My longstanding nanny, Sonia, is an immigrant from Ecuador. Ecuador is located in South America, next to Colombia and Peru. I consider Sonia to be a second mother to me, as she has watched over me since I was six months old. Sonia left Ecuador for the United States in the 1990s. She left her country as there was no economic opportunity for her there. She wanted to build a better life for herself by working in America, and then later bring her family to the United States. She flew from Ecuador to Mexico, then she took a car from Mexico to the United States. Sonia told me that some of the hardest things for her when moving to America was coming to a country with nobody that she knows, having to learn English on her own, and leaving her newborn daughter and the rest of her family back in Ecuador.
Sonia did not receive her status as a citizen of the United States until November of 2007 when I was ten months old. She waited almost twenty years to become a citizen. Her story of hardship, perseverance, and resilience throughout her journey to become a citizen opened by eyes at a fairly young age about how fortunate I am to live in a country like the United States.
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