WEBVTT - Aftermath Part 1: Economics 0:00:00.400 --> 0:00:03.920 Hi listeners just a quick heads up out of the 0:00:03.920 --> 0:00:07.400 shadows tell stories of people fleeing and living in sometimes 0:00:07.480 --> 0:00:20.919 violent environments. Shortly after receiving Urca, Barney Santos, his mom 0:00:21.000 --> 0:00:26.480 Sonia started a new tradition, taking him to for his birthday. 0:00:27.520 --> 0:00:30.319 A fading photo from one of those trips shows his 0:00:30.440 --> 0:00:33.400 family sitting on the stoop in front of a weathered 0:00:33.440 --> 0:00:39.199 concrete wall. It could be evening. Sonya seated wearing a 0:00:39.320 --> 0:00:44.880 sporty striped shirt and a bright red Fannie Pack, casual 0:00:44.960 --> 0:00:49.879 but cute outfit very early nineties, leaning against her as 0:00:49.920 --> 0:00:54.320 a baby, bottle of milk in its mouth, staring straight 0:00:54.360 --> 0:00:59.000 at the camera. Behind her, Varney's aunt and cousins sitting 0:00:59.040 --> 0:01:04.319 in a wooden doors frame. Just too Sonia's left is Barney, 0:01:04.520 --> 0:01:08.240 sitting a little tentively on the edge of the stoop. 0:01:09.280 --> 0:01:13.520 He's got a boy's regular haircut, wearing shorts and a 0:01:13.640 --> 0:01:18.080 navy blue tshirt with U s a strown across it 0:01:19.080 --> 0:01:24.520 twice and red, white and blue letters. Barney says he 0:01:24.600 --> 0:01:28.200 packed the shirt without even thinking about it. He wasn't 0:01:28.200 --> 0:01:30.200 trying to make a show of it to his cousin's 0:01:31.440 --> 0:01:35.640 It was after all, just a shirt, but it's also 0:01:35.720 --> 0:01:41.280 a proclamation that his home, heart, and life are on 0:01:41.319 --> 0:01:46.839 the other side. The message is clear, Barney is American. 0:01:49.360 --> 0:01:53.639 Barney was born and raised in Los Angeles. He built 0:01:53.800 --> 0:01:59.320 his life there was a place he visited. He loves, 0:01:59.360 --> 0:02:04.920 spending birth days there and taking in the rich Salvadoran culture. Still, 0:02:05.520 --> 0:02:10.399 Los Angeles was his home, his community, his place of comfort. 0:02:12.120 --> 0:02:16.440 But Los Angeles was never home for Sonia. For Sonia, 0:02:16.880 --> 0:02:23.519 home will always be El Salvador. First generation Latino Americans 0:02:24.000 --> 0:02:30.079 are torn by competing forces. Kids don't want to stick out, 0:02:30.520 --> 0:02:35.280 They want a sense of normalcy. As a kid, Varney 0:02:35.320 --> 0:02:39.519 resented his mom for buying him shoes from Payless toys 0:02:39.560 --> 0:02:44.720 from Los Cajones in Santi Ali, But as he got older, 0:02:45.240 --> 0:02:49.280 he wanted to love it Salvador the way his mother did. 0:02:51.240 --> 0:02:56.520 This photo is a small window into that angst. Because Salvador, 0:02:56.639 --> 0:03:00.400 amongst his family's roots, his mind and attention are still 0:03:00.440 --> 0:03:06.400 concerned with his American ones. What Barney didn't know at 0:03:06.400 --> 0:03:10.160 the time this picture was taken was all the hardship 0:03:10.200 --> 0:03:13.200 and sacrifices his mom Sonia made to be sitting on 0:03:13.240 --> 0:03:17.800 those steps. It wasn't until he was older that he 0:03:17.840 --> 0:03:21.720 began to appreciate all his mom did to raise her family. 0:03:23.760 --> 0:03:28.240 She is a survivor, a provider, and a resilient person 0:03:28.320 --> 0:03:30.800 who wanted her children to be proud of where they 0:03:30.840 --> 0:03:35.000 came from without living in fear. And why she couldn't 0:03:35.040 --> 0:03:39.040 afford to give him name brand things, he soon realized 0:03:40.160 --> 0:03:48.240 she gave him a priceless gift, a broader perspective of 0:03:53.720 --> 0:03:56.800 I'm Patty Rodriguez and I'm Vera Lindo. And this is 0:03:56.840 --> 0:04:00.280 out of the shadows children of any six and all 0:04:00.280 --> 0:04:03.720 that immigrants and their children have long lived in the 0:04:03.720 --> 0:04:06.880 shadows of America. Their destinies aren't just shaped by where 0:04:06.920 --> 0:04:10.040 they come from, but by their particular place in history. 