All funds go to Alberto Castañeda Mondragón. Recent news coverage here and here. Below is a translation of his own writing.
My name is Alberto Castañeda Mondragón. I am asking for your help to pay for my medical bills so that I can return to work and support my family. I entered the United States legally with a work visa and have worked ever since. I never had any issues with law enforcement, until last month, when ICE crushed my skull.
Ever since, I have lost many memories, precious ones that my daughter, my parents, my brother, my sisters and my friends have had to remind me of, and also painful ones like the injury itself. I don't know why ICE did this to me. They did not detain me after the hospital, I am not a criminal, and the doctors say they were untruthful about how the injuries occurred. But I prefer not to fight, I only want to recover, pay my bills, and go back to work.
The Associated Press has written stories that you can read with more details about what happened, but here is my story about who I am.
Life gives you great places to enjoy life, like the place where you were born, where you lived your life, where you’ve experienced good moments and low ones, but always searching for a better future.
I am from Tlapacoyan, Veracruz — a city with great tourism, a major producer of oranges and bananas. I am the 3rd of 4 siblings. The oldest are my two sisters, then me, and last a brother.
I only finished middle school and went to work in the fields with my father. My sisters, being older, led more peaceful lives. My younger brother finished school. I preferred to work with my dad. He would give me good scoldings sometimes for not keeping the production of dominico bananas in order.
This brings into your life the best of everything — a daughter who makes it worthwhile to give her honesty, responsibility, and humility in life.
A better economic life, but that sometimes makes us travel far from them, to take distance to another country for a better life for your parents.
Due to an illness my father had, which was quite serious, and a big downturn in the fields where the prices of products had fallen, I had to look for another way to move forward.
Without fear of fighting in whatever job, wherever it may be — a friend supported me with the suggestion of being able to go to the United States. Without a doubt, inside, this makes your life shake and feel pain, but you also feel that if you don’t fight for something, what he fought for you, one day you’ll see it by your side.
Without a doubt, life gives you bad moments during a bad time — that’s what a person believes when saying goodbye to the people they love. It’s a long journey when leaving your town. The slow hours, the urge to cry, missing the people who hug you every day, who support you. Inside you carry that pain, but on the outside I try to smile, because showing I am weak has always made me think that there will be people who will try to take advantage of you.
Arriving to work in a new city, an unimaginable job, traveling from city to city each week, and unfortunately the little communication with your family makes your life tremble for a second, but noticing when you can that they are already doing better makes you smile. And I don’t mind suffering myself if I see them smiling and well.
As the months passed, I arrived in the city of Baker, Minnesota with the company, and on opening day my neighbor from the ranch showed up — someone who had left the town years ago. He came as just another customer to my job. He wanted to talk with me; because of my work, he waited until closing time.
A conversation about how I was doing, whether my job was hard, led to another topic — for example, my salary, which unfortunately was very low. He proposed that I leave there and go work with him. What I earned in a week, he earned in a day. Maybe people will say he no longer wanted to return to his town, that’s why he left that company. That’s not how it was. That split my life in two, but only that way was I able to help my father get ahead faster.
Life perhaps turns around on its own, and indeed that does happen — you don’t let it destroy you even if you’re missing at least a “how are you” from the person who is important in your life.
Time and courage achieved that in my new job, despite being new, I became one of the best. The construction of a house in my town, a better life for my daughter — being my pride, at her 10 years she has shown it.
I learned from every word of his, and always fair at work — just as there were scoldings, there were also phrases of joy for seeing my improvement and the growth in my homeland.
My mother, a person whose advice and words changed my life. Days when, exhausted from work, I didn’t want to go to the fields — she would say, “Don’t you want a more peaceful life as an older adult than what you work now? But when you get married, thanks to fighting as a young man, you’ll have something more, and your family and you will be more at peace.”
My life is filled with much good advice, but above all, lessons. Respect before everyone. Lessons from people who sometimes want to humiliate you — it’s better to ignore them and show what you’re worth.