C: Charlotte (Interviewer)

D: Daniel Martines (Interviewee)

 

Overview

C: What was your experience like growing up and going to school before you immigrated? Did where you lived have any impact on that?

D: My story is a little different from most. Juarez, Mexico, is a border town. We would cross into El Paso, Texas, to go to school because Juarez’s schools weren’t good. They weren’t full-day either. The city would assign us to either a morning or an afternoon session, and I was assigned a morning session. My parents had full-time jobs, so picking me up in the middle of the day wasn’t an option. El Paso had a regular school schedule, and when I say regular, I mean it mirrors a 9-5 job schedule, which worked better for us.

C: Can you recall more about what it was like having to cross the border just to go to school?

D: I crossed the border every day with kids from my neighborhood. My grandfather would pick me up after school. Back then, there was hardly any border security. Today, you need a green card, a passport, or a permit, but back then, people just crossed. Nobody told you not to. My grandfather had a visa and was a carpenter. The U.S. paid better, so he’d get paid in cash, exchange it for pesos, and still come out ahead. It was normal to cross the border for work or school. When my mom was 16, she quit school to work in the Wrangler factory to help bring in income. She never graduated from high school.

C: When and how did you learn English?

D: I knew I needed to learn English, but there was just enough Spanish around that it didn’t feel urgent–until I realized that English-speaking kids had a leg up. If you didn’t speak English, you were seen as temporary. That still happens today. I realized if I wanted a future here, I had to learn English. So, the first thing I did was watch PBS to teach myself.

 

Early Experiences and First Impressions

C: What was the hardest part about moving to the U.S. from Juarez when you were just five years old?

D: I was fully moved by first grade. The cultural change was the hardest, and even though it was just across the border, it felt like a different world. My dad, who was a shoe salesman, got a green card through amnesty. In sixth grade, we moved to Downey, California, after my dad left the family. My mom chose Downey because her oldest brother, who had moved there in the ‘80s and had full citizenship, said there were better opportunities than in El Paso. Compared to a green card, having full citizenship was more convenient, so either way, we would be improving somehow. We pooled everything we had to buy a tiny house. It wasn't much, but it was ours.

C: What were your first impressions of the U.S., and how did they change over time?

D: At first, making friends was difficult. In Jaurez, we considered each other brothers. In Downey, everything was different. If I wanted to fit in, I had to immerse myself in the community. I played baseball instead of soccer, and my sister took up dancing. We tried to do what the other kids did. Over time, I noticed how being an immigrant became more accepted. Back then, we were outsiders. Now, it’s more normal. Tools like Google Translate help people today, too. When I came here, English was a do-or-die. Now, there’s more flexibility.

C: How did it feel not knowing English at first, and what helped you learn it? Did you feel different from other kids?

D: Humor helped. I’d mess up all the time, say things I didn’t understand, or read aloud in class and get laughed at because of my pronunciation. But I laughed with them. Why would I not? It wasn’t like I could help it– might as well laugh with them instead of just being laughed at alone. That’s how I coped.

C: Were other immigrants in your class, and did you feel a connection with them?

D: In El Paso, all the immigrants were Mexican. In Downey, it was a shock. Cubans, Salvadorans… I felt like I didn’t fully belong with anyone. Mexicans thought I wasn’t Latino enough, and Americans didn’t see me as American. Even though I was always a top-excelling student, the school put me in all of the “sped” (special education) classes, simply because they assumed I was dumb and didn’t understand what American schools taught. It was because I was an immigrant. My math teacher stood up for me. She went to the school board and told them I belonged in the honors classes. She advocated for me, and without her, I don’t think I’d have made it to UCLA. Family and

 

Community Support

C: How did your mother and sister support you through the challenges of adjusting to a new country?

D: My mom always told us we could have better lives if we worked hard. After my dad left, we lost our home and were briefly homeless. But being together made it okay.We had to adapt. Some immigrants refuse to change, but we wanted to be part of our new home while also staying true to our roots.I used to think I had to hide my Mexican pride. But as I got older, I realized it’s part of who I am. My heritage is a huge part of my identity.

C: What role did your community play in helping your family settle in?

D: The Church was huge in Downey. We went to a Mexican church, met other Latinos, and realized we were all in the same boat. As a kid, I wasn’t sure about God or if he was even real, but I looked up to my mom, who did. She found strength through her faith, so I followed her lead. Eventually, I started praying. Not because I had to, but because I wanted to.

C: What sacrifices did your family make to ensure a better future?

D: My sister and I grew up with survival-mode unity, but we had our differences. She struggled to fit in more than I did, maybe because she looked different or wanted different things.She tried out for the cheerleading team several times but never made it. It hurt her. She was jealous that I was in honors classes, being known as the funniest guy in our class, and even though she was older, she became “Daniel’s sister.” It didn’t push us apart, but there was a wedge. Then, she found her thing: running. Once she made the cross-country and track teams and made friends, things improved between us.Finding your place is everything. It adds solid ground beneath you. Then, it’s easier to stay afloat and see the world more positively. Knowing yourself and knowing your place helps form deeper connections between one another.

C: Did growing up and immigrating with primarily just your mom change how you saw her? How has that changed your perspective on women?

D: Absolutely. My mom was determined, even in her struggle. That became my definition of a mother. I now see women as strong and resilient because of her. She’s my biggest role model. I see that same kind of flare in my wife, and even now in my two daughters.

