For Love and Money

Written by Roxanne Turpen
Published on Friday, 30 May 2008 12:31

Every year Jorge Martinez, 37, travels to the United States to make enough money so his wife and children can survive the economic hardship that keeps 40% of Mexicans below the poverty line (CIA factbook).

The children of the Martinez family don’ t know how long it will be until their dad comes home again. Each year Jorge travels to Carrboro or Durham, North Carolina to create a better life for himself and his family in Mexico. He says that everything he has- he has made in the United States. According to Jorge, he says you can only make about $1.25 an hour compared to $13 an hour in the United States.

The story of the Martinez family is one of thousands; in a struggle for basic necessities such as food and medicine— sons, daughters and wives continue to wait on the opposite side of the border.

The separation of family takes an emotional toll on the minds and hearts of children such as 14 year-old Jorge Martinez Jr. who says that sometimes he’ll get sad and wishes he could live in North Carolina.

Jorge Junior’s sister Pati, 16, has hopes of one day becoming a doctor. She said the money to pay for further high school and college is only possible by their dad going to work in the United States.

Jorge is lucky in that he has working papers that allow him to fly from Celaya, Mexico to Raleigh, North Carolina each year. However, with the dream to escape poverty and create a new life in a nation of plenty, hundreds of other immigrants die each year in the attempt to cross the U.S. -Mexico border. According to the U.S. border patrol there were over 500 deaths through heat exposure, dehydration and drowning in 2005.

Jorge Martinez says it gets harder every year to secure papers, and one day he says- “no more, I won’t be able to go to the United States”. In the meantime, millions of other immigrants will continue to cross, “They don’t care if they die along the road,” said Jorge, “it’s worth it.”

Roxanne Turpen is a senior in the UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication. She is interning at National Geographic Traveler.

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