The Letter

These girls keep each other on their toes if they respect each other, but they're also competitive toward each other, something missus Arrenas strongly encourages. This is the third time Marcella has participated in the annual Peach Blossom Festival. Marcella, and honor student, is no stranger to this stage. Spend every Sunday of her life singing hymns in front of her church, wearing a long sleeved blue satin dress with white ribbon around her waist and collar bone that her

mother spent hours making just for the occasion. Marcella walks up to the stage, her head raised up high, her hands clasped together, and begins to recite her oral presentation to the amazement of everyone in attendance. All six of Mrs Arna's students, including Marcella, when their presentations so surprised that a reporter from the local paper asks the group to pose for a picture. Mrs Arna's gathers the girls, pulling them closer to her, the tallest in the back,

the three shortest in the front. Okay, everyone, I want to see big smile the girls nor Mrs senas safe for one. Give him that big smile. There is no gloating here, no hands on hip. Instead, you see a humble group of girls from a small immigrant town, looking out of place in this big city. And if you look closely at this picture, you will see something else. Marcella is hiding behind her close mouthed smile. She is afraid. She's afraid she won't have the opportunity to share this

win with her parents. Marcella is afraid she's going to burst into her home and find it empty. Y I'm Patti Rodriguez and I'm Mary Glendo, and this is out of the shadows. Children of eighty six Immigrants and their

children have long lived in the shadows of America. Their destinies aren't just shaped by where they come from, but by their particular place in history, The lives of millions of immigrants and their children were changed by one lucky stroke of a pen by an unlikely ally, President Ronald Reagan. This podcast will examine the ripple effects that bill had on first generation kids of immigrants who are navigating intergenerational

mobility and transforming the cultural landscape. This is an untold story of luck, timing, triumph, opportunity, survival, and of course hope. Doing research for this podcast, I came across the letter that I'm holding here now, and it feels like fate. The Reagan Library digitized and saved this letter written by a ten year old little girl from Fresno who was pleading for sympathy from the President to help her dad. The only leverage she had was her good grades. Dear

President Reagan, my name is mart Sella Sanchez. I'm ten years old and I live in del Rey, California, with my parents, Jose and Romilia Sanchez, three sisters and one brother, and the oldest of us five and I studied at Delray Elementary. Imagine that a little kid who felt so compelled to protect her family that she decided to write a letter to America's boss trying to prove that her family deserved to be American. She went straight to the top. I was so inspired by this letter that I decided

to try and find a little girl who wrote it. Yes, they were recording. Now, okay, great, thank you so much. UM. Sure, I cannot believe it, UM, And I did. That's Marcela Sanchez who sent the letter to President Reagan forty years ago. To be exact. She still lives in Fresno County and it's now a corporate finance manager. Do you remember writing that letter. I do remember writing it, especially the part about the report, because I was very proud of my

grades back then. I'm enclosing a copy of my report Carden, some pictures of me in the newspaper, and some awards. I was born in Mexico with another sister of mine. My sisters and brother were born in California. My father and mother came here to find a better way to live. Since nineteen seventy four, my father has worked as a gardener janitor, but since October night he has been working in the police department in president It's nineteen seventy four

and Marcella Sanchez is only three years old. She and her mom dad and little sister. The entire family is packing to leave their home in the Mexican state of Vera Cruz. A few days later, led by her father Jose, the family finds themselves in del Rey, a small country town in Fresno County, California. Soon the family becomes six and the Santances get to work on building a new life and despite being undocumented, and Romelia do their best

to shield their children from the everyday struggles. They never go without food, they always have a roof over their heads. Bromelia makes Marzilla and her three sisters dresses. Did they get to wear to church every Sunday? You know, I would. We always had clothes, but it was not until um

I started, you know, paying attention. Because a parent can only shield a child for so long before they begin to ask questions, before they begin to pretend to be asleep to eavesdrop in those late night conversations, before their

problems begin to eat at their own children. I remember vividly, like late at night listening to my parents talk about their finances, talk about their struggles, and they were they were very, very discreet in their room, but I was always rolled nose and roll you know I knew a lot. When I was ten years old, my parents to shield me from the everyday struggles, though it was almost impossible. We lived in a small backhouse the size of a garage.