0:04:10.720 --> 0:04:14.240 In the lives of millions of immigrants and their children 0:04:14.280 --> 0:04:16.880 were changed by one lucky stroke of a pen by 0:04:16.920 --> 0:04:22.039 an unlikely ally, President Ronald Regan. This podcast will examine 0:04:22.040 --> 0:04:24.120 the ripple effects that Bill had on first generation kids 0:04:24.160 --> 0:04:28.680 of immigrants who are navigating intergenerational mobility and transforming the 0:04:28.720 --> 0:04:36.480 cultural landscape. This is an untold story of luck, timing, triumph, opportunity, survival, 0:04:36.839 --> 0:04:55.840 and of course hope. The fact that Sonia could get 0:04:55.839 --> 0:04:59.680 on a plane to travel back to a Salvador without 0:04:59.760 --> 0:05:05.480 fear of deportation was revolutionary. My parents lives also changed 0:05:05.520 --> 0:05:08.640 so much in the years right after Urka, and it 0:05:08.680 --> 0:05:14.320 started with the basics, better jobs, more stability, a better 0:05:14.360 --> 0:05:17.880 place to live. One of the first major things my 0:05:17.920 --> 0:05:21.080 parents did after getting amnesty was moved out of East 0:05:21.240 --> 0:05:25.760 La into a studio apartment in Lynnwood. I remember it 0:05:25.839 --> 0:05:29.799 being so small, but I can still feel my family's 0:05:29.839 --> 0:05:33.800 excitement to make it our own place, our home. We 0:05:33.920 --> 0:05:36.960 no longer had to share space with my cousin's aunts 0:05:37.000 --> 0:05:40.320 and uncles. We no longer had to sleep on the floor. 0:05:41.880 --> 0:05:44.680 It was a studio, but even then we had a 0:05:44.760 --> 0:05:48.560 little bit more privacy. The second place we moved to 0:05:49.000 --> 0:05:52.920 was a back house on someone's property with one room. 0:05:53.040 --> 0:05:56.120 There still wasn't much space, so we slept in bunk 0:05:56.160 --> 0:06:00.400 beds with my parents. But I had a backyard, an 0:06:00.400 --> 0:06:04.719 avocado tree, and a wabba tree, and to me, that 0:06:04.920 --> 0:06:10.279 was everything. Eventually, my parents bought a small house that 0:06:10.320 --> 0:06:14.279 didn't have a yard. I used to stare at our 0:06:14.320 --> 0:06:19.080 neighbor's yard, dreaming of one day having the courage to 0:06:19.279 --> 0:06:22.040 ask my neighbor if I could buy half of it. 0:06:22.600 --> 0:06:26.520 For my family, for my mom, for a lot of 0:06:26.600 --> 0:06:31.360 us children. Nobody six like me. The dreaming really started 0:06:31.480 --> 0:06:39.400 because of our parents. Out of the Shadows will be 0:06:39.520 --> 0:06:53.920 right back now, back to the show. Sonya Santos came 0:06:53.960 --> 0:06:59.279 from humble beginnings. She grew up in a town about 0:06:59.320 --> 0:07:03.200 thirty minutes away from the capital. My childhood was really, really, 0:07:03.240 --> 0:07:06.359 really sad. We were really poor. I used to go 0:07:06.400 --> 0:07:08.800 to school in the morning without eating, and I used 0:07:08.839 --> 0:07:10.960 to come back at night without any food in my 0:07:11.000 --> 0:07:15.040 stomach and getting home and trying to see how I 0:07:15.080 --> 0:07:17.280 can get something. I used to go to the places 0:07:17.280 --> 0:07:20.720 where they sell tortillas, and the lady who sell the 0:07:20.760 --> 0:07:24.240 tortillas um all the tortillas that people don't want, and 0:07:24.280 --> 0:07:25.960 she used to save it and give it to me. 0:07:26.520 --> 0:07:30.040 With her mom always working, so you became a curcuit 0:07:30.120 --> 0:07:33.320 caretaker to her four siblings, even though she was just 0:07:33.360 --> 0:07:37.840 a kid herself. Until my mother come back from his work. 0:07:38.360 --> 0:07:40.560 I was like the mother for everybody. It was just 0:07:40.760 --> 0:07:44.480 like it was really hard. My my life was really tough. 