Sofia Sanchez: A Journey to America

Sofia Sanchez: A Roller Coaster Ride From Mexico to CaliforniaBy: Rachel Li-Muy

Themes: Identity, Immigration, Discrimination

Identity: Who is Sofia Sanchez?

Sofia Sanchez is a nineteen year old student who is currently a barista at a local coffee shop. She was born in Mexico. To be specific, she was born in León in the state of Guanajuato. She grew up with three siblings, one older sister, one older brother, and one younger brother. Since her father was a pastor, her family traveled a lot and therefore, her siblings were born in different areas of Mexico and Honduras.


"There are also important variations among ethnic groups. Total fertility rates-the total number of children born to a women- average 3.7 children for foreign-born Latinas." -Competing Visions: A History of California pg. 429

Immigration: How was immigrating to the United States of America like?

At the age of nine, Sofia had the opportunity to chase the "American Dream". Her family moved to the United States of America because they believed that there were more opportunities there. They had first planned to move to Vancouver, Canada, but they struggled to find jobs there. They first arrived in the airport of San Francisco International Airport but they had a home and resided in Daly City. Both her parents easily found jobs there. Sofia explains how immigrating to the United States was difficult since it took about a year to fully learn how to speak English.

"California-at any time, and especially during the gold
rush-is a particularly complicated place to look at gender and
sexuality. It has always been a multicultural frontier and is likelyto remain so" -Sex, Gender, Culture, and a Great Event pg. 3

Discrimination: What experiences of discrimination did you come across?

In middle school, Sofia had just arrived in the United States. She explains how it was Cinco De Mayo and there was a little boy wearing a sombrero hat and drew a line on the ground. He kept jumping and hopping back and forth, shouting, "Look, I'm Mexican! I'm jumping the boarder!" This made her very upset and mad of course, but she explains that there really was nothing she could do. 

"A majority of Hispanic Workers were employed in nonagricultural sectors of the economy. Partially in low-wage service" - Competing Visions: A History of California