There was absolutely no place to hide anything. My mom was working for a clothing company, then in the evening she was doing night school. My dad was teaching her to drive on the weekends because taking the bus so early in the morning was becoming too dangerous. Both my parents worked long hours. My mom would get home from school at PM, and on most nights, as exhausted as she was, will prepare us. We was comfri Coles for dinner. She never wanted us to go to bed combre and

we would only see her for an hour. Maybe my dad, we rarely saw him. He worked the night shift, sometimes even longer. Most of the struggles my parents were shielding us from was the fear of how we're going to pay this bill, the rent, my braces, Where were we going to get that money for my mom's car. I would go to bed praying to God to make me rich. I would daydream what life would be if I found a bag full of money on my way to school.

Maybe my mom would work less. Maybe my dad would get a job where he can pick us up from school. Maybe my mom wouldn't have to worry anymore about my braces. And if only I could get the money to buying from my parents so they can learn English, maybe, just maybe we could live as care free as the families I watched on TV. After my parents both got their green card, I slowly stopped worrying if my dad would make it home. By then, I had slowly forgotten the

fear of the word migra. They had a feeling of my entire body working against me at the fear that my dad's work would get rated. That a feeling was suppressed in the depths of my subconsciousness along with the days I worried if my dad was going to come home. So while for me that fear was behind me, for Marcella, it is beginning again. Out of the shadows will be

right back. Oh, now, back to the show. My mother is afraid about my follow's job on the economic security of my family because we were one of the many dammies under the Silva versus Viva jacket control. I asked my mother who could help us, and she told me God and President Reagan. Then I got to write to you to ask you to please help us with this

one thing. Are we Go residents. In the late sixties onto the mid seventies, undocumented immigrants in Western Hemisphere countries like Mexico and Watemala with the U S born children could apply for legal permanent residency. When the immigration law changed in ninete, no more baby case immigrant visa numbers could be issued. Many undocumented immigrants were then immediately subject

to deportation orders. However, Terry fear Tag, a Chicago immigration lawyer, soon discovered that the State Department had wrongfully issued nearly one and fifty thousand Western Hemisphere immigrant visa numbers to

Cuban refugees. Mr fear Tag organized a small team of lawyers who quickly filed a class action lawsuit Silva versus Levi, arguing that the immigrant visa numbers given to Cuban refugees had been done without lawful authority, limiting spots that otherwise could be available for immigrants of other Western Hemisphere countries. Mr Feartag successfully argued the case. Here he is describing that day that was the magic day the Immigration Service

and somebody from Washington to argue for the government. I argued for our side, and it went on for an hour, and it was like watching someone on a chapeese because the judge would ask questions that an answer is swing this way, swing that way, anyway. Bottom line is at the end of it, he said, motion for temporary standing

order is granted. We then draft an order which includes a provision that everybody in the class would be entitled to the issuance by the Immigration Service of eight what then became known as a silver letter, which essentially said, this is the person with a ticket in line and they are given permission to remain as long as you

know this injunction is in existence and they have employment authorization. Essentially, anyone who was in line by the end of ninety six could get a notice known as the silver letters, giving them the right to be here and to work while the complex legal case worked its way through the courts. And then of course it meant that families were protected,

you know, the kids and the spouse. That's the person who was vulnerable was the worker and he had work authorization now or she had work authorization now, and the immediate family remain. Those silver letters expired in November of both Marcella's mother and father no longer had the protection

the letters had offered them. Marcella's first ten years of her life when a little something like this, she went from living in the shadows to having one foot in the shadows and the other foot tasting a little bit of freedom with the silver letters, to then be thrown back into the shadows all over again when those silver letters expired for her parents. And I just remember that and that, I remember my mom always praying and always say no, you know, hopefully they don't kick us out

