I was walking the Sonoran Desert in my black tights, my polka dot dress and my 3 inch heels. I don’t know what I was thinking. I was trying to make my way to Arizona, illegally of course. One of my daughters lived in Nevada at the time. The idea of going to live for some time with her seemed fantastic to me, except for the fact that I didn´t have a visa.
I recurred to this guy my cousin told me was the best “pollero” and that he will definitely help me cross to the USA. This pollero guy made it look so easy that I actually believed it. So there I was, wearing my red lipstick and all dressed up, about to cross the Desert. We were a small group of about 8 people. The best time to not be seen was just went the sun goes down, so at that time we started our journey. We had walk for some hours when the guide told us we needed to cross a small river to continue. I still don´t know what did the water of that river had but when we finally crossed it my tights were full of holes.
It was around midnight when my mind started to go crazy thinking about coyotes or snakes coming out. I started to think we were going nowhere. All this questions started to go through my head. ¿What if we never get there? ¿What if I die here where no one really cares if I do? I just realized this wasn´t the best idea. Out of nowhere, I felt the light of a helicopter right on the top of my head. I heard the guide say “la migra, la migra, find a place to hide.” His face was screaming but his voice was trying to be as quite as possible. I couldn´t do it anymore. I did what no one trying to cross the border would do. I started to wave my arms to the helicopter screaming “take me please.”
They took us to the Department of Homeland Security to send us back to México. There was a lady with a baby sitting next to me and they called her to ask her some questions. She told me if I could take care of the baby´s stuff. I took the bag and saw there was a baby bottle with some milk on it. My dry throat was killing me and I couldn´t help myself. I just sat there drinking the milk waiting to get over with this. Home was the only place I wanted to be in that moment.