This is one of my favorite pictures of my mother and I.
During that time, life was not the best for either of us.
Regardless, the love was abundant and the smiles, radiant.
Years before, we had immigrated to the US from Mexico as family.
Years later, we’d be pursuing the American dream as a broken one.
Every immigrant story is different.
But they all have one thing in common.
Pain.
Whether it’s the memory of the home and people you left behind.
Or the hardship you’d wake up to everyday in the pursuit of something better.
Pain was the feeling that reminded us we were, indeed, alive.
To me, there is no one better equipped to overcome the pain in life than that of a mother.
In every aspect, my mother is the strongest human being I know.
Her tenacity. Her vigor. Her creativity. Her relentlessness. Her passion.
Those were the tools she was naturally equipped with to overcome any pain.
And even though I’ve felt my share of pain in the process of my life thus far.
She, without a doubt, did her best to shield me from as much of it growing up.
That is what mother’s do.
And for that…
I am grateful.
Gracias por todo mamá. Te amo.