0:07:44.760 --> 0:07:47.760 It was like it's like I always tell my son, 0:07:47.840 --> 0:07:52.960 you know, I worked since I remember, hm, oh my life, 0:07:54.400 --> 0:07:58.160 and but I was I was a happy girl. I was. 0:07:58.360 --> 0:08:00.320 I was even though I was poor, and I was 0:08:00.360 --> 0:08:03.440 always happy. But I think the happiness for me and 0:08:03.560 --> 0:08:05.640 was now used to play soccer. That was the best 0:08:05.640 --> 0:08:09.320 thing for me. It's so inspirational that even through all 0:08:09.320 --> 0:08:14.160 the hardship she found joy showing you even had the 0:08:14.200 --> 0:08:19.440 audacity to dream about a career as a nurse. But 0:08:19.520 --> 0:08:25.720 in nineteen seventy nine, all those dreams were shattered. It 0:08:25.840 --> 0:08:29.560 was a civil word. That means the gorillas want us 0:08:29.680 --> 0:08:32.160 to join them, and then the government want us to 0:08:32.240 --> 0:08:34.160 join them too. That I mean we were chasing from 0:08:34.160 --> 0:08:37.760 both sides. They want all the young people too to 0:08:37.920 --> 0:08:41.280 join well, and we don't want to do that. She 0:08:41.480 --> 0:08:44.679 was desperate to get out of the war zone, but 0:08:44.800 --> 0:08:46.839 so you didn't have the slightest idea how she was 0:08:46.840 --> 0:08:50.240 going to manage that. She left her small town and 0:08:50.280 --> 0:08:54.440 traveled to the big city, looking for work, trying to save, 0:08:55.320 --> 0:08:59.600 trying to figure out an escape route. Then one day 0:09:00.040 --> 0:09:03.160 she caught a break. A pair of twin sisters she 0:09:03.240 --> 0:09:07.320 met in the city were leaving for America, and they 0:09:07.400 --> 0:09:11.480 liked Sonia enough that they wanted her to come with them. 0:09:11.520 --> 0:09:14.439 So they made this plan. They let me borrow the 0:09:14.480 --> 0:09:16.560 money because I didn't have the money from us, and 0:09:16.559 --> 0:09:20.719 then when I came here and I say the money 0:09:21.160 --> 0:09:24.640 where I can pay them back. The first trip was unsuccessful. 0:09:25.120 --> 0:09:27.920 When Sonya and the twins got to the Frontea, immigration 0:09:27.960 --> 0:09:31.280 caught them and sent them back to All Salvador. We 0:09:31.320 --> 0:09:35.120 did him and with the three of us, we we 0:09:35.320 --> 0:09:40.679 worked the and the Emmi Rachel took us and they 0:09:40.760 --> 0:09:43.600 reported reported us, the three of us. Then we went 0:09:43.640 --> 0:09:48.320 back to the sens and the plane. The second time 0:09:48.559 --> 0:09:52.800 was even more dangerous, not because of the trip itself, 0:09:53.200 --> 0:09:56.280 but because of a terrifying running with some horrible men 0:09:57.160 --> 0:10:01.480 who tried to sexually assault her. The was really, really, 0:10:01.559 --> 0:10:05.600 really bad. One of the the guys who was taking us, 0:10:06.000 --> 0:10:09.720 he wanted to rape me. And in the middle of 0:10:09.720 --> 0:10:11.959 the night we were the three, the three of us, 0:10:12.000 --> 0:10:15.160 we were sleeping in the floor and he was trying 0:10:15.200 --> 0:10:19.000 to rape me. But one of the twins, she was 0:10:19.080 --> 0:10:21.520 really bad, I mean she would you know? She she 0:10:21.960 --> 0:10:26.240 I was really I was from little town. You know, 0:10:26.280 --> 0:10:28.360 people from little town we're not the saying like the 0:10:28.360 --> 0:10:32.080 people from the city. We don't know too much. One 0:10:32.120 --> 0:10:37.520 of the twins offered herself to spare Sonia, and I 0:10:37.559 --> 0:10:40.360 was crying and crying, and then one of them, she 0:10:40.480 --> 0:10:42.320 saw that he wanted to rape me, and you know 0:10:42.360 --> 0:10:45.719 what she did. She took him and she took him 0:10:45.720 --> 0:10:48.760 outside to let him do it with her. Don't have 0:10:48.800 --> 0:10:52.040 to do it to me. One of the painful things 0:10:52.080 --> 0:10:58.040 about this show. He's hearing the pain and fear our 0:10:58.120 --> 0:11:02.480 parents enjured in this particular pains just part of the 0:11:02.559 --> 0:11:07.280 horrors many women face when crossing the border, and then 0:11:07.320 --> 0:11:11.240 to have to carry on to make it across anyway. 