A Long Journey

My grandparents Maria and Gerado Madrigal/Gomez are both very hard workers and play their own role in what they do such as my grandfather, he tends to plants, trees and the land area around him basically a “landscaper”America would refer to it as. My grandmother would tend to the house such as cleaning, washing and preparing food for her husband after a long day of work and before the start of a day's work or as america would refer that as is a “stay at home mom”. From the stories of what my grandparents have told me and what my mom has told me about her mother and father, how they grew up and who they were like.

If I remember correctly of where my grandparents originated from before coming here, they were from a city called Chihuahua, Mexico. I can’t remember how old they are now but back then my mom said they were in their 20’s, that my grandma had the same role as today, stayed at home tending to the house duties. For my grandpa he served in the spanish military for about maybe 2 years before coming home. After my grandpa left the military and return home, things became more dangerous and difficult as time went by. My grandma’s family was taking money from her, the city itself grew more dangerous as cartels started to form and my grandparents were on a verge of starting a family, so they both decided its best if they moved away from mexico and go somewhere else.

My grandparents both agreed to move to a small town in California called “Exeter”. The town was small it wasn’t too populated unlike the major cities such as Los Angeles or Bakersfield. What I heard about that town is there are immigrants who came from Mexico and decided to live in Exeter or find work. My grandparents found a small plot of land which then my grandpa wanted to build a home for my grandma and for his future family to be raised in. It took about 7 years my grandma said for my grandpa and his new friends he has found to finish building the house. They were about in their 30’s when they had 7 kids, I couldn’t tell exactly when they had their kids and how many times but i do know is they had many many kids for a small house.

During that time of raising their family, my grandma started to work at a sprinkler production company as my grandpa struggled to find a job as no one would hire him. Instead my grandpa decided to run a small time landscaping business so he can help provide for the family. As for my mom and the kids growing up, their mom and dad wasn’t around them too much to they would all take care of themselves and when time went by they were rebellious kids which made it much harder for my grandparents. But they managed to discipline their kids to where they finally straightened out.

Till this day, their 7 kids grew up to become successful people with wonderful families instead of being stuck in a dangerous environment of the past. My grandparents still work the same jobs after 40 or 60 years after coming to America. They both worked so hard to get where they are today, neither of them gave up of what they started. Maybe that’s what the American Creed is, no matter who you are or where you come from that if you want to achieve greatness you don’t just wait for it to happen, you take risk and work to your hardest in order to achieve that greatness, or as Americans would refer it as “The American Dream” regardless I’ll never forget how hard they worked to get where they are now.