or thinking parted off something, you know, say. She was always worried about that. Many times, when I see my two children, Alexander and Olie, I think of how lucky they are to go to bed every night without being afraid of tomorrow. I remind them that when I was just a toddler, I crossed the border with my parents. I tell them that at their age, I get home from school, fire up a pan and make my brother Stacos the bacon because we were just starving. I end

up sounding like my mother and my kids. They asked questions, was grandma scale, what was grandpa? Are you a baby Mama, Grandma had then how did they find you? But to them, these are just stories that happened once upon a time. To them, these stories I now tell are not any different than reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Her privilege Mazilla and I did not have because we had to grow up fast. We had to learn to carry the

weight our parents carried. I think, what what I remember, like I said, dizzily, with my dad and his job. But it was also like remember like them always worried about the paperwork, like there, you know, they get stopped, they're still security, They're all that. We didn't have any of that. So my parents were always extra careful as far as following the traffic laws, paying their taxes, all of that. I remember them always talking about that stuff and how they just you know, followed them to the

law because they didn't want to stand out. They didn't want to call any attention to themselves, and which kind of like led me to be that way as far as like in school, like it it made me want to do better in school and not stand out and be bad or not to not to rock the boat in any way because it was always scary like that. We would be somehow found out that it was my parents, you know, that had to had to struggle and to you know, carry that burden of not being documented. You know,

Marcella's worst fear wasn't so much her getting deported. For some reason. I was thought, well, we didn't have to leave, but my siblings would have to stay here, and who are they gonna stay with? You know. I remember thinking like, well, me and my sister are gonna have to go back because we're the Mexico. But you know, my other sisters are not, and my brothers not. That they're gonna have to stay here, and that means we're not gonna be

able to see them. I used to be afraid and I was like, oh god, we're gonna get separated because they belonged to America, we belong to Mexico. The weight is so heavy. It's so heavy that it trickles on children, you know, and like you said it, like your parents, we're trying to be discreet, but nonetheless, you think the oldest and at that age you're curious and inquisitive, and do you hear things like kids are really smart and they hear everything. You think. Kids are not listening but

they are. Marcella will sit with her mother as she watched the news, so afraid that her dad may not walk in through their door that night. She will pull apart her mom's prayers and realize something that I find odd. Her mother was including President Reagan and her prayers. My mom, Um, she would always tell us to pray for the president because you know, Um, we may have an opportunity. You know, to to to to do this. You know, she had to get this, this big opportunity. Marcella was now on

the mission. She had to find a way to get a hold of the only person that can help her family. So she did what any ten year old would do. Out of the shadows will be right back now, back to the show. I remember that there was a teacher in school. This wasn't She was a an lingual teacher, and I remember talking to her about it, and I asked her, how do you get ahold of the president?

How how can you talk to the president? And because that kids right to the president all the time acting this because you wanted to get a hold of the presidency. I wanted to get a hold of somebody. And my mom told me that the pregnant is the only one that can make this decision. To me, it was like, okay, well, let me talk to the president. I thought it was just as simple as you know, let me come up. And I remember talking to missus Vana and she told me, yeah,

you can write to the president. And it was kind of like it was so non salant, is what I'm trying to say, Like I didn't. I think it was like writing to the president was just like like nothing, like like writing to your grandma. So in January, Marcella writes a letter addressed to President Reagan. In the letter, she attaches to honors letters signed by her school principle, along with the newspaper clipping of the photo of her

participation and win at the Peach Blossom Festival. Ten year old Marcella wanted to prove to the president that her family deserved to be American. In the timing of this letter, I also find fascinating Reagan just marked his one year in office. Two was also the year when the first draft of the immigration bill was introduced to Congress, and it was also the year Congress chose for irka's cut

off date immigrants arriving after January one. Two. We're not eligible to apply, And the fact that out of all the letters Reagan received during his presidency, this is one he saved. Idea this letter existendential. Now I don't. I mean, I remember the letter now, but I'm like I said, yeah, I don't. I guess I pushed that letter back into

the back of my mind. It makes sense that Marcella doesn't remember writing this letter, just as it makes sense for me growing up gradually suppressing my own memories of crossing the border with my parents, or suppressing the fear of immigrant raids. Being a child of immigrants, whether born here or not, does not exempt us from the fear.

