Yoselin's Story: Part 1
“She carried me so that I could be here.”
“I don’t remember much, but the little that I do remember is that when I left, it was a Saturday morning, very early.”
I sit in the home of Yoselin L., mother of two, friend to all and helper of many, as she recalls that early Saturday morning when she and her mother began their journey to the United States. Yoselin was just thirteen years old when she left Guanajuato, México, the only home she had ever known.
“We got up very early, and my mom and I were going to cross through the desert. We got up early, we walked a long way, only for immigration to catch us and deport us. So after they deported my mom and me, we left and the next day someone else came for us… The next day we tried again, crossing through the river this time… The person that carried me, the water kept going over her head. She was a very tall woman. She carried me so that I could be here.”
Yoselin recalls that everything they had brought with them, including extra clothing and a cell phone her brother had given them in case of emergency, had been lost or stolen at some point in their journey, mostly by the same people that had helped them get there. It was a hard journey, but she tells me, “I feel that it wasn’t much compared to other people that suffer in the desert. But the water was terrifying.”
For Yoselin, the transition to life in a foreign country was hard as a middle schooler. Not only was she going through the typical struggles of entering your teenage years as a young girl, but she also had to learn a new language, a new culture, make new friends, and help support her family by working at her brother’s store.
But she didn’t feel that she was different from the rest of her friends, many of whom were also Latina, until she turned sixteen.
“When I was 16 and in high school, I had a group of friends. I remember that we had taken driver’s ed, and we had all passed the exam, and the teacher gave us approval to go get our driver’s permits. I came home happy because I had passed the exam, and I told my brother, ‘Take me to get my license! I passed my exam and the teacher told me I could go get my license!’
“But I remember my brother told me, ‘You can’t get your license.’
“So I said, ‘Why not? All my friends are going to go.’
“He told me, ‘You aren’t like your friends.’
“So I say, “What do you mean? What’s so weird about me? They’re Mexican; I‘m Mexican.’
“‘No,’ he says. ‘You don’t have a social security number.’
“So that was when I realized that when we came,” she said in between tears, “It wasn’t…” She paused. “It wasn’t good, what we had done. And since I didn’t have a social security number, I couldn’t ever return to Mexico. I couldn’t do the same things my friends could.”
Yoselin tells me that at that moment, she felt bad. Guilty. She was only thirteen when she was brought here by her mother, who was in search of a better life for her daughter. Now age 30, Yoselin has lived in the United States longer than she had lived in Mexico. “I don’t have citizenship,” she says. “I don’t have papers. But I feel like this is my home.”
There was another moment when she was eighteen years old that she realized she was different from her friends. It was an exciting time in her life: senior year of high school, about to graduate, about to live the life her mother had endured so much to bring her here for. But she was having a lot of dental problems. She remembers that her sister in-law would always take her children to the doctor or dentist whenever they were sick or had a toothache, so Yoselin asked if she could take her to the dentist. Her sister-in-law told her, “No, we don't have the money. It’s too expensive.” Unlike Yoselin, her brother’s children were born in the United States, so they qualified for Medicaid - which covers kids’ dental care. They were able to see the dentist for their checkups every 6 months, keeping their teeth in good shape and setting them up for a healthy future.
Now she sees the dentist at Cahaba Medical Care. But at the time, there wasn’t anywhere she could go. She was uninsured, and there wasn’t a place like Cahaba that offered affordable dental care, and because of it, she lost a lot of teeth as a young adult due to preventable decay.
Cahaba Medical Care is proud of the dental services we’re able to offer to patients with and without insurance. Our talented team of dentists, hygienists, techs, and crucial support staff work hard to provide high quality dental care to anyone that needs it.
Like Yoselin, we believe in the importance of preventive dental care, especially for kids. If it has been more than six months since your last dental appointment - or your kids’ dental checkup - give us a call.
Centreville Dental: (205) 926-4697
Birmingham Dental: (205) 545-7696
If you’d like to be part of Cahaba Medical Care’s mission to provide high quality, affordable dental care for children and adults in Alabama, check out some ideas below for how you can get involved!
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