0:11:11.800 --> 0:11:19.520 It's heartbreaking for Sonia. The dangerous journey continued at the 0:11:19.559 --> 0:11:22.439 bottom of a bus, where she was hiding in the 0:11:22.520 --> 0:11:26.480 luggage compartment. Though the trip only took about three hours, 0:11:27.400 --> 0:11:30.000 the feeling of the buses motor vibrating on her back 0:11:30.840 --> 0:11:35.360 is forever ingrained into her psyche. They put me in 0:11:35.440 --> 0:11:39.160 one of those buses, you know how under where they 0:11:39.160 --> 0:11:43.560 put the luggage. They put me in there and down 0:11:43.800 --> 0:11:46.240 when they put the luggage all the way to the end, 0:11:46.400 --> 0:11:49.319 with all the luggage on the top of me, it 0:11:49.440 --> 0:11:53.600 was so hot, maybe like three hours. It was really 0:11:53.640 --> 0:11:57.120 really hot. I can feel the model on the bus 0:11:57.200 --> 0:12:01.920 on my back. But that how I crossed that time 0:12:01.960 --> 0:12:04.360 not have no problems. The three of us were crossed. 0:12:07.640 --> 0:12:10.520 She first landed in Maywood, California, and subsisted on a 0:12:10.559 --> 0:12:14.199 meager wage working factory jobs. All the money she made, 0:12:14.320 --> 0:12:17.040 she sent it back home towards Salvador. I didn't have 0:12:17.120 --> 0:12:19.560 a way to go anywhere, and all my money that 0:12:19.640 --> 0:12:21.200 I used to make, I used to sell it to 0:12:21.280 --> 0:12:23.760 my mom. I didn't have no money. I used to 0:12:23.800 --> 0:12:26.240 just save a little bit, used to eat whatever I 0:12:26.240 --> 0:12:31.000 need to eat. Sonia saved up enough to buy fake documents. 0:12:31.040 --> 0:12:33.800 She worked during the day and used her bogus credit 0:12:33.880 --> 0:12:38.080 shows to enroll a night school. Just like my mom. 0:12:38.200 --> 0:12:42.000 I buy my my faith idea and my faith grink 0:12:42.000 --> 0:12:44.480 car and everything. They didn't ask you for anything. They 0:12:44.520 --> 0:12:47.640 just asked you for that. And then I was working. 0:12:47.679 --> 0:12:50.480 And then I started working and working, and I to 0:12:50.600 --> 0:12:53.120 the high school, to the Huntington Park High School. I 0:12:53.200 --> 0:12:56.520 used to work from Maywood at night every night to 0:12:56.600 --> 0:13:02.280 go from Park Yeah, to learn, and I really dark 0:13:02.320 --> 0:13:04.240 about now you o'clock we used to get off from school, 0:13:04.280 --> 0:13:05.920 and that's the time that I used to go back 0:13:06.160 --> 0:13:12.040 by myself. In three she had her firstborn, Barney. One 0:13:12.080 --> 0:13:15.520 of the nurses was also from my Salvador and encouraged 0:13:15.520 --> 0:13:19.840 her to apply for a job, and she did. Sonia 0:13:19.920 --> 0:13:22.880 worked in at the hospital for years until the crackdown 0:13:22.960 --> 0:13:28.839 on undocumented workers in they discover everybody who was a 0:13:29.040 --> 0:13:34.240 document in the hospital. We were thirteen nurses with no papers. 0:13:35.760 --> 0:13:40.200 And then my supervisor she she was crying because she said, Sonya, 0:13:40.280 --> 0:13:42.880 I'm gonna have to let you go. And then she said, 0:13:42.960 --> 0:13:45.840 let me tell you one thing. I'm gonna say your 0:13:45.880 --> 0:13:49.280 position for one year. I want you to go there 0:13:49.800 --> 0:13:53.760 and find the papers and come back. And I promised 0:13:53.760 --> 0:13:56.079 you I'm gonna keep your position. I'm not gonna give 0:13:56.080 --> 0:14:00.400 it to anybody. About a year later, a friend called 0:14:00.520 --> 0:14:04.480 and told her to turn on the TV. Somebody called me. 0:14:04.600 --> 0:14:07.600 I didn't even know. And then she said, Sonya, just 0:14:07.760 --> 0:14:12.000 what And she told me who the TV is? In 0:14:12.120 --> 0:14:14.600 channel thirty four they're talking about I'll put it the TV. 0:14:14.720 --> 0:14:17.160 And then I turned the TV and I saw it. 0:14:17.200 --> 0:14:20.720 I started crying when they started giving you the list 0:14:21.200 --> 0:14:24.600 of the qualifications. If you have this and this and 0:14:24.640 --> 0:14:29.600 this and this, you can qualify Irka through Sonia a lifeline. 