Ricardo 3.

It is the Christmas season.  Half of my living room is filled with Xmas packages and the other half is full of belongings from Ricardo who has been sent to Mexico.  The mix seems strange to me; things are not right.   His step-daughter and I drove 150 miles to St. Louis last Thursday to send his 40 pound suitcase with him.  It cost us $6 to park near the immigration office ; we were warned that parking on the street would bring a St. Louis ticket which we didn’t need.  The ICE center was full of middle aged white men who were very polite to me.  We were shone to the luggage room but then told that they couldn’t accept the suitcase we had (it was one that had been used several times to fly on Air Mexico).  The government charter flight wouldn’t accept it.  Even though it weighed only 40 pounds, it was too big.  We gave money that Ricardo could use to get from the border to Mexico City.  We felt like our trip had been in vain.

We talked with Ricardo several days later. He was glad to be in Mexico and his parents were looking forward to his being with them for Xmas.  This was the tradeoff – they were supported for 10 years but son and parents never saw each other.  I wondered how they would live, but knew that now was not the time to ask.  Ricardo’s younger brother has just crossed the border; maybe it is time for him to support his parents.  Maybe Fed Ex will take some of Ricardo’s things