin on his face. The couple had one child in Mexico, but four of their kids grew up in the south of California. When my wife was pregnant with our youngest, my niece-in-law hired a lawyer to obtain citizenship for the family. However, the lawyer applied for “political asylum”, which was denied. Immigration called the family to court. But the lawyer never appeared at court, resulting in the judge ordering deportation for the family. They were asked to leave . They, however, decided to stay in the States, moving from house to house snd working different jobs to avoid immigration authorities. The family finally found a house in Fresno, which Mr. Hernandez rebuilt and painted, and the family settled in. They were happy.
One chilly morning at 7:00 AM, 10 years after the judge's decision, the government deported the family out of the US. Rocopio was sent to the streets of Tijuana, his wife and all his children came along 4 months afterwards.
“They didn’t even let my children finish High School even though they are all citizens.” Suddenly, Their life had taken a sour turn.
“Life here in Mexico is not an easy life.” Even in their old age, both parents attempted many times to find work after being forced out of California in 2011. The mother would sell tortillas or fruit whilst the father would walk around Tijuana selling ice-cream. A year after the exile back to México, the family moved to work in the fields of San Quintin, 4 hours from Tijuana. They started their everyday by waking up at 3:00 am to catch the truck taking them to the field where they would work until 7:00 am. The labour was to cut onions and cherry tomatoes. For every canister full of cherry tomatoes, they would receive only 6 pesos (about a quarter of a dollar). A total 110 pesos (5 dollars) for a lengthy day of labour. Additionally, three intervertebral discs in Rocopio’s back were decaying. Fortunately, their only daughter sent money to them so that they could move back into house in Tijuana. They packed their bags and left after a year and a half of working in the fields of San Quintin.
“I was working with a builder here in Tijuana when he asked me why I didn’t get in contact with Homes of Hope,” Rocopio explained how he first found out about Homes of Hope. As he continued explaining how he received a home the beaming toothless smile returned. “This is an eternal blessing. This is something that will be here until I die.”
We concluded by asking him if he had anything to say to the volunteers who built his home.
“Something to say?...” Rocopio got tears in his eyes, and for a moment was silent after hours of relating his life's story. Finally, chuckling with tears of joy he said, “I have so much to say. In first place, my gratitude. I am eternally grateful. What they did for me, I will never forget, not until I die. What you people do, this a huge help and this kind of help you don’t pay for...I’m in shock, because I reflected on where do you find this kind of help? You never find this kind of help. This can only be from God... God placed us here. For that, I feel… “Pura felicidad”, pure joy. That is what was written on the faces of the family. Their smiles pierced through their poverty and necessity. The impact the home had on them was absolutely life changing.
Their life still is not completely as joyful as they will paint it. The father in his old age still must walk several miles a day to sell ice cream around Tijuana with a hernia above his left hip, and their youngest son cannot enter school in Mexico because he does not have mexican citizenship. You forget about their present obstacles as you talk to them, as their gratitude for their house surpasses the obstacles they face. The provision of a new home is more than a roof over a family’s heads, but a catapult into a brighter future, a stable home they can call theirs and supplier of renewed faith, hope and pure joy.
