3 immigrants talk about their lives since coming to America

These three immigrants tell their stories; how they got here and how they are doing now. How many of us understand the hardships and could do the same thing? DP

By Dan McFeely, indystar.com

indystar.com: Without a visa or a welcome, Juvenal Gamarra walked into the United States 21 years ago -- hiking overnight through the mountains near Tijuana, Mexico -- into a land of freedom and opportunity.

"One of my friends almost got bit by a rattlesnake," the Peruvian-born Gamarra said, recalling his journey to cross the border into California. "The risks were many, but all I could think about was making it here."

Like those of millions before him, his reasons for risking arrest and deportation -- even death on the dangerous trek across the border -- were well established: to escape economic hardship in his homeland and live the American dream.

It's a commonly heard refrain in the Hispanic community of Indianapolis, home to a growing number of legal and illegal immigrants from Mexico and other Latin American nations.

Entering and staying in the United States legally isn't a viable option for most unskilled foreign workers; the U.S. grants only a limited number of temporary visas. So they sneak across borders and typically live in the shadows.

These back-door arrivals include women such as Veronica Guerrero, who entered the country with her parents illegally as a 9-year-old, eventually went to work in a hotel kitchen and, after winning her citizenship through an amnesty program in the 1980s, now owns a shop that sells fancy First Communion dresses for Mexican girls.

Jose Luis Alcauter arrived with only a temporary visa and little money and now runs a thriving small bakery operation and is a legal resident.
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