The fear we oppressed to survive, And just like Marcella's parents are, immigrant parents go above and beyond to try and make our lives as normal as possible, even when they are carrying their own pain. Like that beautiful quote by Damian Leone, immigrant parents with their wings cut still teach their children to fly. My parents did such a good job of shielding us from a lot of it, not in a way that like made us forget or

take programmed what it was. It was more of like protecting us um from like the bad part of it. I guess it was. But they play instilled in us like be grateful for what we have, be grateful that we get to be here and that we get to well whatever we have, like I remember it like to this day, like I don't. I don't ever remember thinking I was poor. You know, we lived in the projects in Sorry, I don't remember ever feeling poor. My parents have always did touch a great job. And she'll beam

as from all that. Like I tell you, the only reason I knew it because I was nosy and I stayed up late that by listening to their conversations. You're a part of history. You don't even and you don't even know it. No, really I know, and I'm kind of embarrassed because I'm my god, I took so much for granted. No, I wouldn't say it's for granted. I would say maybe you suppressed a lot of these feelings

because filled with fear. Right now you're laughing because you know it's it's it's almost like little still, you know, Penio gar asking, you know, how can I get a hold of President? But I'm sure Tim you old Marcella, we'll kind of make it a way. Yeah, too, had a mission too, for you have the courage to to write this letter, because still this fear that you had, you know, and me, I'm sure little Marcella was really scared.

In Marcella's family received legal residency. And I remember my dad saying, you know, pray God, like we've been praying for this, and we've been it's been so long coming. And I remember it's even the people from church we used to have us. My dads have a best friend, another pastor friend of his and and he and I remember my dad calling him and telling them that we

got it, and everybody was just happy. It just changed the mood of my parents, like and I think by that time, that's when my mom was like, oh, well now I can get a job, like start working and helping. And it just changed the whole the whole vibe, the whole environment. So what happened to Marcella a lot. And you know, it's funny. In high school and my sister when we remember like we had a resident Alien cards.

And I was another thing too, because your friends carry around their social securities, their ideas and everything, and we had to carry around our resident Asian card and and all that stuff. And and back then you with It's kind of was an embarrassing thing. I guess it was for us because you're like, there was a stigma behind all that you're legal, you're illegal even though you're Mexican, and just like your other friend was Mexican, but the fact that you were born in Mexico and not born

to California, you were different. You just felt like you had that stamp on your back. And I always thought that, always thought that until the day I became a citizen, and then after that it was just like, Okay, I'm like everybody else. And um, I've been married now for thirty years, which and then I have I have two kids, I have two grandkids and one on the way. I have a master's degree in health administration and I worked

for a three hospital system here in Presido, California. I'm a finance manager, so I manage um of wh I started managing a program and I manage a department that saves our hospital about fifty million a year, which in turn helps programs for indigent people, like because our hospital is like a it's a safety net hospital, so we use those savings to help people without insurance, people without document, you know, without deep immigrants that don't have insurance, or

that comes to our hospital seeking medical care and don't have a way to pay for it. This program saved dollars that are used to pay for for for this stuff like that. So I come full circle. Do you think little Martella m would have believed this? I don't know, you know what I have left and I'm like, I don't want to cry. But honestly, I was blessed with two parents that I believed. Hey, first of all, believe

the God and believed in the American system. They believed in it to this day, like my parents are or my dad passed away, now my mom. I mean, they believed in democracy, they believe in America. They followed the laws, you know, And I think that that I think back then writing that letter, even though I was a kid, I believed. I believe that it would make a difference. Like I really did. I believe that, Hey, I'm gonna right to the president. He why not, Like he's gonna listen,

