JESUS CASTELLANOS

Nominating Organization: MAKE THE ROAD NEW YORK

My name is Jesús Castellanos Méndez, I am 20 years old and I live in New York, United States. I arrived to this country as an immigrant on August 05, 2012 and since then I have been in this country for 5 years. My main reason to travel to my native country is to be able to visit my parents that unfortunately I only talk to them on the phone. I have not seen them since I came to the United States and I would like to know how much they have changed and to know that they are good. I would like to compensate some of the time that in 5 years that I have been without seeing them, to be able to help them in whatever they need, or help them in the labor in their little ranch. Besides my parents, one of my greatest motives to visit Mexico is my grandmother, at her age she is very tired and I want to see her one last time before she goes with God. I would also like to visit my aunt’s grave, she was anxiously waiting for me to visit Mexico, unfortunately God decided to take her a little bit early so now she is with him and hopefully resting in a better world.

I was fortunate enough to fix my status with the support of Make the Road NY, a non profit organization that supports youth just like me. After I received my green card last November I was ready to travel to Mexico, unfortunately I got scared when Trump got elected as President and I had to postpone my trip. In fact I was more scared when he announced the Muslim Ban, even though I am not from those countries, I was not feeling safe to travel. Today is a different moment, and I am ready to go visit my family no matter what. The recent earthquakes made me changed my mind, my family was impacted and even though all of them are okay it make me realized the privilege of having a green card and just because of my fears I haven’t travel to visit them.