0:14:30.120 --> 0:14:34.640 I was crying, crying and crying. I cried. I was 0:14:34.800 --> 0:14:36.440 one of the first ones that I got it from 0:14:36.440 --> 0:14:40.920 the county. And then when I got my papers, I 0:14:40.960 --> 0:14:42.920 went back to the hospital and I gave it to 0:14:43.000 --> 0:14:46.720 Dr Cleveland. She put it on a picture and she said, 0:14:46.720 --> 0:14:49.200 you got it. You got your position. She saved it 0:14:49.240 --> 0:14:51.520 for me, and I got it. I went back to 0:14:51.600 --> 0:14:56.320 the same department with the same position. Everything cracked open, 0:14:57.200 --> 0:15:00.760 getting a green card, mental possibility of getting her job back. 0:15:02.840 --> 0:15:06.200 I can't believe in myself. I was, I was grateful, 0:15:07.120 --> 0:15:12.720 I was crying. I was I remember, I want to 0:15:12.760 --> 0:15:16.160 meet President Ring. I want to go see him. I 0:15:16.200 --> 0:15:21.600 want to say him. But more importantly, it meant she 0:15:21.640 --> 0:15:25.400 could plant roots in this country. It's a big different, 0:15:25.480 --> 0:15:29.920 it's a big opportunities. It's just it's like they opened 0:15:29.920 --> 0:15:33.880 a door for you. Everything is hoping for you. You 0:15:33.920 --> 0:15:38.840 can apply for anything, you can go to school. So 0:15:39.040 --> 0:15:43.119 your Santos path after Irka is deeply personal but not uncommon. 0:15:43.800 --> 0:15:46.480 It may seem obvious, but the bill's biggest impact on 0:15:46.520 --> 0:15:50.920 the immigrants too received amnesty was economic mobility. There are 0:15:50.960 --> 0:15:53.680 a bunch of stats on this. We looked at that data. 0:15:54.120 --> 0:15:56.880 That's Marty Powers. She was part of a government commission 0:15:56.920 --> 0:16:01.760 study of irka's impact and found that the history of 0:16:01.800 --> 0:16:05.680 the undocumented immigrants roots not so different from the history 0:16:05.760 --> 0:16:08.920 of most immigrants who have come to this country over time. 0:16:09.440 --> 0:16:13.440 It's not just one government study either, Across several studies 0:16:13.920 --> 0:16:17.120 a slew of economic data from the Bush Institute to 0:16:17.240 --> 0:16:23.800 you see, Davis findings consistently show getting legal status impacts 0:16:23.880 --> 0:16:28.440 economic status. The lessons we learned from it is that 0:16:28.600 --> 0:16:35.080 the legalized, undocumented or illegal immigrants improve their status the 0:16:35.120 --> 0:16:37.880 same way every other immigrant did in the United States, 0:16:38.720 --> 0:16:43.080 at least after after legalization. Certainly he did, being maybe 0:16:43.200 --> 0:16:48.240 not past the middle but up towards areas where they 0:16:49.360 --> 0:16:54.360 afford better housing. Uh, their children go to school. Even 0:16:54.400 --> 0:16:57.320 though Barney Santos was one of those kids of immigrants 0:16:57.320 --> 0:17:00.360 who got to go to college thanks to IRKA, his 0:17:00.560 --> 0:17:04.560 mom had a much tougher road moving upwardly. I used 0:17:04.600 --> 0:17:06.639 to sell anything you can put in front of me, 0:17:06.680 --> 0:17:10.480 I used to sell it. Sonya Santos has always been 0:17:10.520 --> 0:17:13.840 a hustler because she got her education on the streets 0:17:13.840 --> 0:17:16.879 of Cohotel back. That's what Barney's like that because I 0:17:17.000 --> 0:17:19.120 used to take him with me all the time to Damntown. 