Preview

Josefa Ortegon: The Woman Who Changed My Life

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
461 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Josefa Ortegon: The Woman Who Changed My Life
Born on September 13, 1947 in the little town of Jacona, Michoacan, Mexico, lived my aunt Josefa Ortegon. She is the oldest of her twelve brothers and sisters. She was very little when she saw the struggles that her family went through. Her mom couldn’t work due to taking care of her children. So the only one who worked was her father, an alcoholic who would use his money for his addictions and going out with his friends. She felt the urge to take action and help her family in any kind of way that she could. At the age of 9 years old, she made the decision to take responsibilities as the oldest sister and help out her family. Josefa started working in the fields picking out grapes and putting them in a brown paper and rolling them up into rolls. Her dedication towards working for her family helped provide some food although sometimes it wasn’t enough on the table. The few money helped to provide for her family. Every year her aunt Virginia and uncle would come to visit. They offered her to come to Watsonville, California to be able to obtain a good job with a better pay. Without hesitation she took the offer and moved to California. By then she was 17 and started working making more money for her family. Every time she got paid, she would send the money to her family in Mexico. …show more content…

So now all of her brothers and sisters are married and have a family and even grandchildren. Josefa was a kind, noble person who only showed her love, and affection to her family and others. She loved helping anyone in need. June 1, 2012 she passed away at the age of 64. She died at peace because she was satisfied for all the things she had accomplished though her hard sacrifice. One thing she left for all of us was her kindness and soft hearted personality she had. We all thank her because if it wasn’t for her who knows where all of us would

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Eva’s father abandoned her mother and five children, forcing them to live on their own in a single-roomed brick house. Eva’s family was poor. The only thing their family had was a sewing machine which Juana slaved over day and night. Her children would try to get her to stop sewing, but she would respond by saying “I do not have time to stop.”…

    • 499 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    But a sudden tragedy shatters her world and Esperanza and Mama flee to California, where they settle in a camp for Mexican farm workers. Esperanza isn't ready for the hard labor, financial struggles brought on by the Great Depression, and lack of acceptance she now faces. When Mama gets sick, and a strike for better working conditions threatens to uproot their new life, Esperanza must find a way to rise above her difficult circumstances-because Mama's life and her own depend on it.…

    • 2103 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Enriques Journey

    • 980 Words
    • 4 Pages

    who was 17 at the time, whom she met at a shelter in Nuevo Laredo…

    • 980 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    On May 16, 2017 I interviewed Olga Morales about what it means to be American to her. She is 42 years old and is from Abasolo, Guanajuato and is a mother of 4 amazing children. She has two daughters and two sons. The oldest is Maria Esquivel, she is 20 years old. The second oldest is Carlos Pichardo, he is 18 years old. The third oldest is Arisbet Pichardo, she is 17 years old. The youngest one is Jorge Pichardo, he is 10 years old. Olga Morales is a very hard worker and does anything to accomplish what has to be done. She cares alot for her children and wants the best for them. She is also willing to sacrifice anything to make her children happy and have a smile on their face. She is disciplined to them when she has to because she says that…

    • 359 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Essay On Esperanza Rising

    • 599 Words
    • 3 Pages

    When she became a fieldworker, Esperanza had to go to a Mexican fieldworker farm in California to work. Her whole family came except for her grandmother, Abuelita because she broke her ankle in the fire. Esperanza was heartbroken because she had never been separated so far from a Abuelita. At the farm Esperanza met a girl, who was very rude to her, named Marta who convinced other Mexicans to strike for better living arrangements. Mama became sick with Valley Fever after a dust storm and later came down with Pneumonia when she was admitted into the hospital.This scared Esperanza because she could have gotten her fired. After the moment her mother got sick, Esperanza decided that she need to be the money maker in the house so she could pay for Mama’s doctors and medicine. Esperanza experience so many feelings in such a short amount of time, that it was clear to her that she needed to become the la patrona-head of the…

    • 599 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Maria Andrade is 79 years old. She came to America as a Cuban refugee at the age of 20. She was raised by her grandparents in Cuba. She began working at the age of 14. When she arrived in Miami, she was able to obtain part time employment and immediately enrolled herself in ESL classes. Thereafter she attended community college for about two years. She then moved to Los Angeles due to being accepted to UCLA where she obtained a BA in Sociology and a Masters’ in Business Administration. She worked for a private bank for about 24 years where she met her current husband. She now works for the Department of Public Social Services where she has been working for about 25 years and is planning on retiring in the near future. She has been working for the past 49 years non -stop not including the years she worked in Cuba.…

    • 1095 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    However, before she was able to graduate high school, she had to leave at the age of 17. If she stayed, her family would have been likely killed. From there, her family could only carry a few belongings with them before getting on a boat in Czechoslovakia and leaving for Chile. Sorenson reported that upon her grandmother’s arrival to Cuba, before entering Chile, were almost forced into imprisonment and sent back to Europe because everyone knew they were Jews. She came to Chile unable to understand any Spanish, and had to learn an entirely new language. Eventually, she worked as a translator for a various amounts of…