 

Memories and Cultural Connections

C: Can you share a memory from childhood that captures your immigrant experience?

D: One big one was going to a fair in Texas. Fairs were a huge deal in Jaurez. They were about community, food, and laughing together. In Texas, it was all about the rodeo. It felt off to me. It was the first time I thought, “This is really different.” I wasn’t sad, just confused. But, I pushed the old memory aside and embraced being a “rodeo-loving American.” Yeehaw.

C: Were there family traditions from Jaurez that brought you comfort?

D: Family dinners. To this day, they’re sacred. It’s not just food, it’s processing the day together. You don’t have to swallow things alone.

C: How do you stay connected to your heritage now?

D: I married a Mexican woman, but from a different religion. We compared cultures and created a richer experience. Now we pass it on to our daughters, with pride.

 

Education and Career Path

C: What motivated you to pursue education all the way to UCLA?

D: Honestly, we were just so poor. I worked at a corner store to help out. Money was money. Dinner was often just PB&J, and my mom tried to make it feel like a treat. She would try so hard to sell it. I didn’t want that to be my life forever. In high school, my grandma told me, “Danny, you can go to college. That’s success.” That stuck. I decided to do whatever it took to reach that success. I didn’t know what UCLA meant at first. Your grandma told me to apply, and I just did so because she told me to, and it was close to home. When I got in, I didn’t think much of it until people started making a big deal. Once I got there, the culture shock hit again, like it did in Downey. But people were interested in my story. It was so diverse. There were many immigrants there who came from all around the world. I loved hearing their stories and how different or similar they were to my own. That’s when I started to feel proud of my journey, instead of seeing it as just my past. Nobody ever asked about my story in Downey. Nobody cared.

C: Why did you become a teacher, especially at your old middle school?

D: I majored in business economics and worked in accounting, but I wasn’t happy or fulfilled. So, I wanted to discover what made me feel fulfilled. I started tutoring kids at church and loved it. They told me to become a teacher. So, I saved up, quit my job, and got my teaching credential at UCLA. Returning to the middle school I went to felt like a full-circle moment. Some of my old teachers were still there, and still are. When I tell other teachers my story, they’re jealous, but in a good way. I tell my students, “I grew up on these same streets.” I try and tell my students as much about my story as I appropriately can, trying to exemplify overcoming obstacles. I even hold once-a-week class periods where everyone just talks to one another or we talk as a group, called “community”, and share the most random things, ranging from our weekend plans to our biggest fears. I know what it feels like to feel like an outsider. If I can help one student, that’s enough.

C: How has your journey shaped how you connect with your students?

D: Two things matter: effort and commitment. When I was a kid, it was just survival. Now, I teach kids that failure isn’t the end, it’s part of life.

C: How do you encourage perseverance and resilience in your class?

D: I remind them that failure’s part of the process. I teach in SPED classes, where students often fail. But that shouldn’t define them.I don’t try to drag students across the finish line– I push them so they learn. During “community” and even at random breaktimes, we reflect. Sometimes about school, sometimes something as simple as “I saw a movie I liked.” Any win counts. There's a sense of it's not just a job– I'm not gonna save the world, but the reality is that if you can affect one student a year, you win. But if you can affect one, you're truly affecting many more.

 

Reflection and Advice

C: Were there any particular movies, books, or stories that inspired you as a child?

D: The big one that I remember as a little kid is a book called The Explorers. It’s about kids who built their own spaceship to go to space. I remember reading it and thinking, “Okay, I'm a kid, I know it's just a story, but they created a big thing and were able to reach those heights. I could do that.” That made the traditions and things in life feel less impossible and big. It was that book that resonated with me. In a sense, the life that I was living, I needed to make it an adventure. If I thought about what I was actually living, it would seem too tough.

C: If you could give advice to your younger self when you first arrived, what would it be?

D: Everything's going to be okay. You'll survive this. Now that I'm older, I realize how resilient humanity is. You really can get through stuff. The idea of effort and commitment, there's nothing you can't accomplish. Sure, you have your difficulties and the things you face, we all have something. To some, the stories may be tougher than others, but the people living these stories are real to them.

C: How has your journey influenced how you define success and happiness today?

D: Some of it has changed throughout the years. When I was younger, I wanted to make a lot of money. Not that it's meaningless now, but now it’s more about the feeling of the fullness of life. I’m experiencing what I think life should be. With the full gamut of happiness and sadness at times, success to me is living a full life. When I was younger, I only wanted to experience good things. Now, as I get older, I look back at all of the experiences and almost feel joyful. It’s where it got me today and shaped who I am. I lost my uncle recently, who was significant in my life, but his death doesn’t bring me down the way it used to. There's a sadness, but I can understand the place of sadness in my life and the completeness of the life experience.

C: What does “home” mean to you now– is it a place, a feeling, or the people around you?

D: It's all of those, without a doubt. But, it definitely is a feeling. The geographic location lost its place a long time ago, moving from place to place. Wherever those people are and the feeling is there, that is the home. If my mom, sister, and I were together, that was home. Then your dad was in the mix, and my wife, and my kids. It has to be much more than just one of those things, which is essentially what my experience has taught me, no matter where I was and had those feelings with those people, that was my home.