0:17:19.320 --> 0:17:22.439 But I used to sell everything. I even used to 0:17:22.480 --> 0:17:25.720 do fashion shows in my house to sell clothes. I 0:17:25.800 --> 0:17:30.320 used to go to downtown every Saturday and sell persons 0:17:30.800 --> 0:17:36.080 that Bell's silver Goal, anything I can name it, I 0:17:36.160 --> 0:17:40.560 used to sell it to collect money. That's how I 0:17:40.640 --> 0:17:45.760 raised my kids. And after getting Arka, her hustle and 0:17:45.880 --> 0:17:50.680 drive help Sonya secure the future for her family. After 0:17:50.840 --> 0:17:56.159 years of struggle, surviving the war assault being smuggled on 0:17:56.200 --> 0:17:59.880 a bus, Sonya finally was able to buy a how 0:18:00.080 --> 0:18:04.159 Sin Downey, a k a. The Mexican Beverly Hills, the 0:18:04.320 --> 0:18:08.479 fancy Latino suburb in southeast Los Angeles where my family 0:18:08.600 --> 0:18:13.240 also moved to after Urica, and I can after that 0:18:13.520 --> 0:18:16.520 they have a good life. She came to this country 0:18:16.520 --> 0:18:21.200 with almost nothing, escaping an almost impossible circumstance, but getting 0:18:21.240 --> 0:18:25.320 her green card was a game changer, and her son, Barney, 0:18:25.400 --> 0:18:28.520 is really proud of that. My mom was always somebody 0:18:28.520 --> 0:18:31.439 who just took care of everyone around her, you know, 0:18:31.600 --> 0:18:35.320 like at one point, not even one point, Like we 0:18:35.359 --> 0:18:38.960 lived to Downey, my grandma lived with us, my aunt, 0:18:39.080 --> 0:18:43.919 my aunts, her sister, my cousin, my sister. Obviously, we 0:18:44.040 --> 0:18:48.600 had a like a living nanny. Um so the house 0:18:48.640 --> 0:18:52.280 was always full, always full, no matter what, with people 0:18:52.359 --> 0:18:55.439 just kind of living there or staying there. Sometimes my 0:18:55.480 --> 0:18:57.399 sister had friends and my mama let them stay at 0:18:57.400 --> 0:18:59.199 the house too, So it just was a constant like 0:18:59.320 --> 0:19:01.480 open door. My I've just always been that way, you know. 0:19:01.520 --> 0:19:04.000 I think everybody looked at my mom and saw like, oh, 0:19:04.080 --> 0:19:12.760 like my mom, somebody who's got it together, out of 0:19:12.760 --> 0:19:23.280 the shadows will be right back now back to the show. 0:19:26.920 --> 0:19:31.240 For Alberto Vidal Orca cleared the way for a practical 0:19:31.320 --> 0:19:41.040 purchase's ans and pick up ven lo lovely car, blue car, lovely, 0:19:41.119 --> 0:19:51.359 we love it like blue me leel and my wife 0:19:52.080 --> 0:19:55.240 his family needed a way to get around, you know, 0:19:56.800 --> 0:20:00.280 divery thing we think he won't. We got the the 0:20:00.400 --> 0:20:03.719 green car is to buy a car, you know, because 0:20:03.960 --> 0:20:08.359 with a new car, because for the transportation before we 0:20:08.359 --> 0:20:11.919 were just using you know, uh the second card and 0:20:12.080 --> 0:20:14.719 uh you know, but we we needed for my wife, 0:20:15.080 --> 0:20:18.080 we needed to have a you know, a good transportation, 0:20:18.359 --> 0:20:21.359 you know, for at least five years everything. Getting a 0:20:21.400 --> 0:20:24.359 green card made it easier to get a car and 0:20:24.440 --> 0:20:29.240 eventually a house. And after that we change. No, we 0:20:29.240 --> 0:20:32.560 we've had things, you know, and when we we bought 0:20:32.600 --> 0:20:36.679 the house. You know, was the main thing that people 0:20:37.280 --> 0:20:41.240 want to get a house. So you know Lena in 0:20:41.359 --> 0:20:45.480 that year was like was seven and then comes the 0:20:45.560 --> 0:20:50.320 upkeep which is expensive. With a green card, Alberto could 0:20:50.359 --> 0:20:53.000 apply for a loan for renovations on the home he 0:20:53.119 --> 0:20:57.879 worked so hard to buy. I remember they give you 0:20:57.920 --> 0:21:03.600 like a fifteen thou dollars day and you have power. 0:21:04.119 --> 0:21:07.679 But we use you used to the house to torch 0:21:07.840 --> 0:21:10.840 the house. Because if I use in a different way, 0:21:11.160 --> 0:21:14.199 because I have many many friends when he happened this 0:21:14.359 --> 0:21:16.840 this situations that you spend in a different way. So 0:21:16.880 --> 0:21:19.879 we improve in the house. We learned a lot of 0:21:19.960 --> 0:21:23.480 things from this country. You you can have nine things, 0:21:23.520 --> 0:21:25.879 but you know you need to work hard and we 0:21:26.040 --> 0:21:31.560 change everything. You know, floor painting, you know its carpet, 0:21:31.680 --> 0:21:37.120 you know, furniture, everything, So we renovated the teaching and everything. 