Building a New Life : School Becomes Portal to the American Dream

Sergio Hernandez is striving for the American dream.

He wants a home and a job that pays wages sufficient to provide his family with a middle-class life style.

And he wants to live without fear that government agents will seize him and send him back to the poverty he escaped when he left Mexico seven years ago.

So Hernandez joined about 2,100 other people Monday in registering at the Whittier Union High School District’s Adult School for an English class required to complete the federal government’s amnesty program for illegal immigrants.

“In Mexico there are no jobs and lots of people,” said the tall, slim Hernandez. “The reason I came here is for the work.”

The 1 million people in Los Angeles County who applied and qualified for amnesty have 18 months from the time they qualified to either pass a government-administered English and civics test or complete 30 hours of classes in English, civics and American history.

The rush is on at adult schools throughout the county to satisfy those requirements, which will gain the immigrants a green card that enables them to legally work in the United States.

Leonard Rivera, Whittier Adult School principal, said the rush to register was spured in part by a government-financed advertising campaign that ran in the Spanish press this summer.

Rivera spent the summer working to increase the number of English classes at his school by 50%, providing space for a total of 1,000 students. The extra classes will be financed by the federal government, he said.

But Rivera was in for a surprise Monday when twice as many immigrants showed up to register.

“We felt this could happen; we knew there would be a surge but just didn’t anticipate these numbers,” Rivera said.

Rivera said 1,100 people will have to wait for the next available classes. And it won’t do them much good to try other schools, since most other adult schools also have waiting lists, he said.

“We will form classes for everyone,” Rivera said, “though it will take the rest of this year to get everyone in.” By January, he said, almost everyone should be in a class.

Hernandez registered at 9 a.m. and was in his first class just half an hour later. Like a number of those who registered, the 28-year-old Hernandez said he is convinced that in this country he has a good chance of making his dreams come true.

In Mexico, Hernandez had a job in the laboratory of a sugar mill in his hometown of Guadalajara. But his work lasted only six months a year, until all the sugar cane was processed. And jobs during the growing season were difficult to find, he said.

So, leaving his wife and a young child in Mexico, he came here.

His first two attempts to cross the border near San Diego were failures and resulted in deportation to Tijuana. But the third time he ran across a deserted section of the border and safely made his way to Los Angeles. He settled there and soon got work painting homes and tending lawns.

A year later, after having saved some money, he sent for his family.

“Before amnesty I was always worried about my family, that maybe the (Immigration and Naturalization Service) would send my family back to Mexico,” Hernandez said.

Now Hernandez is working to become a permanent legal resident, which would allow him to pursue full American citizenship. He said he plans to continue his studies, become a plumber, save money and buy a home.

“Here you have a chance to make it,” he said in heavily accented English. “In Mexico, there I would not have the means.”

Although the Whittier Adult School has more amnesty students than it can handle, Rivera said he hopes that most, like Hernandez, will continue in school even after they have satisfied the immigration requirements.

“We want them to continue to get an education so they can move forward,” Rivera said.

“These people, when they become permanent residents, their work status and attitude will change,” Rivera predicted. “They will have all the rights and responsibilities that everyone else has . . . and will be looking for upward mobility.”

Another new student planning to continue her education is Graciela Robledo, a 39-year-old mother of five from Chihuahua, Mexico. She lives in Whittier and wants to be a nursing assistant.

Robledo said life was hard in Mexico, where she worked in an assembly plant to support herself and her five children. She said she entered the United States legally in 1979 to visit her dying father.

“She realized this was her chance,” said a school employee who acted as a translator, “and it would be very difficult for her to return to the United States again because she did not have any documents to let her back in.”

So Robledo stayed with relatives in Los Angeles. For the last five years she has cleaned houses for a living, ever since her youngest child was old enough to enter school.

By becoming a legal resident, she said, she will no longer fear that her children could be sent back to Mexico.

“This is the only country they really know,” she said. “They are making their future here and it would be terrible for them to be sent back to Mexico.”