Thread: Trips worth time, money

This article really is a slap in the face to Americans, especially Poor Americans who can't even think of traveling anywhere, or putting down 2000.00 for a trip or $500.00 for extra luggage. These illegals are robbing Americas and it's poor blind! As you notice by this article their roots always are and will be Mexico not America! Funny the word Parasite keeps coming to mind. America if you don't wake up soon there won't be an America to wake up too!

Trips worth time, money

Mexican immigrants living in U.S. head home for holidays
By Norma de la Vega
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

December 23, 2006

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexi ... xtrip.html


Mexican immigrants living in U.S. head home for holidays
By Norma de la Vega
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

December 23, 2006

The Orange County resident was worried. She had arrived just before her flight to Guanajuato was to leave, but she received a bitter surprise at the ticket counter.

“The bags cost more than the plane ticket,” said Torres, 66, while she rummaged through her luggage, trying to decide what to leave behind. An Aeromexico employee had told Torres she was carrying excess baggage and bringing all of it would cost her an additional $500.

At this time of the year, more than 1 million Mexican immigrants living in the United States are making their traditional visit back home.

But just like in the United States, traveling during the holidays is not easy, as a check at Tijuana's jammed transportation hubs showed.

Torres, a Santa Ana resident who was traveling with her two children, missed her flight.

“Nobody told us how much luggage we could bring,” said Rogelio Casas, one of her sons.

They paid $20 more per person to change their flight to Guadalajara. From there, they would travel three hours by bus to reach Guanajuato. Even so, Torres said, the trip was worth it.

Rosalba Longoria, 38, was about to embark on a 36-hour bus trip from Tijuana to the state of Colima, at a cost of $150, plus meals.

“It's very expensive, but it's worth it to return to your roots,” said Longoria, who lives in Washington state.

A great many of the immigrants who make the trip home don't earn very much. They scrimp all year to be able to afford it.

Often, though, their relatives in Mexico think they are rich because they earn dollars. And a lot of immigrants like to impress. They go back loaded with gifts, even if they face big debts upon their return to the United States.

An unknown number of undocumented immigrants also return home, and then face the dangers of trying to cross illegally back into the United States.

Alberto De León considered the years he lived illegally in the United States. That situation changed for the Guatemala native last January when he received his permanent U.S residency card.

“It was so many years waiting for it that it's funny now. I had gotten used to being an illegal,” said De León, as he waited at a customs office.

De León and his wife, Belmira, both 38, were there to obtain a permit so they could drive their U.S.-registered car in Mexico.

The permit costs $29.70 and is good for six months.

He said his wife and children planned to make a 48-hour trip from Tijuana to the state of Guerrero, stopping along the way at tourist sites and for lodging.

It would cost, round-trip, about $2,000 in gas, tolls, hotels and meals.

The expenses were not on his mind, though.

“The trip is very exciting,” De León said. “You can't even imagine how many sad Christmases we've spent in the past.”

Another happy traveler was Tomás Acosta. The 56-year-old farmworker was returning to Guanajuato after working and living alone for almost one year.

At the airport, Acosta said he would have to wait 12 hours before boarding his flight. But he didn't seem to mind.

Acosta said this had been a good year, because there was more work. He earned $8 an hour harvesting apples in Yakima, Wash. And he was taking all his savings back home.

“You have to be careful and not spend it all at once,” he said.

He planned to stay in the town of Abasolo for two or three months before again returning to the United States.

Acosta was confident. He said the “mordidas,” or bribes exacted by various officials, haven't completely disappeared, but “since (President) Fox came in, going back is a lot easier. At least they don't take as much.”

Norma de la Vega: (619) 293-1386; norma.delavega@enlacelink.com

I know military families that can not afford to fly home for the holidays.

Dixie