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CUIDAD HIDALGO, Mexico — After nearly seven years in the United States, 16-year-old Edgar Gutierrez was back in a hometown he hardly recognized.
He returned to relatives he couldn't remember. Kids thought he was stuck up because he had lived in the United States. Teachers scolded him when he pronounced his name with an American accent. Edgar grew up in these mountains of Central Mexico, but now he felt like a stranger.
Edgar and his family, who moved back after years in Atlanta, are among a fast-growing number of undocumented immigrants who are returning to Mexico to start over. Some are drawn by a desire to return home after meeting their financial goals; many more are pushed by the faltering U.S. economy and tough local laws aimed at illegal immigrants.
Coming back to their hometowns, mostly in rural Mexico, they find the same grinding poverty that originally drove them out. Returning migrants face a gauntlet of challenges, from finding a new job to reconnecting with family and friends.
But experts say the burden falls most heavily on the children, who spent their formative years in American schools, watching American TV, wearing American clothes and listening to American music.
They are returning to a homeland they know through stories and photos. Some speak no Spanish. Others speak both Spanish and English with an accent.
For most, the biggest challenge is adapting to a different educational system. Parents and migrant advocates say these kids risk falling through the cracks when they return.
They are merely getting a taste of how Americans feel. We've been forced to press 2 for English and live with the crime and birth rates of a 3rd world country. Here's hoping they take what they've learned here and use it to overthrow the oligarchies and make Mexico a civilized place to live.
Oh cry me a river. When I was 10, my family moved from a small town near Pittsburgh to DC. I had to leave all of my friends, and many family members. I knew absolutely no one in DC other than my aunt and uncle and three cousins, all whom lived across town. I was teased in the neighborhood and at school because the kids said “I spoke proper.” When I first returned to PA to visit, the kids said they thought I would be “stuck up” because I now lived in DC.
Within one year, I had made lots of new friends, and everyone accepted my “properness.” To this day, I am still friends with some of the 'kids' from my first neighborhood in DC. The moral of the story. . . . kids adapt, and life goes on.
Oh cry me a river. When I was 10, my family moved from a small town near Pittsburgh to DC. I had to leave all of my friends, and many family members. I knew absolutely no one in DC other than my aunt and uncle and three cousins, all whom lived across town. I was teased in the neighborhood and at school because the kids said “I spoke proper.” When I first returned to PA to visit, the kids said they thought I would be “stuck up” because I now lived in DC.
Within one year, I had made lots of new friends, and everyone accepted my “properness.” To this day, I am still friends with some of the 'kids' from my first neighborhood in DC. The moral of the story. . . . kids adapt, and life goes on.
The bolded part does infuriate me: how so many of the 'ignorant ones' tried to make you the outcast for following Booker Taliaferro Washington's path vs. the 1970's equivalent of a 'gangsta rapper'.
Oh cry me a river. When I was 10, my family moved from a small town near Pittsburgh to DC. I had to leave all of my friends, and many family members. I knew absolutely no one in DC other than my aunt and uncle and three cousins, all whom lived across town. I was teased in the neighborhood and at school because the kids said “I spoke proper.” When I first returned to PA to visit, the kids said they thought I would be “stuck up” because I now lived in DC.
Within one year, I had made lots of new friends, and everyone accepted my “properness.” To this day, I am still friends with some of the 'kids' from my first neighborhood in DC. The moral of the story. . . . kids adapt, and life goes on.
Agreed. I am one of many who can relate to everything you have stated.!
Oh cry me a river. When I was 10, my family moved from a small town near Pittsburgh to DC. I had to leave all of my friends, and many family members. I knew absolutely no one in DC other than my aunt and uncle and three cousins, all whom lived across town. I was teased in the neighborhood and at school because the kids said “I spoke proper.” When I first returned to PA to visit, the kids said they thought I would be “stuck up” because I now lived in DC.
Within one year, I had made lots of new friends, and everyone accepted my “properness.” To this day, I am still friends with some of the 'kids' from my first neighborhood in DC. The moral of the story. . . . kids adapt, and life goes on.
I STILL think you speak too 'proper'. If you moved next door to ME, we'd straighten you out in a hurry....'round THESE here parts, we don't much hold with all that 'proper talk'....we generally just "tell it like it is", put on our pants 'one leg at a time', and we don't belch...we BURP !! Proper, SCHMOPPER, the way WE look at it.
I STILL think you speak too 'proper'. If you moved next door to ME, we'd straighten you out in a hurry....'round THESE here parts, we don't much hold with all that 'proper talk'....we generally just "tell it like it is", put on our pants 'one leg at a time', and we don't belch...we BURP !! Proper, SCHMOPPER, the way WE look at it.
LOL! Funny, in spite of the incessant taunts, I NEVER had to fight anyone after moving from PA. The fact that I wouldn’t ‘back down’ caused others to respect me. Although I was small in stature, I was big in “mouth.”
BTW, I think I would do just fine in your 'neck of the woods.' I’m like a ‘proper’ chameleon, and I do know how to have a good time.
LOL! Funny, in spite of the incessant taunts, I NEVER had to fight anyone after moving from PA. The fact that I wouldn’t ‘back down’ caused others to respect me. Although I was small in stature, I was big in “mouth.”
BTW, I think I would do just fine in your 'neck of the woods.' I’m like a ‘proper’ chameleon, and I do know how to have a good time.
Yes, you'd probably fit in well here, given your 'chameleon' qualities. If you can enjoy Chicken a la'Orange, without being TOO picky about just who SUPPLIED the chicken (or how it was obtained).....and if you can accompany it with a selection from our wine list, even if that selection comes in a bottle with a 'screw cap', then you could probably easily fit into our barbecues...where we discuss world affairs, politics, Greek philosophers, and "all kinds of sh*t like that"..
Yes, you'd probably fit in well here, given your 'chameleon' qualities. If you can enjoy Chicken a la'Orange, without being TOO picky about just who SUPPLIED the chicken (or how it was obtained).....and if you can accompany it with a selection from our wine list, even if that selection comes in a bottle with a 'screw cap', then you could probably easily fit into our barbecues...where we discuss world affairs, politics, Greek philosophers, and "all kinds of sh*t like that"..
I don't have any wine but I'll bring some cans of beer if that's ok.
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When I was 10, my family moved from a small town near Pittsburgh to DC. I had to leave all of my friends, and many family members. I knew absolutely no one in DC other than my aunt and uncle and three cousins, all whom lived across town. I was teased in the neighborhood and at school because the kids said “I spoke proper.” When I first returned to PA to visit, the kids said they thought I would be “stuck up” because I now lived in DC. 
You sound like my kinda people. 
