Two years ago I left my home, my country, my friends and family. Two years ago I packed all my fears into a suitcase and embarked on what would become the most difficult experience of my life. You will never understand what it feels like to migrate until you experience it, no matter how many documentaries and stories you read or watch, your process will always be different.
Two years ago my life took a 180º turn, I left my plans and my dreams in the drawers of my closet in Colombia. I abandoned everything out of necessity, and that is what makes us migrate, necessity. Need for a change, to follow a dream, to improve financially, to follow the love of your life or to run away.
During these two years, not a single day has passed in which I don't think about when I will be able to see my mother again, when I will be able to sleep with my dogs, when I will be doing karaoke with my friends in my living room. These questions are accompanied by moments created in my mind, to later become hope; in the hope of doing things well, of being closer to the goal... even if I still don't know what the goal is.
Image: Ana María Flechas archive
During this time I have worked on multiple things. I have been a waitress, a bartender, a line manager in a factory, I have packed orders and I was a sales assistant. I've been almost like a multi-career Barbie that comes with lots of accessories.
Of course I haven't been the only Barbie, along my way I have met people from different parts of the world. Immigrants who, like me, came to this country out of necessity and in search of something they couldn't find in their countries. I have had the opportunity to listen to their stories and without a doubt each one is unique, although they are all crossed by love for the country where they were born and by the hope of one day returning, either to live or to vacation, but that will always be the goal… return.
These stories are part of the more than 45 million immigrants in the United States, which is equivalent to 13.6% of the country's population according to the latest Census estimates. Stories that show the realities, not only of this country, but also of the countries we come from.
Over the next few months I will be writing about human rights, which I sometimes feel I don't have, and migration, a topic that, being so personal, scares me a little. But without a doubt, the stories that have been entrusted to me will help me show what it is like to be an immigrant in one of the most important countries in the world and together we will understand that sometimes things are not as bad, but not as good as they seem.
This will be my opportunity to mix the journalist Barbie that I left in Colombia, with the immigrant Barbie that was born two years ago.