My Story
Hola; My name is Martha. I’m from Mexico and I speak Spanish. I was born in Culiacan, Sinaloa. I have 3 brothers and 3 sisters on my mother’s side of the family. On my father’s side I have 5 brothers and 6 sisters. I am the only child from both my mother and father. When I was 9 years old, my family moved to Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico.
I used to work in a big company. I was an account/ secretary, a clerk and a cashier. I used to work in different departments. Everyday I did something different. I enjoyed every new job.
My husband used to work in Calexico, Ca. Calexico is located 230 miles southeast of Los Angeles, 125 miles east of San Diego, 260 miles west Phoenix, and next the City of Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico. Mexicali is a cultural and entertainment center offering opportunity for fine dining, theatre, music and more.
Regularly, I crossed the border. I would go shopping, and some times I would visit my friends. Once in a while I went to San Diego California (It usually takes about 2½ hrs. from Mexicali). I would go to visit “Sea World”, the zoo and parks. I liked to go to the beach, my favorite being La Joya Shores.
I met my husband crossing the border. He was a Customs Inspector. Sometimes he checked my documents. His best friend was my sister’s husband. My brother in-law introduced us. The first time we went out, we went to celebrate my birthday (This happened 26 years ago). Later, we were engaged. After a year we were married through the civil courts on March 12, 1977 (almost 25 years ago).
My husband used to live in New York. He was working as a Sky Marshal (security in the airplanes). Later he moved to El Centro, California. My mom and my brothers lived 30 min. from our house. Also my sister and my brother-in-law lived in the same neighborhood. I was happy because I had my family close to me. We lived there for more than a year.
Then my husband was transferred to San Diego. We had a son who was 8 years old and a daughter who was 4 years old. The weather was always nice. I was very happy. Those years were the most wonderful years that I had in all my life. I enjoyed my children a lot. We lived there for more then 9 years.
We moved again to Toronto, Canada. At first we were homesick. We missed our family and friends and our food, but later we joined in an Hispanic Club. We made friends. Every month we were together. We had many different activities.
We enjoyed our first snow. My children were happy playing with the snow. They made snowmen, angels, and had snowball fights. We were happy playing together. I remembered the first time that I took my kids to ice skate. The weather was too cold for me, maybe because just I was watching my children and I wasn’t moving. I was freezing. After a while we were used to the outdoors. We usually went to the local Ski Mountain to use snow tubes or to go skiing, we were lucky because we had everything very close to our house.
Toronto is a beautiful, cosmopolitan city. There are many people of different nationalities. We used to live in Brampton. Brampton is a city located northwest of Toronto, Canada. It is a large city with about ½ millions of people. Every year in summer there is an event that is called “Carabram”. Carabram is a multicultural festival consisting of various countries that showcase their culture in their Pavilions. The pavilions there are located throughout the city. There are shuttle busses that take you between the pavilions. This festival lasts for 3 days. Here are some of the countries that participate.
- GERMANY
- PORTUGAL
- ITALY
- RUSSIA
- INDIA
- PHILIPPINES
- ENGLAND
- IRELAND
- CENTRAL & SOUTH AMERICA
My favorite pavilions were The German, The Italian, The Russian and The Mexican.
We lived in Canada almost 5 years. During that time we visited some cities. We went to Montreal, and 0ttawa, Quebec, Washington DC, and New York. Those places are beautiful and very interesting. We didn’t want to leave, but we had no choice.
We have been living in Kent for more than 10 years. We like the state a lot. The only things that I don’t like is the weather. and some of the people. These people are not friendly. They are rude in the stores , and offices, etc. .They don’t like to smile. I remember 25 five years ago the people were more friendly than now. I don’t know why. I hope this is going to change. Maybe we could start to do something about it.
My husband has been working for more then 30 years. This year he wants to transfer to Lincoln, Georgia. He wants to be come a Customs Instructor. My husband is an honest, intelligent man with integrity. He is a good man. Probably he’s going to retire next year to San Diego if he does not get this promotion. I hope he will get what is better for him and for his family.
Now our son is 23 years old. He works installing carpets and roofs. He wants to continue studying. I hope he can do it soon. My daughter is 19 years old. She studied in GRCC College for one year. Now she wants to continue this spring.
I’m learning about using computers. I would like to be longer in the school to have time to study grammar, pronunciation, and different programs. I’m a slow learning person. I have terrible memory. Sometimes I have difficult time to remember what I have been learning My dream is to talk English well. I hope one of these days I’ll win the lottery and I can get a Tutor 24 hours a day. My goals is to help people and different ways. Also I’ll like to help students in computers, but this is going to take time. I like to play racquetball, tennis, bowling, swim. Also I like outdoors.