By Sofia Escudero

Born in Cholula, Mexico, Berenice grew up with her parents and 3 older sisters. “My family was struggling. We had debt, a lot of my neighbors used those blankets that cover trucks as roofs, and we got our water from a well.” Around the age of 6, her mom made the choice to leave her family and go to America on her own. Her aunt already lived in the United States, so the process to come to America as an asylum seeker was quicker than normal. It took about 2 years to arrive in a new country.

Her mother woke her up one Monday morning and told her that she wasn’t going to school. She had rolled Berenice out of school during the weekend and told Berenice to take her favorite toys and that they would go play at a park. They got in a taxi and started to travel North. “It was a long drive. Once it got dark out, I started complaining about not being at a park, so my mom had the taxi stop and I got to play for 5 minutes,” Berenice remembers. “It was the nicest park I’ve ever seen, well it was also the first park I’ve ever seen.” After playing at the park, Berenice and her mom continued their way North. She doesn’t recall much after, she just remembers being in a new place.

When Berenice first arrived in America, she was in Texas and lived in a detention center for Asylum seekers for about a month. “It was a big room where many people stayed, they gave us mats to sleep on and had disgusting food,” Berenice recalls. “The food was so bad and sometimes when we did have something I enjoyed, my mom wouldn’t eat to save food for me.” As a young girl, Berenice didn’t know what to expect. “The room didn’t have showers, and the stalls for toilets didn’t have any doors.” Berenice remembers the room having a big window in the room. This window wasn’t for sunlight, it didn’t even face the outside. It was a way for people to watch them.

Berenice constantly saw police officers and other men in suits watching them. About 3 weeks after their arrival, one of these men in suits called for a woman with 3 young kids. As she started to head over her 3 children started to cry and screamed for their mother to not leave them. In response to the children crying the man told the woman that she could return to her children, he then left. No one understood what had happened, but Bernice’s mom told her that if she was called, Berenice was not allowed to make any sound. Later that day Berenice’s mother was called. “I was scared, but I didn’t want to make my mom upset, so I stayed quiet and waited for her. I believe it was about 30 minutes.” Berenice told me. When her mother returned, she told Berenice to get up and to get ready to go. Berenice and her mom were given plane tickets to go to Lancaster, Pennsylvania. “I was happy to just leave that place, I hated it.” 

2 weeks after arriving in Lancaster, Berenice’s mother had to go to court and had to wear an ankle bracelet for a month. They couldn’t leave their house for the month her mother wore that bracelet. Once her mother got the ankle bracelet off, she wasn’t given her work permit for at least 2 months more.

Shortly after, Berenice was put into a new elementary school. To attend the school, she had to take an English test. Never having learned English before, she failed it and had to retake a year of school to catch up. Berenice’s school life was lonely, she was usually in ESL classes and her classmates wouldn’t talk to her due to the language barrier. “During recess I usually just sat alone,” Berenice recalls. Throughout this whole process, Berenice and her mother had to go to court rooms at least 4 times a month for a long time. She only got her social security card when she was about 9 years old. Her sisters now live with her, and their father comes to visit once or twice a year. “I haven’t seen most of my family in years, it’s hard but I’m grateful for the new life I was given,” Berenice told me. Berenice is now attending McCaskey High school, surrounded by people who love her. She is inspired to help those all around her and is on the path towards the medical field. She works hard every day to follow her dream and reminds everyone that they should too.