0:21:37.320 --> 0:21:41.040 We paint again a lot of things. You know, that 0:21:41.240 --> 0:21:46.199 green card helped Alberto's family create a legacy in this country, 0:21:46.640 --> 0:21:50.240 something he does not take for granted. But this this country. 0:21:50.280 --> 0:21:53.200 A loves this country because to give me the chances 0:21:53.840 --> 0:21:57.960 to have my family here, to have my my daughter here, 0:21:58.000 --> 0:22:00.679 to have my grandkids in here and part of that 0:22:00.800 --> 0:22:04.439 legacy Alberto created was the generational wealth he gave his 0:22:04.520 --> 0:22:08.160 daughter Lena, who got to witness her family's ascent firsthand, 0:22:09.080 --> 0:22:12.480 driving from street to street to street to street to 0:22:12.560 --> 0:22:16.680 find a house that was perfect. And we just happened 0:22:16.720 --> 0:22:18.919 to be driving by the house and they were just 0:22:19.000 --> 0:22:21.320 about to put up the first sale sign, and so 0:22:21.400 --> 0:22:23.119 my mom gets out of the car all excited and 0:22:23.160 --> 0:22:26.639 she's like, oh my, you know, we're looking for a house, 0:22:26.680 --> 0:22:30.000 and somehow just everything clicked. It wasn't perfect, but it 0:22:30.080 --> 0:22:33.200 was theirs and renovating the place with that loner parents 0:22:33.240 --> 0:22:36.520 got it's still a fond memory. It was nice because 0:22:36.560 --> 0:22:40.119 it turned into a family project and everybody was together 0:22:40.240 --> 0:22:43.119 and so and that I want to say because of that, 0:22:43.280 --> 0:22:45.280 I got really I got to know a lot of 0:22:45.280 --> 0:22:49.720 my family. Right. We are a reflection of our parents dreams. 0:22:51.720 --> 0:22:54.240 Varney Santos, the kid in that photo at the top 0:22:54.240 --> 0:22:57.800 of the show, is one of those people. In the 0:22:57.840 --> 0:23:01.720 first episode we talked about both of our market Manabello, California. 0:23:02.160 --> 0:23:05.679 It is a community space for Latinos owned and operated 0:23:05.680 --> 0:23:09.320 by black and brown entrepreneurs like me, and it was 0:23:09.400 --> 0:23:12.880 all Barney's vision. I just I learned so much from 0:23:12.880 --> 0:23:15.200 my mom just watching her, Like, I have so much 0:23:15.200 --> 0:23:18.639 respect for what she went through, and it's something he 0:23:18.680 --> 0:23:22.080 couldn't have been able to do without the battles his 0:23:22.200 --> 0:23:25.639 mom's Sonia fought like my mom talked a lot about 0:23:25.840 --> 0:23:28.680 right now the struggle of kind of coming here, but 0:23:28.840 --> 0:23:32.639 she's not even touching on just the struggle of being 0:23:32.720 --> 0:23:35.040 in this country, raising a family on her own with 0:23:35.119 --> 0:23:37.560 a thought. My father wasn't in the picture, and you 0:23:37.600 --> 0:23:41.920 saw she's the matriarch of their entire family. I wouldn't 0:23:41.920 --> 0:23:43.680 be who I am today if it wasn't for her 0:23:44.520 --> 0:23:48.000 Sonya believed it was important for Barney to understand and 0:23:48.040 --> 0:23:52.320 appreciate his Salvadoran culture. It was important to have that perspective. 