Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story.
Standing in the waiting room of the INS building in Denver, the federal official read the names of the newest citizens of the United States – Irene Lopez Fernandez, José Chavez Flores, Arturo Ramirez Mendoza. They were all pleased, but no one smiled wider than Jesus Angulo, the only one who had brought his whole family to the ceremony – his daughter, Viviana, son Jesus J., and his wife, Carmen, who recorded the whole thing with a hand-held video camera.
Jesus Angulo: “I’m from Sinaloa. My parents are farmers. I’ve lived here full time since 1988. I came to work on the farms near Phoenix, I worked melons. I came illegally, through Nogales. As part of Amnesty (under President Reagan in 1986), I got okayed.
“In Arizona it was so hot, so hard. My friend said Colorado was so great, there were lots of opportunities and places to work. Now I’m project manager of a company – landscapes. The good thing about my work is I work for so many people. I work for a federal judge. I work for many people so important to know.
“I’m very successful. I have my own home, my own house. It’s the second house I buy. I have a 1996 Dodge Caravan. It’s a family car. I’m a family guy.”
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline ‘I have a 1996 Dodge Caravan … I’m a family guy’.
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