Tribute to my Mother

“I believe in love at first sight, because I love my mother since I opened my eyes.” I admire this woman with all my soul. We have been together through thick and thin. She has giving me the reasons to consider her a strong, supportive, determined and loving woman. Who has showed me values, respect and how to face situations without giving-up. My family was raised in Cuba; we were a poor family, but a hard working family who never went to bed without dinner. My grandmother left school while she was in sixth grade because she had to take care of her four brothers, while her mom worked sewing weeding dresses which took her days to finish. Years past and my mother grew up in a hard working environment. Her dad had alcoholic problems which cause him to get aggressive. His behavior affected my grandmother and my mom in a lot of different ways. After years of suffering they ran away and left to another city. My grandmother always encourages my mom to study and follow her dreams.

My mother was so motivated by her mom that she finished high school with a high GPA, and won a free scholarship to Habana, the capital of Cuba. She knew it was the only chance she had to improve her life style, but refuse to leave. Her reasons were that she didn’t want to leave her mom sick, and move far away; and her words were “my mother goes before anything, and she needs me now.” My grandmother suffered from claustrophobia; she had a resent accident at the hotel she was working; the elevator broke and she was stuck inside for five hours. At the age of eighteen my mother was married by church with my father. A year later I was born. Our house and all our family was blessed with joy and happiness. My mom returned to her job and took a challenging step forward taking English night classes. It was a good decision because she got promoted as a manager. Years past and my mother receive the news of winning a lottery of visa. In 1998 the government of the US made a contract with Cuba to take out twenty thousand of people who sign-up to leave Cuba permanently.

My mother was one of the lucky ones. It was great news, but at the same time a really difficult situation. God put her in the same path as when she finished high school, but now she had to leave to another country, without knowing a day of return. My mom, my step-dad and I came over to the US, after a year of paper work. At the airport a tall dark guy had a sing with our name on it; he took us to the church of Miami. Since my mother had a child, they decided to send us to a safe city names Louisville, KY. We are really thankful with the US government because we had a huge help since we arrived from Cuba. When we got to Louisville, KY we received a two bathroom apartment with all the essential needs, bonus to buy clothes, health insurance, food stamps and help to find job. Trust me, even though we had such amazing and wonderful help it was not easy at all. All the streets looked the same; we got lost a couple of times, so much traffic would annoy us, it’s totally different; In Cuba there are not so many cars people walk or ride bikes. We could not even use the bank machine.

My mom was the only one that could help out speaking because of the English classes she took in Cuba. Every time she tried to speak English I would not understand her, but my heart beaded of joy, I felt so proud by just hearing her. I was located in a good school called Maupin Elementary; been the only Hispanic in the whole school was really sad. I remember the teacher gave me a red cup and every time I needed to use the restroom I would raise the cup. It was really complicated nobody could understated me; I could cry every night missing my family and feeling so out of place drove me crazy. My mom was there every night to give me support and motivation, she always told me how important I was for her and that without me her live would be worthless, because I’m the reason of her happiness. Jose my step-dad didn’t help at all he made our life miserable. He would trade the food stamps for cash and go to strip clubs every weekend; since he was the man of the house everything was under his name.

When he notices how much money the stripers made; he suggested my mom to become a one. Of Corse he got slapped we left the house that same night, and slept at our friend Ester house for a week. We went back to church asking for help and when they found out what he was doing he got kicked out of the apartment and everything went under my mom’s name because she was the one who won the lottery visa. My mom supported the apartment all by herself working in two jobs. She also helped our family in Cuba by sending money every month. My mom meet again an old high school friend name Yaniel my current step-dad which today I call dad. There love made our family stronger and motivated to focus more on our goals. My mom decided to start college; classes were tough, difficult and more challenging for her because of her English. She even says that her hair started to fall out, because of all the stress she had.

Even though it was not easy and her English wasn’t proficient she made it happen and graduated as a pharmacy technician. In a year and tree months of been in the US we had the money to make our first trip to Cuba. Visiting our family is one of the happiest memories of my life, seen all family back together was just indescribable. For month ago was the last time we visited Cuba, We have travel eight times. Been with our family is what we enjoy the most. My mom was hired to work as customer service since her English got better in college. She got paid twenty-four dollars an hour, doing a hundred question survey outbound and inbound calls all over the world. She worked as a customer service for five years until the company contract was over. Then she decided to work on her field as a pharmacy tech. As of today’s day there she is working in the environment she always dreamed of. As a family we love it here, so we decided to become US citizen, we all feel proud to be part of this country. Two years ago my aunt, her husband and child came to the US, my mom clamed them.

Having someone who is part of our family closed has been a blessed it feels great on Holidays such as Christmas and thanks-giving, also when there is a problem having family close is a huge support. My grandmother has an interview on August to come visit us, I can’t wait, I hope she gets approved; I’m sure she will love it here. I believe that being successful means having a balance of success stories across many areas of your life. My mother has achieved all her goals no matter how hard a situation would get, there is always a positive way out. What I love and admire about my mom is how confident and positive she is, as she have said “it’s never too late to follow your dreams, and feel proud of yourself.” My mother transmits all her enthusiasm and motivation, that’s why I live proud of her, of whom she is and how far she have gotten.