Eva: The Road Ahead
Explore themes from Eva's point of view as daughter and caretaker whose life takes a turn when her mom is deported at the start of her senior year of high school.
"We had to move from the house we were living in at the time, move to a much smaller house. It was just different: My mom had to work. My older brother had to work. So, it was a change."
-Julia, twenty-eight years old, Fresno, California; her father was deported and is still in Mexico.
According to the American Immigration Council, as of 2016 over 500,000 U.S. teens have an undocumented parent who has been deported.
Daughter / Provider
Eva's mom is deported for the second time before she begins her Senior year in High School, which alters her path. In families with one or more deported parents, older siblings will often put their life on hold to help their family in whatever way possible.
17% of Hispanic millennials have provided financial support to family since they were old enough to have a job – two times more than non-Hispanic millennials (8%).
Road Blocks after High School
Though she is the Valedictorian of her high school, Eva decides that she is not going to go to college until her mother comes home. She picks up a job during her senior year and looks for a second job after graduation. 74% of recent high school graduates who opted out of college went straight to work instead.
For reasons undetermined by statisticians, I-19 has been the site of countless accidents, with an estimated death for every 0.9 mile of highway. It has even made the lists of the deadliest highways in America. Drive carefully.
Reliving the Drive
Several members of the family make the drive from Tucson to Nogales many times after Anita is deported.
What's the drive like? From Tuscon, you'll take I-19 south for about an hour. Most of the drive is empty desert and plains except Madera Canyon and the Santa Rita Mountains. Expect traffic once you reach Nogales, Arizona - on a good day it might be 15-20 minutes at the checkpoint but it can be over an hour on a weekend or holiday.
The drive from Tucson, Arizona to Nogales, Mexico lasts about 1 hour and 7-16 minutes and crosses the Madera Canyon.
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