0:23:53.160 --> 0:23:56.119 I used to take Himo to celebrate his birthday with 0:23:56.160 --> 0:24:05.320 the boss and everything all that went into opening Boulevard Market. Well, 0:24:05.359 --> 0:24:08.800 it might seem like a small detail, it meant everything 0:24:08.840 --> 0:24:12.840 that Barney could be proud of being Central American without 0:24:12.880 --> 0:24:16.040 the fear of persecution. I think a lot of times 0:24:16.080 --> 0:24:19.600 when when if there's there, there's families who are living 0:24:19.600 --> 0:24:22.000 in fear, and then they have kids, and then the 0:24:22.119 --> 0:24:26.080 kids only see that fear in their parents, and so 0:24:26.160 --> 0:24:28.560 they sort of take on those things and then they 0:24:28.600 --> 0:24:31.680 live in fear right, and then they and then they're 0:24:31.720 --> 0:24:34.600 not able to be the best versions of themselves or 0:24:34.640 --> 0:24:37.080 go to the best schools, or do the best businesses, 0:24:37.200 --> 0:24:40.040 or have the best careers because there's something in the 0:24:40.040 --> 0:24:45.720 back of their head that's saying live in fear. Amnesty 0:24:45.800 --> 0:24:49.679 gave Sonia their renewed confidence to inspire her son to 0:24:49.840 --> 0:24:54.680 reach for the stars. She basically told me every single day, 0:24:54.720 --> 0:24:57.800 you can do anything you want, you can be anyone 0:24:57.880 --> 0:25:00.479 you want. Don't be afraid to do what ever. And 0:25:00.600 --> 0:25:04.359 I always believed her. But without that piece of paper, 0:25:04.440 --> 0:25:07.919 like how could she even say that, she wouldn't even 0:25:07.920 --> 0:25:11.520 believe herself something as simple as not living in fear 0:25:11.680 --> 0:25:17.960 means everything without that weight crushing her self esteem, his psyche, 0:25:18.240 --> 0:25:23.439 his aspirations. I used to sleep next to him, and 0:25:23.480 --> 0:25:25.920 he in the bed, but right next to the bear, 0:25:26.200 --> 0:25:28.960 just thinking about where were happening. If they take me, 0:25:30.920 --> 0:25:33.200 I mean, and you and you hear so many stories, 0:25:33.240 --> 0:25:35.680 oh the kids, because he's from here, they're gonna take 0:25:35.680 --> 0:25:37.760 it to the system, and they're gonna send you to 0:25:39.840 --> 0:25:42.600 nobody has a glue what kind of feeling is that 0:25:43.000 --> 0:25:47.840 it's really really is to me, it's a trauma leaving 0:25:47.920 --> 0:25:52.240 that fair every night thinking about that it can't happen. 0:25:52.960 --> 0:25:55.760 And the funny thing is Barney didn't even know his 0:25:55.880 --> 0:25:59.719 mom was on her recipient. But I had no idea 0:26:00.520 --> 0:26:02.720 until you texted me about the amnesty. Think I've never 0:26:02.720 --> 0:26:04.800 really got to even ask you know what I'm saying 0:26:04.800 --> 0:26:08.480 because you think, like about these high level political moves 0:26:08.520 --> 0:26:14.639 and the macro and micro economic like implications of it 0:26:14.880 --> 0:26:18.639 in this country, right like if that never happened, like 0:26:18.800 --> 0:26:21.600 I would not be doing what I do, You wouldn't 0:26:21.600 --> 0:26:24.040 be doing what you do? How many jobs have we created? 0:26:24.080 --> 0:26:26.919 How many millions of dollars of sales tax revenue for 0:26:26.960 --> 0:26:29.400 cities and for the state that we've created? How much 0:26:29.480 --> 0:26:31.359 you know, how much of the economic impact just you 0:26:31.440 --> 0:26:34.680 and I have made right in this country? Like let 0:26:34.720 --> 0:26:37.600 alone the millions of people and millions of kids who 0:26:37.600 --> 0:26:41.280 have benefited from you know, amnesty, like all over this country, 0:26:41.359 --> 0:26:46.240 Like that one political act has created ripple effects of 0:26:46.840 --> 0:26:50.000 massive wave of change in this country. And that I 0:26:50.000 --> 0:26:52.399 think it's interesting and I don't hear from too many people, 0:26:52.480 --> 0:26:57.480 right like it's that's kind of nuts. I'm very proud 0:26:57.520 --> 0:26:59.520 of my son. I told him my same you know 0:26:59.640 --> 0:27:02.320 me go now I can die in peace because I 0:27:02.359 --> 0:27:07.320 know you guys doing well. He's where He made me 0:27:07.400 --> 0:27:12.720 more happy than he. I am so proud of him. 0:27:12.760 --> 0:27:16.040 It's just amazing. I pray for him every night, and 0:27:16.080 --> 0:27:18.920 I asked God to protect him in He's a good 0:27:19.000 --> 0:27:26.119