SAN DIEGO—Victor Ochoa was 7 years old when a stranger in a wide-brimmed hat came to his house and told his parents they had three days to leave the U.S.
The man, brandishing a pistol beneath his trench coat, warned that federal immigration authorities would be back to make sure the family was gone. That night, Ochoa said, his mother’s wails echoed through the house while his parents made plans to leave East Los Angeles and return to Mexico.
Nearly 70 years later, Ochoa, who was born in the U.S., vividly recalled the details of that day in 1955 and the tough times that followed. His parents had arrived illegally in the U.S. a decade earlier and worked in factories, drove trucks and cleaned houses. They raised Ochoa and his sister to speak only English.
Days after the stranger’s visit, the family fled to the border city of Tijuana, Mexico. Over the next seven years, Ochoa struggled with a new country and new language. He was bullied and called “gringo,” he said. Local children made fun of his broken Spanish, and the tap water made him sick for months. At 14, he returned to live in the U.S., later settling in San Diego.
San Diego! In the news! Although, it's mostly bad news. Also, allow me to point out, you would be hard pressed, very hard pressed, to find any Mexican-American who went through our ridiculous legal immigration process, who supports our current policy of "just sneak in and let us worry about the rest," policy.
