Lupe Valdez: as the daughter of migrant workers from South Texas, I was taught to value education, choose my friends wisely, and stay on the right side of the law.(WHERE I'M FROM)(Letter to the Editor)

Publication: Texas Monthly

Publication Date: 01-DEC-05

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COPYRIGHT 2005 Texas Monthly, Inc.

WHEN I WAS VERY YOUNG, UP UNTIL I was seven or eight years old, my parents were migrant workers. We lived in San Antonio, but we traveled all over, following the crops. My dad built a trailer that we would attach to the back of the car, and all of our property would go in there. There were so many of us-I had five older brothers-that the car had no room for any stuff. I was small enough that my parents would put me up behind the seats on the back dash, and that's where I would sleep. The whole family would sleep in the car. When we finally got to wherever we would be working, there was usually some kind of small house, just one or two small rooms for all of us. The first thing my mother would do when we got there, even if it was the middle of the night, was line us up in a row at the back of the little place, and we would...

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