The Labor Movement Gave My Family a 'Ticket to the Middle Class'
I canāt remember how old I was before I knew my father was undocumented. By the time I was 5 or 6, my fatherās long and arduous journey from MichoacĆ”n, Mexico, to our small American town of Redwood City, Calif., had already become part of our family lore. I heard how hard and exhausting it was for him, as a young boy and then a teen, to have to work every day picking cotton, strawberries and grapes in 100-degree heat. His stories captured my imagination when I considered how hard he worked and how far he had come to make a better life for himself.


