Diary: Children of the Undocumented

I am the daughter of an undocumented immigrant.  My father was brought to the U.S. at the age of six months, crossing the border in Laredo Texas in 1923 with his parents.  His mother had actually been a U.S. citizen, which normally would have allowed my Dad to claim citizenship also.  But a law passed a few years before that said women who married foreign born men lost their American citizenship (it was called the U.S. Expatriation Act of March 2, 1907, click HERE to see document explaining the Act).

My grandmother was a teenager when she met my Mexican born grandfather, a very handsome trumpet player at the local silent movie theater.  Her parents were against the marriage, but eventually supported her in the decision, knowing that she would have to move to Mexico.

My Dad remained undocumented until 1943 when he was drafted in to the U.S. Army.  He became a citizen on a boat that took his company to the Philippines (also know as the Pacific Theater).  The U.S. sent a letter a few years before to his mother, saying she could become a citizen again. 

Today the NYTimes profiled the President of M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, saying his father was an undocumented immigrant.  Perhaps Dr. DePinho would consider using some of his formidable influence to advocate the passage of the DREAM Act.  

P.S.  Why does the New York Times continue to insist on using the term "Illegal?"

MTH

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Leader in the Cancer Fight, and Son of an 

Illegal

[Undocumented] Immigrant

Ronald DePinho, President of the M.D. Anderson
 Cancer Center in Houston

By JIM DWYER - New York Times

Published: December 8, 2011

A few minutes before Ronald DePinho was to give a speech to his graduating class at Fordham College in the Bronx, he sat with his father in a student lounge. It was May 1977. His father had been in the United States for nearly 40 years. The son was on his way to a career in medicine and research that would bring him to the presidency of the biggest cancer center in the country. It was a time for the father, Alvaro DePinho, to pass along some history.

In 1939, it turned out, the elder Mr. DePinho had made his first home in America in the basement of one of the creaky three-story apartment buildings just outside the gates of the Fordham campus. He had settled in the Bronx after coming to New York as a stowaway, spending 13 days at sea in a cargo container: an illegal immigrant.  

...The third of the five children of Alvaro and Celeste DePinho, Dr. DePinho, 56, has been visiting New York this week from Houston, where in September he became president of the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, part of the University of Texas. He is raising money and hiring people to study five cancers in depth, using tools developed only in the last few years...MORE