you know, he he has an office. He's gonna open my letter. He's gonna listen. I think part of me always believed that it could it could be. But that's thanks to the way I was raised and the way my parents believed. Wow, Kelly was talking to you, that's like, I mean, wow, that's just amazing, Like you don't know how, you don't know like how this has made my week, my my year. Probably what do you think of her? M A. Regan? You know what? Honestly, besides Um Carter,

he was my favorite. And it's funny because I'm not a I'm not a Republican, I'm not a Democrat. I'm I'm out not a liberal. I'm an independent. I have my own thoughts, I have my own beliefs and everything. And Ronald Reagan was actually one of my favorite presidents and I just still like, you know, he did a lot for for the for America, and he did a lot he I mean, he's set the president with this

honesty program and that I believe that's a lot of people. Now, you know, there's always the bad, and honestly, it's it's shameful sometimes to to to hear that some people would take that opportunity and just wasted. But at the same time, it's like, you know, we're human and we had we got we have an opportunity, and everybody, whether you're born

here or you're not. We all have the same opportunity and you just have to take it and that this this made it so much easier for our family and for me definitely, I have the opportunity that I've had. Your ten year old son should be very proud. I am, you know, And like I said, this came just right on time, like just this is amazing. I would love to chat with you more. Yeah, but renouncing my have

take my fun to stop her. I mean, I'm not, but I I just want to say that it was It was an honor to have an able to trying you. Thank you. I'm grateful if you can help us. I promised to study hard and become a good sis and never forget you in my price. I appreciate all the time you put into reading my letters. Thank you very much, Sincerely, yours, Sella Sanchez. In talking to Marcella, I wasn't able to prove with a hundred percent certainty that her letter convinced

Reagan to sign URCA. That doesn't matter anymore as much as the proof of the resilience of first generation children, which is fully illustrated in a letter written in two by a ten year old Mexican American girl in realizing that she does not remember writing this letter to Reagan In Marcella has lived the last forty years unaware that she may have had something to do with the events leading to the signing of URCA in eighty six. She lived unaware that in the courage she found to protect

her family, she protected mine too. That next time on Out of the Shadows, Children of eighty six, we'll take a look at what it was actually like to apply for Erica. You'll hear from the people who were on the ground helping folks apply. Folks were like, I'm not going to be the first. I'm not going to be the person. The experiment on the amnesty was clearly a

good thing. We'll break down Erica finally going into effect and the scramble for proof to qualify all that and more on the next episode of Out of the Shadows. If you love this podcast, please help us get the word out by following, rating, reviewing, and sharing it with your friends. Out of the Shadows is written by Caesar Hernandez. It's also written, edited, posted, an executive produced by Patti Rodriguez and Eric G. Lindo. It's produced by Bett Cardanas,

Karen Lopez and Gabby Watts. It's sound design mixed and mastered by Jesse Nice Wander. Our studio engineer is Clay Hill and Burn. Karen Garcia That's Me is our announcer. Out of the Shadows is the production of Seeing the Other Productions and School of Humans in partnership with My Heart's Michael Dura podcast Network. The podcast is also executive produced by Giselle Bantes, Virginian Prescott, Brandon Barr, and Chad Crowley. Our marketing and our team is led by Jasmine Meheia.

Original music by a Arenas and if you loved his cover of Los Caminos la vida this podcast theme song, you can listen to it on all music platforms. Historical audio for Out of the Shadows comes from the Reagan

Presidential Library and the National Archives. Special thanks to Ian Bargas, Alex and Ali, Caitlin Becker, gob Chabran, Daisy Church, Angel Lopez, Galindo, Julianna Gamiz, Ryan Gordon, Brian Matheson, Claudia Marti Corina, Oscar Ramidez, John Rodriguez, Juan Rodriguez, Joshua Sandoval, Eric Sclar, Tony Sorrentino and Megan Tana. This baby