    • 395 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Reina Williams is 38 years old born in new York city, she is of Latin decent, in her younger life she lived in the Dominican Republic and Guatemala City by the age of 13 she had visited 8 countries, in her travels she notice that the middle class was non-exiting in other countries, you had to be born to a family with a good name or you were cursed to be poor for life, as a child you don’t understand why there are social difference, at that young age she had made up her mind that she would do things to make a difference in the world starting with giving away her school lunch to the little girl that was homeless that lived on the way to school. Since then Reina has done great things in the community she worked for the Volusia Flagler YMCA where…

    • 280 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    After Ana finished high-school, she was convinced by her mother, Carmen, to come work in the sewing factory owned by her sister Estela. Ana wanted to pursuit her education in college, but she…

    • 1537 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Juan Sandoval's Early Life

    • 1992 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Her father was a world war 2 veteran who loved to travel, so their family traveled a lot. One of her favorite trips that she would go on was to Tijuana, Mexico to visit with her aunt Joan and uncle Juan at the orphanage. Her family would also take some of the kids back to Holland with them for a month or so at a time to let them see what America was like. The boys names were Pepe, Ramon, Christian, Antonio, Pablo, and Danny. Her Aunt Joan picked which boys she thought would be the best for traveling to the United states. Before they came Joan made a cassette tape recording of some basic Spanish to English translated words. The boys were taken to the beach to see Lake Michigan, local parks to play on the playgrounds, and a cottage on an inland lake were they went boating and fishing. In the winter the boys went sledding and even got to sled behind my grandpa's car through the neighborhood. They enjoyed taking the boys shopping and buying them clothes and toys for their time in America. She said how the kids were so amazed to even see grass in the lawns because where they were from it was mostly gravel and dirt. The kids were also amazed to experience what snow was like because they had never seen a real winter before. The boys had so many questions and things to say about America. Most of them were around the ages of 4-12 and had never really known who their parents were. Now, after more than…

    • 1992 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Bone

    • 465 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Mah works at sweatshop sewing for long hours, and then she goes home and prepares some hard meals for her family. Leon Leila’s stepfather is a commercial seaman who ships out for months, he is not very happy with his job even thought when he has too many problems at home his job helps him get away for awhile. As many families Leon and Mah came to this country seeking the American dream, but they had to face many conflicts throughout their lives. There was Ona the middle child who was so attached to Leon but fell in love with a Peruvian boy named Osvavaldo which Leon didn’t approve of, and for this and so many other reasons she committed suicide. Nina the youngest sister lives in New York she likes to explore new surroundings and meet new people she’s like Leon in a way because to avoid her family problems she lives far away. Leila the oldest sister just thinks about her parents and their wellbeing and just resides in Chinatown.…

    • 465 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Ethel Payne

    • 3055 Words
    • 13 Pages

    Her father died from a disease contracted while handling soiled laundry on the trains when she was 12, leaving their family without financial means because her mother didn’t work.…

    • 3055 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Through Juana’s story, Reyna, impersonates the journey and struggles that many people have to endure to get to the United States so they can have a better life for them and their families. Juana’s main motivation to cross over to the other side is to find her father that “abandoned” her and her mother when she was still a little girl, but she is also driven by harsh living conditions, oppression by a corrupt government, and hunger. Throughout her youth in Mexico Juana encounters many problems, both emotional and physical and these later encourage her to look for a better life in the United States. When she is twelve she is left in charge taking care of her baby sister in a flooded house while her mother goes out and looks for her father who still hasn’t returned from work. The next day as her father wakes her, she sees that her sister is missing and the baby is found drowned in the depths of the water of her flooded house. Juana has to deal with the guilt of her sister’s death, causing her great emotional and physical pain. As if things were not bad enough, this is not the only thing that Juana has to endure throughout her youth. After her sister’s death, her father leaves for “el otro lado” in search of work, leaving behind the debt of her sister’s funeral. No money…

    • 899 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Reyna had to look up to her sister Mago as her mentor as her second mother as Mago promised when her mother ask her " Do you promise to take care of your hermanos for me, be their little mother?"(12) Before departing. Part of the American Dream is the money, the reason why people come to the U.S, not only adults leave their country, adolescents as well take the risk of crossing over illegal for a better opportunity. Young adolescents want to live the American Dream in hopes of a better life, open opportunities and better education. Reyna and her siblings Mago, and Carlos got the opportunity to come to the U.S, not long after they realize they would have to start all over learning a new language being in a country were they are strangers, Reyna realizing his "Papi" wasn’t the Pearson she figured. Immigrants face hard challenges in order to achieve the American Dream, with hard work and determination and "Las Ganas" some will achieve their dreams, as were other dont have the fortunate to achieve their goals. Reyna had challenges, facing her real "Papi" was a disappointment getting beat up by her father was something she would of never imagine would happened to her in "El otro…

    • 519 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Essay On Rosa Lee

    • 849 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Although some of her brothers and sisters were able to live descent lives and overcome some the challenges of growing up in a difficult environment. Rosa Lee continued the intergenerational cycle of hardships and survival mentality. Rosa Lee seemed to be partly a product of her upbringing and partly her own lack of knowledge about the opportunities for an African Americans in that era. Rosa Lee may had saw one way of living which was to survive by what she viewed as the only way that she could base on her circumstance. Rosa Lee did appear to be determined to be independent and find a better place for her children. Rosa Lee’s turning point was when her father died. After that situation Rosa Lee began to experience many hardships. The challenges that Rosa Lee faced would be difficult for anyone to handle if they were in her situation.…

    • 849 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays