A man is sweeping the tile floor after the customers left. He has just finished clearing the table of dirty plates and used napkins. He wipes it down, and prepares the table for the next customers. He walks to another table and fills their waters and their coffee, grabs his rag and starts to clear another table. He has yet to mop the floors, take out the trash, and clean the bathroom.
In this family owned diner in the Milwaukee area, Juan makes the coffee, and pours it too.
Juan has been an unauthorized person in the US twice. His first four years in Wisconsin, he worked in a restaurant to send money back to his family in Mexico. He spoke to two Media Milwaukee reporters in Spanish; here is one of their takes. His full name is being withheld for his own protection.
Juan said that he never stole a job from anybody, and that he works the jobs that no one want.
In four years, Juan was able to buy a house for his mother and father, his four siblings and their kids.
When Juan lived in Mexico, he worked for around $5 a day, unpredictable hours that kept him away from his family up to 18 hours a day.
“That is why I came here,” Juan said in an interview. “Thank God that I was lucky enough to come in because the journey to here isn’t easy.”
“Yo por eso decidi venir para aca. Y gracias a dios me toco suerte de entrar, por que son dificiles las pasadas.”
His second trip into the US almost killed him.
He was led through the desert by a man he called the coyote. They travelled 17 miles on foot in the middle of heat season.
“There were two or four people who were severely dehydrated, and I was one of them,” Juan said.
At one point, Juan was so weak he told his cousin to leave him behind, that he wasn’t going to make it.
“Cousin just leave me here. I can’t handle this anymore,” Juan said.
“Primo, ya dejanme aqui. Yo ya no aguanto más.”
But he had to make it.
Juan said that his second trip to Wisconsin was to earn money that he could send back to his wife and two kids. He has a nine-year-old daughter and a five-year-old son that live in Mexico with his wife.
Juan has now been in Milwaukee for a year and a half. He works nights as a busboy and sends money back to his family every ten days.
He has bought himself a house, and a car\, hoping that by now his wife and kids would be with him. Plans have changed since he got here.
“She is happy in Mexico,” Juan said.
Juan said his wife is scared that she will like living here too much and that she wouldn’t return to Mexico.
“The most difficult part is leaving your family behind,” Juan said.
“Lo más dificl es dejar la familia.”